Redwoods and Big Leaf Maples, Gazos Creek. Northern California. July 12, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Redwood and big leaf maple forest along Gazos Creek, California.

I recall that on this day I had gone out to photograph along the Pacific coastline between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, California, mostly without any specific plan. First I had gone to one of my favorite Highway 1 bluffs to photograph the birds that pass within a few feet of it as they coast along the coastal updrafts. Then I moved north along the coast and discovered a group of kite surfers at one of the beaches, so I stopped and photographed them for a while.

Continuing north I came to a turn off to one of the many small roads that head up into the mountains that lie between the shoreline and the urban areas around San Francisco Bay. I took it and found myself driving along this narrow and twisty road that followed the bottom of a valley holding a small creek. The bottom of the steep and narrow canyon was deeply shaded by thick forest, including some stands of second-growth redwoods. This photograph was made in a nameless section of the valley where there was a spot to pull over and photograph the soft light filtering down through the moss-covered trees.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.