…wild.view.west...: California

Showing posts with label California. Show all posts

April 22, 2014

Spring in California: South to North (2014)

Ojai Meadow Preserve:

Bay Explorations (2014)

“I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited.

Nearly every American hungers to move.”

― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

View towards San Francisco from Berkeley

The Ojai Valley, California (2013)

“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.” -Wendell Berry, Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community: Eight Essays

THE OJAI VALLEY FROM ABOVE

Mendocino, California (2012)

I've had the opportunity to travel to Mendocino a few times, thanks to the generosity of the Feeney family. Last year, my friend Allyson founded the non-profit Project 387: a multidisciplinary artist residency on 150 acres of redwoods. Below you'll find a small glimpse of the area, and the landscape that remains largely untouched.

FEENEY FOREST

The Slow Coast & Mt. Diablo (2014)

The following are photographs of day trips to Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, and finally, Mt. Diablo State Park. I use the name Slow Coast unofficially, as it is the name of an organization that supports local artists and farmers living "north of Santa Cruz and south of Half Moon Bay." It is a rare, wild, and undeveloped stretch of California coast where most people live off the land, and it is a truly beautiful place to visit. On the other side of the bay, Mt. Diablo State Park is a dry and rugged landscape despite the paved road that reaches the top of the mountain. The best way to appreciate the park is to hike one of the many trails surrounding the summit, where you can even see a glimpse of the sparkling bay to the west. Part of the mountain is visibly charred from a fire in September 2013, and will help you to admire the wild oaks growing on the slopes in this dry winter.