March Diversity in the West

Just some more March shots.  These pictures were all taken during the month, less than a thousand miles apart. This is an abstract rock erosion pattern in Valley of Fire State Park, near Las Vegas but a world away from the Strip.

The Lizards enjoyed the desert at Valley of Fire.  During most of the trip they held court in my suite at the MGM Grand, but they relished this excursion into their natural habitat.

Cool rock hoodoo in Valley of Fire.

A Joshua Tree, thriving in spring bloom near Death Valley.

Desert chicory in Death Valley.

It's amusing that many people from the East and Midwest seem to think of California as a place of wall to wall people.  In places like LA and the Bay Area, it can seem that way; but the large majority of the state is actually pretty wide open...like the Owens Valley here.

A joshua tree blooms in the shadow of the High Sierra.

On the way home from Vegas, the fiddlenecks were thriving east of Paso Robles.

The hills east of Paso were luxuriant in mid March.

I think these are baby blue eyes, in the Bitterwater Valley east of Shandon.

Fine green hills on a day with excellent light.

Now we're about 500 miles north...still in March.  Mount Shasta.

Northern Cali has had well above normal precipitation this season, and Shasta is shrouded in a cloak of white.

More Shasta.

Spring Glory in Pinnacles

Monterey has had just over 20 inches of rain this season...our wettest in several years.  As a result, nearby Pinnacles National Park, a famous wildflower spot in good years, is well worth a visit!  The poppies are thriving, nestled in carpets of lush green grass.

I found these owls clovers right by the start of the Juniper Canyon trail...then saw none on the remainder of the path. 

The light at Pinnacles on this day was very fine.  Clouds drifted overhead at times, and there was other shade provided by the trees in the area.  Sunshine was also plentiful.  

A carpet of flowers highlights the peaks. 

Buds on a digger pine.

Lots of buds on a digger pine!  The tree was lying horizontal, but very much alive.

Typical Pinnacles hillside...digger pines, rocks, grass.  Raptors soar overhead.  There are California condors here, though I didn't see any on this day.

Many hillsides were covered with flowers.  Pix were taken on March 30, which sure looks like the peak of the flower season.

A thick field of poppies.

Other  yellow flowers...don't know what these are.

Poppies and old wood.

At this time of year, Pinnacles is a gentle place...green, moist, temperatures in the 60s during a typical afternoon.  But in summer it's harsh, hot, and dry.  No rain falls for months, and temperatures can reach 110 degrees.  Still, some trees grow...in improbable spots.  Digger pines are the resident conifer, as they are in many inland areas of northern and central Cali where winters are cool and moist, while summers bake the landscape a la the Mojave desert.

Diggers on a hillside.

No wonder I was tired!  Blow up this pic and you can see a car park in the center, which is where I started hiking.

Pinnacles has been a popular spot for the better part of a century.  The CCC built a lot of trails here in the 1930s...and carved this tunnel out of the rock in the High Peaks area of the park.  The tunnel is about 50 yards long.

Ma Nature can be a master abstract artist.  All she needs is some lichens, and a background of rock.

More fine grass and subtle light.

A More wintry March Scene

Just a week after I was in Death Valley, I was in the opposite end of California...in the far northwestern corner.  Here the rain pours down; the air is raw and damp; and impromptu waterfalls prevail.

In Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge today, I spotted this bald eagle perched on a pole next to the road.  I used my car as a blind, and was about 30 feet from the eagle when I took his pic through my car's open passenger window.

The refuge has about a million birds in residence during March, mostly ducks and geese.  Some winter here...others are on the way back to the arctic after wintering farther south, often in the central valley.

Mount Shasta looming over a tranquil pond.

White pelicans, accompanied by a grebe.

Many thousands of geese hang out at the wildlife refuge in March.  Most are on their way back to Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, or Wrangel Island in the Russian Arctic.

Desert Scenes

These are assorted scenes I took in the desert on a recent trip to Las Vegas.  At Valley of Fire State Park, a friend and I went up a canyon with a lot of  neat rock formations and an abundance of petroglyphs.  These folks were holding hands and doing a dance of some sort...maybe.  

The red rocks at Valley of Fire have been eroded into all sorts of fantastic formations by wind, frost, and rain.

The Lizards loved the red sand.

The next several pix were taken at Death Valley.  Heavy, damaging October rains set the stage...then periodic winter rains produced a fabulous flower year...the best in the valley since 2005.  These desert sunflowers are known by a different name in Death Valley.  They were everywhere.

Desert chicory.

Desert five-spot...a real gem!

Aside from the flowers, most of the valley is still totally barren, with stark landscape lines.

View from Zabriskie Point.  The land is laid bare.

Hillside contours near Zabriskie Point.

The valley carpeted with flowers.  The juxtaposition of lush beauty with stark barrenness is fabulous.

Sand dunes in waning light near Stovepipe Wells.