I know the calendar says otherwise, but spring is here! (I also realize that the photos that are coming up in the queue here are not terribly spring-like, but hang in there…)
The California hills are turning green for real now. While I saw hints earlier, today’s hike confirmed it: grass is coming up, trees are budding, and the wildflower show is just getting started. (I posted a photo from this morning’s hike at one of my other blogs.)
Hi John… Yes, it is green – what I refer to as “impossibly green,” but it happens every spring in central California for the next month or so. Although I don’t like in the snow, I get to the Sierra often enough to understand what you are saying about how it gets “old” before long. For my part, I’m hoping for at least one last bout of winter storms in California before the dry season begins.
That workshop should be great fun. I’ve been to Mountain Light many times as I’ve passed through or stayed in Bishop on Sierra Nevada or Death Valley adventures.
Wildflower season is an extended thing in California. It all depends where you go and when you go there. The desert wildflower season should be over by the time you get there but, of course, the peak of the High Sierra wildflowers will still be months away. At some elevation there should be some interesting flowers when you are there – I suspect that the Mountain Light folks will have some ideas about that. It could well be that there will some interesting displays at the lower elevations right there in Owens Valley.
(BTW, autumn in California is a similar experience. I can see the beginnings of it sometimes as early as the end of August in the high country, though by September it is clear that the change is underway. By the end of September and early October the aspens color reaches its peak in the eastern Sierra. But even later than that the trees turn in the lower country, and in some coastal areas it won’t happen until well into or near the end of November. Of course, to a New England guy, our fall displays probably don’t seem very worthy… :-)
Dan
P.S., On the subject of spring and wildflowers in California, I’m just thrilled to read that this will be a good year for wildflowers in CA because I’m going to Bishop, CA, at the end of April. My first trip out west (sheltered life, I know). Las Vegas is where I’m landing on April 30th then driving over to Bishop for a workshop at Mountain Light. I know the wildflower season will have faded by then, but surely there’ll be some left in certain locations?
BTW, Maine’s wildflower season is roughly mid-May to mid-June. You’re all invited.
Wow, that image from the morning hike is really green. It’s beautiful and it’s got me feeling quite sick and tired of winter! There is a zero green factor in the Maine landscape currently. The colors are white, gray and a dull brown. We’ve had an excess of snow this winter, and a lot of it is still sitting on the ground. Snow is beautiful when it first falls, but after a few weeks (months!) of laying around, semi-melting, etc., it looks ragged and slightly gray. Hmmm, how to see the positive side…well, I guess we can count on the streams and waterfalls being quite robust this spring. When spring does arrive anyway.