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But what's in the mountains?

Just cliffs and brush and rocks and dryness.

Were you ever there?

No.

Has anybody ever been there?

A few people, I guess. It's dangerous, with cliffs and things. Why, I've read there's more unexplored country in the mountains of Monterey County than any place in the United States." His father seemed proud that this should be so.

And at last the ocean?

But," the boy insisted, "but in between? No one knows?

Oh, a few people do, I guess. But there's nothing there to get. And not much water. Just rocks and cliffs and greasewood. Why?

It would be good to go.

What for? There's nothing there.

Jody knew something was there, something very wonderful because it wasn't known, something secret and mysterious. He could feel within himself that this was so.

~Excerpt from The Little Red Pony, by John Steinbeck

Big Sur is renowned for its beautiful, rugged coastline, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Santa Lucia Mountains. However, the features within these mountains are less known. For tourists and photographers, too, much of the beauty within these mountains is unknown, and compared to the Big Sur coastline, little creative photography emerges from the mountains. As photography became increasingly important for me, Big Sur became the primary place to explore both the landscape and my creative abilities. The Santa Lucia Mountains, as a subject for art making, are filled with unique, diverse opportunities to witness indescribable beauty.

I love returning to familiar landscapes to make them ever more familiar. Exploring landscapes again and again feels like I’m growing roots in the natural world. With photography, those roots seem to grow deeper and deeper.

Artists who cultivate long term relationships with particular geographies most inspire me. Ansel Adams, Morely Baer, Alexey Titarenko, Michael Light, Guy Tal, William Neill, Colin Prior, and many more honed their creative capacities by returning time and again to familiar places and themes. I aim to develop my own body of work, unfolding themes over time and creating art from a place of familiarity with places I love.

The coastline of Big Sur, though widely photographed, contains many, many opportunities for new creative work. And I love revisiting coastal Big Sur. But after some years of exploring the coast and a bit beyond, like the boy in Steinbeck's story, I wondered "what's in the mountains?”

So my focus turned up and eastward to the mountains of Big Sur. I began to study maps, books, photographs, forums, and blogs. Walking and scrambling up the trails, creeks, and dirt roads, became my primary focus in Big Sur. Both on-trail and off-trail adventures within the wilderness areas offer endless dynamic subject matter for photography.

There is a wealth of local knowledge about the Big Sur mountains.

People like Jack Glendening, the late Paul Danielson, and many others, support and preserve the wild qualities of the Santa Lucia Range and maintain recreational access for all. Forestry and state park staff, volunteers, donors, and tourists all contribute to the maintenance of the walking trails. A rich heritage of ecological responsibility and respectful participation with the Santa Lucia Mountains continues the efforts of Ansel Adams, Henry Miller, Robert Redfield, Clint Eastwood, Paul Danielson and others.

Wilderness access evolves year to year due to storms, fires, understory growth and erosion. Maintaining these trails requires significant effort, and there is not enough budget or foot traffic to support their full upkeep at present. Perhaps electronic devices keep the people of the pavement indoors more than in times past. There are a small handful of backcountry places that receive significant traffic, but many more are becoming lost and overgrown, and many more remain generally unexplored.

These mountains hold many treasures, both big and small. Some seasons there are so many spring flowers that sweet and fragrant floral notes fill each breath for miles and miles. I’d heard of ladybird aggregations but didn’t know that in remote locations some stretch for almost a mile along a creek, millions of ladybirds. Watching the sun set over a heavy marine layer blanketing the Pacific Ocean as I walk down a hillside into that blanket is a blessing each time.

There are many worlds within the world of Big Sur to explore.

Key avenues alongside the wilderness backcountry areas await further exploration by recreationists. Highway 1 is wonderful to drive but there are quite a few other access points to the backcountry that are equally as wonderful to explore and more diverse.

Currently, the journey of the freshwaters is most interesting for me. Six rivers, hundreds of creeks and canyons, and uncounted cascades contour the landscape with intricate pathways and geological stories. These waters bring life to diverse flora and fauna. Fertile riparian corridors of old-growth redwoods, oaks, maple, alders, sycamore, cottonwood, willow, provide a canopy for an understory of revolving profusions of wildflowers, fern, chaparral and wildlife.

Particular locations within these waterways, holding many hidden, beautiful features, are difficult to access. Challenges include poison oak, lots of poison oak, deer ticks, nuanced rugged terrain, waterflow and other seasonal factors. Caution is warranted.

These places are magical. The sounds of wind whistling and waters echoing and bird song alone are enough to make the effort to access them worthwhile.The changing light reflected in the water and filtering through the canopies create dynamic, challenging creative opportunities. Full days spent exploring watersheds are mesmerizing. Each creek is its own world of unique characteristics.

Unfortunately, illegal activities in these pristine areas highlight the need for greater vigilance and enforcement efforts. For decades now, freshwaters have been pumped into illegal marijuana grows on public lands, managed by unfriendly residents. These individuals sometimes use bulldozers to terrace mountainsides for such operations, visible on Google Maps. They have also started fires, closing the forest for years at a time and leaving burnt old-growth trees behind that bear witness to human neglect and apathy. Without broad public awareness and advocacy, it's hard to see this situation changing significantly. The public doesn't know what's being lost in the Santa Lucia Mountains to illegal marjuana cultivation and trail maintenance that generally leaves upwards of 25 percent of the trails difficult or impossible to travel on. This has been the case for decades.

Importantly, proposed updates to the Big Sur land use plan this year are considering new developments of residences and resorts. Ansel Adams worked towards federal protection for Big Sur to conserve its visual beauty and natural resources. The advocacy of Adams and many others informed the current 40-year Big Sur land use plan, approved in 1986. Public support and pressure are needed to keep Big Sur wild and accessible for future generations.

Each of my photographs are invitations to all to explore and participate in the life of these landscapes. To care for wild places well, a measure of respectful interest and public support is needed. Keeping Big Sur conserved and accessible will require many more hands and feet. There are complex cultural histories that need to be respected and highlighted as well. I hope to highlight features not often seen as a promise of what awaits the adventurous and committed.

Big Sur, with its mixed evergreen forests, desert-like flora, rain forest-like canopies, unique variants of pine, ancient Native American village sites, petroglyphs, a Spanish mission, military installations, old telegraph wires, mining claims, resorts, and residences, is a diverse yet threatened landscape marked by monuments to human frailty and beauty. We humans are as much the problem as we are the solution. A complete love for humanity also involves a love and respect for our environment.

My photography project is largely creative in nature, but also includes an intention to encourage respectful participation and documentation. Generally, I don’t have specific destinations for my Big Sur excursions. I’ve learned that encountering the details along the way are as interesting, perhaps more so, than any grand feature. Some phenomena are ephemeral, others ever present though always evolving. And therein lies the fun.

The mountains of Big Sur are calling…