Driving: Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington

If I had to summarise the city of Portland, Oregon, with one phrase, I think it would have to be; 

"Does this city have enough freaking bridges?!"

This isn't necessarily a negative thing! I'm not saying it's a bad thing Portland has 12 different bridges over the Willamette River, it's just a very noticeable aspect of the city as you drive into it. Reno has a bunch of bridges, too, though I guess they're considered some of Nevada's worst, so take from that what you want.  Portland is a cool town, full of hipsters, good food, tasty beer, giant bookstores, mild climate, and all sorts of other aspects that make it a popular destination for my peers when visiting the Pacific Northwest. It's hip, it's happening, and supposedly it's a lot friendlier than Seattle! My experience in either place is too limited to really make a judgment call there, but people in Seattle have generally seemed quite a bit nicer than those in Vegas, so if they're even nicer in Portland I'm not sure I'd know how to handle it. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe I'm such a hermit by nature that the lack of external invites for socialization hasn't phased me. Whatever the case, this visit through Portland didn't even see us come to a full stop. We weren't here for sightseeing, I'm afraid (and Antho was disappointed), we had places to be. 

Still, we definitely intend to make a trek back down to spend some time in Portland, proper like. After all, I've had the luxury of visiting the city before, even dipping into Powell's bookstore and sipping on some locally brewed coffee, but Antho has yet to enjoy the pleasures Portland has to offer. We will, and I'm excited for that time, but it's not today. Not this trip. Sorry!

 

Oregon: Upper Klamath Lake

Believe it or not, there's a lot of water out on this part of the country! Coming from a drought-stricken desert where the better part of my lifespan has been spent conserving water and watching our most precious resource dwindle and wither away, it's kind of mind-blowing to drive for hours and pass one body of water after the next. From one river to a boat launch at the end of a neighborhood street, to endless lakes, there's so much water in this area! This, of course, facilitates the explosion of greenery that you'll see as you drive along. Coincidentally, there's quite a lot of farmland proliferating throughout the region, perhaps due to this abundant foliage and potential grazing lands. Like I said, coming from a desert, this all seems a bit weird. Everything is so green, and there's so much life springing from every nook and cranny, any location where a fortuitous foothold might be struck and dug into. The tracts of mankind's interjections can be seen stripping the land in bland, blase streaks of nudity, but even with our tireless efforts nature, uhh...finds a way... 

Upper Klamath Lake is one of these bodies of water you may find yourself driving by, should you follow a similar path to ours. There's something poetic in the blue sky touching the tippy-tops of purple mountains before a horizon of pallid water stretches out below. It's majestic, one could say. Inspiring. It can be difficult at times to quantify just how large these United States actually are...in the span of three days we'd driven over 1,000 miles (1,609 Km)! And we still had some miles yet to traverse before reaching our destination, too. We drove more than the entire length of the country of Italy (1,185Km or 736 miles)! We'd safely traversed the Extra-terrestrial highway in South-Central Nevada, visited Reno without getting divorced, spent the night and troubleshot some vehicular difficulties in the town of Merrill, in Southern Oregon...and now? Now we'd made it here, to Upper Klamath Lake, a beautiful expanse of blue where the earth and the sky blow kisses at each other. I recommend pulling over to take a moment and appreciate all the beauty surrounding you because if there's one thing you can say about nature it's that she's an absolutely inimitable genius. I mean, humans do some cool stuff- like the Cavendish banana is tasty enough, though it's potentially going to go extinct in our lifetime due it's simplistic genetics. Again, leave it to nature, she'll, uh, find a way.

Vegas: Charleston 03 - Scenic drive

Despite stopping to take photos of and greet the wild burros down the road, we still had some ways to go before we actually reached Mount Charleston proper and all the things it has to offer. The drive to get there is beautiful, though, and in and of itself quite a worthy inclusion on the blog. The higher the elevation climbs, the more the desert landscape recedes to make room for the mountain trees and all the lush foliage the snow melt provides for. It's always fun, to me, to see the drastic change so close to home. You can see a similar change in the scenery on the drive out to Los Angeles once you pass the state line and start ascending into the mountainscape. Here at Mount Charleston, you'll find yourself quickly elevating out of the Joshua trees and dry, desiccated shrubbery of the lower desert, to find the shuddering leaves of cedar and pines predominant. The temperature dips into a more comfortable chill as you leave the valley bowl, no longer scorching the goodness from the earth with as much rapidity as the harsher elevations below. It's still rough terrains, with a gravel-rich soil forming the base from which the life grows. Even so, life, uh, finds a way. Always. And the life in this area is especially rich and green, especially after the many small rainstorms that worked their way through the region over the summer months.  I mentioned it and then Antho kind of paused, before reassessing the scenery and thanking me for calling it to his attention. The desert is a landscape of extremes, after all, and it's not exactly one to boldly proclaim it's resources to those without eyes. If you know what to look for, though, it's quite beautiful. 

Blue skies provide a sharp contrast to the greens, tans, and greys that proliferate below. After decades of living here, I've grown to love the desert scenery for what it is, but I can't acknowledge it's beauty without also giving nod to the scarcity it exists under. While deserts make up a fair portion of the landscape of the United States, the conditions they exist under are extremely fragile. Lake Mead is already down to 38 percent of it's capacity, and while it's an unnatural addition to the landscape thanks to the workings of humans it has provided an important facet to the area since its inception. Charleston, though, is its own locale...

Vegas: Mount Charleston part two

After hiking around in the snow for a bit then jumping in and making snow angels we felt it time to warm up and made our way back to the car. From there we headed out on the scenic route that loops around the mountains, connecting the various mountain ridges of the parks together. We usually approach from the other entrance by Mount Charleston lodge, so coming in from the other direction this time was a lot of fun! We stopped at several view points along the way before eventually ending up at the Mount Charleston lodge for hot cocoa. Definitely recommended after walking around in the cold for a few hours! There's even a series of adorable cabins you can rent up there along with rooms near the lodge, which I imagine is quite lovely. There's also RV and regular camping for those who prefer to get a little more up close and personal with their wilderness.  We didn't have the time for those things on this trip, though we hope to make it back soon and camp overnight! It's really only a short drive from the Vegas Valley so if you're an out of town visitor looking for something different than the usual Las Vegas strip stay I can highly recommend you check out the camping either here at Mount Charleston, out at Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon or Bonnie Springs Ranch! There's a lot more to do in the Las Vegas area than get drunk and gamble away your life savings, and believe it or not our desert landscape offers a bounty of different ecosystems and environments rife with various animal and plant species to encounter. Now that we have Vanticore in our armada to make camping and exploring easier, we're definitely planning to get out and about and explore all the beautiful national and state parks surrounding our fair glittering city.  I hope that you enjoy these photos from our outing and that they inspire you to go out on an adventure all your own! If you don't have a vehicle of your own at your disposal you can opt to take a Lyft, Uber or get a rental car- in this instance getting a rental car (or even better yet, a camper van) would likely be your best route. You can even bicycle out there if you're so inclined!

More photos below!

Vegas: Snow day at Mount Charleston part one

Snow is one of those exceptionally rare things that graces the Las Vegas valley maybe once every decade or so, if we're lucky. Precipitation of any kind is pretty rare in Vegas, with the city averaging  only roughly 2 inches every year, and snow is even more so rarified. It can, and does occasionally, happen but it takes such a lucky convergence of factors that I wouldn't ever try to bet on it happening on any given year. Fortunately for Vegas-dwellers, we have several nearby mountain ranges that are far more prone towards getting precipitation and even SNOW during the colder months of the year! It can come and go quite quickly, so when the snow is visible on the mountains you've got to act fast to really make the best of it. Some years we'll get lucky and the snow will be deep and dense in the mountains for weeks, or even months, and the skiing and snowboarding will be bountiful. Personally, I've never skied or snowboarded, I just like snow. Last time I really got to play in much snow I think it was during the blizzard of 2011 in Tokyo! Given as much, I was super excited to be out in the snow again.  I wasn't feeling all that well and struggled to get very far up the mountain, but I did my best given the circumstances and I'm just grateful we got to go and experience it while it was there. Mount Charleston is about an hour outside of Las Vegas, so if you plan a visit during the winter months you can easily make an escape with a rental car or Uber if you're wanting to escape the city. I highly recommend it, and there are cabins you can stay at up at Charleston if you want to truly immerse yourself into the snowy beauty for more than a few hours. Since we've been having health issues over the past few weeks, we opted for a shorter stay this time round but would love to stay for longer in the future!  We had a lot of fun while we were there and enjoyed our stay. We'll definitely be planning for an extended visit next time. 

Over 100 photos from beautiful Takao-san Mountain!

If given the opportunity to travel Japan, one should always take advantage of the limitless natural beauty that surrounds the high-tech metropolitan areas. Whether you're visiting Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo or any other city, nature is never far away. Sometimes it's more raw, more feral, and other times it's a bit more... gentrified. 

Takaosan is a beautiful mountain, with lovely hiking trails and glorious views of the nearby forests and valleys, but it tends to fall into the second category. Relatively close to Tokyo, it's an easy day trip to tackle. I've already covered the experience in detail, this post is all about the photos!