I played hooky Thursday and headed out to the Carrizo Plains. Had heard the wildflowers were running amok, so friends and I packed a picnic lunch and drove east to the wildflower preserve on Shell Creek Rd, then cut back to Hwy 46, over to Cholame, then right again on Bitterwater Creek road and tooled on down into the Carrizo through the back entrance, which is a nice way to go since the creek road is wonderfully twisty and qui
te beautiful. Lots of lupine clumps out there.
I think the poppies were still asleep, but the tidy tips and goldfields and fiddleheads and that yellow flower and that other yellow flower and those baby blue whatevers and that purple thingee and that white thingee were all blooming all over the place.
te beautiful. Lots of lupine clumps out there.I think the poppies were still asleep, but the tidy tips and goldfields and fiddleheads and that yellow flower and that other yellow flower and those baby blue whatevers and that purple thingee and that white thingee were all blooming all over the place.
And the local cows were most obliging, making sure visitors would have no trouble identifying what kind of animal they were by standing next to the informative roadsigns.
The painted rock is often is closed for nesting falcons, so I’d check their website (www.carrizo.org) before going, if that’s what you specifically wanted to see. Otherwise, the visitor center’s open Thurs –Sun, I think, and that’s worth a visit. And, sign up and join The Friends of the Carrizo Plain. They publish a very nice, informative bulletin and keep you informed of various events out there. For example, April 10th the BLM is planning a National Landscape Conservation System’s, 10th Anniversary Celebration and Spring Gala, with BBQ lunch, speakers, displays and tours, which should bring you up to speed on the restoration efforts out there. I’ve been to some of those events and they’re really informative and fun. And with this one you could combine flower peeping with the anniversary celebration.
It’s hard to capture the vastness of the place, or its singular beauty. But it’s worth a trip out there, the sooner the better. Once a heat wave hits, the flowers will all be blasted and gone for another year. Although there’s something to be said for visiting the Carrizo in its more brutish form during the non-spring months. Having that tough vision in your memory bank makes reveling in the soft flower-times even more special.
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9 comments:
God's Country.
People- If you click on the pictures they will open up in all their Glory.
"With every click of the mouse a pine needle turns from green to rust red"
The Virtual Environmentalist
Gorgeous photos Ann, thank you!!!!
Fantastic photos. That cow (steer?) posing by the sign was almost too serendipitous. Did you bribe the bovine model? (Offering a portfolio for his/her audition for a California Cheese commercial, perhaps?)
Anne: Totally serendipitous. There actually about a dozen young steers sorta hanging around by the sign, fence and road cow catcher. We waited a while and a few moved out of camera range, but our cute critter just sorta stood there. I guess that's the teen hangout on the plains for all things bovine.
Alon, didn't know about clicking on the pics for full screen view. Will go try that. It's really hard to get a sense from a photo of the vastness of that place. Hope you'll all get a chance to get out there before the weather blows all the flowers to heck to see it all in person.
Yep Chura.
But for some reason the bottom one doesn't. It could be because its already in its maximum size. Microsoft and the browsers give pictures a default size based on the number of pixies (Pixels-a tiny square containing 1 color and a brightness level-but pixies is cuter. The Early Greeks came up with the notion of the Atom, the smallest unit a thing can be devided to while retaining its identity. fortunately they were usurped by the Romans before they figured how to blow the ancient world up) When they (photographic images)are constrained to a smaller frame, the computerator or surver holding them-shrinks them to view but retains the data.
If you are an ant crawling on the computer screen everything is Early-French impressionistic.
(Late April 1 foolies- Ants are blind or color blind)
March left like a lamb. April Showers-....
The bottom image is called:
Carizo+Plains+trip,+April+2010+012.jpg
and it displays for me.
254px wide x 191 px high.
Anne. Wierd, I posted a comment on our comment but it didn't "take." No, didn't pose them at all. it was strictly serendipitous. these young steers were just sorta hanging around the fence,cowcatcher and sign, like that was the teen hangout on the plains. Pretty funny.
HAH!! FOUND THEM!!
i must say, they were worth the search.
lovely, lovely. mmmmmm goood.
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