New American Nomads

Minimal home, maximum life

Monthly Archives: September 2018

Embracing nomadism: a homey rhythm

On September 29, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 0 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

Our second campsite at Goose Island Campground outside Arches National Monument.
Milt's Stop n' Eat in Moab.
Our campsite on the side of a mountain at Colorado National Monument.
Sunset from our campsite at Colorado National Monument.
Twinkling lights seen from our campsite at Colorado National Monument.
A view of Colorado National Monument.
A hike on the Rim Trail at Colorado National Monument.
Israeli melons at a Vetere stand in Green River, Utah.

There is an odd rhythm to nomadism, a dance, a feeling of slight disorientation as you get to know and embrace each new spot you call home, even if only for a few days.

Now, in year four of our journey in The Epic Van, we seem to have gotten better at it, reaching a comfort level we didn’t have in the beginning, when each new place felt wildly exciting, exotic and fascinating, but a little foreign.

An ancient bristlecone pine grove gives a lesson in patience

On September 27, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 0 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

Aspen in beautiful orange and gold along the Alpine Lake Loop Trail.
A beautiful hike through sub-alpine forest, including quaking aspen. (Lovely, even though we were on the wrong trail.)
The Bristlecone Pine Grove sits just below the tree line in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
Bristlecone pines, one full of foliage, one dead, but still standing.
One of hte ancient bristlecone pine, some of which are 5,000 years old, in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
The dense, resinous wood of the bristlecone pines resists insects and disease.
A gnarled old bristlecone in the grove in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
A gnarled, dead bristlecone, white as bleached bone, in the grove in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
The base of a bristlecone in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
A living bristlecone pine, its bark flayed open by wind, ice storms and freezing temperatures.
Bristlecone branches with tightly packed needles.
A view of the Great Basin from the Bristlecone Trail in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
Near the end of our double-length hike, a reward: a beautiful stream strewn with aspen leaves.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, Tom has become a true tree freak.

On hikes, he frequently stops to gaze upward at branch arrays, set his hand on a trunk’s bark, count the number of leaflets in a bunch and test the spikiness of needles against his fingers.

He takes photos of the whole tree, the leaves and the bark, and then compares them to photos and descriptions in his tree book when he returns to The Epic Van.

He’s so thorough that I’m beginning to know the difference between an Engelmann spruce and a limber pine.

And so, when we were at Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada this week, we headed for the ancient Bristlecone Pine Grove on Wheeler Peak.

Bristlecone, Bristlecone Pine Grove, Bristlecone Trail, Great Basin National Park, Wheeler Peak Trail

Arches and Canyonlands: The Permanence of Impermanence

On September 21, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 0 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

Judy on top of the world on the trail to Double O Arch at Arches National Park.
Tom part way up the sandstone fin on the trail to Double O Arch at Arches National Park.
Double Arch at Arches National Park.
A view from below one of the arches in Double Arch at Arches National Park.
A view of the sandstone at Arches National Park showing the buckling and bending.
Petrified sand dunes at Arches National Park.
One of the 2,000 arches in Arches National Park.
Tom on the Park Avenue Trail at Arches National Park.
Landscape Arch, the longest arch at Arches National Park.
Window Arch at Arches National Park.
The Epic Van at our campsite on the Colorado River in Goose Island Campground outside Arches National Park.
A view of Canyonlands National Park.
Upheaval Dome at Canyonlands National Park.
Ranger Rick Jensen explains the geology of Canyonlands National Park at one of the scheduled daily presentations.
A hawk glides along the sandstone cliff face above our campsite at Goose Island Campground outside Arches National Park.

At Arches National Park, we scrambled over clusters of rock to walk along a sandstone fin with sheer sides, heart-stopping dropoffs and amazing views. I felt like I was queen of the world.

At its sister-park, Canyonlands, we looked out over miles of canyons, spires, and cliffs, cut by the Green and Colorado rivers. I felt small and insignificant.

And both parks, created from eroding and ever-changing rock forms, made me think about the impermanence of things that seem permanent.

Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park

Big Sur: Our semi-wild life and semi-crisis in this semi-wilderness

On September 10, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 14 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

The Big Sur coastline, fog rolling in.
The tiny pink flower of the wild radish.
A wild radish, small but mighty, containing the taste of wildness in Big Sur.
Fog and sun on the road to Andrew Molera State Park.
Tom and I with our official California State Parks volunteer vests, standing next to the kiosk by the parking lot.
The Cooper Cabin, the oldest structure in Big Sur, built in 1861 or 1862 for Molera's grandfather of hand-hewn redwood logs and hand-split redwood shingles.
Tom, standing on the plank bridge that crosses the Big Sur River to the Creamery Meadow Trail to the beach.
A view of the Big Sur coastline with the famous, often photographed Bixby Bridge, opened in 1932 and loved for its aesthetic curve, matching the coast. is one of the tallest single-span concrete bridges in the world.
Eucalyptus trees along the Big Sur coast.
Tom on the Ridge Trail with a view of the Santa Lucia Mountains.
California’s golden hills, a view from the Ridge Trail.
A view up the coastline from the Panorama Trail, which cuts through walls of Morning Glories.
The coastal view from the Bluffs Trail.
Wildflowers blanketing the hills along the Bluffs Trail.
Morning Glories carpeting the trailside.
Bluff lettuce growing in Big Sur.
Manganese garnet dissolving in the rocks create the purple sand along the hidden beach.
A driftwood structure built by visitors at the purple-sand beach.
Bird tracks in the purple sand at the hidden beach off the Bluffs Trail.
Sunset over the Pacific.