Punta de los Ratones Volantes

A classic shot of the Pigeon Point lighthouse on the San Mateo coast. I just liked the light on this

particular day so took a pic. Weather was very benign. This is definitely not always the case...winter winds can easily reach 60 mph and even during the summer winds of half that speed are common.

Moss Beach in the gloaming, aye!

This shot was taken from the deck at the home of my friends Spike and Danny in Moss Beach. Not a shabby view, I reckon. The ocean is constantly fascinating. It's never the same; the light, the surf, the activity of boats and birds, is always different.

I was up at Spike and Danny's for Burns night, a Scottish cultural tradition. A group gathers and sings songs, recites Robert Burns' poetry, samples Scottish food, drinks lots and lots of toasts, and generally enjoys being Scottish for a night, no matter what your other nationality may be. We had two expert musicians to lead us in the songs, one wearing a kilt, and it was all great fun.

Winter in a redwood canyon

Last week Brooke and I hiked up Soberanes Canyon in Garrapata State Park. This is a beautiful spot, with notable contrasts as you move up the canyon. Right at the beginning of the hike you pass through a large field of prickly pear cactus, something straight out of Arizona. There is no clue as to what lies ahead as the canyon is steep and winds sharply through the coastal mountains, but about 20 minutes or so after the cactus, you begin to encounter redwoods, and in no time at all they pervade the scene, cool and stately. At intervals sunrays spike downward through the forest, lending an ethereal effect to the scene.

Soberanes Creek gurgles through the canyon, nourishing the trees. The redwoods are found only in the bottom of the canyon and a little way up the north side; farther from the water you're back in dry chaparral on the steep hillsides.

The ground cover in the forest is varied and beautiful. Fields of clover thrive in the shady spots, as do ferns. This is an area where the rainfall is sufficient to nurture lush vegetation in areas near the water and usually in the shade, but adequate only for scrub vegetation on sunny slopes. Thus you travel from virtual rainforest to semidesert in just a few yards. It's like this along most of the Big Sur coast. Don't know how many areas of the world have such diversity in the vegetation; a few, but not many, I reckon.

Fine day in the Joshua Trees

Joshua Tree NP was spectacular today. Here I'm in Hidden Valley, a magical spot in the park. It's at an elevation of around 4000 feet, and it's almost like a lost world; a valley surrounded by big rocks and virtually isolated from the outside world. It's one of those places that could be a setting for contemporary dinosaurs in a scifi movie. There's a mixture of life zones here. In the middle of the valley, exposed to the sun, are your typical Joshua Trees. But on the sides, next to the rocks, are oak trees and pinyon pines, relics of a cooler era during the ice age, surviving here in shady areas just yards from the Joshuas. In fact, there were patches of snow in such places today, surviving from a storm last weekend.

One thing you quickly notice in the park is that the mountains are simply mounds of rocks. They don't seem to be composed of one big mass of rock, or to have any dirt on them; they're just rockpiles. These are quite funky, actually, and very photogenic. If I recall, the mountains were originally large masses of stone but millennia of freezing and thawing broke them up.

Joshua Tree is one spot I've marked for a Monday-Friday trip. Now that I'm retired, I reckon it will be cool to hit the road on journeys around the region during that time frame, when the crowds are gone; leave Monterey on Monday, drive to an interesting area, explore it Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and go home on Friday. I'm fortunate to live in a place where there are dozens of such spots.

Though I have visited Joshua Tree NP numerous times in the past, it was especially striking today. Photo conditions were excellent. The sky was crystal clear, thanks to a cold wind; the sun was fairly low in the sky on this midwinter afternoon, creating good light; and there were a few clouds dappling the sky for contrast. Even though nothing was in bloom, it was still gorgeous. It was my first time in the park with a digital camera; I took three dozen pictures in a few hours and could have taken hundreds, given the fine light and the myriad of shapes and contours created by the vegetation and the landscape.

Look at this fine Joshua Tree! It's one of the larger ones around, close to thirty feet high and quite massive. Yes, as a dues paying member of the Sierra Club I hugged it, and came a good two feet short from touching my hands together. Like the Saguaro cactus, each Joshua Tree has its own shape and personality.

Cuddly Fuzzy Teddy Bear Cholla

There is a cholla cactus "garden" (that's what the park service calls it) in Joshua Tree NP that has a nature trail running through it. This is no ordinary trail; it's rather narrow in spots, lined with these teddy bear cholla on both sides. If you so much as lightly brush up against one of these cacti, a clump of it comes off with a bunch of spines embedded in your flesh; and they are extremely difficult (once stuck, you will probably say instead...a bitch...) to remove! The Old Sloat has had some personal experience in this matter; he's been visiting here since 1973). But from a distance the teddy bears are quite pretty, especially when backlit by the sun.

Lava in winter

Here I'm hanging out in a field of pahoehoe lava. No, not in Hawaii...in New Mexico! The snow is probably the giveaway though snow falls on the lava at the summit of Mauna Loa. I hiked a little over a mile from cairn to cairn in the lava field. It turns out to be very tricky because you can't always see the best footing in the lava. But I made it OK...took a lot of concentration though.

This lava flow is about 3,000 years old.

Snow stomping

The Lizard had only seen snow a couple of times last fall. Here he is experiencing it firsthand.

He's not crazy about it...he's more into sloating out in the hot sun.

Abstract art...my bootprint in the snow. Being back in the cold and snow is an interesting novelty, but on a permanent basis, you can have it! Today I drove to Show Low Az and it was brutally cold...high of 25, low 2. With a little wind to freshen it up! I'm hightailing it to PHX tomorrow.

Sandia Mountains

Albuquerque is immediately west of the Sandia Mountains, which tower a mile above the city. This weekend the mountains were shrouded in clouds most of the day, but at sundown on Saturday they emerged into some gorgeous light.

A day earlier I was hiking in the foothills in the snow...ABQ received unusually heavy snow just before New Years. This is a pic looking down into the valley...blow up the picture and I think you can see the downtown buildings.

Check out Spike

Hey Spike, check this out! They named a dinosaur after you. Her name is Pentaceratops...she has five horns to make T-Rex's life miserable. She is hanging out at the entrance to the New Mexico museum of Natural History.

More wedding pics

Here's a shot of Wendy and Erik taking their vows. Erik's a gourmet cook so I reckon Wendy gets to do the dishes, though the pastor didn't get into that.

The flower arrangement...per request by

Brooke, Suzanne et al.

Here's a shot of Wendy during the prewedding

photo shoot. It was cold but she's a trooper! If you blow up the pic I think you can see patches of snow in the background.

Wendy and Erik get hitched!

Yesterday I went to Wendy and Erik's wedding in Albuquerque. It was a very nice ceremony with about 25-30 folks there. Their parents and siblings are all cool! As you can see, they are a

very handsome couple! Although the wedding was fairly small, there were people there from

both coasts and places in between.

Here they are cutting the cake. We had a super dinner...probably the best filet mignon I've ever

tasted.

The first dance...they were quite good and it turns out they took lessons last year in

preparation for the event.

Back in the desert

Driving thru the desert between Barstow and Flagstaff, I paused to take a quick peek at the edge of the Mojave National Preserve. It bears more extensive exploration, probably in March or April after a wet winter. Then, it would be full of flowers, augmenting the sand dunes, Joshua trees, cactus, and solitude that you can find any time. There are a few brittlebush in bloom right now, which surprised me, but otherwise the desert is typically barren...but, in January, quite cool.

The Lizard is back in his natural habitat. He loves the desert as I mentioned before. Here he's climbing in a yucca. He'll be back in cactus next week when I return to the Phoenix area.

Moonstone Beach

Yesterday morning I took a walk at Moonstone Beach, right in front of the motel where I stayed in Cambria. The beach features almost black sand (a very dark brown, I reckon), a nice assortment of rocks and driftwood, and on this morning, respectable surf. The results are good photo ops for starkly beautiful pics of dark sand, blue water, waves, and funky rocks or pieces of driftwood.

nice

Balmy winter day in the redwoods

I'm on the road, headed for Albuquerque. I was going to leave tomorrow and drive to Barstow, but it was apparent several days ago that today would be absolutely gorgeous, so I had to depart a day early and cruise the Big Sur coast with the top down. It was a fabulous day, about 70 degrees, brilliant sun sparkling on the ocean. Big surf too. I stopped at Limekiln State Park...had driven by a hundred times without exploring it. Its a diverse spot, with fine redwood forests, old brick and steel limekilns built in the 1880s, and a beach. This pic is of Limekiln Creek, which runs through the redwoods and was babbling cheerfully today.

One of the park's trails leads up a branch of the creek to a surprisingly substantial waterfall. This one is about 100 feet high. It was pretty today, in a period of little rain...it must be really spectacular when the Big Sur rain machine cranks up into full gear!

Sloats Galore!!

Naturally I had to visit my cousins the Elephant Sloats at Point Piedras Blancas. When I was here five weeks ago, there were just a few sloats on the beach. Now, there are hundreds, maybe over a thousand! If there are not that many yet there may soon be, as the females are giving birth. January is pupping month. If you look closely at the blowup of this picture you can see many pups...they're black in color and have a much higher pitched grunt (or bark) than the adults. Right in the middle of the pic is a bull in posture mode. He's guarding his harem of sheila sloats from wannabe bulls.

Here's a closeup of a sheila sloat with her little nipper. The mama sloats nurse their pups on very rich milk, but life can be perilous for the keikis. The sheilas argue a lot and from what I've heard they will sometimes try to steal each other's pups. The pups can get squashed in such disputes. They can also get squashed big time by the bloke sloats as they lumber around chasing the sheilas. They're literally two ton Tonys...some of the larger bulls weigh that much! In addition, the pups can be washed away by big waves at high tide if such an event occurs before they learn to swim. So it's not always easy being a pup sloat.

End of a fine day

I'm staying in Cambria tonight, across the street from Moonstone Beach. A fine sunset was enhanced by large sets of surf. The air was mild with an offshore flow. Beauty, majesty, and peace.

Sun gone...until tomorrow!

Big Sur in Winter

It's raining today, but yesterday was clear and beautiful, so Brooke and I did a Big Sur day...brekky at the River Inn then a short but interesting hike at Andrew Molera State Park. There is a walkin campground there with a lot of open space where deer like to hang out. I've also seen a bobcat here, but he was keeping a low profile today.

The trail on the north side of the Big Sur River winds up on a headland above the mouth of the river. This is a fine spot where you can look far out to sea, or inland to the Santa Lucia mountains with redwoods tucked in the canyons between the peaks. Birds are abundant, and you can do some people watching; surfers and kayakers catch waves here. There was a kayaker yesterday but he never caught any waves that we could see; he kept capsizing.

In addition to deer, bobcats, birds, and adventurous humans, there is a grove of eucalyptus trees along the trail that is home to a large posse of monarch butterflies. Yesterday was fairly warm, so they were flying around in the trees, adding splashes of color to the scene.

This monarch is probably more prominent if you blow the picture up.

The campground has huge sycamore trees with gnarly trunks and massive leaves. In the local fashion, the trees are confused by the lack of seasons and are still flashing rather nice fall color.

Here's a shot of the Big Sur river in winter, winding quietly thru the countryside on its way to the sea. The river has some nice holes in it which are great for a refreshing dip on a hot day in summer or early fall, but at this time of year other words would be used to describe the swim, all of them emphasizing obnoxious cold! We didn't go in.