California's interior mountains

[dragoness_e]

Two weeks ago, I took a drive up into those (slowly-greening) California hills. I drove the length of Calaveras Road to Sulno, CA, hugging the rims of the hills while wondering what the heck made one drop-off rate guardrails and another one, just as lethal if you missed it, not. Let's just say that those mountain roads give a whole new meaning to the term "steep shoulder".

First, I drove out Calaveras Blvd, through Milpitas (after getting my comics, of course--that's what takes me out to Milpitas on the weekends). Calaveras Blvd goes all the way through Milipitas and just suddenly turns into rural mountains. Like this:

Those hills, from Calaveras Blvd


I kid you not, behind me at that intersection are blocks of suburban houses. Beyond the intersection... well, that's a ranch on the left. See?

Hillside ranch, with horses


Behind the hills, Calaveras Road turns north and hugs the eastern rim of that range of hills/baby mountains. There's a deep valley between them and the next range of hills, and it seems to be mostly ranchland.

Valley, and further hills


Notice how the grass is starting to turn green? Back in July, it looked like this. That barbed wire means this is ranch country. It's also a poor substitute for a guardrail. Those shoulders were really steep.

The Green Hills of Earth


As I said, the hills are turning green. Winter is the rainy season in California, like it is in Israel. The winter rains bring the parched land back to life, and hopefully cut down on the wildfires.

Gnarly Tree


There's some kind of gnarly oak tree that grows on these semi-arid hills. I don't know what kind it is yet, but it is very gnarly and picturesque.

Gnarly trees with rocks!


Gnarly thicket


Here's a thicket of those gnarly trees beside the road.

Valley ranch land


Traffic was light enough that I could just stop in the road and take pictures of things that interested me.

Picture-taking idiot


Note how steep the mountainside is.

Reservoir


There's a large reservoir in this valley, as there are in most back-country valleys that have rivers in them. In California, they are dammed up and used as water supplies. I'm not sure why the exposed mud at the end of the lake is multi-colored, but it's pretty.

More Reservoir


The sharp-eyed can note where the waterline has receded during the dry season.

Dam


At the inside curves of the mountain road, there would sometimes be mountain streams trickling down the canyons.

Mountain stream


Another mountain brook


As I said, there was ranchland through here. Cattle ranches. With cows.

What kind of cow is this?


I'm curious as to what breed of cow this is. The thick, almost fur-like coat of hair, particularly on the forequarters, makes me wonder if it was a buffalo hybrid.

Oh, hay there!


Cows


With calves


Yeah, whatever


One thing I didn't get a picture of was the very large coyote I saw in a hillside meadow not far past these cows. Alas, when I stopped the car, rolled down the window and shrieked "Coyote!" while trying to turn my camera on, he wisely turned and loped away from the crazy tourist woman.

I wonder if he might have been a wolf. He was very large for a coyote.

Comments

[ameban.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, certainly you're doing a big trip accross US.
Now, I'm surprised how similar is South California to South of Spain. As far I know, California also have Mediterraneam clime, no wonder why. Those hills are quite... depresing, or perhaps it's just me because I love loushy forests.
As for the Oak Trees, they're among my favorite trees, but there they also are different. They still being impressive, though.
...And I have no idea about those hairy cows XD Perhaps some endemic race, but it's estrange because such hot weather.