So Cal Wilderness

I realize a lot of photographers are not too hip on the global use of cell phone cameras but if you know anything about me you already know I'm all about taking pictures no matter what type of camera you use. Besides it the photographer, not the camera that takes the picture right? 

Anyway, My husband, baby girl and I went on a hike a couple of weekends ago and I took nothing with me but a cell phone in the pocket of my shorts. 

As we were hiking I decided to take some pictures of the landscape to share what it looks like were I live. One would be more likely to see pictures of the ocean or even vineyards when thinking about California terrain. As a girl who grew up in Southern California there is just something about the wilderness that brings my childhood back to me. I played in this area as a child. I played in places that are now shopping centers or covered with houses. I am happy to say that we still have a lot of wilderness where I live. I love the colors and the smells from the plants and dirt. They're so distinct they flood my mind and heart with childhood memories every time I go out into the wilderness. Nothing changes there. The dry sage smell today is the same as it was in 1975 when I was out exploring and the cactus looks the same as it did when I was using it to protect my forts from intruders. 

The start of this trail head starts about a block from our house. We can park on the street and literally walk off the sidewalk onto the trail head. My husband is a big fan of mountain biking in this area. Honestly, this is where I get a little freaked out. I'm afraid of mountain lions. Yes, they live here, and yes we've had attacks from runners to bikers to people's pets. It doesn't help that you can smell the cat urine in the hills and that Steve has seen big kitties on his bike rides. I guess this is the point where you have to decide that you'd rather hike than live in fear of something. I'm not a fan of fear so I suck it up and go anyway. Steve is very patient with my squirminess until I adjust. 

PS I call my husband Plan B because he always has a plan B for every situation. 

At times it seems a little weird but most of the time it makes me feel very safe just being around him. Notice I said I had nothing but a phone and from this picture you can see he has a bit more than that.

What it looks like up here in the foothills.

 Cactus is very popular up here.

 I love LOVE in nature!

 Wild gourds are everywhere! 

 Great trails everywhere!

They can be as easy or as difficult as

you'd like.

 The area is surrounded by private properties

which I love because it seems the wilderness

wont be lost.

I love all the old fencing and wooden posts.

 Wild Artichokes

 Wild something else... I loved this darling

thing but have no idea what it is. 

Now, these next two pictures make me think about standing there looking out over the valley. When I see this area I can't help but imagine this is what it must have looked like when the pioneers entered California. I can almost see covered wagons coming over the rolling foothills. They must have loved the mildness of California weather and terrain, at least after they got passed the Sierras. 


We were still getting a little coastal fogginess in the mornings that hadn't really burned off yet here. Seemed a bit hazy still.

Here Steve is showing Emma where our

house is. This would be the opposite side

of the ridge from the valley picture.

This is where we live, down there.

 Just over the hills in the distance is the

ocean.

There are so many different types of flowers and shrubs in this area. In the spring the hills are covered in yellow and purple flowers. I love living here and am so thankful I get to play in the same hills I did when I was a child, it's pretty cool.

 Besides Mountain lions and coyotes we have  some rattlesnakes and a couple of poisonous spiders. But other than that we don't really have many bad things we need to worry about out here. Even our tarantulas are harmless. It's such a great area for families to explore. One of our favorite activities to do out here is Geocaching. This is a GPS activity in which you can enter your location and be lead to planted treasure boxes in your area. While we were out on this day we found one and only signed the log. When we looked for our second cache we found this tree. We never found the cache but felt like I found this treasure instead.