John & Anne Wiley

2015/12/15

Always New

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 20:58

Every time we fly this area it’s new. Not just the different angles of light and qualities of air. Any slight dusting of rain like we had the day before these pix shifts the colors in vegetation, especially in surrounding wild country like our mountains.

5707 Hope Eternal

5707 Hope Eternal

Also different on this day was our route, since modest turbulence indicated by those puffy clouds kept many pilots waiting for our typical calm air. So we got this view over Hope Ranch into infinity with a clarity to Point Mugu and beyond that the camera didn’t capture.

5740 Familiar Fave

5740 Familiar Fave

A familiar favorite among our countless views of SB is this one past Shoreline Park and downtown to the sheltering mountains, now tinged with a subtly shifted green from that caress of light rain. Plants here are exquisitely responsive to moisture and tolerant of even exceptional droughts like we’ve been in. Another favorite view is this glance up State Street off Stearn’s Wharf and over the harbor and Mesa back toward distant Point Conception, again all but impossible to share with a camera but endlessly nourishing to our soaring hearts.

5757 Harbor to Conception

5757 Harbor to Conception

2015/12/11

Clue

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 22:35

This post is a clue for the location of an Edhat pic among several I’ve sent them recently. The rock formations in this area are among the most interesting in our mountains, and the dead tree has me wondering about fire danger. If you can guess where this is, add a comment on the Edhat post. 🙂

5360 Rock Parking

5360 Rock Parking

2015/12/10

Dam Game

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 20:37

In looking at the Santa Ynez River & associated reservoir pix in the prior two posts I realized the game trails I’d seen are difficult to make out. I look at the original full-size photos (6000×4000 pixels) and they’re quite clear, especially in some zoom shots. But I always downsize (and often crop) for posting here or submitting pix to Edhat. So here are pix of the dams at Gibraltar & Jameson reservoirs, enhanced a bit so you can hopefully make out what I’m seeing.

5440 Gibraltar Game Trails

5440 Gibraltar Game Trails

Maybe the main trail coming down from the top-left corner is a hiking trail, but there are lots of other interconnected small trails along the ridge bottom-center. Also along the bank at the top. Wildlife must be struggling to find water anywhere other than the reservoirs and pools created by water released from the dams.

5451 Jameson Game Trails

5451 Jameson Game Trails

I see a pretty clear trail across the top of this pic, above the high water line. In the prior post pix I can make out trails above the pools. Some quite high, as if prey species are checking for predators, or predators are stalking. Would be interesting to have motion detector and night vision cameras up there, so we could watch the nature show.

River of Dust

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 09:46

The beautiful Santa Ynez River would have been nothing but dust this year, but for the three main dams. We were surprised to see pools like this along the stretch below Gibraltar Reservoir.

5400 Tiny Oases

5400 Tiny Oases

In case you didn’t notice them amid the vast expanse of brown, I’m talking about the string of pearls bringing the water of life to the lower middle-left of the above pic. As you know, I’m also a fan of rock formations, so it was nice to say hi to this one again as we passed. It was probably carved by eons of epic floods before the dams were built, until the edge stood alone.

5404 Stalwart Stone

5404 Stalwart Stone

Another rock I like is next to another deep pool that harbors some precious water at its base.

5414 Rock, Tree, River

5414 Rock, Tree, River

No doubt these pools have been replenished by occasional releases from the dam at Gibraltar Reservoir, and there’s a nice pool beneath the dam that you can just make out in this pic.

5423 Beneath Gibraltar

5423 Beneath Gibraltar

2015/12/08

Puddles

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 09:15

Did you love splashing in puddles during your youth? In the dry climate where I grew up, it was especially fun. In recent years we’ve been reminded that this is a dry climate too. Flying the Santa Ynez River we were struck by the “puddles” our three main lakes have become. Jameson is showing its heart, with that shape formed by the only remaining water.

5460 Jameson Reservoir

5460 Jameson Reservoir

The puddles are so small that splashing in them (or boating, fishing, etc.) are pretty much prohibited to conserve and protect the dwindling water supply. Gibraltar Reservoir looks even worse, looking from the shallow end toward the dam.

5446 Gibraltar Reservoir

5446 Gibraltar Reservoir

Most striking though is Lake Cachuma as you can see by comparing this next pic with the one on the wiki link above.

5396 Lake Cachuma

5396 Lake Cachuma

Rather than red dirt beneath the blue haze, this is usually a lot of blue water surrounded by green hills with sometimes white caps on those distant mountains. According to the SB County OneRain website Jameson is at a hopeful 30% of capacity, but the much larger and more crucial Gibraltar & Cachuma are down to 14% & 15% respectively. Hopefully we’ll have nourishing rain this Winter accumulating in moderate amounts with no flash floods. If so, it will be fun to fly over and get lush pix to share and cruise the hills checking out all the waterfalls.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Blog at WordPress.com.