Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve

What a day. A good choice to visit the reserve. Loads of well marked trails through a variety of landscapes and environments. Plenty to see, from another snake, the same as yesterday to birds, insects, trees and prairie grassland. All under lovely blue skies.

Today’s blip shows two of the main habitats from the Coyote Trail. The woodlands, showing autumn tints and the prairie grasslands. In places the landscape had the look and feel of the North Downs of Kent, in others, such as the boulders in the extra, it was pure Southern Californian.

It would take a week of hiking to walk every trail and of course the trails would be different at each season.

The plateau is around 1800 feet with the highest point just over 2000feet. There were extensive views at each twist in the trail. In the main blip on the skyline is Mount San Jacinto where we were some years ago in snow in April.
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2161900798139697725

The granite boulders are all that remain of a great batholith that was at the heart of ancient mountain ranges millions of years ago. Just like the tors of Cornwall. Plenty of onion weathering, or exfoliation, splits and cracks caused by aeons of heating and cooling.

We think the snake was a young rattlesnake by the way. Either that on a gopher snake.