I just got back from an extended weekend in Carrizo Plain to check out the wildflowers. The flowers aren't quite up to the standards of the 'superbloom' you might keep…
Yesterday I did a short morning hike in Harvey Bear County Park (between Morgan Hill and Gilroy) to see how the wildflowers were doing in this dry year. I didn't…
If you've ever driven along highway 5 between the Bay Area and Southern California, you know there isn't much in the way of landmarks. It's a long and boring drive…
Hiking in the East Bay can be tricky. In the summer, it can be hot, dry, and rattlesnakey. In the winter it is green and lush, but the trails are…
It takes a lot to throw off my generally happy disposition, but a few weeks of work travel (and the corresponding poor sleep and unhealthy eating) and a head cold have knocked me off my game. I desperately needed a few hours outdoors before kicking off another project, so I took off this morning to see how the wildflowers are looking this year.
Santa Teresa is a pretty good local park for flowers so I decided to start there. My 11 mile hike took me to all different parts of the park, and while some areas were already in bloom others hadn’t even started.
Poor Excelsior Mountain, always in the shadow (literally) of its bigger and more popular neighbor, Mt Conness. The next highest point to the north, Excelsior doesn't have any dramatic cliffs…
Everyone talks about Half Dome. You can't have a conversation about Yosemite without someone asking, "Have you done Half Dome?" But people should really ask, "Have you done Clouds Rest?"…
On Sunday I headed down to Rancho Cañada del Oro south of San Jose to get in a nice 13 mile hike and check out the wildflowers. Although it’s been a dry winter I was hoping that a little recent rain would help nudge the wildflowers along. They are out, but it is a disappointing season in both quantity and quality. I found a nice variety but they were few and far between. The most common wildflowers I saw were milk maids, Indian Warrior, Hounds Tongue, and shooting stars. A surprising crop of star lily kept me entertained, and it looks like the poppies are about to come in. It is by no means a bumper crop this year, but I do really love local spring hikes when there are wildflowers lining the trail.
Yesterday I went out for a hike in Santa Teresa County Park with the dual goals of 1) getting some exercise and 2) checking out the current status of wildflowers. If you’ve been following this blog for a while you probably know that wildflowers are one of my favorite subjects to photograph, and every spring I get to start my ‘collection’ anew. The first week of February is still a bit early for wildflowers but nevertheless, I wanted to see if anything was blooming to set a baseline for the upcoming months. I found a few flowers, and I know that with the Shooting Star and Manzanita, other flowers will soon follow. Here’s the short list of wildflowers I spotted.
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