Desert Anomalies

I've been in Arizona for the past week, hangin' with some friends, loafing, a little hiking, etc. I've posted Arizona desert pix before, so this time I tried to find some unusual shots. This is certainly one. This is a barrel cactus that appears to be trying to grow an arm...on the lower left. I have never seen barrels grow arms...that's usually the specialty of the saguaro. This is obviously an ambitious barrel cactus that is thinking outside the box.

Here's another anomaly...a saguaro growing a new arm down low on the cactus. Notice that the cactus in back of the arm is partially brown and spineless...this is the old, washed up part of the cactus yet it can still produce new life. The growth to the left of the pic is also unusual, a large, thick arm growing from the bottom of an old cactus. This is a strange saguaro!

Here's a longer range view of the above cactus. One of the intriguing things about the saguaro is that each of them has its own personality and design, but even so this one is downright wierd!

Ewoldsen Loop

On the 17th I did a Big Sur day...breakfast at the River Inn, then a fairly serious hike in Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP. I took the Ewoldsen Loop, a trek through the redwoods, up the hills, and through canyons with gurgling streams. It's a beautiful and peaceful trek, and a good workout to say the least...about 6 miles with about 1600 feet elevation gain...and loss. The old sloat made it OK, stopping many times to admire the scenery rest his flippers, and catch his breath. This is McWay creek midway up the hike...a very pretty spot with a nice log bench for a break.

After hiking up three canyons, each with a fine stream, you finally (huff puff) get to the top, and emerge from the forest onto a mountainside about 1800 feet above the sea. As you can see, on this particular day there was a lot of fog over the ocean, but the marine layer was very shallow and at the spot where the picture was taken, I was above the inversion and the temperature was well up in the 70s. I spent an hour just sloating on the hill and enjoying the scene.

Eventually most of the fog cleared, and I could look a third of a mile almost straight down to the azure sea. Serious hike, but a nice reward at the top.

Toro Trek

A couple days ago Brooke and I went hiking in Toro Park, a county park about 10 miles inland. Grazing is still allowed in parts of the park, so we had a chance to interact with the resident livestock. This group was hanging out on a hillside, with a few yearlings. It appeared the cow in the foreground was like the boss bovine, as she was stationed closest to the trail and kept an eye on us most of the time. But everyone was mellow, as is usually the case with cows. I think that's why they're so popular with us fast paced, overscheduled, stressed humans. None of those descriptions apply to cows.

There are a lot of massive, gnarly oak trees in the park, perfect for climbing. The Brookester promptly hopped into the branches and began clambering about.

Skies were gray, but no rain. Such conditions are good for abstract scenes...a branch, some moss, the sky.

Spring arrives!

The cherry trees are blooming at my condo complex. They're actually several weeks late...they're usually in full bloom by mid January and I've seen plenty of blossoms as early as Christmas. But this year we've had a combination of low rainfall and hard freeze...the temperature dropped as low as 26 degrees in January, our coldest weather in eight years...and the trees have been slow to get their act together. But now they're rounding into form, and if you blow up these pictures it's plain there are many more buds ready to bloom. With a warm weekend forecast, the blossoms should really be pretty next week.

Point Lobos

Wil and I went hiking at Pt Lobos a few days ago. It struck me that having had a digital camera for about nine months without taking it here was a gross oversight! Pt Lobos is called "The crown jewel of the California state park system" and this is not a misnomer. The park features diverse vegetation, sculpted into many different shapes by the coastal wind. There are many birds, otters, deer, and sloats; a wide variety of marine and land wildlife. It's a tranquil place where the roar of the sea is omnipresent. Moss hangs on the trees; flowers bloom year round.

Point Lobos is not really spectacular, but has a delicate, proportional beauty with equal parts sea, landscape, and sky blending together perfectly. I always compare its beauty to that of a Chinese silk screen painting, where nothing is overstated but everything is in harmony.

Some of the cypress trees here are especially picturesque. They cling tenaciously to cliffs, with ultragnarly roots and design. It's no wonder artists come here in force. The day we were here, as you can see, was gray and cool , and it wasn't crowded at all. But Pt Lobos is beautiful in all weather. It has a Mediterranean feel on a bright sunny day when the light is superb. On an overcast afternoon it's brooding, but tranquil. I have never been here on a really stormy day...have to do that...but I imagine it's harsh, but elemental and majestic.