Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

I took advantage of my partial day off today to hike at the Sierra Vista Open Space with Hawk. It's part of a new-ish open space authority that we only learned actually had parks 5 years ago. And there are only 4 parks in it so far. But two of them, Rancho Cañada and Sierra Vista, we've now visited several times each.

Why the repeat visits? Well, for one, they're close. Two, Sierra Vista offers this view basically when you step out of your car:



That's a view across the Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley) past San Jose to the Santa Cruz Mountains beyond.

Today was a nice day for a hike as the hills are swathed in green. The grass on these mountains east of the valley is usually only green for about 6 weeks a year. Plus, we hoped to see some wildflowers.



The views up here are nonstop.



And San Jose seems like a place you could walk to.

So much for that old song, 🎵 Do You Know the Way to San Jose 🎵. Yeah, it's right there!



Wildflowers? Yeah, we saw a few. They're in bloom right now, especially the California poppies you see in this picture. They're in bloom but not super-bloom. There was a superbloom when we hiked here 5 years ago. The weather hasn't been right for that to happen again this year.

Australia Travelog #8
Royal Botanical Garden, Sydney - Mon, 25 Dec 2023, 11am

Our main goal for sightseeing on foot in Sydney today was to visit Macquarie Point and the Royal Botanical Garden. On the way we were beset by minotaurs, giant spiders, and stirges but we were steadfast. We made it.

The weather was kind of poor for the first few hours of the morning. After a brief bit of sun first thing in the morning it got cloudy again, with the likelihood of rain later in the day. That's been the story of our whole time in Sydney. We're only in town for a few days, though, so if we wait out bad weather we wouldn't get to do much. Thus we walked through The Domain to Macquarie Point, enjoying gloomy views across the harbor to the city skyline, the opera house, and the harbor bridge. But then the clouds parted! It's a good thing digital film is so cheap because I went back and re-took all the pictures I'd just taken.



Here's a selfie showing the view across the harbor to the harbor bridge and the opera house. This is from Macquarie Point. On the map here you'll also see a spot marked as Mrs. Macquarie's Chair. The chair is actually just a seat on a rock. And yes, I sat on it. But it's also facing away from everything one migth consider picturesque about Sydney. I can just imagine old coot Mrs. Macquarie sniffing, "Oh, in that other direction is just a dirty, scruffy town. Let's look over here at this untouched nature!"



Too bad for the ghost of Mrs. Macquarie, because here (panorama photo above) is what she's turning her back on.

From the domain we angled south along the edge of the harbor toward the Royal Botanical Garden. Views of the bridge, the opera house, and the city skyline followed us the whole way.



We looped around quite a bit through the gardens. It's fantastic that there is such a large and well-kept gaden in a major city.



So here's how we spent our Christmas Day— or more precisely, our Christmas morning. We'd already spent several hours here by noon!

Four weeks ago I wrote In My Mind It's Summer, about my choice to start taking advantage of the outdoors as if it's summer even though it's not. Now 4 weeks later it is technically summer ...Technically, because while summer started on the calendar a day or two ago, the actual weather is saying more "Late March" or "Early April". Daily high temperatures have been 10-12 degrees below average for weeks.



You know what? Fuck this "84th day of April" weather. I'm enjoying the swimming pool anyway! The heater's been on for a few weeks already, so the water's not that bad. And it's beautiful out. Oh, and the not-yet-summer temperatures mean floral blooms are lasting longer than usual. I love the vines of trumpet flowers around the left side of the pool.

On Friday Hawk and I went for a lunchtime walk around the neighborhood, inspired by a house a few blocks away with a hard full of California poppies. We didn't just go there and back, though. We figured as long as we're out, let's make more of a walk of it. We used to walk the neighborhood frequently but have fallen out of the habit. "Let's loop the blocks to see what's changed," I proposed.

We noticed a few changes, but those aren't what really caught our attention. We saw... MOAR wildflowers!



This house another block away also has a front yard that looks like it started out as a tended garden but has been left to grow wild. Or maybe it's a bit of benign neglect. Either way, the current result is interesting.

We looped around the far side of that block and saw several more displays of flowers that looked clearly... planted.



These occupied a small patch in the sidewalk island, as did the next few.







In beauty I walk... even if it's on the sidewalk in my neighborhood!

Last weekend we went walking in Byxbee Park. It's along the edge of the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto. We've been there numerous times before. One reason we like it is that it has a slight hill. Of course, that hill is man-made— it covers an old dump. Yes, sadly, for many decades Bay Areans were like, "Let's take all our trash and just pile it up next to the water." But the sins of the past are now, if not atoned for, at least out of sight. Grasses and wildflowers cover the hill.



The hill isn't huge. It's a rise of 10-15 meters. I hesitate even to call this hiking; it seems closer to walking. But even from atop this hill's modest change in elevation, there are very different views of the surrounding marshland and bay than you'd get from sea level.



The photo above shows Fremont Peak in Fremont in the distance. It may not look high in this picture because of the distance but it's 3,171'. Below it, with kind of a brown color, is the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay. In the middle are some of the sloughs and marshes that make up much of the bay's edge down here.



Back down closer to water's edge on the far side of the hill I enjoyed this view looking south. It's hard to tell what's in the distance beyond the slough and marshland— and that's the point. In this photo you're looking at NASA Ames and Google's corporate headquarters in Mountain View. And hey, there's actually a mountain view.



Once down the far side of the hill we walked the low trail back around to the trailhead. That's another thing we enjoy about Byxbee Park: the ability to take walks of widely varying lengths by choosing from among the network of paths. That, and having something nice to see in every direction— especially at this time of year, when flowers are in bloom.

Our trek to Carson Falls near Mt. Tam last Sunday was the second of three great hikes we did in one day. Our choice to stay at a hotel somewhat nearby in Mill Valley the night before really paid off.

Carson Falls is one of the celebrated "Three Cs" in the Mt. Tamalpais watershed. There's Cataract Falls, which we hiked in the morning; Carson Falls; and Cascade Falls. We've been to each of them at least twice before.

I don't know that we've been to Carson Falls on a day like today, though. Compared to the wet, lush, rain forest ambience of hiking Cataract Falls this morning— which is absolutely the best way to enjoy it— our hike to Carson has a completely different vibe. The patchy morning clouds burned off as we drove back a few miles to the trailhead, revealing everything for miles beneath a clear, blue sky. And where the Carson Falls trail climbs straight into a narrow, wet canyon, the trail to Carson Falls begins with a long, gradual ascent over Pine Mountain.



Once we passed the fake taco truck at the trailhead we crested a small rise and could see the rest of Pine Mountain ahead of us. I don't know that we've been here on such a clear day before. Usually it's been overcast, even a bit rainy. The last time we were here it sleeted on us!

Gloomy weather shortens your perspective. You can't see that far off, so you focus on what's around you. Today felt totally different because we could see so much around us and so far ahead. Like that hilltop a mile away in the picture... surely we weren't going to have to hike all the way up that, right? It never felt like we hiked so far before. Alas, yes, that's where we'd have to go. At least it's beautiful and not sleeting today.



The distance views atop Pine Ridge were unexpected and amazing. At first we could only see Pine ahead of us and Tam behind us. As we slowly climbed to the top the views got better and better. Tam remained in the picture (the flattened triangular peak a bit in from the right) and soon we could see the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge crossing the north bay, the towers of downtown Oakland almost 30 miles away, and even the double peak of Mt. Diablo ( bit in from the left) in the hazy distance 50 miles away.



We know the way to Carson Falls. We've stood at unmarked crossroads in the drizzling rain enough in the past to have committed it to memory. It continued to amuse me, though, that while I remembered all the turns I forgot how far the climb up Pine Ridge was. Soon enough, though, it was time to start heading down the other side. We turned from Pine Ridge Road (a blocked-off fire road) to Oatley Ridge Road then met the narrow foot trail down into the canyon for Carson Falls.

This is a steep section leading down to the falls. It was coming up this steep part years ago that it sleeted on us. Ahh, fond memories!



Another thing I don't particular recall from hiking in crummy weather in the past is wildflowers on the trail. There weren't exactly a ton of them out here Sunday, but there were some. Deep in the shade we saw a few of these. They're... purple flowers. I suck at identifying flowers. And I'd look it up, but Google sucks at identifying flowers, too.

Update: I remembered the reason things don't grow well along most of Pine Ridge is the serpentine. There's a lot of serpentine rock in this ridge. It's poisonous to most growing things, so the plants that thrive here are only the hardiest varieties and even they don't grow big.

Update 2: This flower is an iris. I figured that out not by searching on characteristics like "purple flower with 3 and 6 petals" (which I tried, unsuccessfully) but by trying a few guesses of flower names and finding pictures that match. Several small patches of wildflowers grow on a hillside where there's little exposed serpentine (see note above).

Stay tuned, we're almost to the falls!

As much as Friday a week ago was a packed day of hiking in Washington with 4 hikes, Saturday was no slouch. By the time we shouldered our packs to start hiking to Martha Falls in Mt. Rainier National Park it was already our fourth hike of the day, in addition to one or two hop-out-for-pictures places and at least two more hop-outs to come afterwards.

The Stevens Canyon pictures I posted in my previous blog were not just a matter of "Oh, look, Stevens Canyon." They were from near where we parked to hike Martha Falls. Martha Falls is another find in Professor Smedley Q. Boredom's Very Dull Book of Waterfalls— so it was par for the course that we had to drive back and forth several times before finding the trailhead. Ultimately it was unmarked where the trail crossed the road, and the nearest parking was a small, unmarked pullout 50m up the road.



Difficulty finding the trail crossing notwithstanding, the trail itself was beautiful. From the road it ducked immediately into dense forest. Mature trees towered overhead and the air smelled of firs. There were even patches of wildflowers in places where the big trees' canopies parted enough to let rays of sunshine reach ground level.



The trail itself, appropriately named the Wonderland Trail, was beautiful. The only problem was that it was down. Down, down, down.

What's wrong with down? It means that the return trip is up. Up, up, up, when we're more tired. And since this trail was from Smedley's book, there wasn't guidance on how much down/up we faced.

We grew concerned as we dropped seemingly 300', 400', 500'... where was Martha Falls? Would it be another Smedley wild goose chase? Hikers coming up the trail assured us that the falls was not much further. Indeed, as we rounded a bend we heard the crashing of water. But it was at least another 100' down into the canyon!



So, yes, Martha Falls is real. It's a 50' drop over a rock face with many small ledges. And it's not too far in from the road. Maybe a mile each way? Though it is a climb on the way out, probably about 600'. But the falls is worth the trek.

On Saturday we visited the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve in California's Antelope Valley. It's part of the high desert nestled in a valley in the Tehachapi Mountains (aka above The Grapevine). And there are lots of California Poppies there. Wow, this paragraph is so repetitive. It's like the park's name tells you everything about it! 🤣

I'm getting backlogged on processing images from our weekend trip (as usually happens) so I'll share a quickie here— a selfie and a short video I shot with my cellphone.



An odd detail I want to note is that we're not actually at the Poppy Reserve in these pictures. We're outside of it! The reserve itself is on the other side of the fence in the pic above.

Why not actually go to the park? Well, a) we tried, but there was a long line of cars waiting to get in. We didn't feel like waiting 15 minutes or more idling in our car, or parking outside the park and walking 15 minutes in. Especially because b) we'd noticed a lovely field of poppies half a mile back from the park entrance off a short dirt road.


In these pictures you can see a fairly healthy springtime bloom of wild California Poppies, the official state flower of California. With all the dry weather the past 3 months we were worried there wouldn't be much of a bloom of wild poppies. They're blooming nicely now vs. pictures from the park we'd checked online 2-3 weeks ago. Still, the bloom is nothing like the massive super-bloom of 2019. Check out my pics and video at that link for jaw-dropping sights.

Last Sunday we drove down to Santa Cruz in the morning. We parked along West Cliff Drive, as the picture in my blog from nearly a week ago shows. We didn't just park to enjoy the beauty of the Pacific Ocean crashing against the cliffs... though that certainly would have been an option! At least 25% of the cars parked there were people just relaxing in their cars enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells (fresh air!) of the ocean. Alas most of them were borderline homeless hippies. 😅 We got out of our car, without smoking weed, and went for a walk.



West Cliff Drive is our usual go-to spot when visiting Santa Cruz. The street winds along the oceanfront cliffs west of downtown. Ritzy houses line one side of the street; on the other is a sidewalk, and not far from that, the crumbling edge of the cliffs. There are also one or two older houses hanging on on the seaward side of the road. The fun is walking along the sidewalk, with its multi-million dollar views, and following various little use trails that descend partway down the rocks or all the way to tiny beach coves.



While the far off views are beautiful, so too are the close up views. In the pictures above you can see patches of yellow flowers in the plants growing on the edge of the cliff. They produce blooms in other colors, too, like this beautiful purple.



This hardy plant growing all over the cliffs is carpobrotus edulis, commonly known as Ice Plant (among other names). As beautiful and hardy as it is, it's also an invasive species. I wrote about it on another trip to the Central Coast six months ago. It chokes out native plants that are important food source for native animals. So I didn't feel bad about occasionally stepping on it as I took pictures and walked some of the narrow foot trails along the cliffs. 🤣

Usually when we walk West Cliff Drive we park about 1.5 miles up from the fishing pier and walk east to the pier, the boardwalk amusement park, and the city's main beaches. It's a fantastic trek of about 4 miles roundtrip. This visit, though, we decided to go the other way. 😨 But that's not bad... the other way leads to Natural Bridges State Beach!



We walked around through the park, down to the beach from the backside, then up the cliff to this overlook. From here it was a relatively easy return to our car less than a mile away.

The fun thing about hiking along the craggy ocean bluffs on California's Central Coast is that every bend you round, nay even every 50' in a straight line you walk, a new perspective comes into view and it's beautiful. That's why this "Whale Peak Loop" trail we were hiking Saturday (see part 1 blog) starts out being about anything but Whale Peak itself. Oh, we'll get there eventually. It's just there's so much beauty down at the coast to spend time walking in.



Part of what makes these scenes beautiful is the brilliant red and green ground cover. It's also a bit surprising. I don't remember seeing so many plants growing on these bluffs on past trips. Without it you'd see a lot more bare rock. Craggy, bare rock is beautiful in its own way, too. I know I like it. Its beauty is subtle, though, and hard to capture with photographs.

So, yay for plants, right? Better pictures and better for the environment, right? Uh, not so much.



The plant that's growing all over the cliffs in this area is named ice plant, Latin name carpobrotus edulis. It's a succulent that grows thick, triangular leaves. You can see them in the enlargement pic above. (It's a crop at 100% from the original of the pic I shared above it. It's from near the edge of the frame with a super-wide angle lens so image quality is not the best.) 

Ice plant's red and green leaves create striking colors. And it makes flowers, too. It wasn't flowering during this visit, though on previous visits to California's Central Coast we've seen it flowering in brilliant yellow, pink, and magenta.

So what's not to like? Well, ice plant is a nonnative species from South Africa. It was planted in California starting about 100 years ago to help control erosion along rail and road embankments. It did that job well and it really thrives in the Central Coast environment. And that's where the problem lies. It thrives so much it has choked out many other species of plants.

One plant or another, what's the difference? you might ask. Well, some of those plants are needed by native animal species for food or nests. By killing off those plants, ice plant is causing these animals to die off. Ice plant also spreads easily over cliffs and dunes. The bare rock and sand are important habitat for other animals. With loss of habitat they're dying off, too. Various state and local groups are working to remove areas of ice plant and seeing rapid return of native plants and animals. Sometimes it's Kill a plant, save an animal.

Keep reading! Hiking Whale Peak Loop, part 3