BLM Dispatch #12 - Humboldt Sink, Nevada
I woke to the sound of something chewing on the side of my tent at exactly 4:53am, two minutes before my alarm was set to rustle me from sleep. As if the creature and the clock were in cahoots.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
My head, turned sideways on the pillow and snug against the tent wall, put my face just inches from the sound, my breath like a strange little space heater for the fellow.
I gave a gentle flick toward the noise (kangaroo rat? western whiptail?), and the visitor abandoned its post in search of less polyester fare.
Alright pal, I said, I’m up.
—
BLM Dispatch #11 - Pershing County, Nevada
On Tuesday, May 6, around 11pm, Republican Representatives Mark Amodei and Celeste Maloy introduced a surprise amendment to the House Natural Resources Committee that would authorize the sale of BLM lands in Nevada and Utah. The provision was quietly slipped into a sweeping environmental bill during the final hour of a 13-hour debate — without public input, transparency, or meaningful discussion.
Initial estimates suggested 11,000 acres would be affected. But as conveyance, disposal and checkerboard resolution maps became available of the exact parcels marked for disposal, the number ballooned to 540,385 acres.
Everyone was talking about the land totals — but no one was showing what the landscapes actually looked like.
So I decided to go see them. If these lands were going to be handed over to the highest bidder, the least I could do was document them. To create a photographic record of what we stand to lose.
—
BLM Dispatch #10 - Carrizo Plain National Monument - Part 2
The Carrizo Plain is roughly fifty miles long by fifteen miles wide, framed neatly between the Temblor Range to the east and the more formidable Caliente Range to the west. There are just two main entrances to the Monument: from the north and the south, both connected by Soda Lake Road, a bumpy but reliable gravel road that runs straight through the valley.
I’ve spent many lovely nights out there under the stars, mostly during drought years, when the valley choked with dust, Soda Lake was dry, and the grasslands resembled a giant bale of hay.
But in early 2023, a series of atmospheric rivers dropped thirteen inches of rain just as I was working on an essay about the Carrizo for The Enduring Wild. When I visited that April with a botanist, I arrived to a scene that left me stunned. From the book:
The landscape was so incomprehensibly different I couldn’t help but stare in disbelief. Soda Lake Road had become a yellow brick road, and I had wandered into the Land of Oz. I couldn’t figureout where to look, as if my eyes and brain had gone haywire into a hyper state of mesmerizing distraction that left me utterly speechless. It was like taking Dorothy’s first step into the technicolor world of Munchkinland after living in sepia-toned Kansas.
—
BLM Dispatch #9 - Carrizo Plain National Monument - Part 1
Last weekend, I guided a group of 20 urbanites out to the BLM-managed Carrizo Plain National Monument for another USAL Project camping trip. We were there to see wildflowers, hike my favorite trails, drive the back roads, and share some epic nightly fires under dark skies.
Except there were almost no flowers across the entire plain, outside of a few scattered lupines, lacy phacelia, and stands of bladderpod giving it a valiant effort.
And the weather! It was like a deranged toddler running rampant after crushing a pack of skittles: loud, destructive, and totally unpredictable. In three days, we received rain, hail, 25 mph wind gusts, overcast skies, and nightly temperatures that dipped into the 30’s.
Wind chill minus a thousand. Muddy shoes. Whipping tents. Campfires traded for huddles around a sputtering stove…
—
BLM Dispatch #8 - Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
Building on my last dispatch from the Cache Creek Natural Area, we now move to its next door neighbor: the massive 344,476-acre Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.
Designated by President Obama in 2015 and named for its two geographic anchors — Berryessa Peak in the south and Snow Mountain to the north — this monument forms a stunning hundred-mile corridor through California’s Inner Coast Ranges, with elevations ranging from near sea level to over 7,000 feet. The U.S. Forest Service oversees the northern half; the Bureau of Land Management stewards the southern stretch, including Molok Luyuk, a sacred ridge newly added in 2023. That addition is now co-stewarded by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.
I’ve visited Berryessa many times over the past several years, but one of the most memorable trips came in April 2022, when I set out with two of my sisters for a half marathon day hike into the Cache Creek Wilderness, one of the Monument’s most remote and rewarding corners…
—
BLM Dispatch #7 - Cache Creek Natural Area
Welcome to the Cache Creek Natural Area.
The sheer abundance of greenery, spanning every imaginable shade, is reason enough to visit. The grasslands have patches of emerald, lime, and neon. The blue oaks are starting to leaf out, their new growth a darker, foresty kind of green. Wavy-leaf soap plants stretch up in pale pistachio stalks. Hillsides dotted with gray pines soften the view with their muted sage and gray undertones — earning them their nickname, Ghost Pines, for their spectral, ethereal presence in early light.
For the walkers, this place is paradise. While there are dozens of miles of developed trails, you can also have a field day choosing your own route up and down the foothills, weaving between the gnarled bark of the blue oaks, stopping to inspect whatever catches your eye…
—
BLM Dispatch #6 - Point Arena-Stornetta
Point Arena-Stornetta can be moody as hell.
I experienced the full spectrum of weather along California’s rugged north coast: heavy fog, fleeting sun, and wind strong enough to push you around — all before 10 a.m. It was the kind of day where you find yourself in a t-shirt one moment and reaching for a winter hat the next.
My windbreaker snapped and hollered along with the mighty waves, and all notions of quiet quickly vanished.
I followed a narrow trail through damp golden fields to the mouth of the Garcia River, where the 44-mile waterway meets its inevitable end. The area was alive with sound: the guttural barking of sea lions, the chatter of ravens, the flapping wings of cormorants, oystercatchers, and gulls. Even a few otters bobbed in the surf, making their presence known with casual nods toward shore.
—
BLM Dispatch #5 - BLM Campgrounds In the Eastern Sierra
One of the questions I hear most frequently from my Instagram community is whether there are actual campgrounds on BLM land.
It’s a great question because most people associate camping on BLM land with dispersed camping, the self-sufficient, rugged style usually done along roadside pullouts. Nearly all BLM land is open to this kind of camping, but I'll save those details for another newsletter.
But yes, there are hundreds of developed BLM campgrounds across the American West! And some of my absolute favorites are tucked in and along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, just a short detour off famed Highway 395.
So, let’s dive into my favorite Eastern Sierra BLM campgrounds — with images, links, descriptions, and a beautiful illustrated map from my book…
—
