Joshua Tree – The High Desert

We left Anza Borrego in the middle of March and climbed up to Joshua Tree, which meant shorts to jeans and no extra room on the cramper.  It was windy most of the time we were there, but luckily is wasn’t strong enough to to move Joshua Tree’s trademark boulders – so I could go out for sunrise and sunset every day.  The park is a pretty neat place (Joshua Trees are a form of Yucca) and a mecca for climbers during Spring Break.  There were plenty of them there, and I’ll probably have to photoshop some of them out of shots.  But after eight days or so, we were getting a little stir-crazy and went looking for a campground that had something green in it.  We went up to Lancaster where the California Poppy Reserve is, but all the cold weather has delayed the bloom for a week or so and the wind was blowing pretty hard.  We did get to spend another day with Joe and Sue, and the steaks were  delicious.  Thanks again, guys.

On to Ventura for our planned trip to the Channel Islands.  Unfortunately, their season hasn’t started yet, and they’re only running boats on weekends that allow you to camp overnight.  It being Monday, neither one of us wanted to face a week in Ventura waiting, so we’ve started back north a little early.  We’re now at King City, camped in a county park with trees, grass and shade.  We’ll leave the cramper here and head over to Big Sur tomorrow and tent camp for a couple of nights.  We couldn’t retrace our route on Ca 1 because a piece of it south of Monterey has fallen into the ocean and will be months getting fixed.  So we’ll go up US 101 and head back over to the coast north of  Monterey.  

Stay tuned…

Loggerhead shrike

 

Joint Pattern - Joshua Tree

 

Joshua Tree

 

Anza Borrego – Desert Interlude

Ocotillo

 

Feather Duster

 

We’ve been down in the Mohave Desert for over a week just soaking up the sun and warmth.  We’ve even put up the awning and spend time in our “extra room.” 

After leaving Santa Barbarfa we visited a college friend of mine, Joe Marasco and his wife Sue, in Valencia.  Joe took us on a tour of the area, including a hydrologic shrine – the site of the St. Francis dam collapse in thge 1920’s, one of the first of Californias water disasters.  After a goood visit we headed down to Joshua Tree NP, but the flowers weren’t blooming there yet, so we continued down to Borrego Springs.  It’s been mainly birds and flowere down here.  Despite the winter rains, it’s been an off year for flowers due to three days of frost in March.  There’s still lots of variety, but no big concentrations.  Enough to keep me busy though.

While we were here we had our first Famous Photographer sightings of the trip.  Sandy Nykerk and her husband Kieth were here for a week, and Steve Sherman was in for a couple days.  It was fun shooting with them, especially since we’re all more used to the snows of Yellowstone this time of year.  (Hope you guys are keeping warm up there)

Yesterday Alice and I circumnavigated the Salton Sea – where the beaches are dead fish bones and the Wildlife Refuge is named for Sonny (I Got You, Babe) Bono.  That ought to sum it up.  The Sea is another of Californias water disasters, only this one is ongoing.  I’ve been to a lot of dead-end places, but none seem so close to tipping over the edge as this one.  It’s saving grace it that it’s now providing a lot of wetland habitat for birds (when avian botulism isn’t killing them) thats been lost elsewhere in California.  I barely was able to keep Alice from investing in a waterfront lot in Bombay Beach…

It’s back to Joshua Tree tomorrow, then the Poppy Preserve, the the Channel Islands and back up the coast.  Got to go drag Alice out of the pool now.

Black-capped gnatcatcher

 

Century plant

 

California quail

 

Brittlebrush and Fan Palm

 

Barrel Cactus - Mohave Desert

 

Cactus wren

 

Costa's hummingbird

Desert cottontail

Among the Beautiful People

Green Flash, Morro Bay

Well, we’ve spent the last three days in Santa Barbara seeing what the real Southern California is like.  We stayed with a Forest Service friend, Ken Heffner, whom Pete worked with in Dillon.  As we were waiting at Kens house, he comes tooling up in his Mercedes convertible (top down) and I’m thinking, “This is not the same Forest Service down here.”  Ken gave us the Grand Tour including wineries, bistros, beaches, tanned women, etc.  We even got to see some of the forest (chaparral), although none of it was burning at the time.  Many thanks to Ken for a great time.

We spent the previous few days up in San Simeon with the elephant seals and touring Hearst Castle.  The seal viewing area is a little restrictive for photography,  but I was able to find a more out-of-the-way beach with about 100 seals that I was  able to get down and work with.  They’re pretty tolerant and awful slow.  I’m finding that shooting slow, legless animals is something I can just  about manage.   Hearst Castle was interesting, if only to see what Republicans did during a Depression.

The Big Sur coast was spectacular, but the campground we were counting on was closed for the winter so we’ll have to stop there for a couple extra days on the way back.  Monterey was really nice and the aquarium was well worth the visit.  Point Lobos and Moro Bay were a couple other stops that proved to be worthwhile.

We’ve headed over to the desert now.  The California poppies haven’t come up yet (that’s where we are now) so we’ll head down to Joshua Tree tomorrow.  This is the first night we’ve been more than a mile from the ocean since Jan. 10.

Moro Rock Green Flash, Moro Bay

Four Eyes

elephant seal

 

Harbor Seal

 

Curlew

 

Brandts Cormorant

Sand Dollar Beach

Beach near Santa Barbara