Life Is Like A Coconut

There is something very special about living only 45 miles from Lassen Volcanic National Park. It is even more special seeing Lassen Peak and Brokeoff Mountain from our neighborhood in Red Bluff, California.

I was first introduced to mountains when I was a “wee lass.” My parents took my siblings and me to the Alleghany and Adirondack mountains in our home state of New York. We drove through the Catskills when we visited family in eastern Pennsylvania. And vacations took us to the Appalachian Mountains along the East Coast of the United States.

When I was a teenager, the musical artist John Denver sang about the Rocky Mountains and for decades I longed to see them from the ground, not the air. That wish became a reality during a coast-to-coast-and-back trip my husband and I traveled in 2016. Seeing the Rockies from Denver was stunning. A drive through Rocky Mountain National Park was spectacular. Viewing the night sky from within the Rockies was breathtaking. And a photo shoot at the Continental Divide at Milner Pass in Colorado was a hoot. How many people can say they have had one foot in the east and one foot in the west at the exact same time?

I have always loved hills and mountains. The landscape of rugged terrain is extraordinary and the mountain air is so fresh and clean. My lifelong dream was to have a log cabin in the mountains and in 2006 that dream came true, though not entirely what I pictured. A move to California brought us to Paradise, actually Magalia (which was a little bit above Paradise). For 12 years we relished our little cabin in the woods, surrounded by giant Douglas Fir and Incense Cedar trees. It was like living in a park and the scent of the trees was akin to the smell of freshly sharpened pencils.

In 2019 my husband and I were forced to “start over” due to a horrific wildfire. We landed in Red Bluff when an apartment became available for us. We are valley dwellers now. No more tall conifers, only oak wildlands. BUT we can see Lassen from our home. Living at the northern end of the Central Valley has positives and negatives as any place does. The biggest positive is having easy access to the Sierras, the Cascades, the Coastal Range and the Klamath Mountains. Whenever I have the itch to head to higher ground, we frequent Lassen and Plumas counties to the east, Lake and Trinity counties to the west, as well as Shasta and Siskiyou counties to the north. A short drive to Redding offers views of mountains to the west, north, and east. Beautiful scenery! Majestic Lassen Peak, Brokeoff Mountain and Mount Shasta command attention. I feel so very privileged to be almost completely surrounded by mountainous terrain. I am awestruck by the beauty.

As the mountains become snow-covered, I am drawn to them to “scratch my itch” to see and feel the white stuff. And in the summer heat of the valley, I love to escape to the cooler temperatures of the mountains. Each time my husband and I “head up the hill,” I feel so fortunate to again make our way into The Majestic – truly Mother Earth’s sensory offering.