Table of contents for May/June 2019 in Sunset

MY FAVORITE CAMPSITE isn’t easy to get to, and it’s even harder to book. Each year, only around 3,000 in-season permits to the Enchantments are released, guaranteeing lottery winners nearly solitary access to a massive and glorious swath of glaciated rock and forest. The rugged range, 115 miles east of Seattle, is strewn with alpine lakes and defended by curious mountain goats. “We got here first,” they seem to say. And they’re right. For years, access to this alpine Valhalla had evaded me. But one day my buddy Ryan texted, offering salvation: “My friend’s got extra spots on his permit. Let’s do this.” Weeks later, there we were, blasting past the Bavarian throwback town of Leavenworth, packs pregnant with gear, frothing to reach the trailhead. The hike into our first…

1. This hand-forged planting trowel from Montana-based Fisher Blacksmithing truly is one of a kind. Each trowel is hammered and assembled by craftsman Tuli Fisher. Even the black walnut handle is hand-turned. $58; fisherblacksmithing.com. 2. The Artifact No. 325 Artisan Apron has everything a gardener could wish for—water-resistant waxed canvas construction, tool and pen pockets, and a lifetime guarantee. From $98; artifactbags.com. 3. The Haws Professional Watering Can is as functional as it is stylish. Built from galvanized steel with a powder-coated finish, this long-spouted watering tool is able to reach deep into planting beds and container gardens. Two sturdy handles make for easy maneuverability. $168; shopterrain.com. 4. A good garden boot can be hard to come by, but the Lacrosse Grange boot for women checks all the boxes: waterproof,…

“Alfredo,” a tall, centuries-old cactus, stood watch over the shaman performing his blessings and cleansings amid the sound of yelping sea lions in the distance. I was out of my natural habitat, but I felt strangely at home in this wild and beautiful landscape along Mexico’s Baja California Sur coast. If you had told me two decades ago that I’d be hanging out with a shaman on the beach, I would have said you were nuts. But at age 50, I was feeling burned out and a bit lost in my career. I was searching for a new purpose and, more importantly, a sense of freedom. This region’s untamed nature and laid-back pace turned out to be what I needed to help me find my way. Over the years, I’d…

Peggy’s Cove; Caravan welcomes you to the Canadian Maritimes, a land blessed with stunning natural beauty and a relaxed way of life. Call now for choice dates: 1-800-CARAVAN, Caravan.com. See Canada’s Atlantic Coast - slow and easy - on a fully guided tour with Caravan. Visit Nova Scotia, PEI, cruise on Bras d’Or lake, and more! Caravan is the #1 in value. These quality tours feature great hotels, complete sightseeing, professional Tour Directors, and fascinating itineraries, operated by one of the country’s oldest and most respected guided tour companies. Tax and fees extra. Discover why smart shoppers and experienced travelers have chosen Caravan since 1952. Caravan handles all the details while you and your family enjoy a well-earned, worry-free vacation. Happy Travels! Cabot Trail; Louisbourg Lighthouse; Enjoy the stunning mountain…

PERFECT DAY Come spring, when the snowcapped peaks of the Tetons start to melt, Jackson Hole sheds its skidestination image and turns into a familyfriendly outdoor playground. Named for fur trapper Davey Jackson, this mountain town hasn’t lost its western spirit. Elk-antler arches grace each corner of the Town Square, and cowboys still rope steer on the rodeo grounds. But this doesn’t mean the town is stuck in the past. Big-city-worthy restaurants, cocktails, shops, and hotels make Jackson one of the most amenity-rich bases for exploring nearby Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Photo ops are plentiful in the quieter months of May and June, when wildflowers start to carpet the valley floor and bison calves roam the parks. 8 A.M. Fuel up for a day of adventure at Picnic…

HOME TOUR KNOW YOUR ROOTS “I’ve always had a fascination with color,” says Eva. “My mom is an artist and dabbled in interior design when I was growing up in California. Our home was always beautiful and full of color.” The dining room channels the uncomplicated charm of old European farmhouses, where nothing is too perfect. “There’s a big table in the middle of the room, the cabinets and furniture are a little mismatched, and there’s a hodgepodge of dishes and things.” The wood-and-rattan dining chairs are vintage. The tablecloth is custom made from an ethnic textile, which Meta purchased in France. Classic Books and Modern Art poster, $65; shopbookshop.com. FOR AS LONG AS EVA JORGENSEN can remember, her mother regaled her with childhood stories from France. In 1969, Eva’s…

1. Take it slow. “Nature doesn’t reveal itself at 65 miles per hour. Walking is important, stopping even more so. Backpack at an ambling rate. Stop by the creek and study the birds. Break out the journal and the binoculars often.” 2. Broaden your view. “My books explain how larger, living forces work together and coalesce to form nature’s bigger drama. Widen the lens, investigate larger trends in the ecology around you. If you want to learn natural history, for example, start with a family of plants or birds; don’t start with an individual species.” 3. Read a book. “Books are trails that uncover the nature of thought itself. Some of the best nature writers in history are alive today: David Rains Wallace, Gretel Ehrlich, Terry Tempest Williams I hang…

BYO GRILL California is full of campsites with fire rings, but some sites lack a showstopper view of the sunset. Bring a small charcoal grill to expand your options. Just make sure you’re respecting local regulations. We are fond of this smokesequestering rig from Biolite. $199; bioliteenergy.com. GALVANIZE IT At the end of the night you’ll always have some embers burning down. Pack a small galvanizedsteel trash can with a lid and a foldable camp shovel. Load the can with embers before you climb into your sleeping bag. COOK WITH THE SUN Cook at sunrise to free up your day for hiking or surfing, and start prepping dinner two hours before sunset. Sure, you could cook with headlamps, but wouldn’t you rather be eating at magic hour? PORTION OUT YOUR…

BACKYARD CHICKENS Thanks to the latest desire for local produce, people are taking the leap from growing vegetables to raising animals. Chickens, it turns out, are lower maintenance than a dog and just as affectionate. And your pooch probably can’t help you make breakfast. Once relegated to the farm, chicken coops are now popping up in backyards. Franchesca Duval, owner of Alchemist Farm, near Sebastopol, California, sells her chickens and their eggs to locals. Below, she shares her tips on how to bring the barnyard into your backyard. Three reasons chickens should be your next pet 1 THEY’RE INEXPENSIVE. The average feed—I use leftover kitchen scraps or organic feed from Amazon—costs less than a dollar per day per chicken. There could be a small lump sum up front if you’re…

WHERE TO EAT Hierbabuena Restaurante Just-picked ingredients from the surrounding organic gardens dictate the lunch and dinner menus at this Pescadero restaurant. hierbabuenarestaurante.com El Refugio Mezcaleria This new cash-only spot in Todos Santos features 3 to 4 dishes a night inspired by the flavors of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Pueblo. elrefugiobaja.com Jazamango Expect dishes like wood-grilled Baja oysters paired with mezcal drinks at star Mexican chef Javier Plascencia’s Baja Med spot in Todos Santos. jazamango.com WHERE TO STAY Hotel San Cristóbal Texas hotelier Liz Lambert translated her signature brand of cool into this 32-room beachfront property in Todos Santos. Standout touches include colorful, 1970sstyle ceramic tiles and a great vinyl collection. From $395; sancristobalbaja.com Acre Baja This farm-totable restaurant and mezcal distillery recently added 12 palapa-style treehouses to its 25-acre compound…

HANGING IN THE BALANCE Grand Staircase-Escalante Utah National monuments can stir controversy—as they did in late 2017, when the Trump administration announced it would dramatically shrink two monuments in southern Utah. Established in 1996, Grand Staircase-Escalante N.M. lost 800,000 acres, a reduction of 46 percent. Established in 2017, Bear’s Ear N.M. lost 85 percent of its original acreage. Without monument status, the acreage is open to coal mining and oil and natural-gas exploration. Environmental groups (including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the National Parks Conservation Association) and southwest Native American tribes (among them the Navajo, Hopi, and Ute tribes) are suing to reverse the decision. For now, it stands. The controversy has drawn more visitors to Grand Staircase-Escalante, whose appeal you’ll understand at your first glimpse of its sunset-orange…

Your pantry may be stocked with locally sourced, farmfresh ingredients, but what about the products in your cleaning closet? Ditch the toxin-filled cleansers and polishes and use seasonal ingredients plucked from the garden to make eco-friendly cleaning supplies. “I like to know what I’m putting in my living spaces,” says Stefani Bittner, owner of San Francisco Bay Area’s Homestead Design Collective and co-author of Harvest: Unexpected Projects Using 47 Extraordinary Garden Plants (Ten Speed Press; $22). “I don’t want to put a layer of chemicals on all the surfaces in my home, and I hate waste.” When Bittner needs cleaning supplies there’s no trip to the store. She just walks to her garden, snips herbs or flowers, and mixes them with a few all-natural ingredients that are stored in reusable…

When summer descends on Louisiana, many locals escape the unfriendly heat and humidity by catching a plane to a cooler climate, or they head to summer camp in a neighboring state. Then there are more adventurous Louisianans, like Neal and Anne Morris and their three kids, Owen, age 12, and 16-year-olds Natalia and Henry. Each summer, the New Orleans family packs their Westfalia camper with swimsuits and flip-flops and drives 48 hours to explore the wilderness of the West. “We reached a point in our lives where we don’t have to be practical.We love being outdoors in the West, so let’s do what we love.”–Neal Morris After more than two decades of road trips (pre- and post-children) to dude ranches in Wyoming, the San Juan Islands off the coast of…

1. KACHEMAK BAY STATE PARK Alaska We love taking a boat or water taxi from Homer 20 minutes to Tutka Bay, at the western end of the Kachemak Bay State Park to camp at the Sea Star Cove cabin. The cabin is nestled on the hill above the beach in mossy trees, with a fire ring and covered porch overlooking Cook Inlet and the rest of Tutka Bay. Gather your own firewood, grill a fresh salmon on the beach, take your morning coffee outside to watch whales, puffins, eagles, sea otters, and salmon jumping straight from the sea.” —Emma Teal Laukitis and Claire Neaton, founders of the-Salmon Sisters, Homer, Alaska 2. GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST British Columbia One of the best things about camping while on a fly fishing drift trip…

SAN FRANCISCO THE WOOD-FIRED EVERYTHING BAGEL by Daily Driver BERKELEY THE FLAVOR-PACKED EVERYTHING BAGEL by Baron Baking LOS ANGELES THE HERBY ZA’ATAR BAGEL by Maury’s SCOTTSDALE THE NUTTY BLACK AND WHITE SESAME BAGEL by New Wave Market PORTLAND THE SUPER-SEEDY POPPY SEED BAGEL by Bernstein’s Bagels SEATTLE THE CHEWY CINNAMON RAISIN BAGEL by Eltana…

“I was grinding up so much Sichuan peppercorn to add that tingly, numbing zip to grilled chicken and fish I had to buy a second pepper grinder.” –Hugh Garvey, food editor “A plate of grilled lamb meatballs with guanciale and pecorino at Prairie in San Francisco inspired me to make my own version at home. The secret to moist, luscious meatballs: warm water. It binds the meat together for that almostas-good-as-nonna’srecipe texture.” –Maya Wong, assistant editor “Lately I’ve been juicing Meyer lemons from our garden and freezing the juice in icecube trays. I’ll add them to whatever summer cocktail I’m drinking for a zesty, unexpected touch.” –Kendra Poppy, audience growth editor…

Journey or Destination? Why Not Both! Nevada’s a road trip waiting to happen. Countless open highways and dirt roads beckon you: Real-deal western culture, epic outdoor playgrounds, 24 state parks, history-packed towns, and endless all-to-yourself scenery. Discover the Nevada you never knew existed. TravelNevada.com/SunsetWest Nature-Inspired Living Spaces Eldorado Stone leverages the timeless textures of the natural world to deliver a fresh, modern look with inherent visual and tactile appeal. Its array of architectural stone and brick veneers artistically balance strength with beauty to infuse environments with depth, dimension and character. EldoradoStone.com Hotel del Coronado From surf camps and private beach bonfires to mermaid fitness and movies on the beach, it’s the best of beach life, Del style. Once the beach captures your attention, The Del will capture your heart. Hoteldel.com…

When trail-runner Morgan Sjogren’s marriage fell apart she packed up her Jeep and sought comfort in the wide-open spaces of the Southwest. Her forthcoming book, Outlandish, out this May from VeloPress ($25), chronicles her two-plus years of life on the road and shares lessons like how to sun-dry tomatoes on your car hood, as well as 25+ recipes ranging from campfire blondies to her go-to burritos. The biggest takeaway: don’t overthink things. “You don’t need the latest, greatest gear, a huge budget, or a perfect plan to be self-sufficient outdoors,” she says.…

GROW TIPS PLANT You can introduce all kinds of trees and shrubs, but be diligent about summer irrigation. Sow seeds of beans, corn, cucumbers, and squash directly in soil when evening temperatures stay around 50°. Keep tender sprouts moist—a hot, dry spell will fry them. Before planting, amend beds with 4 to 6 inches of compost. If you like color and can embrace a little chaos, sow reseeding flowers, including blue honeywort, forget-me-not, golden feverfew, love-in-a-mist, sunflower, and sweet alyssum. These unfussy, drought-tolerant annuals will cheerily pop up for years to come. Many normal-size pumpkins need around 110 to 120 days to mature, so you’ll want to start sowing seeds between late May and the first of July. Varieties such as ‘Cinnamon Girl’ and ‘Winter Luxury’ (available at johnnyseeds.com) are…

You know you’re in the right place when Obi Kaufmann begins to describe the surrounding landscape as “generous.” Spend enough time, and in the right place, with this modern-day John Muir and you’ll start to see the world around you differently, more vividly. For the California native, the Earth, and the animals and plants on it, are indeed generous—if you know where to look, when to look, and how. Today, he’s taken the editors of Sunset on a camping adventure in our own backyard. We’re hanging out in the juniper, sage, and pine trees near the top of Mount Diablo State Park, just 30 miles east of San Francisco. “I cut my teeth as a naturalist in this wholly singular place,” says Kaufmann, who was born in Hollywood but spent…

SMART CAMPERS BUILD AN ITINERARY AROUND EATING AND ADVENTURE, using each site as a home base for forays into the wild. That was chef Kevin O’Connor’s mission during this coastal camp crawl with fellow chef and Australian cookbook author Sarah Glover. O’Connor grew up foraging, fishing, and hunting in the Sierra Foothills, and although he thrived during stints at San Francisco’s Coi and the live-fire cooking restaurant Saison, the avid outdoorsman returned to his roots with his new gig as chef-at-large for olive-oil producer Cobram Estate in Woodland, California. There, O’Connor hosts wood-fired pop-up dinners. Glover, meanwhile, unleashed the Australian cult classic Wild Adventure Cookbook two years ago, cementing a thick vein of culinary interest among the gypsy surfer set. Her fellow Australian Emma Crowther Goodwin joined the crawl for a night…

“My food is definitely marketdriven and minimalist,” says Gabriela Cámara, sounding like any selfrespecting Bay Area chef rightly enamored with the region’s preposterously good farmers’ markets. “But it’s Mexican in that it relies on pronounced acidity and a variety of different chiles.” And with that, the Chihuahua-born restaurateur has tidily outlined a healthy and delicious approach to cooking that we could all benefit from adopting this summer. Five years ago, Cámara moved to San Francisco to open her restaurant, Cala, after the success of her Mexico City restaurant, Contramar, a global destination known for its breezy, languorous lunches centered around pristine seafood. Even if you haven’t dined at Cont r amar, you might know the restaurant’s photogenic two-toned grilled whole snapper—butterflied and slathered with a vivid salsa verde on one…

Don’t let your cocktail shaker hog space in the cupboard in between parties. The stainless steel (or sturdy glass) sides can take a beating under extreme shaking, which means it’s an emulsifying, lattemaking, wine-improving machine. Here are four ideas for using the tool beyond the bar. 1 Make an almond-milk shakerato (basically a frothier iced latte) by combining 1½ teaspoons sugar, a double shot of espresso, ½ cup of Malk Organics cold-pressed almond milk, and ¼ cup of ice cubes and shaking vigorously for 10 seconds. 2 Whip up a week’s worth of salad dressing by combining a 3 to 1 ratio of extra-virgin olive oil and Wild Groves balsamic vinegar. Add ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard and shake until fully emulsified. 3 Quickly make a batch of simple syrup for…

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE BLUE TAPE AND A SHARPIE One thing I learned from my wife is how important it is to be organized when you pack. Her favorite weapons are blue tape and a Sharpie. Arranging everything in stackable plastic bins, then slapping labels on them, makes it easier to find items when you’re setting up your tent with very little daylight left. ADMIRE THE NIGHT SKY My favorite part of camping is sitting outside with my kids after the sun goes down. Feeling the warmth of the fire, watching bats come out and feed, and seeing satellites cross the sky puts me in a good place. Experiment with the long exposure feature on your camera, or check out features like Night Sight on the Pixel 3 camera. KEEP THINGS LIGHT…