Travel lightly, exploring the world of nature through words, images and knowledge.
About Lora Hein
Lora Hein was born in Oregon to parents who met in a college club called the Naturalists and instilled in her a love of nature, art, music, and reading.
Lora is currently working on a memoir, “Just Me and the Bears.” When she was 19 years old, between stints in college, she fled Oakland, CA for the Sierra where she spent a year and five summers working, hiking and backpacking in Yosemite National Park. Exploring wilderness alone gave her strength and trust in her own capabilities from close encounters with the wildlife of Yosemite. There she discovered what she longed to bring to the world.
After her true education from direct interaction with nature and earning a degree in Environmental Studies from Sonoma State University, Lora pursued a variety of ways to earn a living while being close to nature, including being a seasonal park ranger and fire lookout in the North Cascades, air pollution control technician and inspector, teaching for Upward Bound and Concrete School District, and designing and building passive solar houses in Washington State.
Her previous work in progress (“Tortoise Moon,” a young naturalist’s discoveries in the Galápagos Islands) was selected as a finalist in the Nonfiction/Memoir category of the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association Literary Contest. An excerpt from it was published in True Stories, vol. 1, The Narrative Project. Her story “The Rose Lady and Honey” won second place in the Write on the Sound non-fiction short story contest in 2022. “Climbing Half Dome,” the story of being part of the first all woman pair to climb a grade lV route on that icon, won a place in the Red Wheelbarrow Writers’ contest, published as an anthology, Spring And All.
Lora now calls Edmonds, Washington, home, where she and her spouse enjoy, appreciate and enhance the arts, natural surroundings, and community with as sustainable a lifestyle as possible.
Lora By The Numbers
U.S. National Parks Visited
Countries Visited
States Visited
Left Behind
An excerpt from Tortoise Moon
True Stories, The Narrative Project Volume 1, published January 2019 contains a chapter in progress from Lora’s memoir, Tortoise Moon, as a stand-alone piece in this anthology.
This adventure within an adventure piece details one of Lora’s experiences in the Galápagos Islands in 1973. Struggling with feeling unaccepted, rejected by the trip leader, Lora and one of her fellow travelers become lost in the highlands of Santa Cruz Island and fear they will be left behind when the fishing boat they are due to depart on leaves the next day. This excerpt
Ask for it at your local bookstore!
Recent Posts
There’s more to who you are than what you do. Getting in touch with nature reveals your true being.
Spring and All Anthology: “Climbing Half Dome”
Getting super excited about my three minutes of potential fame. On Sunday afternoon, June 11, 2023 I will be reading an excerpt from my piece in the anthology, SPRING AND ALL. The event takes place at Village Books in Bellingham. Since I will be driving alone (hint...
Every Little Thing
How can I not be thinking of the Earth with its full gravity tugging on me on the one day of the year chosen to be dedicated as “Earth Day?” As if EVERY day isn’t one Earth needs to be celebrated, revered, honored and cared for with all our gratitude. To...
The Father, The Son and the Holy Inflatables
Once upon a time, after an early supper on Christmas Eve, Dad would announce, “Let’s go look at lights to give Santa time to bring the presents.” At that time three of us loaded into a boat of a station wagon my mother had not yet learned to drive. A few years later...