My niece Jessica put up a post challenging her friends to flood FB with beach pictures. So I thought I’d bring on a little arch madness with a post on the sea arches of Mendocino County.
One of the arches you can see from the Mendocino Headlands
Sea arches are one of the most ephemeral of landforms, rarely lasting more than a century, often standing for only a few decades before the constant battering of the relentless surf sends them crashing down.
Stornetta Highlands, California Coastal National Monument
For instance, Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz had 3 bridges in 1904. Today only one remains. If you’d like to see how dramatic these changes can be in such an incredibly short time, check out this article that Gary Griggs wrote for the Santa Aguila Foundation. The before and after pictures are astounding!
View from a tunnel on Seaside Beach
These geologic sculptures can be much more fragile than they look. Even thick, seemingly stable arches are subject to catastrophic collapse. In March 2015 an arch collapsed at Point Reyes National Seashore, killing a woman. If you’re walking the headlands of northern California and see signs warning you to stay back from the edges of the cliffs, heed them. Erosion is on a fast track here.
They call the formation on the left The Whale. No idea why.
Geohazards like these catastrophic collapses will become more and more common in future years, due to sea level rise caused by climate change.
An arch north of Westport
Your children may not see the same arches you did when they visit the Pacific Coast. But the forces that destroy these landforms are constantly carving new ones, exquisite jewels in a dynamic landscape ruled by the sea.
A new arch forming – What will it look like ten years from now?
For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Ann-Christine asks us to envision the future. It could be near future or far, personal future or universal.
“The future’s uncertain, but the end is always near. ” Jim Morrison
I read Tina’s post, with its warnings about the consequences of climate change. Climate change was already on my mind. I had just spent the morning at an open house held by the Navarro-By-The-Sea Center. They are trying to save the remaining historical buildings still standing at the site of the former town of Navarro-By-The-Sea, but the open house was held more to bring awareness of king tides and the rise of sea level due to climate change.
A king tide was in progress, so to get to the Center those of us without 4-wheel drive had to take a shuttle with high enough clearance to ford the water. The beach parking lot was completely underwater. Sea level is 6 inches higher than it was in 1950. This may not seem like much, but the rate is increasing dramatically, over 66% in the last 5 years. Now it’s rising at the rate of an inch every 5 years, and that rate is still going up. A lot of places are going under, and the king tides are a preview of what will become an everyday occurrence in the near future.
King tides and rising sea level
As I witness ecosystem crashes and see the current administration win one battle after another in its War Against Nature, I despair. When I contemplate the future, I fear we’re already past the tipping point.
I couldn’t go there. I thought of other signs of the consequences of climate change I could write about, but it all made me so sad. I couldn’t write a whole post with no hope, and I was feeling hopeless.
Sea level is rising.
I needed some positivity, so I started playing Michael Franti as I read the post from Soybend, “Someday in the Future”. It was uplifting, positive and poetic, just what I needed. I then learned about new research connecting melting ice in the Arctic to the increasing prevalence of El Nino cycles.
I saw a teeny, tiny silver lining to the dark storm clouds of the future. More El Ninos = more desert wildflowers. Ironic that as so many other places dry up and desiccate, the California desert will get wetter.
More desert wildflowers?
I started thinking about desert wildflowers, and that led me to my personal near future, which is actually pretty exciting.
“The future’s so bright, I’ve gotta wear shades.”
Patrick Lee Mac Donald
I’m currently housesitting on the beautiful Mendocino Coast in northern California. Think redwoods and wild, secluded beaches with an abundance of arches and sea stacks.
Love those Redwoods!
I’ll leave here in early March and go down to see the desert flowers. I’ll head east and travel through the Sierra foothills so I can avoid the urban insanity of San Francisco traffic. Along the way, maybe I’ll stop at Yosemite.
Yosemite Falls
I have four flower destinations in mind. Death Valley received nearly an inch of rain over the winter, which is a decent amount for that place. When I passed through in mid-January, there were a lot of little seedlings coming up. I even saw a Turtleback blooming already. If the winds and heat aren’t too brutal, it might be a nice bloom this year. Since the last 3 years were abysmal there, I’m looking forward to and hoping for a good season this time around.
Notchleaf Phacelia
Joshua Tree has gotten a lot of moisture this winter, both snow and rain. There’s a current winter storm warning there, so the precip is still happening. I think Joshua Tree might be THE place to check out this year, although I doubt if it will be quite as outrageous as it was last spring.
Purple Mat
Anza Borrego has gotten a fair amount of precipitation, too, over an inch in one winter storm. Smaller storms since then have kept the ground moist. Word is flowers are already blooming in Coyote Canyon.
Wild Apricot
Last year I discovered Carrizo Plains. The rough dirt roads are hard on my little truck, but I’ll just have to try to go slow and pray the washboard isn’t TOO bad. I thought it had some of the best wildflowers I’d ever seen, and Carrizo got hit by all the same storms that have inundated Joshua Tree.
Camping at Carrizo Plains
As I head back north to Alaska, those Sierra foothills and southern Oregon should be blooming. I’m not sure if I’ll travel back by the coast or interior yet, but by May I’ll be back home enjoying the incredible view from my front porch.
The countdown continues. A few days ago I posted spots 13 through 7 of my favorite 2019 photography destinations. This week, I list the best ones of all, the destinations that rated 1 through 6 of my personal best.
6) Joshua Tree National Park
Superbloom. Joshua Tree had one this past spring. Need I say more? This coming spring should be fairly good, too. It’s been raining and snowing with more rain and snow in the forecast. Even if the flowers aren’t as spectacular as they were last spring, Joshua Tree is still a great place to visit. It is also home to some very cool rocks. One of these days I plan to spend more time in the rocks – when I’m not so distracted by the flowers.
5) Anza Borrego State Park
Anza Borrego also had an excellent wildflower season. It was definitely one of my favorite 2019 photography destinations, as I got to visit not once, not twice, but three times! I saw different plants blooming each time. I even saw my favorite campsite in the park in bloom, something I’ve never been lucky enough to catch before.
Each winter vast numbers of sandhill cranes and snow geese descend upon the refuge for the winter. There are lots of other birds and wildlife, too.
It’s a great place to polish your craft. It has become one of my new favorite places.
Northern Pintail
3) San Simeon
Since I had a couple of different housesits on the central California Coast, Piedras Blancas and San Simeon became one of my favorite 2019 photography destinations. I spent a lot of time camping at San Simeon; before, in between and after my housesits.
Down on the beach right below the campground, there is a bird sanctuary. I took advantage of the wonderful opportunities for checking out the shorebirds there. And then there’s Cambria, just a few miles south. I love that little town, and I especially love Moonstone Beach, with all the pretty pebbles.
I’d been to San Simeon before and loved it, but never at the prime time for the elephant seal action. January and February are when the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas, just a few miles up the coast, are birthing, fighting, and mating. It’s a true wildlife extravaganza!
They’re so grouchy!
2) Carrizo Plains National Monument
This is definitely one of my new favorite places. Most of the year you’d never give it a second glance. But when the flowers bloom in the springtime, this land is amazing. Possibly the best wildflower display I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something. The most incredible thing, though, is the fragrance. In some places, the blend of different floral scents is pure nirvana. Take lots of deep breaths. The huge swaths of color, whole hillsides dyed pink, purple or yellow from acres upon acres of blooms can be pretty dang impressive, too.
Owl’s Clover & Goldfields
1) Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
There’s no place like home. Especially when your home is possibly the most spectacular place in North America! When I look at the view I get right from my front porch, it’s a wonder I ever leave the place!
This is my commute!
I hope you enjoyed checking out my favorite photographic destinations for 2019. 2020 will bring a host of new experiences. Some of my favorites will remain the same, but I’m sure I’ll find a treasure trove of new favorites, too. Where do you plan to go in 2020? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks, Patti, for bringing us this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. Filling the frame is such an important photographic concept. I would like to use a few images from last spring’s desert wildflower bloom to illustrate my take on filling the frame.
Sometimes you may find that just documenting a scene or an object falls flat and doesn’t really capture the essence of your subject, as in this image of a yucca plant in bloom.
Yucca in bloom, Anza-Borrego State Park, CA
Moving in closer may be one way to capture that essence.
Think about what is in your frame. Is it all necessary to express what you want to convey with the image?
The cactus flowers are beautiful, but do I really need that white rock in the photo? Isn’t it kind of distracting?
What do you find most compelling about the object/scene? For me, it was the silky translucency of the pink petals and the way the color blended into the beautiful brown shade at the center of the flower. I was also intrigued by the complexity revealed in the heart of the bloom.
When photographing wildlife, we might quickly grab an “insurance” shot in our excitement at seeing the animal. The result is often less than memorable.
Boring!
Filling the frame will often make a much more compelling image. However, we should get closer and fill the frame by using a longer focal length. As I mentioned in last week’s post, we need to respect the animal’s comfort zone. Our actions should never change an animal’s behavior.
Better!
Filling the frame does not necessarily mean moving in closer. It means being aware of every element in the composition. It means watching the edges of the photo and making sure everything included is there for a reason.
Filling the frame is a great rule of thumb, but as with most rules, the beauty of knowing the rules is knowing when it’s OK to break them. Think of your essential questions when composing the image. What are you trying to convey? What is essential to conveying it?
For instance, when I saw this Ajo Lily growing straight out of the rock I was struck by the barrenness of its surroundings. How tough and resilient a flower must be, to blossom straight out of a rock! Including the surrounding sandstone was essential to the meaning of this image. A close-up of the flower, although beautiful, would not convey those deeper meanings.
A flower with the resilience to overcome a hostile environment
Most of the time, though, it’s a good thing to remember – for more exciting images, try filling the frame!
If you follow desert wildflowers, you NEED to visit Carrizo Plain National Monument in April. This is the land that wildflower dreams are made of.
The view from my campsite
Although not technically in the desert, Carrizo Plains is just over the hills from the western Mojave. It’s a great place to stop if you are traveling between the desert wildflowers and the California coast.
It’s not necessarily an easy place to visit, though. All the roads in the national monument are dirt. They are rough, often washboard, and if it rains, forget it. Then the roads become impassable, a morass of mud. It is about 50 miles from one end of the monument to the other. No matter how you cut it, it’s a lot of dirt road back road. High clearance vehicles are highly recommended.
Carrizo Plain National Monument
It’s worth the extra effort. Huge swaths of color paint the rolling hills surrounding you. You step out into sweeping fields of flowers, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, lost in the poppies. It looks like a monoculture until you get out of the car, and walk. Then you find other rare beauties hiding in plain sight.
The most striking sensation though is the smell. The delicate fragrance of these endless fields of flowers is one of the most delightful scents I’ve ever experienced.
Owl’s Clover
Camping here at night is incredibly peaceful. Greeting a dawn filled with color on both land and sky, then watching the sun slowly light up the blossoms is an amazing way to start the day.
Carrizo Plain is in California’s great Central Valley. The land was once a tapestry of native plants and grasses, home to pronghorn antelope and kit foxes.
Lupine on the Simmler Road
Now the entire Central Valley is filled with oil fields and BigAg. There is not much left of the original ecosystem. At 246,812 acres, Carrizo Plain is the largest remaining piece of native grassland.
In 1988 the Nature Conservancy began to purchase the land. President Clinton declared the area a National Monument in 2001. It is now managed through a partnership of the Nature Conservancy, the BLM and California Department of Fish and Game.
Coreopsis and Phacelia
As the last remnant of a once vast savannah, Carrizo Plain is home to more endangered species than any other place in California. Residents include the San Joaquin Kit Fox, the Giant Kangaroo Rat, and the California Condor.
Carrizo Plain is a special treat for birders. Not only are there condors, but this is also the largest protected habitat left on the Pacific Flyway.
Tidy Tips
Carrizo Plain is on the San Andreas Fault and is one of the easiest places around to see the geologic change wrought by the fault. Check out the offset shutter ridges in the Temblor Range or take a walk up Wallace Creek to witness those changes.
The monument is rich in cultural sites, too. Although badly damaged by vandals, 4,000-year-old pictographs are found at Painted Rock. Painted Rock is a National Historic Landmark and sacred to many Californian Native American tribes.
Tidy Tips and Phacelia
The Wilderness Society even wanted to nominate Carrizo Plain as a World Heritage Site. Local opposition, though, defeated that effort.
Although the Carrizo Plain has many fine features, the flowers remain the main draw. Words cannot express. They are unbelievable.
Checkered Fiddleneck
I really, really, really wanted to stay and camp one more day, but my little truck had other ideas. I reached the northern boundary and turned around to hit 50 more miles of dirt road back road. Within 5 miles the “check engine” light went on.
I didn’t want to turn back. I continued on a couple more miles. I really, really wanted to stay. Then common sense kicked in. With 45 or so miles of rough road ahead, it was no place to get stuck with car trouble. My AAA tow insurance won’t go there. I had to turn back to pavement and say good-bye to Carrizo.
Owl’s Clover & Goldfields
As soon as I made it back to civilization and access to a mechanic in Santa Maria, the check engine light went off. The little girl didn’t break down, she was just telling me she was tired of the rough stuff and done with dirt road back road for a while. I’m relieved, but I look forward to next April and the delightful display of wildflowers sure to be found in Carrizo Plain.
