2023 Trip Chronicles: Page 3

Bittercreek National Wildlife Refuge 4/13

Late morning Thursday April 13, 2023 drove south on US101, east on SR152, south on I5 and SR33 to Taft where I stopped for supplies. I then drove off to Klipstein Canyon within the Bittercreek National Wildlife Refuge where I worked a couple subjects after 6pm PDT.

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The above image shows a Klipstein Canyon slope of dense short wildflowers that appeared more droughty than after past big winters. It includes California juniper, goldfields, California poppy, lacy phcelia, fiddleneck. The short plants are an indication of little surface moisture outside of what was absorbed into roots and that all rose up then bloomed synchronously.

Cottonwood Creek Canyon 4/14

Instead of overnighting at Klipstein Canyon as originally planned given modest conditions, drove west at sunset on SR166 to Cottonwood Creek Canyon where I arrived late dusk parking a bit beyond the stream crossing that is a vehicle ford. All lands beside the paved road from SR166 are private with spring visitors only tolerated to venture into open roadside cattle grazing lands because to this point the low numbers of botany oriented people visiting have treated these properties with respect. A rancher that lives up the road related there is a new owner to these lands so access will continue to depend on how we few treat it. IMO this stream basin with its outstanding botanical values ought be purchased by the state or public land trusts and developed with hiking trails and primitive facilities. Note a few miles further south at the paved road end, is the well recommended Los Padres National Forest, small oak shaded Bates Campground. After a half hour walking about with a bright LED lamp noting lots of flowers for the next day, I then retired for the night. Sunrise next morning, Friday April 14, 2023, my first subject was this small frog pond just a few feet from my parked Forester. And yes there was quite a chorus during the night of both Pacific tree frogs and crickets.

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As the low altitude sun finally reached this pond by 6:30am, I set up my gear and tripod in shadows at a small shallow dead still reflection creek overflow pond near my Forester. At frame upper left is part of many times burned scrub dominated Sierra Madre Mountains. Across the background hills, are well past peak sun bleached hillside daisies. A key reason I gambled on this road trip without any actual web reports, is I could see all those yellow daisies on the Sentinel Hub satellite images. Welcome to the new era for evaluating remote conditions of California spring wildflower landscape road trips. The dominant daisies would have been much more vibrant a week or two earlier but many of the streamside species tend to bloom a bit later with the peak aesthetic a narrow period of days. The best wildflower zone is about the road stream crossing floodplain zone where there is an exceptional variety of dense species. In this view, blue oak, tidy tips, Bentham lupine, purple owl's clover.

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Being early morning, the sun altitude was still too low to illuminate down into vegetation, so I walked up the road to a point that looked down the road bank upon a blue oak I could frame against the background daisy yellows. A couple dark California buzzards were flying above in the sky looking for breakfast. One of my shots focusing on the oak also captured a meadowlark at top branches against blue sky with its beak open making morning calls. Select the enlarged vertical slice view.

To post process this image, instead of my usual manual method because of the large amount of more distant yellow areas showing between branches and leaves, I used the default Zerene Stacker Align and Stack Pmax mode. Just leaving those areas per oak focusing shots would have left the yellow daisy areas weakly focused.

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This next portrait orientation image above shot at 8:20am towards the Sierra Madre Mountains to the south turned out mediocre probably because the sun altitude was still relatively low for an off axis shot. It has value herein as an example of the diverse species with blue oak, goldfields, purple owl's clover, tidy tips, Bentham lupine, thistle sage, yellow pincushion, bicolor lupine, valley tassels, blue dicks, filaree. On my second trip a week later I managed a better image that is on Page 4.

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I drove north to expanses of flowers near the SR166 highway junction then wandered out. Above is a southwest view towards the Sierra Madre Mountains with myriad dense flower owl's clover, castilleja densiflora, growing up among non-native pink hued filaree that always are about cattle grazing lands. Also hillside daisies in the background. Foreground includes a few purple owl's clover and valley tassels mixed in. The Cottonwood Creek stream ravine drops off steeply beyond the owl's clover. Most of these flowers had gone to seed with a dry browner look on my return trip a week later showing how brief their aesthetic peak appearance is.

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This is a view upstream from the brink of lower Cottonwood Creek canyon. During large storms, all those bottom lands may flood. Within the image are four California mule deer, odocoileus hemionus californicus, more easily visible in the enlarged vertical slice view. Within the lower left frame are hillside daisies, blue dicks, chick lupine, fiddleneck, filaree, yellow pincushion.

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Expecting the sun altitude had risen high enough to better illuminate wildflowers at the road stream crossing, I drove back south then walked about awhile but was frustrated with an increasing light breeze. Further south ventured across daisies to a hillside with dense patches of tall arroyo lupine, lupinus succulentus, right at aesthetic peak. Fortunately, the breeze now at 10am was absent in this location allowing me to set up with my Sigma 30mm lens, a 3 column 1 row focus stack stitch blend where I made 62 shots for the above 9400 by 5600 pixel image. I positioned my tripod to include some of the lupine up against the sky at frame right. Above the slice of yellow daisies is a section of scrub sagebrush.

State Route 166 4/14

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Within an hour, I left the area and drove back east on SR155 along the muddy Cuyama River that is rather inaccessible for miles due to barbed wire fencing with NO TRESPASSING private farm and oil pumping lands. On the north side of the river is the Carrizo Plain National Monument boundary. A bit west of the Cottonwood Canyon Road, are a couple of hiking trail access points into the monument. However the much more interesting wildflower zone is to the east in oil lands. The above image shot from a dirt highway pull out shows a foreground expanse of river flood zone fiddleneck. During my few visits along SR166 after past big winters, I'd never seen as much color on the towering Caliente Range badlands as during this year. However it was obvious storms had been spotty in the region with lush green and flowers varying dramatically over short miles. In the background are hillside daisy, lacy phacelia, San Joaquin blazing star, Parry's mallow, California poppy, and desert candle. This is a long 3 column horizontal orientation 56mm lens panorama, 13900 by 3900 pixels. The downsized for web image lacks detail that can be understood by selecting the enlarged vertical slice view. Note the oil storage tank against the blue sky in that view.

An environmental land trust has been working with the monument to wind down all the dated oil operations including clean up of pollution and removing infrastructure. Thus this spectacular zone of the monument will hopefully someday be open to the public. I've added a second 40% pixels crop above that shows how colorful some of these aesthetically valuable towering badlands are. Note the dull orange wildflowers at frame left are San Joaquin blazing star while those brighter orange wildflowers above and beyond it are California poppy.

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By early afternoon with some careful map work, I was able to figure out how to access parts of the national monument into an otherwise unknown canyon to the public canyon that was also within a favored storm zone of heavier precipitation that was utterly spectacular including several species that are uncommon to the north. And my lips will remain sealed as to where this is until changes are made for public access. The above image shows one colorful hill with a long abandoned deteriorating dirt road. It includes globe gilia, fiddleneck, hillside daisies, lacy phacelia, California poppy, Parry's mallow, desert pincushion, cream cups. Most of my subjects during this afternoon due to breezes, did not include foregrounds as I shot from across higher hills. For such, I needed fewer focus stack shots. The greenish greyish desert pincushion, bluish grey globe gilia, and poppies are uncommon within the monument to the north.

At page top is what I consider one of two strongest image this 2023 spring. At 6000 by 6000 pixels it is a 1 column 2 row stitch blend I rarely structure using my new Sony 85mm thus more a telephoto. The light bare areas are Neogene period marine sedimentary sandstone. The heavy 2023 storms rains washed away seeds atop such smooth bare areas leaving the interesting geometric patchwork of colorful forms. The wonderful smooth curved hill forms in the zone also add to subject aesthetics. Yellow hued hillside daisies, violet hued lacy phacelia, orange hued California poppy, magenta hued Parry's mallow, greenish white hued desert pincushion, bluish white hued globe gilia, yellowish orange hued fiddleneck, dried greenish brown hued filaree, green non-native grasses.

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The above wider 30mm 2 column stitch blend shows the full view from this zone. Foreground with hillside daisies, lacy phacelia, and fiddleneck. Frame mid right across the canyon are uncommon about the monument California poppy and silver bush lupine, lupinus albifrons. Also in this view, Parry's mallow, desert pincushion, globe gilia.

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And a 30mm above close geometric art view of the lupine and poppy slope with California poppy, silver bush lupine, hillside daisies, lacy phacelia, fiddleneck, Parry's mallow, desert pincushion, globe gilia, white layia, filaree. Subjects like this require moments of calm lest the abrupt boundary of foreground and distant elements become impossible to post process. The bright white patches are another uncommon in the monument species, white layia, a larger sunflower family species more common in the San Joaquin Valley areas of the Tulare Lake basin that this year has flooded. After returning to my vehicle, I drove east on SR166 then south to Klipstein Canyon where I spent a wonderfully quiet night with the San Joaquin Valley lights in the distance down canyon.

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Early morning Saturday April 15, 2023, I was up at sunrise then drove west to my previous day's afternoon adventure into remote badlands canyons where I spent 3 hours exploring waiting for the sun to rise higher and more to the south in order to illuminate areas of west facing slopes. This first image above worked at 11am, a 4 column stitch blend of 11700 by 5800 pixels from the sandy wash of a canyon bottom includes slopes with fiddleneck, hillside daisies, lacy phacelia, San Joaquin blazing star, California poppy, silver bush lupine, Parry's mallow, desert pincushion, globe gilia, filaree.

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Above shows a single multicolor vertical frame image with a foreground of California poppy, and silver bush lupine, and in the background hillside daisies, Parry's mallow, lacy phacelia, desert pincushion, globe gilia, fiddleneck.

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Two column horizontal 30mm frame image shot at noon of multicolor canyon with fiddleneck, hillside daisies, lacy phacelia, California poppy, silver bush lupine, Parry's mallow, desert pincushion, globe gilia.

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A wider angle, less detailed 30mm lens composition of the UA00306-00322-2x1v subject. Globe gilia, fiddleneck, hillside daisies, lacy phacelia, California poppy, Parry's mallow, desert pincushion, cream cups, silver bush lupine.

NEXT: Page 4 Carrizo Plain National Monument 4/20
2023 Trip Chronicles: Contents

David Senesac
email: info@davidsenesac.com
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