HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I have a new ornament on my tree this year, a charming miniature library made for me by my friend and fellow children's book writer Caroline Hatton in a repurposed mint container just two inches square. The tiny books inside include my book Hatching Chicks in Room 6, Caroline Hatton's book Surprise Moon, and Ann Whitford Paul's book When Animals Say I Love You. It is reminder of the importance and joy of books and reading during the holidays and all the year through. As we celebrate this holiday season with its message of joy, hope, peace and goodwill, I send best wishes to all of you for a very

HAPPY HOLIDAY

and

JOYOUS NEW YEAR!

TULE ELK RESERVE: Preserving California's Wildlife

I don’t know how many times I’ve driven Interstate 5 through California’s Central Valley and passed the signs to the Tule Elk Reserve (near Taft and Bakersfield) and said to myself, I should stop and see how the elk are doing.  Twenty-five years ago I wrote a book about the tule elk and how they had been saved from extinction by rancher Henry Miller.  Under his protection, the few elk on his property began to reproduce and the herd slowly grew.  Most, if not all, of the tule elk alive today are the descendants of those animals. Tule elk can now be seen in several places in California, including a herd in Cache Creek and in the Owens Valley.

Finally, on a recent drive between Oakland and Los Angeles, I decided to make the Tule Elk Reserve my rest stop.  It is only three miles from the interstate, but when you get there you feel as if you are in the middle of what California used to be, before the land was developed for agriculture.  The Tule Elk Reserve, near the small town of Tupman,  is a 953 acre fenced area where the elk can live safely and are supplied with plenty of food and water.  Several ponds have been built on the land to give the elk drinking water and places to wallow or bathe.  Cattails, or tule reeds, grow around the edges of the ponds and provide hiding places for young elk.

Male tule elk

While the grassland of the reserve is dry and open, the visitor area is a green oasis with picnic tables, bathrooms, and a viewing platform where you can look into the reserve.  With luck you can spot some elk.  On the afternoon that I visited, I could see a few animals resting in the distance.  I didn’t have my binoculars, so I used the telephoto lens on my camera to get a closer look.  Even though the elk were so far away that the image looked more like an Impressionist painting, I could still see the majestic antlers of the male elk.

Viewing platform

The Tule Elk Reserve is operated by the California State Parks. According to the website, you can take a ranger guided auto tour of the reserve on the second and fourth Sundays of every month.  This is what I did when I was researching my book and is the best way to see the elk up close in their natural environment.  My book Tule Elk (Carolrhoda Books, 1989) is illustrated with photographs by Richard Hewett.  It is out of print but is available online as an e-book.

Directions:  The reserve is 20 miles west of Bakersfield off of the Stockdale Highway west of I-5, in the vicinity of Buttonwillow.
The park has a picnic area that offers an excellent  opportunity to observe birds of San Joaquin Valley.  Interpretive exhibits may be viewed to the south and east of the comfort station.
Video:  Follow this link for a short video tour of the Tule Elk Reserve.

Tasmania, Part II: Cradle Mountain

Cradle Mountain Lodge (March 1999)
{Continuation of my August 22nd post.}

Cradle Mountain gets its name from the distinctive "cradle" between its peaks.

    [Excerpt from my diary of our three month trip to Australia in 1999.] The next morning we drove north from Queenstown to Cradle Mountain National Park, where we stayed for two nights in a pencil pine cabin at the edge of the park.  The cabin was part of the Cradle Mountain Lodge complex, which has activities and places to eat.  Most people come to Cradle Mountain to hike and the track that goes across the park is one of the world’s most famous backpacking trails.  We did day walks which included portions along rushing rainforest streams, as well as stretches across open heathlands and up mountain trails.  We are slow walkers because we are always stopping to take pictures, but my calves still ache from the climb we did on Monday.


A Haven for Wildlife

Silversword, a spiky plant, is unique to Cradle Mountain

    Cradle Mountain is a World Heritage site and has plants and animals that are found no where else in the world.  Most of the large animal life is nocturnal so one night we went on a night spotting tour where we drove slowly along the road with a spotlight looking for animals.  We saw lots of possums, wallabies, wombats, and even a little Tasmanian devil.


A Paradise for Hikers

Our picnic spot beside the trail provided a spectacular view.

    Cradle Mountain is a wonderful place to go walking.  There are a variety of trails--some level, some steep--and all with interesting scenery.  The park people are very eco conscious and concerned about minimizing the damage to the environment so all the trails (at least all the day walk trails) are constructed of wooden planks or stone steps.  This keeps people from straying from the path and it also helps keep your feet dry as you walk across marshy areas.
 
Day Life and Night Life

Pademelons, a medium sized member of the kangaroo family, are common in the park.

    On one day that we were there we heard that someone saw three tiger snakes on one trail.  Apparently they are common but I'm glad I never saw one. (They are deadly poisonous.)  The vast majority of the wildlife only comes out at night although some of the possums and wallabies hang around the lodge and cabins--hoping for a handout.  We were sitting on our porch one afternoon having tea and, as we unwrapped a cookie, a wallaby hopped out of the bush.  I think it has learned to listen for the crinkle of cookie wrapping!  Instead we gave it some apple.
  
Local Food
    Several times while in Australia we've tried what is billed on the menu as scones with Devonshire cream but they have never been quite the same as we had in England--neither the scones nor the cream.  But when we were in Cradle Mountain I had a delicious apple crumble (made from fresh Tasmanian apples) with what they call King Island Cream.  The cream was thick and delicious and the closest we've come to Cornish clotted cream in Australia.

Honey and Glow Worms

Inside the wildlife park, we saw real Tasmanian devils racing around their enclosure.

    On Tuesday we took a somewhat leisurely drive back to Hobart stopping at a wild animal park, a honey factory to see leatherwood honey being processed (it is whirled in a giant centrifuge) and at a cave where we saw amazing rock formations and glow worms.  The glow worms, which are actually the larva of a kind of fly, attach themselves to the ceiling of a large chamber in the cave and then wait to catch insects that are attracted to their lights.  When the guide turned off her light it was like being in a planetarium except that instead of looking at constellations, the ceiling was dotted with the lights of hundreds of glow worms.

Back to Melbourne

Waterfall at Cradle Mountain

    I decided that I needed to read something by an Australian author on the plane trip to Tasmania so I bought a book called Mallawindy by Joy Dettman.  It's a page turner and is the same kind of sweeping family saga as The Thornbirds.  I predict that we'll see it soon as a miniseries.   One of the interesting things about the book is that the main character has a double personality.
    Everyone told us after we came back that our trip to Tasmania was too short, and we agreed.  We could easily have spent much more time at Cradle Mountain and we never had time to explore the coast along the east side of the island.  Someday, we’ll have to go back.
Making Reservations:  For this trip I made all our reservations through the travel service at the RAC (Royal Auto Club) in Melbourne, which has a reciprocal arrangement with the AAA, of which we are members.