Tag Archives: monument

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wildflowers, Temblor Range

April 28, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring wildflowers on the slopes of the Temblor Range

I have seen photographs from this region recently in which the wildflowers completely carpet the flat and even some of the upper slopes. While I did see places with such carpets of flowers — mostly down on the flats of the actual plain — in most places there were spots of intense flower color separated by much larger areas of grassland. The areas we investigated on this evening had much that character — we mostly hiked and climbed through green plants, though in places we passed through sections where the flowers were very thick.

Here there was a bit of variety in the colors — from orange through yellow to purple — and even some beautiful desert candle flowers. (Look closely at the lower portion of the photograph to spot a few.) This spot was a level area at the top of a ridge running up into the hills, and from this spot we could look up at many successive layers of ridges above us. In the late afternoon light the upper edges of these ridges caught the back-light, accenting the layers.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wildflowers, Central California Hills

April 26, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring wildflower bloom in San Luis Obispo County, California

Our evening hike to photograph the flowers began with a drive. We left our campsite, picked up a gravel cross-valley road, followed another narrower gravel road, and finally turned up a one-lane track heading up into the hills. Before long it dead-ended at a gate with an opening that only allowed foot traffic beyond. We loaded up, decided to forego the main trail, dropped into a gully, climbed a slope on the other side, and then followed a ridge up into the hills.

As we climbed the flowers, of all sorts, became thicker and thicker, and before long we were “wading” through fields of them, sometimes up to our hips, as we headed toward some likely looking slopes even higher up. Finally arriving at what seemed like the likely place to start photographing, there was a flat plateau along the ridge, and flowers carpeted sections of it. To make this photograph I positioned myself so that the main field of flowers was directly in front of my, with the further layered ridges extending beyond and further up into the hills.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Temblor Range Wildflowers, Evening

April 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Wildflowers, evening light in the Temblor Range hills

On the first day of my annual spring Death Valley visit, I took a detour down US 101 and then inland to the Carrizo Plain National Monument. I usually go straight to Death Valley in a single day, but the reports of a “super bloom” in areas of the Central Coast, plus the fact that friends were already there camping and photographing, made the side-trip sound interesting. Heading inland from 101 at Paso Robles, I soon entered the spring-green hills and began to see wildflowers… and wildflower fans! After five yours of historic California drought, Californians are absolutely thrilled by this lush spring of green hillsides and flowers. I continued heading east and eventually arrived at the Carrizo, where the only thing more plentiful than the wildflower hunters were the flowers themselves!

This national monument is not as developed as most, which makes sense given the remote location, the typical dry and inhospitable climate, and the generally small number of visitors to this faculty that is co-administered with the BLM. All of that is my way of saying that it took me a while to figure out where the heck I was and where my friends were camped! I found them, we sat and caught up on one another’s stories, and as evening came on we headed out for some photography. We ended up climbing up into the Temblor Range, where there were all kinds of flowers. I made this photograph of the hills and valleys above us just before the sun set.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Temblor Range Wildflowers

April 14, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Temblor Range slopes covered with spring wildflowers

In the right locations, for a few weeks in spring following a wet winter, California’s grasslands can produce absolutely stunning wildflower displays. They typically occur near the very end of what I call the “impossibly green season,” when the typically dry and brown grasslands are brilliantly green from winter rains but just about to turn golden-brown once again. There are many places to find these flowers, but the Carrizo Plains can, in good years, produce exceptional colors. This spring, following a winter of record-breaking precipitation, has been one of those years.

I drove though this area on my way to Death Valley, and when I arrived I found hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of Sunday visitors to the flowers. By late afternoon many of these people were leaving, and our small group set out to look for colors along the lower slopes for the Temblor Range. (So named because they formed along the path of the great San Andreas fault.) We picked a one-lane gravel road and followed it up the lower slopes to where it dead-ended, then got out and continued up the into the hills on foot. I made this photograph near the top of our climb, shortly before sunset as the light from the evening sun passed over the flower-covered ridges of this gully at a low angle.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: monument

Wildflowers, Temblor Range

Wildflowers, Central California Hills

Temblor Range Wildflowers, Evening

Temblor Range Wildflowers

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