Boney Mountain State Wilderness above Conejo Grade near Camarillo has some great rock formations. I got some pix when we flew over it recently, and will probably post more here in addition to those I’ve already sent to Edhat and posted on my Photo Page (links in right column here). Meanwhile, here’s a starter.
9585 Boney Colors
Most flights in the Santa Barbara region provide a bounty of panoramas. Sadly, few photos capture even a slice of this overwhelming beauty. Even so, I like these slices more than many I’ve snapped. Taking off from runway 15L, if air traffic is light sometimes I request a left crosswind shoreline departure that provides the panorama hinted at by this slice.
9529 Shoreline Departure
On this day ATC changed their mind and had me fly North toward the mountains, turning our side window panorama and providing this slice that crosses the first one.
9531 Turned Slice
Reaching the 101 freeway, ATC turned us again to fly East until the freeway winds toward the South. That offers yet another slice of paradise beyond the friendly municipal golf course.
9539 Paradise Slice
As you probably know, having landed in every state and province North of Mexico, we still find our region the most beautiful and diverse. Even a few minutes aloft in this area provides a heart full of soul soothing scenes that these pix only hint at with serene slices.
I was looking thru the rest of my pix from the Avila flight and decided to share this one of the little rocks shooting up from a pasture between Diablo nuke plant and the lighthouse at Avila.
9309 Tiny Giants
I hadn’t realized how tall they are until looking at the pic full size (click it to enlarge) and noticing the cows grazing to the left of the top rock for scale. If the cows are 4½’ tall, that rock is about 80′ high. I wonder what processes formed and exposed them (volcanic?), and how many people have climbed them over the eons.
For many years the interface between computers and people has been very interesting to me. Even in today’s cutting edge technology it can often feel as if we’re pounding our “wetware” (brains) against an unyielding machine. Even if the machine can now be carried in our pocket.
Whether due to being a California native or due to another aspect of interface fascination, I’m drawn to the places where things and people meet. Like the base of Morro Rock, where the sea relentlessly carves out caves from the solid stone.
9189 Morro Rock Cave
Back toward the South, Montaña De Oro harbors an interface of grass and sand, air and water, waves and stone, in a symphony of Life. Every time I look at this next photo, my heart rate slows and breathing deepens. The quiet mood evoked by timeless beauty fills my soul with the misty distant throb of surf.
9223 Meeting Place
Families interfacing children and elders stroll and scramble these soft and hard shapes, and lone souls find solace. The abundance of life you can see thrives atop layers of unseen life slowly digesting the stone and absorbing the sand. I see parts of that story written in this slab of sandstone being pounded for millennia by earthquakes and peeled away by the prying waves of sea and life of all sizes and sorts.
9229 Tablet Computer
This stone tablet stores the tale and computes the story of this place, the perfect interface.
We missed flying out to the islands to see the recent high surf, but at least I got this high view of the more normal surf out at Rincon. 🙂
9557 Surf Shape
When I let go of knowing what it is, the shapes and textures in this snap evoke some abstract art. Such a beautiful world we have!
John & Anne Wiley 
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