We had a Real Rain last night!! It was a blustery, blowing day--clouds of dust everywhere--so it was an especially wonderful end to the day. The rain was steady and long; we went out to lay on the hammock and listen and smell and enjoy until bed time.
As some of you know, Mondays around here tend to be our "Saturdays". On actual Saturdays Erik comes home from work in the morning to sleep, but on Mondays we have the whole day until a late afternoon nap before he starts the work week at night.
This Monday started earlier than usual when I woke to a sound that
could have been a garbage truck. Somehow my fuzzy brain connected the dots and I realized that although Erik had
talked about taking the trash to the curb the night before, it hadn't actually been done. And so our day was jump-started. Luckily I had apparently just heard a noisy truck and we hadn't missed the garbage truck.
We decided to take advantage of being up early, and of the lovely cool, damp morning, and take the dogs for a nice morning walk. Erik suggested driving to the dog park to change things up a little, so we piled into the car and headed out by around 7:30 a.m.
As we drove in busy school/work traffic, we could see the mountains as we usually can after a good rain dampens down all the crud in the air. Beautiful! Since there were people at the dog park and the mountains were calling, we decided to change plans and head toward a spot we've been meaning to explore:
Carrizo Plains National Monument. According to the directions it wasn't
too far from us (they turned out to be inaccurate in that respect), although we knew that exploration would be limited because many of the roads in the park are impassable when wet. But it was a destination and we made plenty of stops on the way to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. It was a good thing we grabbed a couple of granola bars and apples though--we didn't get home until 3pm! Here's a little sampling of what we saw.
Our first stop was to get a closer look at this tar or crude oil oozing out of the ground near the side of the road. I'm still enough of a transplant that this is fascinating to me.
And we could SEE it oozing! It kept creating this big bubble which grew until it burst. So weird.
Still in the area of the oil fields we saw these strange giant wheels. There were a bunch more decorating a restaurant in the town of Buttonwillow. Instead of spokes there are wide planks of wood . . . we're curious about the whys and wherefores of them!
This is horned lark! :-D We also saw (and heard) several Western Meadowlarks, but they were maddeningly elusive whenever I lifted my camera.
We went through so many different types of landscape, as well as different weather today. This shows some of the vibrant green we saw.
And this area was carpeted with tiny yellow flowers.
The good sport :-)
These hills reminded me of calico with all the different colors. See how dark the sky is here? Whatever weather system was moving through was certainly patchy; we went from sunshine to rain and back again and again. Both were beautiful in their own way.
Our directions said to turn on Soda Lake Road 13.9 miles outside of McKittrick. We had been stopping frequently to take pictures (and sometimes turning around to find a pull off), but Erik thought we'd gone more than 20 miles and we still hadn't seen the road. Then we saw a sign for Soda Lake, so off we went. As we got further and further down the now dirt road, we realized that this was not the road in the directions. We later discovered that we'd taken a (sort of) short cut; luckily it was not one of those impassable roads! On the way back we took the "right" road and discovered that Soda Lake Road is actually 27.5 miles from McKittrick!! Some directions.
But those bends in the road often hide treasure, and we were glad we took this one. Here is a strange stone fence we wouldn't have otherwise seen.
And this salty wash was a great spot to take the dogs out for a little break.
Soda Lake, according to the Carrizo Plain website, is the largest remaining natural alkali wetland in Southern California. Water levels vary with the time of year and rainfall, and as the water evaporates white deposits of sulfates and carbonates are left. Apparently years ago there was a refining plant up there that collected and sold sodium sulphate for use in detergents, textiles and glass! You can see the weird texture of the wet edges of this wash.
Sunny again!
Isn't this a pretty little flower? We saw blankets of them at this stop, all buttery and beautiful.
Erik posing by the entrance
We stopped at an overlook and Erik kindly took both dogs so that I could take some pictures. This generosity was not without some inconvenience.
Heading up to the overlook, all untangled now :-)
Our first look at Soda Lake
What goes up, must come down . . . just look at them run!
A cloud of red-winged blackbirds
This funny little fellow (Savannah Sparrow?) was extremely busy giving himself a bath in the parking lot at our next stop. He probably felt very silly when it rained 15 minutes later.
As we headed down to the boardwalk by the lakeshore, we saw a
jackrabbit! It was moving fast and had lots of cover to dart behind (hence no picture) but it sure was fun to see. I was surprised at how big/tall it was, and by the definite black around the ears.
Apparently a lot of migratory birds use Soda Lake. We saw a bunch in the water when we first drove past, but when we walked down there weren't any to to be seen.
The rain rolled in just as we were reaching the end of the boardwalk. It was a wet walk back to the car! Pretty though.
We couldn't do much more exploring without braving those impassable roads, so we saved the rest for the next time. And there
is more to see--
Painted Rock, as well as a look at the
San Andreas fault to mention a couple.
On our way home we saw a California Quail, the state bird of California.
And these last few are just shots out the window, to give you a little idea of some of the landscapes we drove through. It was such a fun impromptu ramble with my favorite boy! :-)
Interesting to note that a good segment of our trip was a revisit of a meandering jaunt I took last
February. Interesting because at that time I had no destination in mind, nor much of an idea where I was. It frustrated Erik to no end when I got home and couldn't tell him where I'd been. Now he knows! ;-D
Our friends Don & Evalyn told us about it and because it's at a higher altitude (2600-3000') it's just reaching peak blooming, while the wildflowers down here are already gone.
I have never seen so many poppies, nor so much orange. Fantastic!
Contrary to the pictures, there were a lot of people at the reserve. There is a lot of trail to spread out on though. We were lucky enough to see Don & Evalyn who were leaving as we came in! Erik and I looked around the visitor center for a little bit and then took a walk.
We saw a couple of horned larks, who I think were working on a nest (his partner was carrying something in her mouth). I love that you can see the "horns" in this picture.
We also saw a multitude of lizards. This little rainbow of color is called a Side-Blotched Lizard. Isn't he pretty?
This little guy let me get really close before he finally dropped down and scurried into his hole.
This strange and wonderful thing is called a Silver Puff. Apparently this showy seed stage lasts much longer than it's flower stage.
More poppies :-)
After our walk (Erik figured we went about 3.5 miles on the trails we chose), we decided to take the pamphlet's advice and visit the Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park on our way home. It's just a few miles down the road from the poppy reserve. I think we somehow expected it to be similarly big and busy and showy. It was none of those things. It's more what I think of as high desert--easy to picture a vaquero winding his way through, isn't it?
There were a number of Joshua Trees, always weird and wonderful.
We had a nice quiet short walk, and were assailed by the amazing scent of California Juniper . . .
and Blue Sage. I cannot describe how wonderfully pungent they smell in the heat of the day!
This is a prickly place!
This is called a Beavertail Cactus; you can see why. It's getting ready to bloom all over the place!
We passed some gorgeous landscape on our way to and from the reserve. Erik said it looked like someone dabbled with a paintbrush (click to make larger).
We stopped for a late lunch and also at an antique shop where I tried on some hats. I'm going to an English tea and movie night this weekend and a hat would be fun . . . but I wasn't willing to spend $25-35 for a one-time-use hat. I had fun trying them on though!
Goodnight! :-)
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