Depending on what you want to get in the desert, the best California
location I've found is in and around the Granite Mtns abt 70 miles
west of Needles on Hwy 40. Take the Kelbaker Rd. north about 8 miles
to the top of Granite Pass. At the top you'll see a
telecommunications relay tower on your right (to the east of the
road). Just across is an unmaintained dirt road (4WD that doesn't
high-center is recommended). There are many campsights off to the
south of the road against the Granites (if you want a fire, bring
your own wood supply). All maintained as part of the new Kelso
national park system, the campsights are unregulated but accessible
within easy walking distance of either mountain desert habitats with
lots of critter life, or the desert, itself (part of the Mojave
ecosystem) within hiking distance of the campsights off to the north
and west. To the north about 10 miles are the Kelso Dunes, one of the
sites in the desert SW where you can record the dunes singing
assuming conditions are right and you have the right transducers (a
pair of good PZM mics or hydrophones in ziploc bags of water buried
in the sand in order to get the infrasound component at around 10Hz).
Best window to record is between late March and May. There's also a
National Park Service visitor center north of the dunes on the
Kelbaker Rd at Kelso where we've just installed a couple of
soundscapes representing the desert in that area. It is scheduled to
be open sometime in August of this year.
As for forest: that depends on what type. The coastal range of the
Los Padres between Big Sur and Cambria can be lovely - especially the
Ventana Wilderness area. Inland from San Luis Obispo and NE of Santa
Maria on the eastern side of the Los Padres Nat. Forest are a couple
of wilderness areas that can be pretty great depending on season and
weather. One is the La Panza Range within which is the Machesna Mtn
Wilderness area and consists of mixed coniferous, oak and scrub oak
forest. Take food and prepare to camp. The roads are sometimes iffy.
4WD for any off-road recommended and watch for private property
signs. Recordists and folks w/ lots of "funny" equipment are
occasionally subject to suspicion and a certain expression of fear -
especially by some locals - given the Partiot Act and climate outside
of the general weather. Stay alert 'cause it ain't the western
diamondback rattlers you need to be aware of.
Bernie
>Desert and Forest.
>
>>In what type of biome do you want to record, Michael? Desert,
>>riparian, coastal, scrub, forest, etc.?
>>
>>Bernie Krause
>>
>>>I was wondering if anyone could recommend some good recording locales
>>>in southern california.
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>
>>>"Microphones are not ears,
>>>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>>>A listening room is not nature."
>>>Klas Strandberg
>>>Yahoo! Groups Links
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>Wild Sanctuary
>>P. O. Box 536
>>Glen Ellen, CA 95442
>>t. 707-996-6677
>>f. 707-996-0280
>>http://www.wildsanctuary.com
>>
>>
>>"Microphones are not ears,
>>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>>A listening room is not nature."
>>Klas Strandberg
>>Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
--
Wild Sanctuary
P. O. Box 536
Glen Ellen, CA 95442
t. 707-996-6677
f. 707-996-0280
http://www.wildsanctuary.com
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|