Tumbleweed Among The Wildflowers

Tumbleweed Among The Wildflowers
An old tumbleweed settles in among a field of spring wildflowers in the Temblor Mountains.

Tumbleweed Among The Wildflowers. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old tumbleweed settles in among a field of spring wildflowers in the Temblor Mountains.

One evening I ventured into the foothills of the Temblor Mountains, the range that traces the scar of the San Andreas earthquake fault through a portion of California. There are few places — perhaps no others at all — where the scale of this fault is visible. The range runs in an almost perfectly straight line, separated from the plain to the west, where valleys and streams are clearly offset by the north/south slippage along the fault.

I went there to photograph the intense Spring wildflower bloom that was underway that year. Over a period of a few weeks, hills and valleys that are brown and dry during the rest of the year erupted with new green growth and carpets of wildflowers. During this brief interval, unlike the rest of the year, the dry tumbleweed plant seemed like an interloper.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | FacebookEmail

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Join the discussion — leave a comment or question. (Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.