Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "state parks"

Watercolors Hiking in historic Locke and Delta Meadows State Park

2011-09-13T10:47:13Z

A Watercolors and Hiking event will be held in Locke, Calif. on Thursday, September 15, 2011 starting at 10:00 a.m. The hike will be led by Martha Esch. Bring the kids and the grandparents; everyone is welcome! Well-behaved dogs on leashes, okay. This is a mostly level 1.5 mile hike apart from one 20 foot long, somewhat steep, narrow path up a levee hill and some optional off-path routes along the way that are prickly and narrow.

Locke artist and art teacher, Martha Esch, will demonstrate easy techniques to painting a quick, lovely, loose watercolor postcard of scenic spots along the hike. Next, participants will begin using watercolor kits, blank postcards and brushes that will be passed out to all who'd like to paint their own scenes. (There will be a $5 art supply fee.)

Pack your own brown bag lunch, your own beverage and maybe some small snacks to share with others. The group will gather in front of Al the Wop's famous bar and steakhouse, located in the middle of Main Street in Locke, Calif.

If you arrive late, just follow the wooden walkway next to Al's to the back of Locke and the walking path past the community gardens, up the levee to the Meadows State Park to catch up. At the top of that levee, the first of two postcard watercolor paintings will take place overlooking the beautiful lagoon called Railroad Slough.

After 15 minutes, the group will stop painting and hike about 1/2 mile to a scenic overlook along Snodgrass Slough where they'll pause to paint their second15-minute postcards.

Lunch will take place at the Snodgrass Slough as well before the hike back to town where the 90 to 120 minute tour winds up back on Main Street.

Everyone in the hiking group will be welcome to sneak a peek at Esch’s paintings, some in progress, at "The Shack," her art and music studio located at the top end of Main Street at Levee Road.

The Delta Meadows State Park is a beautiful, secret gem and the town of Locke is a fun, historic place that you'll want to soon return to with your out-of-state guests. Visitors are free to visit antique and gift shops, museums and the town’s two restaurants, Al the Wops and the Locke Garden Chinese Restaurant.

Visitors should be sure to shop at Lisa Kirk's fun store called Strange Cargo, located next to Al the Wop's. If you have some muscle strain after your hike and want some acupuncture, Diane Thomas is the one to visit at Locke Chinese Medicine a few doors north of Lisa's shop.

Call Martha Esch at (916) 776-1000 with questions. Hope you can join!

To get to the meeting place in Locke from I-5, take the Twin Cities Road exit west toward the tall radio towers. When you hit the road along the Sacramento River, turn left (south) and go one mile to Locke and turn left into the tiny town. When you enter Locke, park in the free parking lot, straight ahead, next to the public restrooms. Entry codes are: Men 3535/ Women 3434.. Gather in front of famous Al the Wop's, located at 13943 Main Street, Locke CA 95690.

Disclosure: Aricle author, Martha Esch teaches private, small and large group art classes in watercolors, oils, and acrylic painting as well as clay classes to all skill levels and ages. For more, visit her blog at www.marthaesch.blogspot.com

Unique Holiday Gifts Waiting to be Discovered at Local Museums!

2010-11-29T16:22:38Z

When searching for holiday gifts, local shoppers often think of malls and neighborhood retailers. However, hidden treasures and unique items are available at various museums and historic parks throughout the Sacramento area as well. Outlined below is a gift guide sampling of some of the unique, quality items waiting to be discovered at a few favorite historic destinations around town.

California State Railroad Museum

California Poppy Necklaces & Earrings -- Made exclusively for the Railroad Museum Store, fashion necklaces and earrings are available that showcase an elegant floral design taken from the Santa Fe Railway's "California Poppy" china pattern. This china pattern was used for decades on many Santa Fe passenger trains traveling to and from California. The necklace comes with a 30" chain that can be shortened. The earring wires are hypo-allergenic.
Polar Express Merchandise -- Of course, the Museum Store sells difficult-to-find and crowd-pleasing Polar Express merchandise, all officially licensed. Gift items include water globes, picture frames, throw blankets, mugs and holiday ornaments.
Gift Memberships -- The gift of membership to the California State Railroad Museum makes a wonderful gift with many benefits such as free entrance into the museum, free excursion train rides, special discounts, invitations to members-only events and much, much more!

Huntington & Hopkins Hardward Store (located next to Railroad Museum)

Wooden Toys & Puzzles -- Reminiscent of an earlier time, wooden puzzles and time-tested toys spur imagination and hands-on creativity for kids of all ages.
Local History Books -- Wonderful and thought-provoking books are available about Sacramento's role in the Gold Rush and the Pony Express.

Governor’s Mansion State Historic Park

California or State Parks Branded Merchandise -- Perfect for California lovers, the Governor’s Mansion SHP store has California branded merchandise such as mini flags, California bear mugs, t-shirts, books, pins and more. Plus, a variety of State Parks branded merchandise is available, too.
Period Popular Jewelry -- Affordable yet tasteful costume jewelry (that represents the period of interpretation 1903-1967) is available in the Mansion store and includes necklaces, bracelets, brooches, pins and earrings. Great conversation pieces!

Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park

Books About 19th Century Life -- Appropriate for the restored Mansion, two popular books are available at the on-site store, titled "Essential Handbook of Victorian Entertaining" and "Essential Handbook of Victorian Etiquette.” Both books provide guidance for properly conducting oneself in an era where social norms differed materially from those we are familiar with today.

State Indian Museum

Native American Artwork -- Unique and original artwork made by talented Native American artisans from all over California is available in the Museum Store.
Soapstone Kits -- Wonderful for children with active imaginations who love to explore and enjoy hands-on activities, soapstone carving kits are available in a variety of figurines such as a bear, wolf, sun disk or dolphin.

Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park

Corn Husk Doll Angels -- Traditional corn husk dolls bring the magic of Christmas as charming angel ornaments. Available handmade by the artisans at Sutter's Fort or as “do-it-yourself” kits.
Hand-Dipped Beeswax Candles & Pine Cones -- Made on-site, Sutter’s Fort SHP has its very own line of beeswax candles and pine cones that range in shapes, sizes, scents and prices. Beeswax candles lit the night during the cold winter of 1846. Now everyone can enjoy the beauty and scent of hand-dipped candles.

The items listed above are merely a sampling of holiday gift items available now at the various museums and historic parks. No admission fee is necessary to browse through the various on-site stores. More information and hours for the various sites is available online at www.parks.ca.gov/CapitalDistrict.

Interview: Ian Shive, Conservation Photographer

2009-11-05T05:56:04Z

Photos: 1) Ian Shive at work; 2) Sequoia National Park; 3) Yellowstone National Park

Interview by Tony Sheppard
Originally published in Capitol Weekly

Ian Shive, the photographer behind the new pictorial book "The National Parks: Our American Landscape" recently spent a day in Sacramento, visiting a management class in the Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration program at Sac State. I asked him a few questions about his work and the value of parks in our lives:

Photography as a living is new to you – before it was more like a cell phone plan: Unlimited nights and weekends.

Very true [laughs].

What were you doing before and how did you get into this?

I was working as a publicist for Columbia Pictures, marketing mainstream films. I worked on at least 60 films for them. I worked on the “Spiderman” franchise. We broke some new ground. It was a time when grassroots marketing really became a critical part of that type of film. Photography for me was kind of a passion but never to the point where it is today. It was something that I enjoyed, it was something that gave me a creative outlet in an environment that was creative marketing, but not the same as creating something from scratch. As I entered into the world and made my photographs visible for people in the professional community I got a lot of response and that encouraged me to then do more of that and get more of a response and see how far I could take it.

In the world of photography, which could take you anywhere, why the National Parks?

They were the obvious place to go when I was a corporate, drone. I was looking for a much better word. They’re the obvious place to go because you know you don’t have the time to explore the entire coast of California and sure it’s beautiful but you have to go down to every beach and I had Saturday and Sunday. So the obvious choices were to go to Sequoia and to Yosemite, the places where you knew you could go into and you would at least have some great options in a very short period of time.

The other thing I have to say is that National Parks are crown jewels of what we have in wilderness. They are the best, they are the true icons of American culture. Also knowing that they’re so vast that the roads only cover a small part of it that there would still be room for exploration as well, that there would be a theme I could develop on.

You’ve described the National Parks essentially as islands of conservation in, presumably, oceans of disregard. What do you mean by that and how do we change our mindset?

Well, we have borders. National Parks have borders. They end, they have communities that build up around them, they have laws that only protect things up to that line. A good example is the Channel Islands in California. The marine sanctuary itself is just this little square and if you go on the edge of that square you can fish. What you see is boatloads on the edge fishing, right where the line ends.

Wildlife doesn’t understand what that means. How do you manage that, how do you effectively manage something when it’s the size of a tennis court? And that’s a sanctuary? For what?

And that’s always been a confusing thing to me and so I try and push an agenda that you can’t fence certain things in and they don’t work well if you do. I think a lot of biology and a lot of studies have proven that effective environment management has come in corridors.

You’ve called yourself a conservation photographer, rather than a nature photographer – how do you make that distinction?

Very simple. I feel the nature photographer does exactly what I do in the sense of photographing a beautiful landscape or wildlife or something like that. A conservation photographer takes those images and becomes an advocate for whatever they’re photographing. It’s advocacy that makes the difference – not just shooting something but working to protect it. The longer you spend in a place like Yosemite or anywhere wilderness…you realize that you’ve been borrowing from it: Maybe it’s solitude, maybe it’s a portfolio of images, maybe it’s “Grizzly Automotive” – you’re always borrowing from it but you’re never giving back.

When I was photographing in Henry Coe and a lot of other [California] State Parks, I had no idea that this issue would be happening – underfunding or cutting or closing them completely.

So what do you tell Californians now, who are watching this portfolio of extraordinary places at risk of neglect and underfunding?

We’ve got to fight it. We’ve got to find a way to fund it, find a way to fight it, and find a way to preserve it. I think the State parks are no less important than our National Parks. They’re not just about environment, they’re about culture, they affect people. The National Parks contribute $10 billion a year to their local economies. I believe State Parks have a major contribution in a similar way. I think the public needs to become stewards of these places and make sure they’re run properly. If we all contribute as a community because they’re for the community, then I think we’ll actually find some solutions that work and we can continue having these places.

California state park closures, Sutter's Fort, Governors Mansion could be in trouble.

2009-06-01T05:04:24Z

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting state park spending by $70 million and that would require state parks that do not cover there own costs to be closed.

220 of 279 state parks would be closed if this proposal was put into place including Sutter’s Fort, the State Capitol Museum, the Leland Stanford Mansion, the California Indian Museum & Cultural Center, Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park and the Governor’s Mansion.