Travel with a sense of Place: A Range of Light Spring

In this visual essay shot in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, travel writer Dick Jordan takes you to California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, “The Range of Light,” before the crowds of summer visitors descend on those parks. But Mother Nature, and not the calendar, dictates when Winter leaves those mountains for good each year, and when Spring arrives for an extended, uninterrupted stay. An unseasonable snowfall brings a quiet time to these parks when visitors unprepared for the weather flee to the sunny lowlands or hunker down indoors. Those who venture out in this unexpected winter wonderland hike mostly in solitude, unless a yellow-bellied marmot emerges from its burrow to see who is treading in its territory, or a pileated woodpecker breaks the silence by rapping its massive beak against a snag. But Winter's encore is brief upon this mountainous stage, and soon Spring returns, flowers bloom, waterfalls spring to life and rivers run wildly to the sea as the snow melts when the temperatures rise and the sun shines, beckoning visitors to come to one of John Muir's favorite places in the world.

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