Tin House Trek

Last week I hiked up to the Tin House in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. It was a bit of a slog for the Venerable Pinniped...6.4 miles round trip wth about 2000 feet of elevation gain...and loss. Major huff puff on the way up, and loudly barking dogs coming down. My flippers were dragging! I've made this trek several times before; this was one of the nicest days I've enjoyed, about 60 degrees and sunny. It was worth the slog...here's the view from the meadow in front of the house. The Tin House has a fine concrete deck where you can sloat out at the end of the climb and have a bit of a picnic.

Most of the hike on the Tan Bark Trail goes through a beautiful redwood forest. Here are a couple flower shots from the forest floor.

Diggers

I went to Pinnacles a while ago to check out the spring flowers. They were pretty, but not knock-off-your-socks pretty; I think it was just a bit early. But it's always nice to visit Pinnacles. The park has a lot of digger pines. This is probably the hardiest common pine in California in terms of surviving heat and drought. The diggers grow in the foothills all around the perimeter of the Central Valley, and also in the far northern part of the valley itself around Redding. They are also common in the drier coastal ranges, including the Diablo Range around Pinnacles. The climate in their range features plenty of rain in an average winter, but long, hot, dry summers. The trees are tall and gnarled; each one is different. I enjoyed this silhouette of a digger against a lichen speckled cliff.

Up close, the diggers' needles make a graceful scene. The trees have massive cones.

Here's a nice batch of Indian paintbrush by the trail.

Diablo Range Blooms

On the way back from the desert, I drove state route 198 from Coalinga to the Salinas valley. On March 29, the flowers were spectacular here also. Here are some magenta poppies....just two here in a macro pic...

And a whole field of them. These are about 10-15 miles west of Coalinga.

In the same area there were white lupines...

And lots of blue ones. This pic was taken farther west than the others, toward the Salinas Valley.

Mojave Yucca

At lower elevations of Joshua Tree NP, there is none of the namesake vegetation but there are a lot of examples of the JT's close relative, the Mojave Yucca (joshua trees are actually also yuccas). Both species of yucca bring forth a luxuriant batch of white flowers in spring...these are from the Mojave Yucca.