Springtime in Pinnacles

I went to Pinnacles National Monument earlier this week. I go almost every spring...normally this is one of the state's best wildflower spots, but we had a dry winter this year so the flowers are just fair to middlin'. Still, it's very pretty and the rock formations are quite dramatic. This is a prime rock climbing spot, too. There are even caves, though not of your ordinary type; boulders breaking off from the mountainsides as a result of erosion have completely filled narrow gorges in a couple places, leaving open spots underneath the rocks; these are the caves.








This looks like a glacial erratic, but it's simply a boulder that broke off from adjacent cliffs and came to a stop in this particular place.








Though it hasn't been the best flower season, there were still some handsome chinese houses along the trail.












Here are some lichens growing on a rock by the trail. Almost, like, psychedelic, man!

Montara mountain

My friend Danny and I hiked a good way up Montara Mountain this morning, near Moss Beach. It was a beautiful clear day and the vistas were spectacular! Here is Montara Beach from partway up the mountain. There are many fine spots along the trail where it would be very nice to sloat out on the grass with wine, cheese, bread, and all the general ingredients for an adult picnic.

There were many fine wildflowers along the route. Here's an Indian Paintbrush...don't believe I've blogged this flower yet.

Later in the day, we ventured down to the fishing fleet at Princeton and bought a couple of live crabs straight off a fishing boat, brought them home, and Spike cooked them up. Delicious! Here's dinner, when the critters were still moving about. Can't get any fresher!

Quicksand!

A bunch of us went hiking on the Yuba River the other day, and while poking around by the water, the Brookester discovered some quicksand! She instantly sank in knee deep...quite impressive. Fortunately, there was a solid rock base at that depth so it was impossible to sink further...I tried it out and even the great weight of the Old Sloat was supported by the rock.

Though California is not famous for covered bridges...there are only nine in the entire state...The longest CB in the US is located here on the Yuba River, near Grass Valley. It's 251 feet long and was built in 1862.

Hangin' on the Farm

Brooke's parents bought a house recently in the foothills between Auburn and Grass Valley. It's situated in lovely oak woodland, with 10 acres of land. They have 13 chickens and 5 llamas! I also sighted wild turkeys, jackrabbits, squirrels, lizards, and abundant small birds on the property. It's peaceful and beautiful, especially at this time of year when the countryside is emerald green. Here are the chooks foraging outside their coop.

The chooks earn their keep...they produce fresh eggs almost every day. The chooks themselves are a variety of colors...black, white, beige, speckled...and so are the eggs. Guido frequently informed the chooks that they needed to keep laying eggs...to avoid being dinner! They did look rather tasty, I admit. Visions of Colonel Sanders...

Here are some of the llamas. They're pretty self sufficient; they graze on the property, and drink from the irrigation canal...which also provides electricity for the home much of the time. Easy living, off the grid!

Most of these flowers began blooming during the three days I was up at the ranch.

At sunset, it's especially peaceful. The drone of the insects complements the soft coo of a mourning dove; I heard a turkey, cows, our chooks. I didn't hear leaf blowers, car alarms, planes in a landing pattern, or any loud sounds for that matter.

Gold!!

History sometimes comes from mundane origins. This little inlet off the American River was the origin of an event that changed world history...the California Gold Rush. This is where James Marshall discovered gold while attempting to improve the flow of water downstream from his sawmill by clearing the channel of silt and debris. In early 1848, he found a little gold here. Word soon got out, things mushroomed, and by the next year thousands of people from all over the world flocked to California with dreams of riches. In 1847 California was a sleepy backwater, disputed between Mexico and the US during the war between those countries; three years later, it was a world famous state of the union, on its way to becoming a focal point of the Pacific Rim. Furthermore, the type of people who would make a long, arduous journey to seek gold on the frontier were of course more adventurous than your average individual, and thus California from the start had a dynamic, risk taking, free thinking, cosmopolitan population. It still does!

Though he was the first to find (or at least become famous for finding) gold in California, Marshall never got rich. He was not a very good businessman, and had a taste for the grog besides. He lived in this cabin on the hill above Coloma, the site of his discovery, for many years afterward.

Compare Marshall's cabin with the abode of a bloke who WAS a good businessman...William Carson. He wasn't into gold...he made his fortune in lumber in the late 19th century and built this mansion in Eureka.

Spring Flowers

It's been a rather dry winter hereabouts...the driest since I moved to Monterey in 1994. Nevertheless, there's been enough rain to bring out the usual crop of fine spring wildflowers. Here's some Lupine in Garland Park.

Shooting stars in Garland.

A nice field of poppies on a hillside near Point Sur.

Don't know what these are called...not in my flower book. At any rate, they were at Andrew Molera SP near Big Sur. A nice blue flower.