Important things for a 6yo....

Stella brought this home today......

We find Tule Elk.....

Right! lets go team!......

The weekend before last we drove up to Point Reyes National Seashore with Marla and Henry.  This  beautiful region, only an hour or so north of Berkeley by car, is literally being torn away from continental US along the San Andreas fault forming a long, narrow and ever-widening stretch of water called Tomales Bay (see map below). Drakes Bay, to the south, was where Sir Francis Drake careened the Golden Hind in 1579 during his legendary circumnavigation.

View Point Reyes National Seashore in a larger map

Looking north to Tomales Point..... pacific ocean on the left

We made our way out to the Pt Reyes walk, hoping we would see Tule elk.  Why? Well, its a long story. On our Monterey trip we visited the wetlands at Los Banos, well-known for migratory birds and Tule elk (California's own endemic, almost extinct elk species).  We saw lots of beautiful birds on that trip, but alas, no elk… so we were starting to doubt their existence.  Our day at Pt Reyes was a beautiful sunny day, with a cool breeze blowing….at least we thought it was cool when we left Berkeley, when we got to Pt Reyes, that wind was freezing!!!!  Such a gorgeous sunny, freezing day!! It was beautiful up there, early spring and wild flowers out, the california poppy, wild irises, and canard lilies, just gorgeous.

We walked for maybe a km or so, rounded a corner, and there, down in a protected, grassy gully was a herd of about 50 Tule Elk!!!  We sat huddled out of the wind behind a mound and watched them graze.

Then Lisa spotted something moving down one of the hills to the right of the herd…..a wily coyote!  He got down level with the herd when 3 of the larger does saw him off away from the herd.  Very exciting to watch, but way too cold and we headed back for the car!!!

coyote (circled)

Pt Reyes and the surrounding Sonoma county have been important dairy producing areas for around 100 years. A mild maritime climate, good soils and plenty of the damp stuff make this a renowned spot for premium cheeses. Pierce ranch was established in the 1880's as a dairy farm. It is incredibly well preserved, most of the buildings have been mothballed but are still watertight due to the well preserved redwood roofing shingles. The large barn (below) was originally the milking shed accomodating 300 milking cows at a sitting. It must have been quite an operation....

old barn (milking shed)

redwood timber construction

Monterey and beyond, (part 2)

After the aquarium, we had a well deserved rest in the pool at our motel. The next day we started our drive down the Big Sur coast. the first stop was Point Lobos state park. It was a fitting sequel to our day at the aquarium, since we saw otters, whales, sea lion, harbor seals and a good variety of shore birds on a very quick 2hr beach walk. 

Moving further down to Big Sur we marvelled at the rugged scenes that reminded us a bit of the Great Ocean road in Victoria. We found the Big Sur coast just a bit more breathtaking....

... especially when we found trees like these in the National Park just inland from the beach...

  

It was time now to head off into the high plateau of the Santa Lucia range, the first prominent valley running along the coast about 30 miles inland..... Climbing high along a narrow winding road we came across this girl...

Away from the coast, the hills were covered in low, scrubby sages and cottonwoods growing on a very thin soil....

we then started our journey into the vast San Joaquin Valley .......

Monterey Trip (part 1)

We had a great road-trip over the last 5 days. The map below gives you some idea of where we went. We learnt several things: a) California is a big place and takes some time to get around b) the wide central depression (San Joaquin valley) that runs along the length of the state is one HUGE vegetable and fruit garden.Vegetables, citrus and grapes are grown on a truly impressive, industrial and efficient scale. No wonder that just this valley is responsible for 12.8% of the US economy in $ terms. But probably the most impressive aspect of the trip was the Monterey aquarium, the drive down the Big Sur coast and the trip through the Santa Lucia range and into the high Salinas valley.

View Larger Map

Monterey Aquarium: This was an absolute standout. We spent the whole day there and still missed a few exhibits. Having seen the Melbourne and Sydney aquaria over the last few year we realise now why Monterey is still the standard by which all others are judged. It is situated right on the shoreline in building that housed a large cannery. The inner workings have been preserved and form exhibits that tell the story of how the northern sardine and anchovy fisheries were wiped out. Extensive additions have created several distinct systems: shallow reef, sandy shores, kelp forest and open ocean. There are many more but these were the standouts for us. Its incredibly difficult to convey the sheer scale and ingenuity of the exhibits. Each one has been designed to maximise accessibility for kids. Technology was used intuitively and did not overwhelm the intended message. Our only criticism (that was backed up by some of the staff there) was that the climate change/ocean acidification story was not presented as    cohesively as the plastic pollution story was, for example. Overall, we were totally exhausted physically and emotionally after 9hrs there, but it was worth it!

The shoreline exhibit shows us the complete story... below and above the water! 

Lucia and Stella by the wave exhibit

You can reach out and touch these guys....

Jellies!!!!!

the open ocean

the bubble

kelp forest

adventurous use of perspex!

leafy sea dragon

There are so many many more images we have but we have to move on......