Lizards Sloatin' at the Ranch

The lizards found a fine stone sloat to relax upon at my rental house at Sea Ranch. We had five days of fine weather which my reptilian friends appreciated.

May 15 was a rare day, with offshore flow all the way to the beaches. I was going to go hike in the redwoods, but a 78 degree day on the sand next to Point Arena occurs maybe twice a year, and I realized that the proper use of my time on this occasion was to hit the playa and stay there! This is Manchester Beach with the Point Arena lighthouse in the distant background...blow up the pic for a better view. The scene was toasty warm, beautiful, and quiet. Even more so than most Northern and Central CA beaches, this strand is usually foggy, windswept, or both. Not on this day...it was gorgeous!

Did some sloppy photography here...this picture violates the basic rule of thirds, but I thought the contrast between the black sand and the white surf was neat. It reminded me of a typical scene on the Big Island of Hawaii...as long as I didn't dip my toes in the ocean, which was frigid as usual.

Back at the Ranch

I spent last week at a fine house at the Sea Ranch, one of my favorite places. The mix of comfort, luxury, beauty, and serenity you get when you rent a home there is fabulous. Every day, you glow. You bask in nature; luxuriate in the hot tub; eat and drink well; immerse yourself in tranquillity; and indulge in your favorite pastimes. The house I rented this time had a pool table and a pinball machine, which happened to be the same machine I played at Jantzen Beach when I was a kid! I spent the weekdays by myself and three friends came up for the weekend...a perfect combination for me. Here the pelicans are crusin' the coast.

This was the first time I've been to the Ranch in May, and it turns out May is a fabulous flower month. Lupines, poppies, and wild irises abound. Combined with the surf, which was large for this time of year, it's quite a spectacular scene.

The Sea Ranch has a really cool chapel. It was built in 1985, is nondenominational, and it's a very peaceful, spiritual spot no matter what your religion is...or even if you're not religious at all. This is the largest window in the building. It's very cozy...only seats about 20 people. Its innovative, understated design meshes perfectly with the scene here.

The deer are quite tame at the Ranch. They coexist with the human residents, except that I've never heard of any folks letting the deer share the hot tub with them. Other common critters hereabouts include jackrabbits and wild turkeys.

Doin' the Mist Trail

The Venerable Pinniped made his annual visit to Yosemite earlier this week, and dragged his aged flippers up the Mist Trail for the first time in a decade or so. Despite the steepness of the track and the abundance of tourons, as always the trail was spectacular. Here's a shot of Vernal Falls from partway up. Fortunately, there was only a relatively short stretch where the mist was really heavy.

A fine rain...or I should say mistbow...on the trail.

I am always amazed by this spot. It's called the Silver Apron, and what you're looking at is the Merced River roaring at high speed across a flat stretch of granite! It's a huge mass of water, only a foot deep, racing across smooth rock. Quite a phenomenon! I remember the first time I saw this, about 15 years ago, I was blown away by the spectacle. It is kapu to test the waters here; you could easily be swept off your feet...and over Vernal Falls just a few hundred yards downstream. You have to see a video to get the full impression here...better yet, go for yourself!

Starting the return trip, I made a loop, venturing up the trail past Vernal Falls, gaining 500 feet elevation and traveling an extra mile to avoid getting soaked and having to scramble down the steep steps of the Mist trail, and found this superb view of the cascade from above! It was worth the detour. Far fewer tourons too. For an idea of scale, blow up the picture and check out the people at the top of the falls.

I thought seriously about hiking all the way to the top of Nevada Falls, which would have entailed an extra 2.8 miles and 600 feet of elevation gain and loss. Haven't been up there in a long time. But, I reckoned it would be a little much for the Old Sloat. Sure enough, even without the extra trek, by the time I returned to the valley floor my flippers...and knees...and feet...were all barking. So I just took some pics of Nevada from the John Muir trail above Vernal, near the spot of the previous picture.

El Cap

This is a somewhat different view of El Capitan, taken from the southern valley road along the Merced River. This road is normally one way eastbound into the valley, but the northern, normally westbound road is closed for repairs so the southern road is two way. The road between this point and the park boundary is also being rebuilt; it was just reconstructed a decade ago after the 1997 flood but apparently it washed out again last winter. Summer travelers beware...there are already delays and congestion due to the construction and it's only early May. But the beauty and grandeur of the valley remain.

This is highway 140 about 10 miles west of the park entrance. Uh, actually the road is under the rock in the picture...way under! The highway has been detoured across the Merced River onto the old railroad bed on the north side of the stream to bypass the slide, which has been active for the past two years. The delay for this blockage was shorter than the delay within the park. I recommend taking highway 41 from the south into Yosemite for the time being; as far as I know there are no construction delays on that route.

Seasonal Waterfalls

In spring Yosemite features several waterfalls that are nonexistent at other times of the year. This is Ribbon Falls, plunging 1612 feet just west of El Capitan. Its height puts it among the world's tallest cascades, but it only flows a few months a year.

Sentinel Falls is even higher...at 2000 feet it's the seventh tallest in the world! But it only runs in spring and early summer in an average year. Even Yosemite and Bridalveil Falls virtually dry up in autumn. Their water sources, the plateaus above the valley, are buried by snow in the winter, but in summer all of that snow melts and runs off across the granite; there are no permanent snowfields or glaciers of any size. So after the snow is gone, so are the waterfalls.

Spectacular Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls were blasting yesterday, and the trees in the valley were blooming nicely. Here's a good shot of both phenomena.

Here's a nice shot of upper and lower Yosemite. The total height from the base of the lower falls to the top of the upper cascade is 2,425 feet; it's the largest waterfall in North America and the fifth tallest in the world! Believe it or not, one thing that keeps me from moving to Australia is Yosemite. There's nothing like it in the Antipodes and I would miss it severely if I moved down under.

The lizards made their first trip to Yosemite and enjoyed it thoroughly; though it's not a desert, the dry, sunny weather appealed to them more than the murky fog of Monterey.

Incidentially, blow up this picture and you'll see a sign indicating the high water of the massive flood of January 1997, which would have submerged the Solara! This was an amazing event; I worked it back in my days with the Bureau. The snow level soared to 10 thousand feet, and many inches of rain fell on top of a good sized snowpack. The result was incredible flooding, as indicated by the sign. Several campgrounds were washed away, as was highway 140 between El Portal and the park. That winter, we had copious rainfall in December and January; by the end of the latter month most of Northern and Central CA had received about as much moisture as normally falls in the entire July to June rainy season. But then...hardly any more rain fell from February thru June, and the season wound up around normal. The Yosemite floods, however, were anything but normal!

Spring in Monterey County

Haven't been doing much traveling lately...in fact, during the entire month of April I never stayed in a motel! That will change soon. Actually, it's quite nice here in the county during April...there's plenty to see without traveling far. Today was a cold gray day...high only 55...but three weeks ago the skies were a glorious blue and it was about 80 degrees all weekend. At such times the Carmel shore can seem downright

Mediterranean, as you can see here.

It's always nice to hike in Garland Park during spring. It's a great flower spot. Here's an individual shot of a Chinese house, one of the showiest members of the lupine family.

And a group picture...they like to grow in shady areas under trees or other vegetation.

This is a tree right by the pool in my condo complex. While most of our cherry trees bloom in January and February, this one didn't flower until well into April...but it was quite spectacular when it finally got around to it.