Dan and I spent a few nights in Napa last week. It was strange to stay overnight somewhere when we live so close, but the time-share stay was a retirement gift from his co-workers and it was a great opportunity for us to go do some of those things that are “in our own backyard” that we don’t take time to do otherwise.
The weather outlook for Tuesday was dry so we decided to find a place to hike. Many of the state and county parks in the area are closed due to the recent horrific fires. But we found a trail that was unaffected by the Tubbs Fire. We had breakfast in Calistoga and then drove up Hwy. 29 towards Mt. St. Helena.
The Robert Louis Stevenson State Park to the north of the highway is closed but the Table Rock trail is south of the highway.
The trail starts out in groves of oak, madrone, and bay trees. This area was damp from recent rain and the trees looked as though they were covered with green fur.
A new kind of fir fur tree?
Making things larger than life through the lens.
As the trail descended the other side of the first ridge the vegetation seemed more typical of California chaparral. These are the seeds of the California Buckeye.
The California buckeye is one of the first deciduous trees to leaf out in the spring, but it also goes dormant and loses it’s leaves in late summer. Although the “nuts” may seem similar to chestnuts, these are toxic.
The trail leads to the western end of a formation called the Palisades, volcanic rock that towers over the northern end of the Napa Valley.
That is the town of Calistoga down below. 
We sat on the rocks known as Table Rock for quite awhile, soaking up the sun and watching birds and the beautiful sky. The fire missed this area, but not Mt. St. Helena in the background and the lower area along the highway.
As we sat on the rocks Dan noticed a Cal Fire plane flying around Mt. St. Helena and then saw it drop something–we wonder of that is seed to help stabilize the burned landscape.
Mustard blooming.
Mistletoe berries.
Almonds just about ready to bloom.
Looking west.
Taken earlier in the day. One of our two almond trees is in full bloom and full of bees.
January 22, 2015. 
February 5.
February. Almonds are blooming.
April 26, 2015. The field has been bedded, ready for tomatoes.
May 3, 2015
June 9, 2015
July 22, 2015
August 9, 2015
August 30, 2015
This is a photo taken across the road, from Across the Road. (That is my pasture looking west.)
The alfalfa field that is the green triangle in the upper right in the aerial photo.
Beans that were planted after the wheat harvest in the are shown in the triangle that is the upper center of the aerial photo.
September 5, 2015.
September 9, 2015. It took 4 days, working 24 hours/day to finish harvesting this field.
September 23, 2015. Back to the beans. The dry plants have been put into windrows waiting for harvest.
September 27, 2015.
October 6, 2015. Field disked and bedded waiting for the next planting. I’m told that it will be planted to sunflowers this spring.
November 29, 2015. If we have regular rain I can’t walk across here because it gets too muddy. There have been very few days that we haven’t been able to walk. 
December 1, 2015. View of our place, looking west across the field. We need to see more green on those hills.
Beverly, who owns Jitterbug Rugs Studio (motto: Life’s Short – Cut a Rug!) is a pro.
I spent two nights at Bonnie’s and Richard’s wonderful house about 7 miles north of Cedarville. This was the view from my window in the morning and I had to quickly get out with my camera.
The sun rose over the Hays Mountains that are in Nevada.
After stowing our gear we set off north to see what the town of Kelso looked like. Have you ever seen a sign with a flashing light that cautions you to watch for tortoises? I never had and I wish I had stopped for a photo. It was one of those things that I thought I’d do on the way back but we ended up making a loop through the preserve.
This is Jenkinson Lake. There camping areas all around it and lots of people on this Memorial Day weekend. I had Ginny on the leash and she had a lot of lessons in good behavior when meeting kids, bikes, etc. Matt had told me that it was about 10 miles from their house, around the lake, and back. When I was standing here I though that maybe I’d do that instead of just an out-and-back walk. I would continue to the left in this photo, go around the dam in the center of the photo and back to their place.
After walking some more I came to this part of the lake and decided that maybe an around-the-lake walk wasn’t going to work for today. This is a finger of the lake that juts back up the valley and I would have to walk all the way around this part and the main part of the lake in the other photo. So I went a little further up the west side here and then turned around but took a higher trail back that avoided some of the crowds that were nearer the lake.
This is Ginny sitting on the dock. She didn’t seem to care that the ground under her was rocking.
That low growing shrub is mountain misery and here are some close-ups.
Mountain misery is unique to the western slope of the Sierras and there is a lot of it. It has a pungent oily sap and can play a role in preventing erosion to hillsides in the years following major fires. On the other hand those same deep far-reaching roots use up a lot of moisture and may prevent other plants from becoming established. 
I don’t live in the mountains so don’t deal with it as a “weed” and I like the fragrance–it reminds me of the forest after a rain.
I came across a small area of striking yellow on a south facing slope. I didn’t identify these flowers but in their midst I found some…
…monkey flowers. At least I’m pretty sure they are Mimulus but I don’t know which species.What I noticed first about them were the seed pods.
What I noticed first about them were the seed pods.
Don’t tell Rusty and Maggie where we were. I feel guilty leaving them home. This was fun for Ginny and me and Ginny got about 6 miles of on-leash work on manners.
…but looked them up and found that “coots have strong legs and can walk and run vigorously. They tend to have short, rounded wings and are weak fliers”
This bird is an avocet. I will admit that although I know the Canada goose, I didn’t know the other birds. I ran into a docent in the preserve and asked him. Maybe I’ll remember these two.
…to the trail to Bassi Falls at about 5400′ elevation.
There wasn’t enough snow to snowshoe but there was no wind and the other signs of winter were still there.
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