True Nature Stories: Sierra Buttes

Morning View of Sierra Buttes

Somehow I had never been to Sierra Buttes before, or anywhere on Hwy. 49 north of Tahoe for that matter. (Another first: being stuck in 102-degree heat during a traffic jam caused by an accident near Nevada City). I had to cut short my photographic exploration of California back around 2012-13, in part because I was spending too much money on gas, especially since I had been driving a Jeep Cherokee. I recall being horrified to be charged more than $4/gallon back then. On my return from Sierra Buttes on Monday (in a much more fuel-efficient Mazda 3) I felt lucky to get gas for under $6/gallon ($5.89 at a Pilot Flying J near Sacramento).

The trip to Sierra City was more of a much-needed R&R for my wife and I than a photo safari, but I did get a chance to do some photography while my wife enjoyed plein air painting in the relative cool of the mornings. We stayed at a place called the Sierra Pines Resort on the North Fork Yuba River. I was a little taken aback by how rustic the cabin was at first, dark and cave-like, but it had a kitchen and was in earshot of the river and close to the Buttes.

Alas, we endured two days of PG&E power cutoffs that lasted several hours each time. When the power died, the soothing wind- and bird-song of the forest was immediately replaced by the noisy growling of a diesel generator which, to add insult to injury, only powered the restaurant, not the cabins. On our last morning I blew a circuit breaker when I ran the coffee pot, microwave, and toaster all at the same time. The front office was closed, but Pam found the breaker box hidden behind a framed picture on the wall near the front door, and breakfast was soon served. Hey, it was still more comfy than camping, especially given the afternoon heat all week.

We didn't do a lot of hiking despite being very close to the Pacific Crest Trail, but the one main hike we did was outstanding -- a short two-hour cardio workout to the Sierra Buttes Fire Lookout. The return trip, all downhill, only took an hour. Another time we took a very short walk on the PCT to reach a small waterfall in a lovely canyon close to the highway. As we left Monday morning, the Sierra Pines restaurant was doing a brisk business feeding PCT hikers who were loading up on pancakes and such before heading back out on the trail.

I was going to break up all these shots into multiple posts over several days, but I don't want to have to return to the computer so much this week, so I'm spilling 'em all at once. Click to view 'em larger.