A Measurement Decides a Trail’s FateFifty inches. That’s the width of a bath towel laid out flat, or two dining chairs pushed together. It’s also the number a lawyer, not an engineer, chose twenty-five years ago to decide which off-road routes across 44 million acres of national forest are legally protected from repair and which ones aren’t. Twenty-five years.
Mono Lake covers 65 square miles in California’s eastern Sierra Nevada. It’s more than a million years old, has no outlet, and holds no fish. It does hold trillions of brine shrimp, calcium-carbonate towers rising straight out of the water, and enough migratory birds each year to rank among the most important stopovers in the West.
About five miles east of the town of McCloud, a side road turns off Highway 89 at the sign for Fowler’s Campground. Over the next mile and a half, that road passes all three falls – Lower, Middle, and Upper – each with its own parking lot a short walk to the water.
This is the McCloud River, cutting through the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on its way down from Mount Shasta’s southern flank. Lower, Middle, and Upper Falls sit close enough together that you can walk the whole stretch on one trail or drive to each one separately – from parking lot to parking lot.
The U.S. Forest Service just opened a rulemaking process that could reshape how motorized vehicles are allowed to move through national forests and grasslands nationwide.Not a proposed rule yet. Just the opening bell – and the window to speak up is now, before that proposal gets written.
The California State Parks Foundation opens its 2026 Photo Contest today, August 24. Entries are free. Open to everyone. Submissions close September 21, 2026.
You can submit up to three photos in each of five categories. Every photo has to be taken in a California state park. That’s the rule that actually matters – the rest is just categories.
