Montana de Oro
When I first came to California in 2015, I fell in love with Montana de Oro State Park. I was living in Apple Valley at the time and had a job that gave me a 3-day weekend twice a month, which I took full advantage of.
Now that I live much closer, I feel fortunate to live so near to the most beautiful part of the California coast.
There are several easy trails in the park, and the one my friend and I took was a little ways before the campground. It seemed popular with surfers, who were also out early at the end of May during this Time of COVID.
We are both into wildflowers and birds, in addition to beautiful landscapes, so our journey from the parking lot to the beach took a little time.
Douglas iris 
Hummingbird sage 
Cardinal catchfly, Silene laciniata 
Cobwebby thistle, Cirsium occidentale 
Common sun rose 
Deerweed, Acmispon glaber 
Deerweed closeup 
Desert Christmas Tree 
Sea lettuce, Dudleya caespitosa 
Sand verbena & deerweed 
Sand verbena 
Seaside woolly sunflower 
Sea lettuce dudleya
We did see several other kinds of birds, though.
Spotted towhee 
Anna’s hummingbird 
Bushtit with bugs 
Bushtit with bugs 
Male California quail 
Pigeon guillemot 
Pigeon guillemot 
Spotted towhee 
Wrentit 
Western gull on cliff nest 
White-crowned sparrow
The overcast light helped tremendously by not filling our subjects with hot spots and deep shadows.
Roundleaf leatherroot 
Western fence lizard 
Sticky monkeyflower 
Rattlesnake
The Bluff Trail is everyone’s favorite, I think. It’s easy and it takes you to some marvelous overlooks.
This is why it’s known as the Mountain of Gold
The Point Bouchon Trail wasn’t open. As with most things COVID-19, we were lucky we had open spaces to wander safely, to help us keep our sanity.
Despite the bright overcast all morning, we both added some color to our skin from the relaxing and beautiful outing.
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Lagniappe
Lagniappe often means “a little of this, a little of that.” Since I have many hangers-on images that didn’t quite fit into a themed blog, I’m tossing them all in here like a stew.
This sapsucker-drilled tree has a cavity just perfect for this pair of western bluebirds.
Read the rest of this entry »Big Sur
I’ve driven the challenging Nacimiento-Fergusson Road from Fort Hunter Liggett to Big Sur two or three times before, but last weekend was the first time I’d started in Big Sur going home.
The N-F road had been closed by the Los Padres National Forest because there were complaints of too much traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway (State Hwy 1, aka Big Sur Highway) during the COVID-19 lockdown. The campgrounds had already been closed and folks were availing themselves of road pullouts or wherever they could to camp.
Read the rest of this entry »Southern Monterey County
The Los Padres National Forest re-opened the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road and I had a hankering to explore one of my favorite areas in Central Coast California.
Read the rest of this entry »Morro Rock-Otters & Birds
Photographers like me like to go out early in the morning when the birds are active and the people aren’t. Marilyn and I headed out to Morro Rock, part of Morro Bay State Park on Saturday, with a stop at my favorite California viewpoint off Hwy 46.
As is typical of summer, the coast is often shrouded in fog on mornings when it is sunny and headed for hot weather in Paso Robles.
Read the rest of this entry »Estero Bluffs
Estero Bluffs is one of my favorite places along the California coast. The best trail for me is this one, by the windmill. On this morning, it was the second trail of the day for my friend and me.
The fogbow was a bit of magic that added to the beauty of the oaks and windmill.
Read the rest of this entry »Carrizo’s Mini-SuperBloom
I’ve been to my beloved Carrizo Plain National Monument twice this Spring hoping the late rains offered up another Superbloom such as last year’s.
For the most part, nope. In early April, though, my friend and I were treated to a small herd of pronghorn does and a Bell’s sparrow lifer for her.
Read the rest of this entry »Shell Creek Wildflowers
There’s a street famous in these parts for its bounty of wildflowers. Shell Creek Road is off Highway 58 between Paso Robles and Carrizo Plain National Monument.
Read the rest of this entry »Love of Carrizo Plain in the Time of COVID-19
Pronghorn females
I have visited Carrizo Plain National Monument about a dozen times and this is the first time I saw pronghorns. I guess it helped that it was not a people-frenzied super bloom year, as last year was, and it was also in the midst of the Safe-at-Home era of the COVID-19 pandemic, so running across them was more likely.
Two pronghorn does
Monterey County Wildflowers
We have had six months of pleasantly cool weather with plenty of moisture in California this year, and the Memorial Day weekend was a perfect time to look for tiny treasures in the Los Padres National Forest and environs of southern Monterey County.
The harlequin lupine (above) was perhaps one of the most interesting flowers I found, and it was only in a small patch of ground. They aren’t rare, but I guess they’re also not common.
Read the rest of this entry »
