Another Red Diamond

We came upon this Red Diamond Rattlesnake Sunday afternoon on our Calavera Preserve hike.

You can tell by its posture that it wasn't too happy to see us!

Museum Day

Yesterday, I drove up to L.A. to go to a couple museums I've been wanting to see.

First stop was the La Brea Tar Pits.

 The museum entry .

This is the lake, which is bubbling methane gas and smells like new phone poles.  The tar pits are right in downtown L.A. and are part of a city park.  There are numerous smaller pits throughout the park which are protected by iron fences.

 The tar pits trapped animals during and since the last ice age, a span of about 55,000 years.  Many of the animals are extinct, such as this bison, which was larger than modern bison.

 An adult and young mastodon.

 A mammoth, standing 13 feet tall at the shoulder.

 Dire Wolves, larger than today's gray wolf.

 The lab, called "The Fishbowl", is active seven days a week.  This man is searching for micro-fossils in the matrix removed from around larger bones.

 Another view of the lab.  Notice the Sabre-Toothed Cat skull.  These are common finds in the tar, or asphalt.

 Pit 19 is being actively worked on.

 This is Project 23.  A few years ago, fossils embedded in tar were unearthed where a new underground parking garage was being built.  Huge blocks of the tar were cut out and boxed in 23 giant tree boxes.  It takes years to chip and clean away the fossils from one box.  Volunteers work seven days a week.

The "Observation Pit" is open to tours.  This is an actual pit, and shows how the slow churning of the tar makes a jumble out of bones from different animals.

My next stop was the Petersen Automotive Museum just down the street.  (Internet photo)

One of my favorite cars was this Round Door Rolls.  Only one was built.

 This is the same car from the rear.  It was originally built in 1925, and then had this body made by a Belgian designer in 1934.  It was rescued in derelict condition in the early 50's.

 This was the world's first car powered by compressed natural gas.  It was an Italian Fiat that was converted to CNG because gasoline was so hard to come by during WWII.

 I love the lines on this '37 Horch.

 They had just about every movie car you could think of.  This was Walter White's car on Breaking Bad.

I'll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves as magnificent art pieces.  These are just a small sampling of the cars on display.  Every car or motorcycle displayed at the museum has some historical importance.

The End

Red Diamond Day

I told Gail, as we set out on our almost daily hike at Calavera Preserve, that I thought it was going to be a "snake day".  About 5 minutes later we saw this...

 San Diego Gopher Snake

and then about 2 hours later, this!

Red Diamond Rattlesnake

This beauty was around four and a half to five feet long, and was our first rattlesnake sighting of the year.

Idyllwild

Thursday, we did a spur of the moment trip up to Idyllwild for two nights.  We are trying to get in condition for our Grand Canyon backpacking trip and thought a long steep hike at elevation would help.

Our cabin turned out to be better than expected, since it was a short notice reservation, and modest rate.

Our cabin had a nice living room...   ok, I'm telling a Trump, this is actually the lodge of Silver Pines where we stayed.

The pretty grounds with a large koi pond was the perfect place to relax.  Staring at koi is one of the most relaxing things one can do.

We wanted to test ourselves on the trail Jerry says is the steepest hike to the top of San Jacinto Peak, the Marion Mountain Trail.

The trail was steep, and hard to follow at times due to pine needles, snow, and fallen trees.

We liked this very large boulder with it's porthole.

Snow, hmmm, we hadn't really thought about it.  We didn't have poles or snow shoes, so things were looking a little dicey.  We didn't see another soul on the whole hike, and there were no other cars where we had to park.

It was pretty, though, with temps in the 50's, and no wind.  When looking up at the mountain from Idyllwild or coming in from the west, there was practically no sign of snow.

We made it up to the junction with Seven Pines Trail, an elevation gain of about 2,500 feet, but far short of reaching the peak.  The snow was changing from a slippery, icy crust, to softer snow that we began to fall through.  We were unprepared, so decided to have lunch and head back down.

The trail is under there somewhere.

Heading back down to lower ground, you can see the trail is pretty vague, and did I say steep?

We had fun back near the trail head butt glissading.

Wheeeee!!!

We did have a couple easier hikes during our stay, and used them as an excuse to eat a lot of greasy, salty food, aka Lumber Mill Bar and Grill - yum!!!

Tenaja Trail

Wednesday, we drove up to the Cleaveland National Forest for an all day hike in a fairly remote area. We are trying to up our mileage in preparation for the Grand Canyon next month.  The highlight of the hike was a remarkable man we met on the trail.

 Right off we sighted a couple Granite Spiny Lizards, who, true to their name, are always on large granite boulders.

 There were numerous Great Basin Fence Lizards.  This is a dark phase example.

 We were on the lookout for breeding alligator lizards, and almost got lucky.  There were two a few inches apart, but one scurried off under cover.

We saw many Western Tiger Swallowtail butterflies near the creek.

From a distance, miles from nowhere, I spotted someone on the trail below, and said to Gail, "That guy is doing trail work!"  She said, "No way, he's and old man!"  I replied, "He has a shovel and tools!"

So we met Bruce who is about to turn 79, and does major repairs to miles of trail out in the wilderness.  He spends his own money and uses his own truck to rebuild trail head parking lots, and remove dangerous trees, among other things.  He is an unpaid Forest Service volunteer.  He told us that he has trouble finding any volunteers to help him when it is over 90 degrees.  Bruce was very animated, funny, full of knowledge, and we must have talked to him for about 20 minutes.

He had dug this rock that was intruding on the trail out of the ground, and was maneuvering it down the trail about 30 feet or so to a hole he dug where it would help support the trail.  This boulder must have weighed a ton!  He was being careful to not let it go over the side, which was steep.  He referred to living in an old folks home.  Amazing!

 San Mateo Creek had some pretty big pools which were tempting.

 We saw Baja California Treefrogs, like this one, California Treefrogs, and bullfrog tadpoles.

This gives an idea of the rugged terrain in this canyon.  Well, I was disappointed at seeing no snakes throughout the day -  I thought conditions were perfect for a sighting.  However, it was a good hike, eleven miles in all.

Glorious Day

Yesterday, Sunday, began rainy and gray, but we stuck to our plans for an all day hike.  We headed north about an hour to the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve west of Murrieta.

 After about 30 minutes of hiking, the rain stopped and the sun broke through.  We didn't see a single sole for the first 3 hours - rare in Southern California!  We called this hill "The Mini Benbulben".

 We hiked up a little knoll for lunch, listening to the gurgling melodies of meadowlarks.

 No power lines, people, bikes, dogs - aaahhhh!  After this photo, we entered a ravine where we were startled by a loud chuffing noise and snapping of brush.  Two deer bolted up the hill continuing to make the loud chuffing sound which we had never heard before.

 Acorn Woodpecker

 This California Thrasher, in the same family as Mocking Birds, was singing up a storm from the top of a bush.  He mimicked various hawks, crows, and often repeated a phrase that sounded like "Look at me!"

California Thrasher

This is a very large vernal pool.  Vernal pools are temporary puddles or ponds that are becoming rare due to human activity.  They are important because they support rare plants and animals that need wet winters and springs, but dry summers.

 There were several species of ducks on the water, including Northern Shovelers like this one.

 A hiker asked us if we had seen any Chocolate Lilies, as he was looking for them.  About an hour later we saw some.

 Chocolate Lilies.

 Gail spotted this Western Side-blotched Lizard, just beginning to grow back its tail.

 Shooting Stars

 Granite Spiny Lizard

California Peony