Join us on another adventure as we explore the Sierra Nevada mountains of California! We are excited to introduce Episode 2 in the Ad-Venturos series. We hope you will be inspired to get outside and make discoveries in God's incredible Creation. © 2025 by Anchor & Fish Ministries. All rights reserved.

Want to Watch a Desert Hairy Scorpion in Action? ©2025 by Joshua Venturo The Mecca Hills of Southern California are dry, dusty, and hot. Each day, the sun beats down, parching the ground until only a few shrubs can survive. Down in the wetter washes and canyons, there are catclaw and paloverde trees. Higher, on the rocky slopes and ridges, there are creosote bushes and spiky ocotillos scattered here and there. Once in a while, there is a branchy cholla cactus bristling with s

It is a nice but anxious dinner. The slightest sounds cause us to turn our heads in nervous anticipation. We sit outside in our gazebo, enjoying the cool night air and the Christmas lights that we’ve hung around the ceiling. Suddenly, a louder sound throws us into confusion. I whip my head around, peering into the darkness and seeing a row of lights on top of what appears to be a tall vehicle. “Dad . . . I think that’s it!” Dad vaults from his chair and tears open the zipper

“Will they be ready for The Wall?” - TV announcer When I was growing up, we did not watch sports on TV. At least not typical sports. We watched bike races. While other families I knew got together to watch the World Series or the Super Bowl, we gathered in the living room watching the Tour de France. We knew people who would drive to the city to spend, it seemed, a fortune to eat a hot dog and sit in a gigantic stadium for the big game. We drove to a small, grassy parking lot

Yellow eyes shone out of the black forest, just outside the half-circle of white light our headlamps made. One winked out, then they both disappeared. Moments later, the eyes shown again, this time a few feet to the left. We summited this small Nevada mountain on a nice afternoon hike We had to do something . It was winter in the northern Nevada hills. The days had been getting shorter, and we were out later than we expected. The eyes, and whatever creature they belonged to,

Have you ever stepped into another world? I’m sure most of us have entered another world at one time or another in our imaginations during our childhoods. But there are times even as we grow older, if only we are willing to step out of our own busy worlds for a moment and look closely, when we find ourselves in another world. This past month, our family had just such an experience on the Oregon coast. The Oregon coast is made up of rocky shores, crashing waves, and tangled bu

This year we were blessed to spend several weeks on the Oregon Coast, and we are excited to publish our first video in what we are calling the "Ad-Venturos" series! Join us in a hilarious--and sometimes death-defying--adventure among the rocks and tide pools of the southern Oregon coastline! We hope you will be entertained and challenged to explore God's incredible world.

He knew we were in the water. On the four different occasions that Kelly and I came to swim in the sheltered cove on the coast of Oregon, we saw this same seal. He was watching us carefully. He would poke his head out of the water to peek at us, and when a wave came he would stretch his neck so that he could still see over the crest of the wave. Back and forth he went, popping up on one side of us and then the other. Maybe he was curious? Or maybe he was irritated that we wer

©2025 by Daniel Venturo It was a nice evening on the Oregon coast, and we had decided to take a tide pooling excursion before cleaning up and having dinner. We climbed through the rocks and started finding things—mammoth green anemones, orange and purple starfish, and spiny sea urchins. We called each other over to see tubeworms , new kinds of starfish, or strange gelatinous blobs. Then, as we peered under a large boulder, we saw a lemon! As we gathered around to examine the

“It will let up any minute now!” – a statement we now view as more of a joke Bivouac. Or bivy, for short. Because few of us can actually pronounce “bivouac” properly. Either way, it is just a fancy word for waiting. And yet, it is more than waiting. It is waiting on steroids. Take normal waiting, say, before a doctor’s appointment or standing in line at the DMV, and add wind, rain, mosquitos, hail, or snow. Or all of the above. Lower the temperature to a level that you can ba

What is it this time?” When we arrive at a new campsite, we never know what surprises await us. After over three-and-a-half years of traveling, we still have not encountered all the surprises one might consider. A few weeks ago, the surprise was a major invasion of caddisflies. They were everywhere. Apparently they had just emerged from the nearby Snake River in their adult form, and now they were coating the outside walls of our trailer and doing everything they could to get

Have you ever taken the time to notice the treasures under your feet? Whether you’re walking on the beach, along a trail, or in a gravel parking lot, there are interesting and sometimes spectacular rocks you can find—if you’re looking for them. The sun smiled down on the glassy surface of a lake high in the mountains. Jagged spires ringed the sapphire pool, reflecting their massive outlines into its dark depths. At odd intervals, a chunk of rock came loose on one of the pinna

It is inevitable. The slog, that is. We can’t avoid it. It is part of every hike, every backpacking trip, every climb, and even every paddle. If we want to go on expeditions – if we want to experience all of the summits and sunsets – we must endure the slog. One of our most memorable slogs happened months ago, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We wanted to complete the Presidential Traverse, which is a challenging twenty-some-mile hike that climbs up and down thirteen

The hot spring in this area was part of Sawtooth National Recreation Area, outside of these beautiful Sawtooth mountains. As usual, we...

By now we are certain that things will be uncertain. By now we know that something will happen to turn our special day into a harrowing scramble for survival. By now we just go ahead and call it the “date of uncertainty.” Because somehow, the combination of Joe and I going out together is a recipe for some kind of disaster. Every Mother’s Day and birthday since Joe learned to drive, his gift to me has been a day out for just the two of us. His intentions are simple: Buy a sna

This year, it seems like we have found ourselves in slippery situations more often than we’d like. The reason for this boils down to a...

“Wait! Sorry guys – here’s another one!” “Okay, I’m coming – oh! Another! And another!” The boys stood patiently as our short afternoon hike was again interrupted. By Kelly and me. We just couldn’t help it. It started with a small patch of mountain bluebells. We were all trekking along at a brisk pace, the way we like to hike, when I stopped dead in my tracks. The flowers, some of them so blue they seemed to glow, were too stunning to pass by. But when I got out my camera to

It was our third backpacking trip in the Wind River Mountains. When we started out from the trailhead, with breakfast in our stomachs and...

“Just make sure you are having fun . . . you are having fun, right?” - man to us when we were NOT having fun   Mount Sneffels. Sounds like a wimpy, pathetic mountain with a runny nose. But with its spiny, jagged ridges, steep couloirs, and an altitude of 14,155 feet, this mountain is no wimp. In fact, it is more of a bully. We should know. We have been on it three times. The first time, two years ago, we knew nothing. We set out with our brand new snowshoes and slogged our wa

It was some of the roughest terrain we have ever encountered. Nothing could have prepared us for it. As we hoisted our heavy backpacks...