These three pictures were taken on December 5th as I was driving on Hwy 152 west from I-5 toward San Juan Bautista. I do love these bleached hillsides so common in this area at the end of the dry season. I had not seen any rain the entire trip to Portland and back this far. But later in the weekend the rains came and I raced the storm south on Monday to get over the mountains before I was caught in snow.
Almost like sand dunes the way the hills interlock and curve. The firebreaks are carved by graders and other equipment along the tops of the ridges to stop wildfires from going over the top and down the other side. If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can see that this is old cattle country by the horizontal ridges created by years of cows finding the easiest way to the other side.
On the left in the distance you can see a double fire break and in the foreground on the right a clump of brush and live oak that has survived fires in the past. Sometimes I can imagine these barren looking hills as the flanks of giant lions resting in the sun. Shades of "Out of Africa".
3 comments:
Oh, you are making me homesick for a place I'll probably only visit. I know I'll never live there again but I can, and do, visit often. This landscape is probably why I fell so hard for Victoria, Australia too. Thanks. It's a great way to start my day...happy memories.
Wait! Do you take these while you are driving or do you stop someplace to shoot? I can't figure it out. This landscape is fine to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. Gimme green!
The sculptural quality of those hills just gets me every time I see them and I love the color change through out the seasons.
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