Posted by Karen on 24-Apr-2009
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A while back, I’d heard about the Castles & Kites Celebration in Bodega Bay, so I booked a campsite on the beach at Doran Regional Park for this weekend. I invited Tersha and Vic and they came up with Brianna and their new tent trailer, which was really great because it was so windy I don’t think my tent would have stood upright. Friday night was spent cozily out of the wind inside the trailer playing cards and hanging out. Early Saturday morning I took a walk along the beach and enjoyed photographing some sand textures. On the harbor side I met some guys digging for clams and they showed me how to spot where the clams were buried–look for a little hole and them stomp and watch for the water to spurt out; very neat. We then all headed back down the beach to watch people fly kites and build sandcastles. We set up our chairs near the roped off area used by the pros and watched them launch some huge kites. Another gentleman we met had plenty of kites and explained the difference between sport kites and beer kites to us. Sport kites require constant handling, while beer kites just need to be launched and then you have a beer while it flies.. LOL! We took a little drive over to the other side of the bay, but it was really too windy to enjoy much time outside, so back to the calm of the trailer for dinner and some relaxation. Sunday was an enjoyable drive home along Highway 1.
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 3.80 miles • Total Time: 6:04 • Moving Time: 1:41 • Moving Average: 2.2 mph • Overall Average: 0.6 mph
Posted by Karen on 08-Feb-2009
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I woke up at Salt Point State Park and after having breakfast and packing up the tent, I went down to the beach to explore the bluffs a bit. I saw some skittish deer on the way to South Gerstle Cove; usually deer in the state parks aren’t nearly that skittish. The visitor center was closed, but I continued on and walked along the bluff for a few hours, mesmerized by the sandstone colors and tafoni shapes that cover the area. Tafoni is the Italian word for “cavern” and shows up in the sandstone as pits and holes, and ridges that have been worn away by the waves–very interesting stuff. Discovered a skeleton of some unknown creature and saw some seals and a few people, but for the most part it was the coastal rock structures that kept me intrigued.
Posted by Karen on 11-Jan-2009
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Nelcha and I headed out to District 10 of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex to look for swans before joining the Sacramento Digital Photography Meetup Group at Gray Lodge Wildlife Area for the afternoon. The weather out here lately has been more like spring than winter, and while that’s bad for our drought situation, it makes for a really nice day outside. We first went over to District 10 to look for the swans that someone else had said were here the week before. We found them and I learned that photographing birds is hard–they don’t sit still for you! After a stop at one of the many wonderful fruit stands along the highway, we headed over to Gray Lodge to meet with the group. The area has some nice walking trails around the wetlands and a road that you can drive along too. Saw one red shouldered hawk and plenty of water birds on this gorgeous day.
Posted by Karen on 04-Jan-2009
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Tersha, Vic, Brianna and I headed out early in the morning and drove over to Natural Bridges State Beach to see the monarch butterflies that winter there. According to the website,
The park’s Monarch Grove provides a temporary home for over 100,000 Monarchs each winter. From mid-October through the end of February, the Monarchs form a “city in the trees.”
and I’ve seen pictures of the butterflies clustered in trees, and was hoping to see that that sight. Unfortunately, we didnt’ see any clusters, but we did see Monarch butterflies holding perfectly still while it was too cold still for them to fly. On the path, we met a researcher that was doing a count of the butterflies and he explained how the death of the pine trees in the refuge were affecting the eucalyptus trees that the butterflies nest in, so the butterflies weren’t coming there in droves anymore *sad*. Next we walked over to the beach and checked out the remaining natural arch that gives the beach its name. Herons, seagulls and cormorants were also hanging out on the beach. After lunch, we drove north to the Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve for our elephant seal tour at 1pm. This is my third time here and I have yet to see the bull fighting that I’d like to see in action… oh well, maybe next time. There were a few seal pups on the beach, but they weren’t in full force yet. It was a nice sunny day, so the seals weren’t too terrible active today. On the way out, we decided to walk along the beach instead of the trail and we did get to see a couple of elephant seals close up on the beach. Everyone kept a respectful distance and didn’t disturb them. After watching the surfers for a bit, we started home, but we just had to pull over to enjoy the gorgeous sunset in Half Moon Bay.
