I’ve said it many times: California is my favorite place. One of the attractions of living in the beautiful blue and green of Santa Barbara is that only 30-some minutes of Tripp time away is a place named California Valley. It’s on the Carrizo Plain where Soda Lake always presents interesting shapes for aerial viewing.
0221 Seuss Pond
This one I’ll call Seuss Pond is a prime example. It’s fascinating to me how the shapes emerge from what seems on the ground to be a perfectly flat dry lake bed. The whole lake is festooned with fanciful shapes that change as the rain water evaporates. You can see part of Seuss Pond at the bottom-right of this wider shot that still doesn’t show the whole lake.
0224 Soda Lake
Circling to look more closely at Seuss Pond the textures and subtle colors stand out much more clearly.
0228 Textures
An integral part of this surreal landscape is the enchanting ancient hangout now known as Painted Rock, and home to nesting Peregrine Falcons. We never tire of looking at this magical stone alcove, and communing with the palpable presence of those who have enjoyed it for millennia. The opening beckons those who would walk in to sit in silence as we have done, contemplating the rock art and attending to the sounds of silence.
0237 Painted Rock
John & Anne Wiley 
Beautiful! 🙂 Now I know why the characters of ALIAS(tv series) Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughn want to spend some vacay in Santa Barbara! LOL Wanna be there someday 🙂
Comment by nenskei — 2012/02/22 @ 08:18