Surrounded by wildflowers

One of the joys of arriving at Oakland Feather River Camp in early May are the abundance of wildflowers. Vibrant yellow, scarlet and blue flowers spring up all around the expansive camp, which is located along the east shore of Spanish Creek north of Quincy, California. Gentle slopes, high bluffs and grassy Oak and Pine forests blanket the area.

Seasonal wildflowers claim the rich soil among the rustic cabins and tent platforms. In the month before campers populate the camp, the flowers dominate the view. Wildflower sightings are even a hot topic in the kitchen this year. I doesn't matter where you're located on the camp property -- behind the cook's cabin or along Spanish Creek -- gorgeous wildflowers brighten the moment. Even flowers with long white pedals grown in the concrete cracks on the ramp to the kitchen dock.

Please enjoy these flowers, all found behind the cook's cabin. The vintage cabin is located on a gentle forested west facing slope above the kitchen and dining room. These flowers glow in filtered sunlight throughout most of the day. They're fading now as days warm and the soil dries. They will soon be gone. And we'll have to wait for next spring for the repeat performance.

These petite Buttercups are now fading for the season. When I took the picture on May 8, they were growing on the shaded forest floor surrounding the cook's cabin at the camp. My parking spot is visible in the background.

I don't remember seeing the Scarlet Fritillary last year.  They seem to be growing in abundance this year, including this specimen  growing behind our cabin earlier this month. Today, the flower pedals are gone and seeds bearing the next generation are forming. Local Plumas County naturalist Joe Willis reported on Scarlet Fritillary on May 8.

This Sierra pink currant is growing in the fence that surrounds the electrical substation behind my cabin.

Anniversary walk in South Lake Tahoe

Debbie and I celebrated the 30th anniversary of our wedding on Sunday. We marked the occasion by spending the afternoon in South Lake Tahoe. After an enjoyable lunch at The Getaway Cafe in Meyers, we did some window shopping in Stateline.

Later, we drove up Highway 89 to visit one of our favorite Tahoe haunts. The area surrounding Taylor Creek features a fascinating array of forest trails, beaches and historic venues. With many spring flowers still in bloom, we idled away the afternoon. It was the perfect spot to relax and soak in the scenery.

Large fields of lupines caught my eye on our drive to Taylor Creek. Soft purple flowers on tall racemes seemed to blanket both sides of the highway. I thought the flowers would grow closer to the lake.

When we turned onto the beach access road, I expected to find lupines within easy reach of the parking lot. Instead, mountain mules ears -- past their prime in the beaming Lake Tahoe sun -- and Indian paintbrush flourished under the tall stands of Jeffery Pine.

Possibly crowded out by sage and tall grasses, I figured that this wasn't a prime lupine growing area. Debbie and I strolled along the wide path to Kiva Beach. Debbie massaged her toes in the warm Lake Tahoe sand while I snapped several pictures of the lagoon.

She was content to bask in the soothing rays in the late afternoon sun. I walked through the forest on my hunt for photographic subjects.

After a respite, Debbie and I walked along the trail to the amphitheater. The cool evening air refreshed us as much as the slow pace of our stroll through the forest. We admired the majestic Jeffery Pines in quiet solitude.

I had hoped that our walk away from the lake would bring us closer to the elusive lupine wildflowers. As we came near the picnic area next to the amphitheater, I we turned off the main trail. This one would take us back to the parking lot.

Then I saw something that told me I should soon locate beautiful lupine bushes. The soil changed as we hiked. The rocky soil became more evident as the trail led us away from Taylor Creek and the lake.

Then I found a large patch of bush lupine. Set among a grove of young pine trees, the flowers enjoyed the last rays of sunlight of the day. While I last studied biology some 30 years ago, the lupines seemed to thrive under the thick layer of dead pine leaves.

I was soon on the ground taking pictures of my beloved lupine. While Debbie walked ahead, took a dozen photographs like the one below. We enjoyed a wonderful day. Lunch, a couple hikes and a chance to photograph my favorite part of South Lake Tahoe.

The best part of the day: I was able to enjoy it with my wife of 30 years.

Calflora.org lists some 142 species within the Lupinus genus. According to Sierra Nevada Natural History, bush lupines are likely Lupinus albifrons and its many subspecies.

Wildflowers and the enduring Word

Withering mules ear
Originally uploaded by SeabeeCook

One of my favorite mountain activities is to photograph wildflowers. With camera in hand, I enjoy walking through fields of bright wildflowers.

Spring is the best time to view and capture their bright images in the Sierra Nevada. But this year I didn't get up into the high country until mid-summer.

Many flowers were clearly past their prime. I found a sun-bathed field of mules ears near our campsite at the Kit Carson Campground (see picture).

Once vibrant yellow, these flowers are just days from loosing their peddles. They would soon shed their seeds, whither and die.

Wildflowers bring to mind a passage of scripture in Peter's First Epistle. Unlike flowers, which only display their vibrant glory for a short time, the apostle reminds Christians that God's word endures:

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because:

All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the LORD endures forever.

Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you (1 Peter 1:22-24).

Peter's message is clear. Once God's incorruptible word has been planted in our souls, we respond by loving the brethren "fervently with a pure heart."

With obedient hearts from the moment we're saved, the Christian bases all of his actions on the incorruptible "word of truth" (James 1:18). Unlike mules ears, says Peter, which "whithers" and "falls away," our salvation comes through reliance on God's promises.

We need to place our trust in God's word and it ability to save and guide us through life. As Peter states through the quote from Isaiah 40:6-8, our lives are too short to place our trust in anything else but the word.

Like the flower, man's glory will fade someday. But God offers a cure, a way to transform our feeble bodies into imperishable beings one day. It is through obedience to His word.

Peter noted earlier in the chapter that it is this incorruptible word that guides us in our daily walk:

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:13-15).

I'm reminded of the passage in Peter (and others like it) each time I see a pretty flower, whether in the wilderness or the garden. It's a reminder to me that God's word abides continually and that it acts in my life.

Mine tailing lupines

Mine tailing lupines
Originally uploaded by SeabeeCook

Lupine wildflowers are especially vibrant this year all around El Dorado County. I've seen them growing along U.S. Highway 50 as easily as they do next to trails and roads.

The tall wildflower, with its cobalt-blue spikes reaching for the sky, seem to grow in most any spot where they can soak up the warm rays of sunlight. I found this patch among a series of old mine tailings from the California Gold Rush.

Sierra Nevada Ramblings-a blog worth reading

It's rare that I find a blog worth writing about. When I first ventured upon Sierra Nevada Ramblings last month, I knew I'd return each week for a visit.

The blogger and photographer of Sierra Nevada Ramblings has plenty of opportunity to take breathtaking images of the Sierra Nevada. A job as a seasonal National Park Service ranger often places Zhakee Williams in the some of the best scenery in California.

Off-season pictures -- like the one of Walker Pass in the southern Sierra -- are equally spectacular. Zhakee has lived close to her photographic venue for close to two decades.

Like most photographers, Zhakee's photography seems to be improving with each blog post. I especially enjoyed the article and pictures of the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery with its castle-like buildings.

Sierra Nevada Ramblings is a blog worth reading -- and viewing.

Five Months to May Flowers

Blog no. 18 brings you last springs wildflowers ...

I photographed these lupines early last April at the corner of Pleasant Valley Road and Fowler Lane in Diamond Springs, California. Each spring the corner where Highway 49 turns north to Placerville puts on a colorful show. Cobalt-blue lupines and golden California poppies brightened any day until someone mows the corner.

Prelude to Wildflowers

Here's blog no. 17 ...

The Woods Lake basin is now blanketed in snow from the storms this week. When the snow melts this June, we'll be rewarded by rich fields of alpine wildflowers. Nourishing water will melt deep into the rocky soil and fill the lakes and streams.

This photo is from our Veteran's Day trip up Highway 88 to Wood's Lake. The Woods Creek bridge takes you to the Winnemucca Lake trailhead.

I definitely will return this coming June to photograph the wildflowers.

Deep in the Forest

This picture of a field of lupines easily gives you the impression that it was shot in clearing deep in the forest. Each year a colorful crop of the lupine flowers grows along a side street near our house. Soon long seed pods will grow from the cobalt-blue flower spikes and set season's crop in motion.

West Davis Lake Campground

An Osprey circles above
the lake shore in search
of prey in the warm
afternoon sun.

We camped at West Davis Lake Campground for three days in July 1990. The camp, located along the west shore of Odell Creek as it enters the lake, was situated in a nice stand of lodgepole pines.

Today, the campground is closed. The Davis Fire destroyed the campground in 2003. The area since has been converted to day use. The boat ramp is still in use.

According the the website for the Deschutes National Forest, the campground was supposed to reopen in 2005.

The 21,000-acre fire destroyed much of the lodgepole pine forest that surrounds Davis Lake. The fire started somewhere near the East Davis Lake Campground, visible in the stand of live pine trees in the background. Investigators believe the fire was of human origin.

Lupine flowers grow in the meadow along Odell Creek, near the boat ramp.