After spending most of the winter working on difficult subjects that took much thought, revision, and enormous amounts of time, painting familiar small Mineral King oil paintings to sell in the upcoming summer months feels speedy quick like lightning.
I think Hiking Buddy took the reference photo with her superior iPhone, generously sent it to me, and I phoofed up the colors, making them more vivid than the real life scene. Still, it was better in real life, because everything is.
This is Farewell Gap Alpenglow, 6×12″, $125, and it will be available at the Silver City Store this summer, unless it sells before that.
Happy Birthday, Hiking Buddy! (2 days early because I don’t post on Sundays.)
If you have ever walked to Timber Gap, you know experientially that it is far more than four steps. I don’t remember the specific mileage, but it seems to be about 2 miles.
This post is actually about painting Timber Gap, and it took more than four steps. However, I only took four photographs. (I liked the title, and I am the boss of my blog.)
The trail is not the Timber Gap trail. It is the trail that leads to Franklin Lakes and Farewell Gap, but we are headed the opposite direction here. The Timber Gap trail has terrific views of the entire Mineral King valley. The flowers are Bigelow sneezeweed.
The end of January had some very clear days with temperatures in the 60s. We took advantage of this to check out the Mineral King Road, just as far as where the snow might become a driving problem. There was no agenda, just some friends hanging out, stopping when and where something struck our fancy.
We walked some too.
We were curious to see if there was water in the flume.The boards on top were very slick, and we heeded this warning.Despite recent roadwork, all drainage troubles aren’t solved.Our guys did what they could.
Weird sausages made from straw keep the road from sloughing off down the canyon.
There was a deep hole here all summer, just below Slap Jack but now this dirt pile (in the foreground) has filled it up.
This was a CCC camp.Trail Guy found remains of their outhouse.
Some cabin neighbors used to refer to these redwoods as Aunt Tillie and Uncle Pete. We call them “Redwood”, as if there is just one, but it is short for Redwood Creek.
We turned around at Atwell Mill, not wanting to deal with the snow.
Just above Lookout, we saw something we’ve never seen on the Mineral King Road before.
Those are rock climbers!!
Such a clear beautiful day, and we hope it is the last chance to drive up for while because there will be too much snow soon. (But not so much that the road falls apart again this year.)
If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title.
When we last saw this most popular Mineral King scene on the easels, it looked like this.
A little more work brought it to this stage.
That big juniper tree needed attention, as did Vandever (the peak).
Next, I worked on the shrubs and the stream bank.
It was time to make sense of the stream, starting the farthest away where it curves to the left. That’s not technically correct, because it is flowing toward us, coming from the left. You know what I mean, yes?
Now, let’s back up and see the whole picture again.
Looking good, except the stream was definitely lacking detail.
Next time I show you this painting, I will back up so you can see the whole thing. Then I will probably start adding more detail to the shrubs. Details are my favorite part, but you knew that already.
Five steps closer to completing a new painting of the classic Mineral King view, but still about 60 steps from actual completion.
Remember this?
It is 30″ high, and I can’t reach the top very well. That’s okay, because it is movable.
The cabin is too wide.
Better.
I’m not trying to be exactly true to the photo. I am trying to make it look believable, and after looking at it for 39 years, drawing it about a dozen times in pencil and painting it at least 64 times*, I can recognize when things aren’t quite right.
However, I am making free with the locations of the rocks in the river.
Now there is a base coat on almost everything. Maybe two more layers will do the trick: one to fill out and finish covering the shapes and another to detail it. But then I’ll have to detail it more. And then it will need more correcting. After I show it to my most discerning critics, I’ll need to correct it even further. (See? 60 more steps ahead)
Changing the sizes, the lighting, the cropping—these things keep me interested when I continue to paint the same scenes over and over.
*Really! I counted my photos of the completed paintings, so I know this is true, and there might even be more that I didn’t photograph. Curious? Here they are up through 2016, when the count was at 32.
Trail Guy, The Farmer, and The Supervisor (retired) worked on the Mineral King road this week, clearing culverts and cleaning gutters. This was all volunteer work, sanctioned by the Park.
The contractors repaired the damaged parts that were marked by Federal Highways; our guys did preparations for the winter, with rain predicted up to higher elevations in a few days. Their goal is to prevent the sort of troubles we had last winter.
The weather has been mild, and with all the water from last spring and summer, there are still WILDFLOWERS IN DECEMBER! (Yeppers, Trail Guy took the camera and came home with these photos).
This year’s calendar is photographs of Mineral King from the odd and beautiful summer of 2023.
“Odd” because the damaged road limited access to only a handful of intrepid cabin folks, but not the public. (Stay safe, all y’all, but you cabin folks are on your own.)
“Beautiful” because the winter had been phenomenal, with water running in every possible drainage and going strong most of the summer, the tallest grasses in memory, abundant wildflowers, and greenery through September.
I chose to not post about Mineral King in the summer because it just seemed wrong to rub people’s noses into the fact that it was gorgeous but inaccessible.
When it was time to choose the calendar theme, I decided to share the beauty that many people missed. Good idea? Bad idea? Everything is a mixed bag.
As the back of the calendar explains, seeing Mineral King at its most beautiful reminds us all that even when we can’t get there, this beloved place endures.
The calendar is $20 (including tax), plus $3 shipping for one, $4 for two, and $7 for three (shipped in 2 separate packages). If that sounds pricey, be thankful that I am not charging for those overpriced cardboard mailers, and that I am not charging the entire mailing price. Just wanted you to know this, in case you were thinking of making do in 2024 with one of those freebie calendars that advertise a business or show you places that you will probably never see.
There are several ways to get a Mineral King 2024 calendar:
From me in person (no mailing costs that way) either just around, or at the Holiday Bazaar at the Three Rivers Memorial Building on November 18
It is normal for us to close our cabin in mid-October. We closed a little earlier this year due to impending road construction.
We stopped at a lower spot so that Trail Guy could move a tarantula off the road.Baby’s breath, around the Conifer Gate.A new-to-me flower along the road: stephanomeria.
There was a weird phenomena along the road: white stuff that looked like thick spider web material was stuck in grasses and shrubs almost all the way to Conifer, the upper gate. It felt sticky to Trail Guy; it felt like unnatural fiber such as acrylic or nylon to me, the way it stuck to my hangnails. My camera stopped working on the close-up setting, so it is a little hard to see what this stuff looked like.
There were definite signs of fall, finally.
We walked up to Crystal Creek, and the normally Yellow Tunnel was still green.
We walked down the road to Cold Springs Campground.
A little bit of work has been done on the Nature Trail, which was blocked by fallen trees and snow patches earlier in the summer. The water is still flowing strong, the aspens are still green, and there is some fall color showing in a few leaves.
We saw some interesting things.
This giant red fir was felled in Cold Springs Campground a year or two ago.This fungus grows on wood and is called “Witch’s Butter”I didn’t find the name of this fungus.
The berries were abundant this year.
Bitter cherryElderberryGooseberryGooseberryI don’t know what this is.Sierra currantSnowberry (white, hard to see in this photo)ThimbleberryTwinberry; has fuzzy leaves (The most thorough book shows 2 varieties of twinberry; this one is new to me.)More twinberry; the type I am familiar with wasn’t bearing this year.Wax currantWax currant was extremely abundant this year; this is the one I was not successful in turning to juice for jelly-making.
Closing has lots of tasks, not all of which I photographed, because why would you want to see all that?? But here is one, peculiar to our cabin. Not every cabin requires a climb onto the roof.
Closing is bittersweet. It is hard to say goodbye to one’s second home, even if it is a seasonal farewell. There is also the relief of knowing everything is securely buttoned up, putting away one’s duffel-bags, being home, catching up on yardwork, spending time with the cats, going to church again, staying current with emails and various internet activities, getting work done. (Knitting is portable, so I didn’t list this.)
Trail Guy is nostalgic; I just knit, unravel, reknit, and enjoy the final moments.
The drive down took awhile because we stopped several times to share information about sites and road construction, to discuss the locks on the gates, to wish friends a good winter, and to just take in the sights.
The water is still flowing along the road, and scarlet monkeyflowers were abundant this year. We also saw Farewell-to-Spring, yes, in October!
This will be one of just two posts about Mineral King because I don’t want to gloat about enjoying it this summer while the public was barred from visiting. However, I know you are curious, so here is a brief look.
This year everything was delayed in Mineral King, due to a heavy winter. Normally, in August we begin to see signs of impending fall. Not so in 2023!
Here is a look at August and September this year. Water was flowing, berry bushes were still in bloom, grasses were green, snow patches hadn’t melted. By late September, some of the ferns had taken a hit in colder temperatures and turned bronze.
Tomorrow I will show you pictures from closing weekend, October 5-8, 2023.
Because Mineral King was closed to the public all summer, I chose to not post about it. There is nothing polite about rubbing people’s noses in the harsh reality of being forbidden to visit the most beautiful place in Tulare County, and in spite of my natural bluntness, I do my best to be polite.
We closed our cabin on a beautiful fall weekend, shut off the water to our little road, and said goodbye to Mineral King for the year.
Road repairs still had not begun, although the contractor was gathering equipment at the bottom of the road on Highway 198/Sierra Drive. There was also a bit of additional flagging where a few wires cross the Mineral King road.
In June, after Tulare County had their lower piece of the road repaired, Trail Guy and the Farmer volunteered many hours, marking the hazards and making the road passable. The Park gave permission for these two hardworking, capable, generous men to do the Park’s work, for free. They were instructed to not clean up anything, because the Park wanted Federal Highways to see the damage and messes.
This repair project should have been started as soon as the road was passable. In the opinions of those of us who drove the road regularly, at the very least, the Park should have sent up a backhoe operator with a shovel-wielding ground crew person to clean out the culverts and clear the gutters. However, they are extremely short-staffed, and Mineral King is not a priority.
The road to Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon has been closed all summer.
The Park hired a contractor, and all summer we kept hearing warnings to not drive the road because we would be interfering with road work. In reality, there was no road work by either the Park nor any contractors.
We were also warned against driving the road because if there was a problem, there would be no way for emergency vehicles to assist or rescue.
An off-duty Park employee thought it was just fine to drive on the wrong side of the road, even on blind curves. Silver City was able to limp their truck to the lower gate for towing; the park employee’s vehicle was still drivable.
We were warned against using our cabins because if there was a problem, no one would come help us. No propane trucks could deliver, and there was no garbage service. Somehow, the resilient and resourceful cabin community made it through these inconveniences.
Eventually, the phone company made it up the hill, but Trail Guy and I opted to not have a phone at the cabin. Several neighbors have phones, which they made available to us. This was an excellent arrangement, and since Trail Guy helps them out regularly, almost as if he is everyone’s (unpaid) resident houseman, he needed their phones in order to stay in touch. In return, we didn’t have to pay $54/month to keep our phone throughout the entire year for 4-5 months of use. Even more importantly, we didn’t have to hear it ring, interrupting our peace and causing us to wonder if yet another Fireman’s Fund was desperate for our help.
The latest missive from the Park:
A quick update on the Mineral King Road construction project. We’ve just been notified by the contractor that they won’t need to begin full road closures until October 17th. They will begin moving equipment and performing some work along the road beginning on Monday, October 9th. They will have traffic control personnel on site during this first phase of work.
Road work impacts will be from the park boundary up to the top of the construction zone at the Conifer Gate. The closure could be reduced over time but shouldn’t extend beyond that.
Work will take place Monday through Saturday, no work on Sundays.
7am-Noon????Road Closed Noon to 1pm? Road Open 1-5pm ???????Road Closed 5pm to 7am ??Road Open
Access will continue to be limited to cabin owners and administrative traffic only. No public access.
In the opinion of the highly knowledgeable Trail Guy, formerly known as Road Guy, the construction zone needs to be extended above the Conifer Gate. You may recall that there was a rather alarming sinkhole in July, which was just 2 miles below the end of the road. We didn’t mention that there were also numerous “tree failures”, and the logs were just moved and trimmed to be one-lane passable.
Although it was mighty peaceful in the summer of 2023, we are not snobs nor are we elitists: we certainly hope that Mineral King is open to the public in 2024.
