Come take a hike with me...

along one of the trails in Fremont Older Open Space Preserve. This place is one of 26 preserves owned and maintained by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, an organization that was created in 1972 by a voters' initiative here in the greater San Francisco Bay area. Out of the 26 preserves 24 of them are open to the public, consisting of 57,000+ acres of riparian or marshland, mountains and foothills. Most or all of these preserves usually link to other county or state parks around Santa Clara County. Fremont Older OSP is located in the Cupertino foothills and has 739 acres totaling about 14 miles of trails. I took the most popular trail up to a 900 ft. hilltop called Hunters Point that gives one a beautiful view of the Santa Clara valley. Beginning elevation is around 300 ft. and the trail is only about 1 mile from the parking lot to Hunters Point, but it is a 600 foot climb in elevation, yet the trail is well maintained. A lot of the area was mostly "hayfield," plenty of open space and rolling hills. And at this time of year (late March) the rolling hills were fairly green. But the coolest thing was seeing the fields of wildflowers. Below was a field of lupine that caught my eye. To see a larger image of any of the photos you can double click on them.

Fremont Older, a San Francisco newspaper editor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, built a home on a couple of acres that is located on the Preserve property. There is some really neat history about Fremont and Cora's estate, called Woodhills. You can go here to learn more about this colorful couple.

As I rounded a corner along the trail I came across a portion of fencing, and saw this lizard sunning himself. I was surprised he/she didn't go running off like most little lizards do. But he/she kept his ground and I got a couple of halfway decent shots of him/her.

As I continued uphill I was able to catch a glimpse of what I would get a better view of once I would get to my destination - Hunters Point. This photo was taken about 2/3 of the way up to Hunters Point. I'm looking out through a little bit of haze of downtown San Jose, the green foothills to the east, and a part of the Mt Hamilton range.

At this time of year, everywhere I looked I saw wildflowers in abundance. Here is some kind of clover mixed in with some lupine and another wildflower I haven't yet identified. I just love those pink, blue and purple colors together nestled in the green grass.

Here is another field of wildflowers, mostly clover.

And again, one of the wildflowers I cannot identify. Any guesses anyone?

Once I got to the top of Hunters Point I certainly wasn't disappointed. I was amazed how far east, north, and south I could see. The photo below is much like the previous photo of San Jose, the east foothills, and the Mt Hamilton range. This was looking east.

When I looked north I could see Moffett Field which is now part of NASA-Ames, located in Mountain View. The hangars are an excellent landmark around here. These buildings used to house blimps before and during WWII. In this photo you can also see the bay and the east foothills.

As I looked just another mile or two north of Moffett Field I could pick out another landmark by the bay. Those tents are part of Shoreline Amphitheatre. Behind and to the left of those tents is Shoreline Lake, and that is the San Francisco Bay behind those tents. This is also the southern portion of Palo Alto Baylands, one of my favorite places to bird, especially for marsh and water birds.

Again, looking east, I was able to get a decent photo of Lick Observatory on top of Mount Hamilton -- another landmark here in the bay area. These last several shots were taken with my Canon 70-300mm lens.

As I started my descent I came across more wildflowers. You probably have noticed I don't have any birds in this post. Well, I heard a number of birds that day, but the ones I heard were mostly in thick stands of trees. As for other wildlife I did see many butterflies. But none of them ever sat still long enough for me to get a picture. I'm not positive, but I think they were all Painted Ladies flitting around all the beautiful wildflowers. As I approached a much shadier area I came across this fern located near a tree.

These little orangey flowers, I think, are globe mallow. These are usually found in dry, sunny spots. I find this cute little plant a bit invasive. Areas of my yard where it hasn't been "weeded" lately seems to have quite a bit of these cute little "flowers."

I'm not sure, but I think this plant is called Indian Warrior. Can anyone verify this or give me the correct name for it? It sure is pretty.

This is a wild hyacinth. They were all over the trail. This is my favorite photo of about half a dozen or more shots I took of this plant.

Anyone want to try to identify this one? It sure was pretty.

And this one is my prize. This is a Calfornia blue-eyed grass. Isn't it beautiful? As with so many other wildflowers, this was also abundant, and needless to say quite attractive.

This is a group of the blue-eyed grasses seen on my way back down the trail.

Then as I was about to the end of the trail I saw this plant located about 75 feet from the parking lot. I'm not really positive that I have correctly identified it, but I think it's called Mule Ears. Take note of the leaves on this plant. The flowers themselves kind of look like a sunflower. Notice the flowers that already had bloomed, how brown and dried-out they look. Their heads hang much like a sunflower would.

Well, thanks for going with me on this hike; I hope you enjoyed it almost as much as I did. Be sure to double click on the photos to see a larger image. And check out the links I provided. They are quite informative about the rich history found around this part of the country.

Modoc NWR and Lava Beds National Monument

Wednesday, Jul 12th, we drove through part of Modoc before going to Lava Beds National Monument. At Modoc, we saw a juvie red-tailed hawk, killdeer, Canada geese, black-necked stilts, and a couple more American avocets. The shorebirds were still difficult to identify. We think we saw common snipes or short-billed dowitchers. Then before we left Modoc we saw this great egret.
As we were approaching Lava Beds we saw some quail, a stellar's jay, and a couple of mourning doves.

This is the sign in front of the visitor center. If you click on the picture you will see how hazy it was. When we drove up to Alturas on Tuesday we were aware of a fire that was burning south and west of Susanville. There were quite a few firefighters that stayed overnight at various motels in the town of Alturas, including the one we stayed at. The fire was never a threat to the NWRs of the area, thank goodness, but visibility wasn't as good as we had hoped.

This is a moth I found while taking the Lava Beds sign pix. The moth was sitting on a lamp post. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show its beautiful colors. When it spread its wings, it had an irridescent blue-green coloring. The moth was about 1-1/2 to 2 inches long. Any "bug experts" out there - can you ID this moth?

Here's another view of the area from the Visitor Center.

While driving around the Lava Beds we came across some distinctive plants. I haven't been able to find the names of these wildflowers yet, but I did find them to be quite striking, especially within its surroundings. Just click on the pix to get a larger view.

These shots are of Indian paintbrusth - the first one gives you an idea of how the paintbrush is dispersed among the sage. And then the other two shots are close-ups. I found the third pic neat since the paintbrush was up against a rock with lichen.

And here is another shot of the lava beds in the foreground and mountains in the background about 20 miles away. Not too far from here we found the following wildflowers. They look like orchids, don't they?

And this is the view of Tule Lake in the background, from the north end of Lava Beds National Monument.

Wildflowers on the trail

Last Sunday when my son and I were taking his dogs for a walk - yes the same day we encountered the killdeer - we went walking on the trail of a nearby County Park - Los Gatos Creek County Park to be exact. The following pix are a few of the wildflowers we came across. First, there were fields of the following flowers - these are statice. The plant itself looks different from the kind of statice that grows on the coastal side of the hill where they get more humidity and moisture from the daily morning & evening marine layer. But these flowers like drier climates, too. This particular specimen looks so much nicer and healthier than what I tried to grow in my own garden a few years ago.

I think these are called Tidy Tips. From all the wildflower books I looked at, the Tidy Tips in the books have more yellow. But I found these little guys very striking along the trail where we were walking.

And this is a Hollyhock - it must be "wild" because it isn't in a garden getting regular watering and TLC! This was also on the trail.

And here is a close-up of the flower itself. Isn't it pretty? I wonder if it still looks this good this weekend. This is the season of no-rain. Our rainy season ended back in April, and we probably won't see any rain again until November.