Tag: nature

Quail Hollow Ranch

Pacific Madrone in Quail Hollow Ranch County Park
Pacific Madrone in Quail Hollow Ranch County Park

We had some time on Saturday afternoon to do a little exploring around Scott’s Valley and we discovered a lovely little park, Quail Hollow Ranch County Park. We’ve visited some of the more popular state parks in the area, but this was a treat. On a three mile loop we past on other hiker.  I’ve posted the track of the hike on GaiaGPS.

From the park office we took the Woodrat trail to the Sunset trail, with a short side trip to the end of the Sunset trail and back around the Sunset trail and Lower Chaparral trail returning to the park office. Despite the fact that there was a wedding going on near the park office, we only saw one hiker on the trail. The park encompasses an amazing variety of habitats,  from pond and surrounding riparian to dry chaparral and the unique sandhills habitat. You cans also find cixed evergreen forests, redwoods, and grasslands. We started in a grassland meadow and meandered through redwoods and coastal chaparral. A number of plants were in bloom including  Bush Poppies, Dendromecon rigida and  Sticky Monkey Flower, Mimulus. This is an easy three mile hike on well maintained trails.

Happy Earth Day

 

Texas wildflowers
Texas wildflowers

Cheers to all fellow nature lovers! Here’s photo I captured a couple of weeks ago while visiting Austin. Let’s all make an effort to sustain this planet that provides us with such awesome wonder.!

First Day of Spring

Desert Gold (camissonia brevipes), Death Valley National Park
Desert Gold (camissonia brevipes), Death Valley National Park

This being the first day of spring I thought it would be appropriate to post a photo from a recent trip to Death Valley.

Death Valley Superbloom

Spectacular display of wildflowers in Death Valley

Desert Gold (camissonia brevipes), Death Valley National Park
Desert Gold (camissonia brevipes), Death Valley National Park

The news reports are calling this years wildflower bloom in Death Valley a “superbloom;” the best show in a decade. I was able to carve out a few days last week to make a quick trip. If you are going to Death Valley you might want to check out the park website page about wildflowers. There’s also a link on the page to check out the current conditions. Last week large sections of the valley were carpeted with Desert Gold, the bloom working it’s way north. The wildflower display will likely continue into April, as the succession of flowers takes place. It’s quite a site to see what’s usually bare rocky soil awash with yellow.

Some advice for looking for flowers; get out of the car and walk. I took a walk up a wash, and found a patch of flowers I wanted to photograph. When I stopped,  all I saw were the stalks of Desert Gold. I sat down on the ground to get a good vantage point, and while I was on the ground, I started seeing plants that I hadn’t seen when I was standing.  Many of the plants where just putting up flower stalks, with flowers yet to come later in the season.

I’ve posted a gallery of photos from my trip. Here’s a link to a selection of wildflower photos.

I’ll be posting more about my trip over the next few days, so stay tuned.