John & Anne Wiley

As you may recall, I’ve named this Tooth Rock because the name Cathedral Peak doesn’t seem to fit.

0355 Tooth Rock Revisited

From the western end of town (and certainly from our place), it looks very much like an incisor sitting on a front ridge of the mountain below La Cumbre Peak. As I’ve probably said before, it’s actually a relatively thin slab of upturned sedimentary sandstone as you can see in this pic from behind.

0350 Behind Tooth Tip

Just left of center and up from the bottom is the top tip of the Tooth Rock slab, and you can see that compared to the overall size it’s thin rather than conical like it looks from town. I’m also fascinated by the potential it has for human habitation, and on this flight I noticed the acorn grinding holes left in this large boulder close below Tooth Rock.

0352 Tooth Grinder

I imagine people (women?) sitting on the surrounding boulders chatting away with those grinding acorns here for food. Did they also live or at least temporarily camp in the many “view” caves on the face of Tooth Rock? Seems like a natural spot for that, and though most of the caves are shallow they could easily have built floors and roofs over them. In addition to the large cave at the base (see my Photo Page for a closeup of that) these are most of the caves on the upper part below the tip.

0356 Upper Cavities

Here’s another pic that shows the ones below this and above the main cave at the base.

0357 Middle Hollows

I’ve included the bottom caves from the prior pic at the top of this one for perspective. I’m presuming current visitors to Tooth Rock would not generally visit these caves unless they have climbing gear. I’m also guessing that native peoples would have considerable skills and strategies for climbing such rocks. Sometimes flying over such places I feel a connection with ancient peoples, and with the hawks they watched circling above them.

In the mountains behind Ojai are some sandstone cliffs that look perfect for cliff dwellers. High enough to provide a view and some safety, but not a long climb from food and water.

0266 Cliff Condo?

I imagine ingenious indigenous home improvement types using sticks and wicker to build a roof and deck onto that big hole near bottom-center. Nearby is a longer cliff wall with more options for housing starts.

0267 Hole in the Wall

Now maybe it’s hard to tell from this small low-res pic, but there are signs of current residents on the left side. Here’s a crop of that area.

0267 For the Birds

Looks like the bottom of that hole at the upper-left has a bird-finished white floor. I wonder if any humans ever did live here, or at least maybe extended migratory seasonal camp-outs. As we began descent over Ojai toward Santa Paula, I noticed how similar the mountains are to our view from home. Maybe my ancient ancestors passed this way, and that’s why these mountains are so familiar and beautiful to me.

0269 Hills of Home

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