National Parks Calendars

Joshua Tree National Park 2024 Wall Calendar

$15.95

The remarkable landscape of Joshua Tree National Park in California is a source of amazement. Like some playground of lost ancients, rocks and boulders are piled whimsically in a desert landscape of Joshua Trees and blasted oaks. The park protects two desert ecosystems that feature tortoises that drink no water and pricklypear that look science fictional. Amazing!

This 2023 monthly wall calendar features: Large blocks for notes | Superb printing quality | Heavy 100-pound paper | Deluxe 11- by 14-inch size

About Joshua Tree National Park

The park was first designated a national monument in 1936 and accorded national park status in 1994. It occupies 795,156 acres in southeastern California where it protects two desert ecosystems, each with characteristics that reflect their elevation. The higher area is the Mojave Desert and the lower area is the Colorado Desert. The park is named after the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) native to the Mojave Desert. People of the Pinto Culture lived in the area as early as 8,000 BCE, and a series of ancestral peoples followed. Spaniards were the first Europeans to see the area in 1772. A Mexican expedition explored here in 1823 when that new country gained its freedom from Spain. California, including the area of the park, was annexed to the United States after winning the Mexican-American War in 1848. Miners arrived in the 1860s and dug a series of mines, eventually totaling about 300, searching for gold and silver. The Desert Queen Mine was one of the last successful mines, producing copper, zinc, and iron. The related ranch and mill were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. White settlers arrived here in 1870,
established farms, and grazed cattle. The Joshua Tree, as well as Pinon pine, California juniper, types of oak, the
dollarjoint pricklypear, and other plant species, grow in the higher and cooler Mojave Desert. Below 3,000 feet, the Colorado Desert covers the eastern part of the park where hot, dry conditions support a variety of desert scrub and cactus. The park’s iconic rock formations result from exposure of volcanic rock, often pushed to the surface by tectonic forces, that is subject to the forces of erosion. The area of the park, is crisscrossed with active faults. The San Andreas Fault passes southwest of the park, and a system of related faults extends throughout the area of the park. Five blocks of mountains in the park are called Transverse Ranges because they tend to run east and west along fault lines. The Coxcomb Mountains in the east run north and south parallel to the San Andreas. Camping is available at nine campgrounds in the park. It is also possible to backpack into the backcountry to camp. The park is an attraction for rock climbers because it offers thousands of climbing routes that include all levels of difficulty.
Birders are attracted to the park because it is a haven for many species that winter there. There are also many resident desert birds, ranging from the greater roadrunner and the cactus wren to Gambrel’s quail. The park is adjacent to a section of the Pacific Flyway that attracts a range of migrating species. Many park animals like birds and squirrels are active during the heat of the day, but a range of animals prefer the cool of the night. Nocturnal animals seen after dark range from Big Horn sheep and coyotes to bobcats and black-tailed jackrabbits. Despite its ability to survive without drinking water, the desert tortoise in the Mojave Desert lowlands is now considered a threatened species.
On average the park receives only about 5.45 inches of rain throughout the year. Between June and September, temperatures average more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit, while January sees an average low of 35 degrees. Average high temperatures exceed 60 degrees in nearly every month of the year. The park is trending hotter and drier. Annual precipitation has declined 39 percent between 1895 and 2016, and the annual average temperature has increased 3 degrees.

Published by Tide-mark Press © 2023

Mount Rainier National Park 2024 Wall Calendar

$15.95

Mount Rainier National Park in western Washington State preserves some of the best of nature’s scenic treasures. Described as an Arctic island in a temperate sea of coniferous forest, Mount Rainier is the tallest volcano in the Cascade Range and the largest single-peak glacial system in the contiguous United States. The Mount Rainier National Park calendar captures the park in all of its seasonal beauty through words and photographs by Ronald G. Warfield.

This 2023 monthly wall calendar features: Large blocks for notes | Superb printing quality | Heavy 100-pound paper | Deluxe 11- by 14-inch size

Mount Rainier locations featured in this edition include:
• Frozen fog (rime) and wind-blown snow festoon a grove of subalpine fir and mountain hemlock beside the Skyline Trail above Alta Vista. Winter holds sway from November through May while world record snowfalls transform the scene into a crystalline fairyland
of white.
• Winds flowing over The Mountain create standing wave patterns in the air current similar to a stream of water
deflected upward by a boulder. As moist air rises to clear The Mountain, water vapor condenses into a lens-shaped cloud.
• Branches of mountain hemlocks bend under the weight of deep snowpacks, sloughing the heaviest loads.
Short stiff branches of subalpine firs amass prodigious cloaks of snow. Frozen fog (called rime) adds a crystalline surface that captures even more snow on branches and needles.
• When we enter the Ohanapecosh Valley, we arrive in an old-growth forest cathedral that only a century ago extended from the base of Mount Rainier to the shores of Puget Sound. Douglas-fir, western redcedar, and western hemlock dominate the canopy.
• Mount Rainier sits squarely in the range
of waterfalls–The Cascades. Comet Falls plummets in a 320-foot narrow spray of mist that resembles the tail of a comet splashing to Earth. Early-season hikers on the 1.6-mile Van Trump Park Trail find avalanche chutes, a steep snow-covered trail, and a dangerous stream crossing.
• Subalpine meadows encircle The Mountain in a 93-mile floral wreath in the subalpine zone between 5000 and 7000 feet in elevation. Flower connoisseurs seeking respite from the crowds at Paradise ascend beyond Comet Falls to the flower-filled meadow named for one of the first two summiteers of Mount Rainier, Philemon B. Van Trump.
• Geology buffs find glacial polish and striations on bedrock, roche moutonée, and boulders among glacial till where glacier ice used to be. Now western anemone (mouse-on-a-stick seedheads), subalpine lupine, and magenta paintbrush cover the ground and extend Paradise Meadow into the deglacierized landscape.
• Devotees of Mount Rainier’s floral displays remark that there are only two seasons at Paradise – winter and August. A late melt-out of record snowfalls compresses the flowering season into a few short weeks as masses of subalpine lupine, magenta paintbrush, and Sitka valerian bloom alongside American bistort and the fuzzy seed-heads of western anemone.
• Reflection Lakes occupy shallow basins atop deposits left when a debris avalanche swept down from Mount Rainier about 7000 years ago. Time and regrowth of the subalpine forest have softened this once devastated scene into one of transcendent beauty.

Published by Tide-mark Press © 2023

Yosemite National Park 2024 Wall Calendar

$15.95

John Muir lived in the Yosemite Valley, what would become Yosemite National Park, from 1868 to 1873. The attention he won for Yosemite ensured its place as a National Park. Muir wrote, “Nowhere will you see the majestic operations of nature more clearly revealed beside the frailest, most gentle and peaceful things.” The Yosemite calendar shares the spirit of awe Muir felt so clearly almost 150 years ago.

This 2024 monthly wall calendar features: Large blocks for notes | Superb printing quality | Heavy 100-pound paper | Deluxe 11- by 14-inch size

Yosemite places featured in this edition include:
~ Frosted Bridalveil Fall
~ Fresh snow at Tenaya Creek and Mirror Lake
~ Road in the valley at Yosemite
~ Cathedral Lake and Peak, Yosemite Wilderness
~ El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Fall, from Discovery View
~ Morning light awakens the meadow grasses and peeks through the oak trees
~ Vernal Fall on the Merced River
~ El Capitan and the Merced River
~ Giant granite boulders
~ Autumn oaks alongside Tenaya Creek
~ Half Dome reflection at Yosemite National Park
~ Deer in the meadow and Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park

Published by Tide-mark Press © 2023