We've been excited to post about our weekend adventures, which began a few weeks ago. This is the first installment. Christine has done an amazing job of scouring books, magazines, and the web for must-see destinations in CA. With grad school for me, a full-time job for her, and the addition of JD for both of us, it's easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget about all that this state has to offer. But, the ever-imposing end date for CA and our impending move to Eugene are great motivators to make our last few months here as memorable as possible.
Our first trek took us to the
Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, a sprawling landscape of rolling hills on the western edge of the Mojave Desert. From Pasadena, it's about 50 miles north, and 15 miles west. Those last 15 miles of the drive were stunning; from the two-lane country highway, we could see entire hillsides blanketed in bright orange poppies--14 miles away!
We started at the Visitor's center, a cool and unique building built right into the hillside. I took this picture after our hike, when the visitor's center was closed, people were gone, and the sunset brought out the colors of the desert sky.
The park rangers in the visitor's center recommended a couple of easy hiking loops that would afford great views of the valley and its flowers. One major concern in the desert is rattlesnakes. We felt much better having Jonathan ride in the Kelty pack on Daddy's back than letting him roam free on the trails. Fortunately, we didn't encounter any rattlesnakes along the way. Crazy enough, though, many people pulled off on the side of the highway leading up to the reserve and trudged up into the brush to take pictures with all the flowers. In addition to risking rattlesnake bites, stomping on the wildflowers and other plants carries a great cost. Park rangers commented that it takes approximately seven years for the plants to regrow, if they regrow at all.
The views along the hike were amazing. We could see the Coachella valley, and all the way over to the Salton Sea to the east. According to the poppy field web site, antelope once filled the valley and grazed on its hillsides. When the railroad came west, however, the antelope population was decimated by hunters.
Mommy was on quite the photographic journey for the day. Here is one of only a few times that she was in front of the lens, instead of behind it! This picture was taken on one of several breaks that we took to re-adjust the Kelty pack. It turns out that our model had a manufacturing glitch that causes the pack to slide down on its adjustable frame. So, every few minutes, Jonathan's weight would shift from my hips to my butt. Not comfortable! Kelty has a lifetime warranty, so they'll be sending the latest model to us soon. Yay!
We let Jonathan take a few pictures from his perspective during one of our stops. He got this one of me while I was getting something out of the pack.
This colorful guy was one of the many local inhabitants that we got to see on our hike. We saw roadrunners and quail, beetles, ladybugs, and many, many lizards. Jonathan even got to take home a stuffed animal version of the quail as a souvenir.
As well as making a beautiful blanket for the valley, the poppies were gorgeous at close range.
Here and there, we saw other bursts of wildflowers. We've got more pictures than we could possibly post!
As the sun started getting low in the sky, all the poppies closed up for the night. And, somewhere along the way, we realized that we'd taken the longest and most difficult hike. We missed a turn somewhere, but the extra distance gave some great views and a little more (much-needed!) exercise.
At sunset, the orange went from the ground to the sky.
Jonathan was a trooper in the backpack all day, and he was ready for a little cuddle time after he got out.
He was also excited to do a bit of walking and running. We let him run out some energy when we got down to the parking lot. He scraped up his knee, and came home looking like a true boy! We had a great day, and can't wait to share our next Saturday adventure with you soon.
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