John & Anne Wiley

2014/03/03

Falling

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 23:26

When it stopped raining and the clouds lifted yesterday we went “falling” (flying along the hills enjoying waterfalls). The air was hazy and light was low due to the still heavy clouds above, so the pix didn’t come out as I’d most like. But I did manage to catch some of the freshening falls with these pix.

2781 Private Wonder

2781 Private Wonder

This first one perhaps two miles from SBA is pretty amazing, but I’ve been told it’s on private property. The amount of water in it is far more than any of the others we saw yesterday, and it has at least three levels with pools. What a glorious place this would be on a summer day! Here’s an overhead view.

2793 Down Fall

2793 Down Fall

We saw several “slit” falls like this, with little water but fascinating rock work from millennia of water and rocks carving the groove as they passed this way toward the sea far below.

2803 Groovy Falls

2803 Groovy Falls

Here’s another with a similar yet quite different look, lower down the mountain where more rivulets have joined the stream that built it. So near the city, yet it seems likely that very few people have ever stood here in the song of splash and gazed out to the islands as a hawk circled in the rising air.

2806 Notch Falls

2806 Notch Falls

Many of these small falls have cut deeply into the rock, and some have little round pools like this probably carved by small boulders swirling in the current. How many people have enjoyed a serene bath in this tub?

2810 Tiny Tub

2810 Tiny Tub

Another tub is carved at the bottom of this steep ravine where more plants have managed to gain a foothold in the notch. I am here in this water garden, silently aware of life surrounding and within.

2814 Green Tub

2814 Green Tub

There were other falls we wanted to check on, but the clouds were too low. Some of them are larger collections of various tributary creeks and springs. But down in the foothills where we saw this last one, not many waterfalls were visible because they’d all collected into creeks covered by lush tree canopies. Even though this is but a trickle, the bare rock shows how much water flows here in heavy rains that carry boulders scouring away the soil and brush.

2813 Trickle

2813 Trickle

While our hearts take wing over the beauty of our planet, our feet yearn to hear and smell the living planet. So after we tied Tripp’s stout wings to the ground, we hiked up the San Antonio Creek Trail to move in wonder among the ancient oaks beside dancing waters where only days before we’d stood on dry sand.

3054 Wet Wonderland

3054 Wet Wonderland

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