Wildflowers On The North Coast

Cliff-Side Delights

This is one of those years where super blooms are being spotted all over California. But it doesn't take a super bloom year to have great flower discoveries on the North Coast. These images were taken in 2021 in the middle of the drought and the pandemic.

With a little exploring you will find flowers on many of the cliffs. These seaside daisies are pretty easy to find and they are often found right on the edge of a cliff making a great foreground object for you photographers. Just be very careful as with all of the rain we have had the cliffs will be especially vulnerable this year. Stay back a safe distance and enjoy.

All of these images were taken in early June. You will find that some locations are in constant change so that what you see one week will be dramatically different a week later. This is especially true at Stump Beach where you can walk on the trail and view gorgeous ocean scenes as well as an array of different flowers. On the south end there is a good size patch of yellow lupins and in the middle of the meadow there is a growing display of blue iris.

A short distance up the road (to the north) from Stump Beach is the Kruse Rhododendron State Natural Reserve. This is well worth a visit. The flowers are not as abundant as they were some years ago, but the setting is a real treat and the flowers are as beautiful as ever. The area along the coast from Fort Ross to Gualala has a lot of places were you can park and walk to locations along the shore. Most have fairly well marked paths. With a little luck you may find an undiscovered scene you can call your own!

Comments

The Aurora Borealis, May 10, 2024

This last May, my wife, Jan, and I were on vacation in the San Juan Islands, WA. We were there for a week staying at the Trumpeter Inn, a B&B on San Juan Island. Mid way through our stay we heard there was to be a Northern Lights display and that we would likely be able to see it since we were at a latitude just north of Victoria, BC. The excitement was immediate. The conditions were just right as the sky was cloudless and the moon was in its crescent phase and would be low on the horizon (and therefore not overly bright) during the expected good viewing time between 10 pm and 2 am. The image above was taken that night and is what I was expecting to see, a green Aurora. Little did we know what was to come! Early on the was the first hint that something special was about to happen as color in addition to green began to show. I found this very exciting as I had seen green auroras before but never one with the purple/blue colors an...

Aurora Borealis - May 10, 2024, Last Installment.

On Friday afternoon, May 10, 2024, Jan and I were getting coffee in a very small somewhat crowded coffee shop in downtown Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. We overheard people talking about the Northern Lights showing up that night. And thus began one of the most exciting nights of photography in my life. If you have read my three previous blog posts you have seen some of the spectacular color displays we were able to capture. In these images I have included some foreground information to put the color displays in perspective. The picture above was taken to the northeast of the Trumpeter property where they house the pygmy goats and alpacas. Looking to the northwest you can see the moon low on the horizon. The building shown here has an additional suite that is separate from the main B&B house.. This image is looking due east showin the stable for the animals. Another view to the east showing the building with the separate ...

Aurora Borealis May 10: A Northern Lights Extravaganza

As a quick update: All of these images were taken on the night of May 10-11, 2024. on San Juan Island WA. We were taken by surprise in the middle of our vacation when it was announced there was to be an aurora display that would likely be visible from our location. What an understatement! What we witnessed was simply out of this world. We saw colors I did not know existed in the auroras, especially the light pinks and, of all things, orange (neon). There were four of us on the grounds at the Trumpeter Inn during the "show". I was the only one with a DSLSR camera so the others would see something interesting and I would point my camera in that direction and take a timed exposer. Most were in the 15 to 20 second length. At one point, Jan looked up straight overhead and saw something that was quite unusual; it looked like some kind of convergence. I pointed the camera overhead and took this picture, which I find startling....

Notes To My Mother

Search This Blog