Dad’s persimmon tree was heavy with fruit this year, and a flock of Cedar Waxwings took up residence in the orchard to enjoy the bounty.
Blog
Sporadic dispatches from the hinterlands.
Redwood Coast
We’re finally starting to get more comfortable with going out into the world. We postponed trips because of Covid, and then because of the wildfire smoke blanketing the state. We moved our planned vacation from the Sierra to the Oregon/Northern California coast, searching for clean air. We switched from camping to staying in motels, because Joy had to do a little remote work.
It worked beautifully. After we planned our trip, the weather forecast changed from sun and smoke to intermittent rain; we were glad to be able to stay out after dark and come back to a warm, dry room. It mostly rained at night, and we enjoyed some great days out there.
Our itinerary:
10/15/21: Quick visit to Marvin in Wilton.
10/16: Colusa National Wildlife Refuge; stayed in Redding (which was nice!).
10/17 through 10/19: Explored area around Brookings, Oregon, especially the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor.
10/20 through 10/21: Stayed in Eureka, California: Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Arcata Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, Humboldt Marsh National Wildlife Refuge.
10/22: Drove home, just before what turned out to be a record-setting deluge that caused widespread flooding and road closures!
Garrapata
We made a day trip down to Garrapata State Park to take a walk on the Soberanes Canyon Trail. Although we just had an extremely dry winter, there were some wildflowers to be seen, and we grabbed some quick photos to help us identify and remember them.
Here are some of the resources we used to identify these organisms:
Lupines on the coast
We went exploring up the coast to the State Beaches of San Mateo County. We hoped to find some good birding in riparian areas, but ended up wandering along deer trails on the coastal terraces. After walking through a couple of miles of grassland and coyote brush, we came to a sandy hillside filled with lupines (and, surprisingly, badger burrows).
That’s Joy in the distance, with a hazy Highway 1 far below.