87 of 100: Afternoon walks, part 3

And to wrap up the new year's walks so far:

January 5 we went to Asilomar. It was a beautiful day, and only got more beautiful as a spectacular sunset unfurled. 

Milo loves the beach: see how his ears fly!

Looking north toward Santa Cruz in the distance

Santa Cruz again, in the golden light

The last of the sun

Looking justo the left of the setting sun, same spot

Magnificence!

And finally, January 7: the former Fort Ord, Badger Hills entrance, which takes us up a wide gravel road to the ridge. Along the way we passed a couple herds of sheep—Dorper sheep from South Africa, we learned (the breed is from SA, not these specific sheep). Another perfect day, with a pretty good sunset.

Some of the sheep, with Toro Park in the background

Not sure whose skull this is, with its tuft of fur

Evening sky over Salinas

The light gets rosier

Dorpers

Splendid!

We will continue with our walks, of course, and I will continue to take photos, but for now these eight itineraries give a nice sampling of the variety of our home turf. It makes me happy to have so many options.

86 of 100: Afternoon walks, part 2

And to continue with...

January 1, a walk along a short coastal bike path—our reason for being in the neighborhood being a geocache, but the views from the path of Monterey Bay are among the best.

Looking north toward Moss Landing

Natural sand sculpture along the path

Unnatural sand mover

The cache (the big duck)

On January 2 our walk took us behind a local business park, into a pine woods. We rarely encounter anyone there. But this day we encountered plenty of mushrooms, and we came home with a bounty that David transformed into dinner: blewits (Lepista nuda) on pork chops, with a side of braised chard. Yum!

Here he is with our catch. Note the
delicate lavender of the gills.

The lavender doesn't show up, but I love the
fragile gills.

There was also moss and lichen

The woods in question

Not only mushrooms: also toyon berries

Nascent honey mushrooms

Amanita muscaria without its spots

Suillus sp. (aka slippery jack)

And a couple of LBJs (little brown jobs)

 

 January 4 took us up to Jacks Peak County Park, via a back way that we enjoy; it's a climb, and it affords excellent views.

S-curve

Part of the path is through chaparral

Looking down on Monterey Harbor

It was a gorgeous sunset.

Continued on #87.

85 of 100: Afternoon walks

Just before New Year's, I started choosing our afternoon dogwalk spot for its variety of scene—because we have so many beautiful landscapes within a 15-minute drive, and I wanted to celebrate that diversity. And I documented our walks. So here, and perhaps extending for several posts (I'll get to 100 yet, ha ha), I'll post the photos that I originally posted on FB. I've had fun looking around.

December 27, Eucalyptus Road in Seaside: a road generally empty of cars because it doesn't go through to anywhere, on an edge of the former Fort Ord—chaparral, a dwarf oak woods. And currently, the water company is laying pipes. At the end of our walk we were treated to the conversations of several great horned owls. I took a video, but videos don't transfer here, sadly. It was a glorious sound. (The final image here is of two owls sitting side by side on a power pole. Mostly, though, they were in separate locations—in oak trees, on power poles—as they conversed.)

I love the beat-up heavy machinery

A roadbed abstraction

There's plenty of concertina wire, this having been
a working army base for many years

The shrouded pipes awaiting burial

The two owls are at the bottom of the pole

December 28, Garzas Canyon: a favorite walk along a rushing creek

Turkey tail fungus

Garzas Creek

Ormsbee Lookout in the Santa Lucia Preserve

December 30, Fort Ord: a visit to Comanche, the old army base's last ceremonial war horse. The visit included a stampede of goats, here for the winter to digest some of the abundant vegetation, and I took a video, which I find amusing. You can see it on FB. 

A fuzzy screenshot, but I have to have the goats here!

Comanche's grave

We usually extend the walk through the oak woods

The mushrooms have started to pop

Continued on #86.