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| Summer on Cataract Creek |
Mt. Tam's Cataract Creek, so named for its wet season splendor below Laurel Dell, is just a series of quiet pools separated by stretches of dry stones in the summer. I was on the trail at 7 a.m. the other day, feeling a little guilty for driving all the way up there on a bit of a wild goose chase, but also feeling very fortunate to be out in nature on a beautiful morning.
A couple of scenes I'd glimpsed in passing during a recent hike with my wife had stuck with me, so I thought they might be worth a closer look with the D800. One was a bloom of farewell-to-spring, and the other was this little fern-fringed section of the creek. Both spots were close together and only about a half-mile from Rock Spring. Despite the lack of novelty in these very familiar surroundings, I somehow spent a couple of hours exploring photo opportunities, about the same amount of time my wife and I had spent hiking our six-and-a-half mile loop a few days before.
The farewell-to-spring blossoms were still closed when I arrived, but the sun soon rose above the forest and opened them up. Around the same time the sun was opening them up, I noticed that the blossoms still in the shade were also opening up. I wondered if they were responding to some sort of circadian rhythm, or maybe temperature or a slight increase in brightness. Or maybe even the wood-wide-web: imagine the plants in the sunlight somehow communicating the new day's arrival to all the others nearby.
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| Fern & Pool |
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| Morning Meadow #1 |
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| Morning Meadow #2 |
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| Flames of Grass |
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| Arcs of Sedge & Spears of Mugwort |
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| Farewell-to-Spring #1 |
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| Farewell-to-Spring #2 |
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| Farewell-to-Spring #3 |
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| Rosinweed |
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| Fresh Green Cones of Douglas Fir |
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| Close-up of Cone Scales & Rat Tails |
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