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| Dream Landscape, Mt. Tamalpais |
I'd hoped the fog would be floating much higher on the mountain than it was this morning. The web cams looked promising, but a strong and dry, smoke-scented wind out of the northwest seemed to have pushed the fog to a lower elevation early in the morning. Interestingly, Windy.com shows the wind circulating in from the northeast. As the map isn't the territory, neither are the weather models.
With no fog up high, I drove past the entrance across from the Pantoll Ranger Station (which, at 6:50 a.m., had yet to open anyway) to descend into the fog and redwoods. It was nice and quiet down there, with only two or three cars passing by the whole time I was there.
After enjoying the redwoods, I drove back up the hill to Rock Spring where a covey of California quail and two black-tailed jackrabbits eluded capture by my lens. I hiked a short ways to set out a couple of trail cameras, and from there continued on to see if the leopard lilies were still blooming in their usual spot. I figured it was going to be a bit late in the summer to find them, but even so, I was surprised to find no trace of them at all. Not even fruited-out stalks. I hope they haven't been permanently choked out of that particular location.
Hiking off-trail, I waded through the tallest grasses I've ever encountered anywhere on the mountain. Thankfully, tick season seems to have passed. However, there were still lots of resinous grass seeds that infiltrated my socks and even stuck to my legs. Nevertheless, the early morning light was gorgeous.
Despite the beautiful light, I wasn't finding any subjects to pose in it. I was reminded of an artist interview I recently came across in which Edward Hopper said all he really wanted to do was paint the light on the sides of houses. I tried to take that to heart, but I still didn't find anything I wanted to photograph, so I drove down past Muir Woods to Frank's Valley and poked around Redwood Creek for awhile.
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| Panoramic Highway Descent Toward Stinson Beach |
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| Sword Fern & Redwoods in the Fog |
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| Lots of junior redwood sprouts were rising at mama's feet. |
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| Redwood Road Trip |
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| Morning Mists |
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| Layers of Forest & Fog |
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| I saw very few wildflowers up around Rock Spring, and even the rosinweed seemed to be winding down. |
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| I got different answers when tried to get an ID on this tall grass from both PlantID and iNaturalist (even different genera), so I'll leave it un-named. |
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| Whatever it is, the dark woods along Redwood Creek made a good backdrop for it. |
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| I wasn't even thinking about banana slugs when I entered the woods to scurry down to the creek. And then I saw this longfellow cruising up an alder trunk. And then I saw more farther up the tree. And then I saw a half-dozen or so, little bitty slimers to full-sized mollusks, right around my feet.... |
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| I've never had to be so careful to not step on a slug, and thankfully I believe no slugs were harmed in the making of these pictures. |
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| Alder Leaves in Redwood Creek |
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| Color in the Crick |
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| Panning for Gold |
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| Reflections from Above |
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| Hedge Nettle Intertwined With Horsetail |
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