Aug 28 2008
Trails Filled with Flowers from Mother Nature
California Poppies, Spring 2008 Bloom, Rattlesnake Canyon
One of the simple joys in hiking is experiencing Mother Nature’s wonderful treat during spring, which is the magnificent wildflower bloom. This year 2008 was probably the best spring I had in San Diego since I moved here August 2004. Though 2005 was really a great bloom, but I missed it. I only have that page in a travel magazine given to me by my co-teacher about the wonderful bloom in Anza Borrego 2005. I just did not know where I was during the peak of the bloom. What I knew, I was enjoying the bloom at Torrey Pines that year,
and in La Jolla and Balboa Park. Probably, the only three places in San Diego that I knew that year. Or maybe, I was still ignorant of the other scenic places around San Diego. Maybe, I was still not very appreciative of the kind of nature’s surprises around. All I thought before, San Diego was only beach, beach, beach and yes, beach! Don’t get me wrong, I love the ocean, I love beach, but of course, I also love diversity. As time passed by, I got to know the mountains (Palomar Mountain and Mount Laguna) in San Diego, and later, got acquainted with the desert, and actually became an avid fan of the desert! Not really to live there, but a grand place of silence, a grand place of nothingness for meditation. I am probably one of the few who finds so much beauty in brown, in twisted landscapes, in corrugated badlands, of surprising plant life in the middle of nowhere, of unusual looking plants, maybe it was because a sight I did not see before. And when my co-teacher gave me that page from a tavel magazine about the wonderful bloom in Anza Borrego Desert, I had been wishing to see how the desert would be transformed into a place almost like heaven. But before I experience the bloom in Anza Borrego Desert this year 2008, I was gifted by nature with wonderful bloom nearby. Maybe, I may had not known these wildflower lined trail had I not been hiking. Hiking in the foothills and valley that litters in San Diego County, I found slopes which unusually explodes with orange. And here are some of my local finds:
@ Rattlesnake Canyon
@Rattlesnake Canyon / Tooth Rock Mountain
@Del Dios close to Lake Hodges (1)
@Del Dios close to Lake Hodges (2)
@Del Dios close to Lake Hodges (3)
@Lake Poway
@Torrey Pines (1)
@Torrey Pines (2)
@Torrey Pines (3)
And from Anza Borrego Desert State Park, still in San Diego County, but is not that very close to home anymore,
@Anza Borrego(1)
@Anza Borrego(2)
And the farthest we went to chase a wildflower lined trail, at Amboy Crater, which is already outside of San Diego County, but still in Southern California.
@Amboy Crater, San Bernardino County(1)
@Amboy Crater, San Bernardino County(2)
@Amboy Crater, San Bernardino County(3)
What is more amazing for me, is that, the last five pictures are in the desert! A lot of times, hiking opens up to us a beauty to take in, and a beauty to reflect, like in these wildflower lined trails. It also opens to us the realization, that in our beautiful world, Mother Nature gives, but she also needs us to take care of herself.
I just love desert flowers - unfortunately my sinuses do not. Your pictures are so beautiful and vivid that I almost need to take an allergy pill from looking at them.
Thanks a lot, everyone.
@Kalilea , am sorry you suffer from sinus allergies. Would you believe I took a lot of Claritin too this spring?
Indeed, flowers are a beauty, but they could be terrible for allergy sufferers.
@Petra, am so sorry. Thanks for bringing that up. I will find a way how to undo that since it is not only you who had complained about it. I actually find that very challenging a lot of times since the letters look so crooked I could hardly decipher. Thanks for trying many times, again, my apologies.
@ Gem, that’s true, it feels like the set in Sound of Music
@Melissa, you are very right, Rattlesnake Canyon is named after the rattlesnakes that are often found there. I did saw one when we hiked, thankfully, it went away from us. But they can strike anytime when provoked or startled. That’s the reason why we always stay on the trail since it is easier to see them on bare dirt than behind the vegetation. Yes, it is scary
The beauty of the flowers was just amazing….wish I could be there to capture them on my camera…:)
Thank you… if only I could miraculously convert myself to be such a person! Imagine the aspiratory photo-moments captured among those fields of flowers… the vision peaks, ambling about that sandy path with the coean at your fingertips.
I immediately wanted to start spinning and singing The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Music!
Kelly
http://www.30somethingandsearching.today.com/
PS, I’ve never had an issue with the Captcha…if I don’t type it right, I don’t have to re-enter anything either….I wonder if it’s just certain web browsers or something….
Hmmmm… sorry for not mentioning in my post, but the feast we are actually celebrating here is the beheading of St. John the Baptist not his birthdate which is celebrated in the month of June… I just don’t know the exact date. And that is the feast day that i really dont like too because I used to live in Sta. Mesa Manila before and I worked in Pasig… my ride will always pass San Juan and believe me… you wouldn’t want to go to work soaking wet. hahahaha.
Oh my friend…. your photos are really amazing. I love those flower fields. I wont get tired looking at them.
Ruthi
Betchai, I disabled the captcha awhile back after I talked to some people about it. It was annoying me and others on my site, too. I haven’t had any problems since getting rid of it - I did keep the setting that a person’s first comment has to be moderated to keep away the spam.
Thanks, everyone, for your inspiring comments.
@ Frigga, you are not a SD failure, I admire your abstract arts approach to photography. And you have lots of interesting pictures too around SD. Maybe next time, if I see a great photo ops which is just seasonal, I will let you know.
@ Kaliliea, thanks a lot, I already disabled the captcha. I was tempted at first to ask you how, but decided to figure it out first
Thanks so much.
Happy weekend everyone.