Two Sundays ago, we went for a drive up Mt Hamilton.
From down in SJ, Mt Hamilton is marked by some white lumps on top of a rather bald mountain to the east. It doesn't look like much from down here and our last attempt to get to the top of the mountain (about 14 months ago) was stymied by snow!
SJ foothills
Anyway, the drive up the mountain is fun. You first have to cross over the foothills, on a pretty narrow and rather windy road, cross a meadow/valley and then wind wind wind up to the top of the mountain itself. I would not recommend this road for anyone who gets carsick but for the rest of us? Woo hoo! It is soooo windy that you can't actually go that fast up it, especially when much of the road is stuck on the side of a rather steep hill - one side is often cutting/cliff and the other is a biiiig drop. And when the wind blows (it is windy as well as windy!) then it can be exciting indeed!
But we were just as enamoured of the spring wildflowers.
Just over the top of the foothills we found these in a sheltered, northfacing cutting;
Dodecatheon hendersonii - shooting stars. I was so excited to see these. We didn't see any last year but we didn't go to the right places. They are fairly common but to me they are the orchids of the primula world and I love to see them.
Californian Buttercups
There were also nemophila and some other things I cannot recognise due to low light and lots of wind blurring the pics.
I am fascinated by the oaks here - they are all twisty and gnarly :-)
One particular sheltered hillside was a riot of all sorts of things.
Delphiniums and dodecatheons dominate this pic. I didn't realise there were so many delphiniums (larkspurs) and so many lived here!
Cynoglossum grande - the flower looks like a very large forget me not. It's in the same family.
(This pic is best seen in a larger size so click on it to see delphiniums, dodecatheons, blue dicks and others. Yes, there is a plant commonly called blue dicks. Ahem!)
I think this is a blue dick (Dichelostemma capitatum). They were pretty hard to get pics of due to the wind and our unwillingness to step into the verge. We have a complete paranoia of poison ivy/oak and also hate squashing plants.
D'oh! Two deer, two (presumed) female deer!
Out of focus lupines and a nice valley.
After winding winding winding our way up the road, we came in sight of our destination
Now with fricken lasers! Really! They now use laser spotters to help line telescopes up. This telescope is over 100 years old and is still in constant use. It was and still is an amazing piece of machinery. It is so delicately balanced it can be lined up by a single person. You can read more about it
here and more about the Lick Observatory complex
here. (I am very pleased with this handheld shot - it is quite sharp and is limited only by the ISO of the camera rather than me shaking the shot.)
The Lick dude himself, well a bust of him. The guided "tour" (we didn't go anywhere, just stayed in the observatory itself) described him in glowing terms but I am not that sure he was a fantastically nice guy.
Me, chilling outside the observatory (which was rather cold!).
Nathan chilling even more in the brisk wind - he forgot to bring a jacket.
A bad pic of us at the observatory.
I call these ouchcones, not pinecones.
The long and winding road.
All of these hills and valleys are caused by the Pacific Plate grinding against the North American plate. They are very scenic when they are green.
Nathan called this a mushroom farm - I can see why!
On the way back down we saw other plants,
like these Indian Paintbrushes (Castilleja foliolosa I think)
Lathyrus vestitus?
Checker blooms in the middle of common fiddleneck (I think!)
Lupines and poppies on the foothills roadside.
