Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving, and Safety for Those on the Road (Plus new pictures from Pinnacles National Park)

Here's hoping that you all have a fine Thanksgiving holiday and that your travels are safe and fun. I offer up one of the things that I am truly thankful for: politicians that put aside their many differences and agreed to establish Pinnacles National Park in 2013.

Pinnacles National Park has provided us with our picture of a turkey for this Thanksgiving season (my own little holiday tradition). I doubt this one will be gracing anyone's table, as he was well inside the boundaries of the park. Maybe a coyote's, but this one looked like it wasn't going to take any crap from anyone.

Pinnacles has been one of my most dependable localities for seeing Wild Turkeys (which are not exactly a native species, but they have become naturalized in this region). I've seen dozens at a time there. The turkeys can be seen throughout the Coast Ranges. It's not well-known, but the Wild Turkey was almost hunted to oblivion a century ago. Aggressive efforts at conservation and introduction of captured wild birds to new regions (including California) brought them back.

A few years back, I caught a bit of a conflict, a love triangle if you will, in Morro Bay.

Pinnacles National Park is a beautiful place with fascinating geology. Look for a couple of posts soon from our recent trip there. I took a new trail, the Six Bridges Nature Trail in Lower Bear Gulch. It was a nice creekside walk with more rocky outcrops than I was expecting.

Short story of the geology at Pinnacles: it's half of a large composite rhyolitic volcano that has been deeply eroded. Where the other half is today is part of the exciting story. The rest is the idea that you can wander around in the middle of volcano in the Central California Coast Ranges. Compare this to the fact that you can walk on a volcano in the California Cascades, or you that you can walk under a volcano in Yosemite Valley.

Because of springs, the water is present in at least parts of Bear Gulch all year long. There is even a native fish in the creek, the Three-spined Stickleback (I looked but couldn't find any). Native ferns fill the valley floor in a few places, shaded by California's ubiquitous riverside tree, the Sycamore.

It's a poor picture, but an exciting sight. As I finished the hike in the Gulch, I spied a large bird in the sky. I was thrilled when I realized it was a California Condor. The bird was nearly extinct in the late 1970s (22 individuals), so in desperation, the remaining wild condors were captured and put into captive breeding program. It's been a success, as there are more than 400 birds today, with more than half living in the wild. Pinnacles was the site of an important milestone this year, as a chick fledged from a nest in the park for the first time in 120 years.

Pinnacles is a treasure. If you ever have a chance to explore central California, be sure to add it to your itinerary! In the meantime, have a safe and happy time wherever you may be. I'll be on the road, so posts may be scarce.

Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving, and Safety for Those on the Road

Here's hoping that you all have a fine Thanksgiving holiday and that your travels are safe and fun. I offer up one of the things that I am truly thankful for: politicians that put aside their many differences and agreed to establish Pinnacles National Park in 2013. Maybe we can all learn something from the shock of actually working together and compromising: Democrats, at dinner this week be kind to your Republican relatives, and Republican relatives, be kind back. Be thankful that we can still argue politics without fear of reprisals.

Pinnacles National Park has provided us with our picture of a turkey for this Thanksgiving season. I doubt this one will be gracing anyone's table, as he was well inside the boundaries of the park. Maybe a coyote's, but this one looked like it wasn't going to take any crap from anyone.

Pinnacles has been one of my most dependable localities for seeing Wild Turkeys (which are not exactly a native species, but they have become naturalized in this region). I've seen dozens at a time there. The turkeys can be seen throughout the Coast Ranges. It's not well-known, but the Wild Turkey was almost hunted to oblivion a century ago. Aggressive efforts at conservation and introduction of captured wild birds to new regions (including California) brought them back.

A few years back, I caught a bit of a conflict, a love triangle if you will, in Morro Bay.

Pinnacles National Park is a beautiful place with fascinating geology. Look for a couple of posts soon from our recent trip there.

Short story of the geology: it's half of a large composite rhyolitic volcano that has been deeply eroded. Where the other half is today is part of the exciting story. The rest is the idea that you can wander around in the middle of volcano in the Central California Coast Ranges.

Pinnacles is a treasure. If you ever have a chance to explore central California, be sure to add it to your itinerary! In the meantime, have a safe and happy time wherever you may be. I'll be on the road, so posts may be scarce.

Happy Thanksgiving and Safe Travels (with a last look at our newest national park)

Here's hoping that you all have a fine Thanksgiving holiday and that your travels are safe and fun. I offer up one of the things that I am truly thankful for: politicians that put aside their differences and agreed to establish Pinnacles National Park in 2013. I've been posting lately about the fascinating geology of the park, and I'm taking a moment to point out one of the other values of this particular park: a sanctuary for wildlife.

Pinnacles has been one of the most dependable localities for seeing Wild Turkeys (which are not exactly a native species, but they have become naturalized in this region). 

On our last trip we saw the antics of the Acorn Woodpeckers around the Bear Gulch area...

And were watched carefully by a Raven at Bear Gulch Reservoir...

Pinnacles is a treasure. If you ever have a chance to explore central California, be sure to add it to your itinerary! In the meantime, have a safe and happy time wherever you may be. I'll be on the road, so posts may be scarce.

Thankful...

...for the privilege of having a career that allows me to show students the beautiful places of the world, for digital cameras that allow me to preserve the memories, a forum to share my images with anyone that cares to explore them, and for all of you who take the time to read and comment. I really appreciate your visits to this blog. Please enjoy a random selection of my favorite images and places that have appeared in Geotripper at one time or another. Follow the links for the story behind the pictures.

Yosemite Valley, in my favorite mountain range, the Sierra Nevada...

The Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies, resting place of some of the most primitive, yet advanced lifeforms ever discovered.

Cedar Mesa and Muley Point, one of my spiritual centers

The La Sal Mountains, viewed through an arch in Arches National Park

Antelope Canyon near Page Arizona. An unreal place...

It has not always been about rocks. Sometimes animals block the view...a bighorn sheep at Capitol Reef National Park

And there are the iconic views...Delicate Arch at Arches National Park

More distractions from the rocks...poppies blooming in Merced River Canyon downstream from Yosemite Valley.

Only a moron would stand next to a lava flow...or me. The Big Island of Hawaii

Or go wandering a lava flow at midnight...yeah I got in trouble with the family that night

Grand Canyon, one of the nation's jewels...

So many bizarre landscapes in the world...the hoodoos at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico

On the High Peaks Trail at Pinnacles National Monument, one of the great hikes I've discovered in the American West.

I love the seasons at Yosemite National Park

The native birds of Hawai'i have a fascinating story. An 'Elepaio stayed still long enough to photograph on Kauai

Joshua Tree National Park is one of the lesser known landscapes in California, unless you happen to be one of the 20 million people that live within a 90 minute drive...

Sometimes there are just magical moments: A rainbow at Glacier National Park

The many moods of lighting at Grand Tetons National Park...a gray morning...

And a crystalline sky at sunset...

Vagabonding our way to Rocky Mountain National Park

Closer to home, we explore California Caverns

And say goodbye to Yosemite Valley during an extraordinary sunset

California Has Her Faults; Here's One of Them...

I didn't think it would take long for the geologists among us to figure out that we looking at a fault rupture in yesterday's "minor mystery photo", and I wasn't disappointed. These en echelon cracks are called riedel shears, and are the first cracks that appear as a solid material is being put under (in this case) lateral stress. There was no earthquake; this is a section of the fault that is creeping, meaning that it is moving constantly without building up enough stress to produce large earthquakes.

This isn't just any fault; it is the fault in California, the San Andreas, which forms part of the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. The section we visited on Saturday is between the town of Hollister and Pinnacles National Monument, south of the 200 mile long rupture from the 1906 quake in San Francisco. How much does the fault move every year?
A clue is provided by a shot I took in 2008, immediately following the road repairs. No damage was yet visible, and none in 2009 either. I was a little disappointed in 2008 to see that the road was fixed, as it took away one of the more visible bits of evidence of fault motion. The picture below is how the road appeared in 2002. The first time I saw the fault crossing in the 1990's, the fracture was a straight break crossing the highway, with a big bump. Thus, it's been repaired at least twice in twenty years

Without human developments, the year-to-year movement would be hard to see because the subtle effects are obscured by weathering and erosion. In the pictures below (about 8 miles south of our damaged highway) the old fencing shows several feet of offset.

Probably the most famous evidence of movement on the creeping segment of the San Andreas is the De Rosa Winery warehouse (formerly the Almaden Winery). The winery was first constructed in the 1800's and has been rebuilt twice after the building foundations failed. The current building is also being ripped apart, along with a culvert that has been photographed many times by visiting geologists (thrilled, no doubt, by the fact that they can combine their field research with wine-tasting!). The winery owners study geologists too; in this article, they are quoted as saying "Their pants always have zippered pockets...The khaki pants and the funny hat, and you know it's a geologist."

I am traveling this Thanksgiving, like so many others, and will have infrequent web access (my phone is only semi-smart and only makes phone calls). I hope you all have a fine holiday, and that you have many things to be thankful for. Below is one dinosaur descendant that is feeling thankful that it won't be eaten this holiday, as it lives in Pinnacles National Monument and enjoys protected status.