They say Mount Diablo got its name from a WTF moment in local lore, dating back from the early 19th century. In 1805, a small contingent of Spanish troops encircled a group of Native Americans, who managed to disappear without a trace using their evidently superior knowledge of the land. It’s only natural that the people who brought us the Inquisition decided the Devil was at play, and so they named the place Monte del Diablo, which some translate as Thicket of the Devil. Later, monte was mistakenly translated as mount and thus the mountain gained its current name.
As the crow flies, we now live about five miles or so from Mount Diablo, which makes it a semi-regular destination for us. On weekdays, when most folks are at work, the drive to the top is fairly relaxed and fun. I say fairly relaxed because you still have to pay close attention to other traffic, bicyclists in particular, especially near blind curves. As well, along some stretches, the road drops off abruptly, which causes fearful drivers to wander across the median dangerously.
The fun comes from spotting wildlife and the play of light on distant hills, which offers quite a spectacle on overcast and stormy days. On the drive to the top, there are many spots where to pull over and take in the sights, some with tables, benches and grills, even. From there, it is easy to see how much concealment the terrain offers wildlife or the unfortunate injured hiker at times. As close to “civilization” as Mount Diablo is, and as unimposing its elevation may appear at 3849 feet, the park’s 20.000 acres is deceptively smooth and tranquil. But just as Mount Tamalpais and its potentially treacherous Cascade Falls trail has risks, so does Diablo. And this is due in large part to both traffic and complacency.
Some of the photos in this blog post were taken as a storm system was moving through the area, giving you a sense of the textures the park offers and why it has become one of our favorites. It never fails to remind me of “Picnic at Hanging Rock”…
We missed Caturday again. Life gets strange. We’re making up for it this time, with kitties, dog, sunset AND a beautiful bird. Aside from still adjusting to graveyard shifts, we’re prepping for a short move. For whatever reason, to be designated as an RV park (as opposed to a trailer park), no one can stay beyond 6 mos. without moving out for a day (two nights). It’s a bit of a PITA, but our little abode will be towed out to the street behind the park for that time, after which we’ll return for another 6 mos. It’s worth it.
I can’t believe that it’s been almost 6 mos. already. We haven’t killed each other living in such a small space. In fact, we’re adapting well. I’m still getting rid of stuff. I avoid buying anything new (other than food stuffs) without seriously thinking about it first. I’ve done odd things like dump my two pyrex measuring cups and replace them with a plastic 2-cup measuring cup. Enough little things like that and it really lightens the load. I think the only glass or ceramic items we have left are our coffee cups, the Melitta coffee pot, and the cat food dishes. We no longer buy in bulk, except for the canned cat food. Both of us are still MUCH happier than we were before.
The kitties are happier too. In spite of adding a dog to the mix, they have adapted and learned to relax a lot more than before. Even though trailer walls are anything but soundproof, it’s much more quiet here. They like that. Speaking of kitties, here they are. Miss Jenny’s pics are a short series. They aren’t perfect photos, but we thought they were funny.
Tito: Yes, I’m slowly shredding the window dressings. Is it a problem?
Miss Jenny Hmmm?
What?Noooooo, you don’t sayHAHAHAHAHA!Thath thillyTitanescu: Hungry eyes. I would say evil eyes, but he wasn’t on nip at the time.Miss Pepita: Gimme the cookie! Gimme the cookie!
After sleeping and listening to some rain off and on, we went off to watch the sunset last night.
The nearby hills were aglowBeautiful color
While watching the sunset, we saw a pair of birds hunting. They were not as large as the hawks I’m used to watching and their color was different. However, they are incredibly beautiful and manage a very graceful hover before diving on their prey. I didn’t know what they were so I asked some friends on FB and was told that they were White-tailed Kites.
White-tailed Kite
I went off to find a vid that would show the beautiful hovering and found two videos by a local documentary maker named Alex Burke. Both were filmed in the East Bay hills and are a joy to watch. Both vids end with the Kite eating its kill, so if that bothers you just avoid the very end. 🙂
I’ve posted a couple of photos from the Lime Ridge Open Space, but they didn’t really show enough. Here are a few more photos to give a better scale. This ridge runs from the base of Mt. Diablo (about 5 miles away) to less than a mile from our place. As close as it is, we don’t walk there as there’s no rail crossing nearby. As a result, we drive to the parking lot about two miles away. The trails are used by runners and dog walkers as well as anyone wanting a bit of fresh air. In the summer and fall, the grass is brown and there are cracks in the ground here and there. Given the drought, it’s worse than usual. I’m hoping I’ll have some pretty green pics come spring. 🙂
Pepita aka Stick Dog. She picks up one and carries it for a short while, then drops it to pick up another one. She’ll go through a dozen sticks on one walkSome of the trails run behind housesMapache! We found this carving along side the trailJust a tree on the ridgeThe contrail over the ridge was interesting tooThe cloud between the contrail and the ridge looks like bird or butterfly wingsLooking back at Mt. DiabloView from the trailLooking West from the top of the ridge. This is only a mile from homeAnother view from the topHeading back down.
That hike covered a bit over two miles. It’s good for the dog and even better for me. I’m finally losing some weight and in the right way. 🙂
Such explorers dogs are… Every time the red heads leave the Endurance for a walk, Pepita dashes out, reading the neighborhood nose to ground. Someone aptly coined the expression “reading the newspaper” and that’s exactly what she does.
Reading the paper
Hmmm. A middle-aged shepherd mix with a diet slightly too high on protein, suffering from abandonment anxiety and an imperceptible limp in the right hind leg, stopped right here 6 days ago. His owner feeds him table scraps at times, real refried beans mashed in bacon grease, not the canned stuff. But the dog food itself is mostly dried stuff, from a poorly sealed bag making it too soft.
All this and more from a desiccated turd on a sun burnt patch of grass. Sherlock Holmes got nothing on this hound. Much like people have done on the Internet, dogs who never see one another communicate without really interacting, but absolutely need their olfactory landscape like we do good books and foods.
At the Lime Ridge open space, Pepita stopped dead in her tracks. Could it be? This patch of dead grass around this fire hydrant..! Oh the rich, full characters, their histories,diets and desires! The stories may well be familiar, but they offer all the comfort and affection of a certain edition of “the Count of Monte Cristo” with just a touch of excitement.
You must remember this, Louis Armstrong was misinformed, A piss is more than just a piss…
I’m one of those people who posts or more often re-posts pictures of beautiful scenery on Facebook, from National Parks to gardens and villages in bucolic settings. In fact these pictures are everywhere to be found, from web pages to commercials, because truth be told we can’t get enough. They are just about as universal as John Muir’s name and yet, many people do not connect it to the man and his legacy. Maybe it is this familiarity with the name that is partly to blame for this ignorance.
John MuirJohn Muir’s home located in Martinez, CA. It was built by his father-in-law, Dr. John Strentzel
I read yet another article today about oceans’ levels rising as a result of climate change, which included two videos depicting such changes as Icelandic glaciers melting and oceans’ temperature changes over the course of the last fifteen years. I’ve got a pocket French dictionary somewhere that I bought almost exactly forty years ago. Fifteen years. Some social mores don’t evolve that fast.
In the midst of one of the cruelest fire seasons, and before another El Nino reshapes the aftermath, I am still optimistic about what conservation efforts at every level will achieve. Almost 120 tears ago outside his house in Martinez, Muir planted a Sequoia sapling which has been suffering from a vascular disease caused by a fungus. But while it may eventually perish, the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive successfully cloned it to ensure its re-incarnation when the time comes.
The giant sequoia (tallest tree in photo) planted by John Muir near his home.
The same goes for great ideas, great notions such as those Muir worked hard at expressing. I think one of his greatest notions had to do with his own path. He chose to do what he loved and became a major voice for conservancy, heard well beyond these borders. He could well have been successful exploring industrial pursuits and accumulated wealth, but ultimately his chosen works benefited many more people, in ways some haven’t yet discovered.
Rudha-an here is a slideshow of the rest of the site.
Earlier, I posted part one of our day at Mile Rock Beach. This is part two, more or less. While we were out, we saw lots of birds and a rodent or two.
Here are the critters we saw along the trail to Mile Rock Beach at Lands End.
Ok, not a critter. It was so pretty though.The first critter we saw was this hawk in a treeWhile watching the hawk, this happy sparrow decided to twitter like madCormorants on a rockLadybugPelicansGopher!Hey hey hey!
Our hike left us hungry, so we went off to Stow Lake at Golden Gate Park for a bite to eat.
This red-winged blackbird was hoping for a morsel.Grumpy seagull. They got in a kerfuffle so has a bit of feathers in their beak.This gull sat on our table (pooped on it too) and tried to get close enough to steal somethingGull feets!Turtle on a rockOn our way around the lake to go home, we spotted theseCanada goose and goslingsSo cute!Even cuter!Someone with a large dog walked by. The ducks flew and the goose cursed the dog loudlyIt was certainly a day for critters. Another gopher put in an appearance while I was watching the geese.
Yes, we went out to Mile Rock Beach at Lands End. Lastech took a few pics with his phone in black & white and I really like them. This post is part one of two. I took the Canon and used it for a bunch of wildlife pics. I wanted Lastech’s photos to stand on their own though as they carry a totally different tone.
Lands end is located in the NW corner of San Francisco. The trail follows an old rail line that was used to bring visitors to Sutro Baths.
The view from Lands End. Mile Rock Beach is located beneath the flat bit of land visible directly below the bridge.Trail signsThe trail with the VA hospital visible in the distanceOn the bluff above Mile Rock Beach looking toward the Golden Gate BridgeOn the bluff above the beach looking toward the Pacific. Oddly enough, the spray from the wave looks like a pair of cat ears.Looking down on Mile Rock BeachMile Rock BeachLots of stairsMore stairsThe Marin Headlands from the trailSeagull in flight
One of the creepiest places I ever set foot in, other than Alcatraz, was an abandoned animal research facility on the Peninsula. Besides the stainless steel surfaces and sinks, the scarred tiles and dissection room drains, it was the smell which made some guys’ hair stand on their neck. Nowadays, the place is loaned to Bay Area police departments to practice room clearing with blank ammunition. As to Alcatraz itself, much of its creepiness has to do with the location I think, sitting as it does between San Francisco’s touristic waterfront and Angel Island State Park. The notion of keeping people in tiny concrete cages in the midst of paradise.
On a lighter note, one of the first things we discovered upon arrival was jellybeans.
Understandably, the parts of Alcatraz we were most interested in were closed off to the public, such as the old military parade grounds, taken over by migratory birds. From where we stood, however, we could only see and hear the ubiquitous Seagulls, permanent squatters in more and more places around the bay. Starting at the dock where visitors get dropped off, the ascent towards the main prison building is relatively steep, but worth walking, rather than riding up in the wagons shuttling people to and from.
Building 64 is the oldest building on the Alcatraz. It was housing that was built over the top of the army barracks which had been there since the 1860s.
Provided you come on the earliest tour, before 9 am, walking enables you to take in sights more fully and take the occasional picture without getting photo bombed as the island gets pretty crowded with tourists before noon. Most buildings on Alcatraz share much of their visual appeal with other local examples of 19th century institutional architecture found at the Presidio, on Angel Island and Fort Point, to name a few.
The old Post Exchange burned during the Native American occupation of Alcatraz in the 70s.Broken window in the New Industries buildingThe morgue
The prison’s buildings also appear more dilapidated, enhancing the haunted feeling many visitors feel. The warden’s house only retains four walls and the fireplace, for instance, but is positively cheerful, compared to the cell blocks, and especially the few cells dedicated to solitary confinement. The only time these cells were lit was when they were unoccupied.
The prison as seen from the exercise yardPrison windowBill Baker, a former inmate was there selling his book. If you click on his name, it will take you to an interesting article about him.
There is currently an art exhibit offered for free on Alcatraz, by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Part of the exhibit is on display in the prison’s hospital which is usually closed to the public.
With Wind by Ai Weiwei
This means we got to see more on this trip than most visitors usually get to take in.
An audio tour is available once you enter the main prison building: a recorder is handed to you free of charge, with headphones. Sadly, this means people walk about following the recording’s directions, sometimes stopping abruptly in groups, by this cell, or that, blocking doors and hallways.
Solitary, in cell block DThe hospital, normally closed to visitorsThe hospitalWheelchair in the hospital
At some point in the near future, we will return to the Island, this time for a night tour of Alcatraz, in hopes to experience and capture something different.
Meanwhile we hope you enjoy these images…
The Prison. We didn’t take as many pics inside the prison as it was so awfully crowded.
@Large, is the name of the Weiwei exhibition. The link will take you the website with great descriptions and meanings of the various exhibits.
@Large turns Alcatraz into a space for dialogue about how we define liberty and justice, individual rights and personal responsibility. In artworks that balance political impact with aesthetic grace, the exhibition directly and imaginatively addresses the situation of people around the world who have been deprived of their freedom for speaking out about their beliefs — people like Ai himself.
These are the photos taken everywhere else on the island. The gardens have been lovingly restored by scores of volunteers. The bulk of the garden photos are from the prisoner’s garden adjacent to the exercise yard.
Yes, it’s Caturday and I’m surprised I even have some pictures to post. Given the fact that we are reducing the amount of “stuff” in the apartment and getting rid of furniture too, it’s hard to get nice pics of the kitties. The bookcases are mostly empty with the books either donated or packed away. I have boxes everywhere. I’m making great headway though. 🙂 I’m going to add some sunrise pics to the mix today as I’m still working on the Alcatraz post.
Soooooooo, since it’s Caturday, here are the pointy eared people. Hopefully none of the these are repeats.
The amazing Miss JennyTitanescu on the doll bedTito with his mousie toySleeping beauties
Now for a few sunrise pics. We went out to Aquatic Park and it turned out to be a rather nice morning. I used the Canon and got the vivid orange photos. Lastech used his phone and got the more delicate colors. As before, I really love both.
View of the Transamerica building from a hilltop by Rudha-anCloseup of Coit Tower by Rudha-anCoit Tower by Rudha-anCoit, bird and boat by Rudha-anPastels by LastechShip by LastechMore pastels by Lastech
We managed to sneak out twice this last week for sunrise. I took too many pics for one post, so I’ll break it down. I’ve got sunrise pics, birdie pics along with a bunch of duck butts. Today will just be the first sunrise morning. I took my Canon and Lastech used his phone. It’s fun to see the drastic differences in photos. The Canon grabbed the reds and oranges, while the phone accented the blues and more delicate hues. I love both.
For our Tuesday morning trek, we went down to China Basin to the pier right next to AT&T Park. We hadn’t gone there for photos before, so it was all new to us. We had driven past, but never had the opportunity to stop. Of course, we avoid that area during baseball season as it’s a traffic nightmare. It was beautiful that morning.
I’m going to mix the photos up, but I’ll mark mine and Lastech’s. You will see the difference though.
As for the rain, we have it. It’s very windy as well, so there are trees falling all over the place. There are power outages everywhere. I won’t complain. We need the rain too desperately.
China Basin, the home of AT&T Park by Rudha-anThe statue, by LastechMcCovey Cove by Rudha-anMcCovey Cove by LastechPelicans over the bay by Rudha-anThe bay by LastechPelicans by Rudha-anThe camera was NOT happy when I aimed it at the sun. It got even and gave me this. It’s a pigeon.Lastech’s photo of the pigeon came out much better.
