Summer
Summer’s the season of tenacity, when coyotes and turkey vultures, tarweed and brodeaia defy the Sun’s lethal stare. Bracketing California’s arid center are mountains and ocean: a surge of summer heat in the Sierra unleashes water from the snowpack, makes rivers run wild to the sea. Like a sorcerer, the Pacific conjures a marine layer thousands of feet tall; the fog drifts inland overnight in silence while we dream summer dreams.
Mt. Diablo and its foothills at sunrise viewed from Marsh Creek Reservoir.
Mountain pride penstemon adorns Van Sickle Bi-State Park, South Lake Tahoe.
The Slot, Point Lobos State Reserve.
A coyote seeks shade on a blistering afternoon in Murphy Meadow, Round Valley Regional Preserve.
The marine layer drifts through Mt. Tamalpais State Park.
Mt. Diablo at sunrise viewed from Round Valley.
Gopher snake, Mt. Diablo State Park.
The land currently known as Round Valley was bought in 1873 by Irish immigrant Thomas Murphy, who ranched and farmed on the property that his grandson, Jim Murphy, sold in 1988 to the East Bay Regional Park District. Scattered throughout the valley are implements Murphy left behind, such as this thresher combine.
Bridalveil Fall in low flow and high wind, Yosemite National Park.
Mt. Diablo’s North Peak at sunrise viewed from Highland Ridge, Morgan Territory Regional Preserve.
Heliotrope is among summer’s few floral survivors in Round Valley Creek.
The hills surrounding Los Vaqueros Reservoir are flooded by the light of solstice sunrise.
Valley oak at sunrise along Clyma Trail, Morgan Territory.
The view from Mt. Tamalpais’ East Peak: Mt. Diablo rises above the marine layer blanketing San Pablo Bay.
Sierra stonecrop on Lembert Dome, Yosemite National Park.
A volt of turkey vultures at Round Valley.
Boogie boarders plot their next move at Stinson Beach.
Marsh Creek Reservoir succumbs to drought in the summer of 2014.
A monarch caterpillar along Round Valley Creek feasts on milkweed in late August.
The East Bay Regional Park District conducts a prescribed burn in Round Valley’s Murphy Meadow.
Los Vaqueros Reservoir.
Mt. Diablo at sunrise viewed from Raven Trail, Morgan Territory.
Coast live oak, Mt. Tamalpais.
Dune buckwheat, Point Lobos.
Tough-as-nails tarweed survives summer’s scorch in Round Valley’s Murphy Meadow.
Sunset at Stinson Beach.
North Peak, Mt. Diablo viewed from Round Valley on a windy evening.