An Amazing Day at Montara Mountain in Pacifica

It was a typically cool June morning in San Francisco. Gene and I were up relatively early for a training hike for our Yosemite trip. Something close to home and spectacular was what I wanted. "California Hiking" gave this one a 10/10 for view with a degree of difficulty of 4/5. Perfect! And only 30 minutes from the Castro. The views and the flora/fauna lived up to the hype. Here's a view looking north and just slightly west toward the town of Pacifica. Mount Tam is in the background.




Can you make out the Tower on top of Twin peaks on the right side of the photograph and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge somewhere in the middle?




Looking East toward the Bay:



As we neared Montara Mountain, several thistles were in bloom. The silvery stalks end in delicious magenta flowers that the bees were going wild over. The were drunk on the pollen.





















Above is the bee butt shot! To the right the bee appears submerged in the thistle.






And now for the art shot of the day:






And then there's the wild Douglas Iris:



This lizard let me get extremely close before it scuttled off, perhaps hoping its protective coloration would hide it from a potential large predator with a Pentax.




And now for the photograph that put a smile on my face. I have been photographing butterflies since I was in high school. I remember chasing a fickle monarch butterly in Owl Head Park. This one stayed put long enough for me to get perhaps the most gratifying shot of the year.

Turtle Count at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park

It was a beautiful, clear day for a turtle count at Stow Lake. Turtles were basking in the warm sun, though this mammal was a bit cold in shorts and tee shirt.

This threesome looked like they were having a good time:




I spied two turtles hiding along the rocks just off the lake:




Toward the end of the outing, an unusual turtle, basking. Someone must have released this nonnative softshell turtle into the lake: