Mineral King | Cabin Art

Mineral King Road

Road update from Sequoia Roads Supervisor:

The current plan is for the Sequoia Road Crew to return to maintenance on the Mineral King road as soon as the current road center and fog line striping project is completed through the Giant Forest area this week.
Mineral King road maintenance will consist of spot brushing priority areas, pothole patching, drainage maintenance, shoulder damage repairs and regrading of the washout above Cold Springs and spot grading of the remaining unpaved sections of roadway, not necessarily in that order. Tentatively starting date of 7/15.

Today’s post isn’t very fun, but it is informative if you or someone you know is planning a trip to Mineral King this summer.

I’ve been driving the Mineral King Road regularly for 35 summers, sometimes weekly. This year it is the worst I have ever experienced.

There is no attempt to smooth it, no pothole patching, no erosion control, and no brushing. None.

Several times I wondered if I should stop, get out of my car, and eyeball the route on foot to find the safest way through the obstacle course. Instead, I crawled along in first gear, sometimes riding the brake to go even slower, and I made it without breaking anything.

My non-objective view is that since Trail Guy (AKA Retired Road Guy) retired 7 years ago, there has been a cumulative effect of his not working on the road. The Park roads department is headed up from an office in Grant Grove, which is in Kings Canyon National Park rather than from Ash Mountain in Sequoia. When Road Guy was there, he made certain that the Mineral King Road was not neglected. As a retiree, he still volunteers many hours on a (borrowed) big yellow machine to clear away the winter snow to get the road opened sooner than if folks waited for the Park or for nature.

The Park’s view might be that the road will be redone in a few years. Do they think that it won’t deteriorate further until that time??

I counted 60 potholes in the paved sections on the four-mile stretch between Silver City and Mineral King.

It would be easy to prune these cottonwoods that obstruct vision on this little stretch.

When potholes are full of water, it is impossible to judge the depth.

Just a random sampling of the potholes on the final stretch of road.

2019 was a real winter, which delayed the opening of the Mineral King road, campgrounds, and our own cabin. Atwell Mill Campground is open, but Cold Springs won’t be opened until July 10. (Most of the passes are snow-covered, but people are backpacking and day hiking anyway.)

Drive carefully. If you find the road to be a problem, it might not hurt to write a letter to the acting superintendent, whose name I do not know. (Woody is away, working at the Grand Canyon this summer.)

Mineral King Mineral King Road

More Mineral King Wildflowers

Trail Guy went to Timber Gap. This is the view. Lots and lots of snow remains.

You can always find Phlox on the upper part of the Timber Gap trail in June. This year in July too. Sometimes they turn lavender, as you would know if you read the book, Mineral King Wildflowers, or hiked much in Mineral King.

Languid Ladies are also known as Sierra Bluebells.

Jeffrey Shooting Star likes its feet wet.

This is a puffball, not a flower. I think it is a toadstool, or a lichen, or maybe a mushroom. Don’t eat it, okay?

100 page paperback, flowers in photos, common names only, lots of chatty commentary, $20 including tax.
Available here
Also available at the Three Rivers Historical Museum, Silver City Store, from me if I put them in my car, or Amazon.

Mineral King

Mineral King Wildflowers

Mineral King Wildflowers is the name of the book I published in March of this year. In it, I said that most of the wildflowers in Mineral King hit their peak in July. This year it might be even truer, because the June flowers are still blooming in July. But perhaps the July flowers will not happen until August. More will be revealed in the fullness of time. Here is what was in bloom last week.

Sierra Star Tulip (overexposed photo doesn’t show the detail – might I suggest that you buy a copy of my book?)

Tomorrow is Independence Day. I will be silent on the blog, but will return for July 5, more Mineral King wildflowers.

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More Mineral King

Heading toward Crystal Creek (or Franklin Creek, or Franklin Lakes, or Farewell Gap)

That is high water for the East Fork of the Kaweah!

I missed my Hiking Buddy and The Farmer. Trail Guy got to hang out with them.

But, I got to be with Scout and Jackson.

There are always trade-offs in life. Tomorrow you get to see which wildflowers were in bloom in Mineral King last week.

P.S. When you comment on the blog, I have to approve the comment before it appears. This doesn’t mean that your comment didn’t “take”; it means I am not near a computer to release your comment. Thank you to those who go to the trouble to comment; I appreciate you sharing your thoughts!

Mineral King Mineral King photography

Mineral King, Finally

It has been an unusual year for Mineral King. Due to a heavy winter, a road trip to the Phoenix area, and a family emergency, I didn’t make it up the hill until last week. Trail Guy has been there and brought me his camera so I could experience Mineral King via photographs, the same way you get to experience it. (I think this can get stretched into several posts. Yea.)

The classic view from the bridge, complete with snow on Farewell Gap and high water.

Across the creek you can see a cabin, Empire, and Monarch Falls.

Sawtooth has lots of snow, lots and lots. The peak is hidden here, but you can see the ridge.

Back atcha, tomorrow. (I miss Cowboy Bert. He often ended phone calls with that articulate message, “Back Atcha”. Heavy heavy sigh.)

P.S. When you comment on the blog, I have to approve the comment before it appears. This doesn’t mean that your comment didn’t “take”; it means I am not near a computer to release your comment. Thank you to those who go to the trouble to comment; I appreciate you sharing your thoughts!

Mineral King

A Little Painting

English is confusing. “A little painting” could mean I painted a little bit or that I painted a small painting. What if in this case it means I painted a little bit on 3 small paintings? And I painted a little bit on a (for me) huge painting?

Then you’d have today’s title and today’s post, that’s what.

This Oak Grove Bridge number umpty eleven needed a few more touches on the sides. Then I realized that it was going to be very difficult to photograph, so I started experimenting with settings on my PHD* camera. (Why did I give away my tripod? Because I didn’t anticipate needing it after 30 years without using it. Why did I give away my large camera? Because the lens ceased to be reliable.)

Two paintings of the same Mineral King scene, a 6×6″ and an 8×8″ will probably sell at an upcoming show at the Silver City Store. (June 29, thanks for asking).

Oops. I forgot to take photos of the stages of painting. If you are a regular reader, you’ve seen that before.

I also took some photos of the kittens, three of which remain at our address. KitCarson is settled very happily in his new home, where he will be loved beyond his wildest expectations, and Tigger, formerly known as Gilligan, is very happily settled in his new home, where he plans on becoming the boss of his people.

Alas, my PHD camera wasn’t up to the task of close up photos of these active little creatures.

*PHD = Press Here, Dummy

Mineral King oil paintings

Deciding What to Paint Next

Sometimes it might be nice to have a boss or maybe a crystal ball or even a mentor or a board of directors. When deciding what to paint next, there are days when I think how good it is to just do whatever I want; other times I wish someone else would tell me what to paint.

I have two 6×18″ canvases left and five ideas for them.

When I don’t know what to paint, I go with my first idea or first impression. All of the ideas are good, all are Mineral King, of course. The juniper tree along the White Chief trail has been calling to me in spite of having painted it twice already this spring, and OF COURSE I want to paint wildflowers. The others might be good to paint later. But, I’ll have to place yet another order with the art supply company, and Prudence tells me to wait until some paintings have sold. (Prudence often tells me wise things.)

I’m starting this and treating it as an “alla prima” painting in an attempt to finish it in one session.

Nope, this will take another session and much better light. But, I think it is a great start.

I just dove into this without much forethought. Could not wait to paint wildflowers. Does this surprise anyone?

This Mineral King painting will require lots of reference photos to remember the leafing patterns and to get the flowers to be believable. (The peak is Vandever, which is on the right side of Farewell Gap.)

mineral king art Mineral King oil painting Mineral King oil paintings

Learned in May

Penstemon, planted on purpose in my yard rather than a wildflower, but in spite of being a native, it isn’t really thriving.

Is it possible I didn’t learn anything in May? Or is it that I just didn’t keep track? (Who said, “You learn something new every day?”) What can I pull out of my memory from just the past 30 days? How about these 7 items:

I sold something on eBay for $20 and charged $5 for shipping. Someone in Florida bought it and it cost me $16.17 to mail (there is currently no UPS outlet in Three Rivers). EBay took their bite, and my net profit was $7.80. Ouch.
I went to the bank to do a routine transaction, or at least I thought it was routine. In the olden days, it would have meant interacting with a human behind a desk. This time it meant sitting at a desk, watching a human interact with a computer. Ouch.
While at the bank with high ceilings and echoey acoustics, I wondered why they feel the need to play annoying (too loud and echoey and irrelevant) pop music. I didn’t learn why, only that my tolerance for noise seems to be diminishing in direct proportion to the increase of noise in the world. Ouch.
A small number of vendors and low visitation at a local arts and crafts fair does not mean low sales. Un-ouch. 😎
After saying, “no more shows” (meaning entering juried and judged shows), I made 2 exceptions: entered the show “Seascapes” at the Exeter Courthouse Gallery, and plan to enter a show (untitled) at the Tulare County Government Plaza Building. Haven’t learned anything yet, except that maybe I am the living embodiment of the triumph of hope over experience.
Kittens are so much fun! I’ve always known this, but now we have healthy and well-socialized kittens instead of feral, rescued, or weaned-too-early babies. There is a difference, and this is a good litter.
Memorial Day used to be May 31. Now it is the last Monday of May, a way to mark the beginning of summer. Really??

On Naming Flowers

Why does it matter what a flower’s name is? Why do I want to know? Why did it matter enough to me to spend 2 years chasing, photographing, writing, designing, and ultimately publishing Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names?

My first answer to that question is “inquiring minds need to know”.

My second answer (borrowed from a friend who said this to me once), “Well, of course it is important! Look at the first job ever given to the first human being!” (Yes, she spoke with exclamation points.)

My third and fourth answers are taken from a podcast I listened to recently. Someone was being interviewed about learning the names of the trees and frogs that she saw and heard every day. She said this (paraphrased by me): “Learning a name takes you from being an observer to being a participant.”

She also said, “Learning names makes you care more”.

If you bought a book or are thinking about it, what is your why?

Category: Mineral King