Leon Turnbull Photography

We found these fabulous white wild flower fields in plenty of places on our recent little drive to Jackson. What the heck are they, anyway? I’m not too good at identifying flowers. I do know what a poppy is.
This particular place was on Hwy 124 near Ione. I kinda took a wrong turn on the drive back from Jackson. Somehow I got off Hwy 49 and ended up heading west on Hwy 88. How the heck did that happen? Well, fortunately I realized it before I had driven more than 50 miles (just kidding, it was a bit less than that). After looking at the map, I knew I could get back on track by heading up Hwy 124 through Ione. I had never been that way before. Who the heck would ever want to go that way? Unless he was stupid and made a wrong turn onto Hwy 88? Well, on the plus side, I found quite a few more wildflower fields along that route. With the sun still not quite down on the horizon, I stopped at this one particularly beautiful location and took some photos. I think I may actually go back to Ione someday to shoot more wildflowers. Go figure.

I think I am in denial. Denial of spring, that is. It happens most every year. I love the winter. I love the rain and snow. The more precipitation that we get, the better the waterfalls will be. So come March, I find myself hoping beyond hope that we will get another couple weeks of solid rain here. Another good storm or two. But alas, it is now the end of March, and so it seems spring has indeed arrived. Too early for me.

Well, I figured I had better just face up to it. Spring is here. What are you going to do about it, Leon? Over the last couple weeks, I’ve seen plenty of California poppy pictures, still trying to deny that they are really blooming right now. Get with it, man, the poppies are blooming. I gotta get out and take some photos of them now. Before it’s too late.

So with my family in tow, we drove down to Jackson on Hwy 49. I had seen some pics of nice poppy fields there. I thought we should go check it out. My wife was all over that. She loves that kind of thing. The kids were so-so about it. At least they weren’t rebelling at the idea. Actually, Nekoda likes flowers. She was perfectly fine with it. Jadon … well, like I said, he wasn’t rebelling.

When we got down there, we found one poppy field only. But it was definitely a gorgeous one, right along the highway. The poppies were abundant along the hillside. But it was a rather steep hillside. All I had on were my runners (that is, tennis shoes to you Americans). I managed to carefully climb up along the fence to get up close to the poppies and take some photos. It seems, though, that the best locations to shoot were on the other side of the fence (the grass is always greener, right?). I have definitely seen photographs from certain professional photographers who will remain nameless, taken from the other side of the fence. It may or may not have been okay to do it, but I didn’t really feel comfortable climbing over the fence, especially considering I would be in full view of anyone or certain authorities who might be driving by on the highway. Plus, it was a yucky barbed wire fence. So I took my photos from the less green side of the fence. It was still quite nice. Quite nice indeed.

After going to Linda Falls, we had plenty of time available that needed to be killed. I knew of another small waterfall in the Angwin area, and thought we might be able to get to it.

I wasn’t sure precisely where it was. I knew where the trail supposedly started. I wasn’t sure about access, and if it would be posted against trespassing. As it turned out, it wasn’t posted. The trail is on private land, but they allow access to the public. Gotta like that. I also wasn’t sure exactly where the waterfall was along the trail. It was like the blind leading the blind. We followed the trail down to the bottom of the canyon, and came to a 3 way junction. This was where I became unsure. Do we go left, right, or straight ahead? I had no idea. But the trail straight ahead looked most promising because it cut straight down directly to the creek very steeply. George and Paul stayed up top, while I went down to investigate. And very shortly, I came to the creek and the small waterfall. I knew this was the right spot because the creek dropped into a very cool looking swimming hole, sort of like a big amphitheatre or something. It was gorgeous. I called up to the others to come down to see it. To get down to the bottom of the falls, though, required crossing the creek above the falls on very slippery rocks, then following a path up and around and back down to the bottom of the falls. It was a bit tricky, but we managed, though George elected to stay behind for this part. Even though the falls is only 14 ft. high, it is definitely a very scenic one, and it is obvious why this is a popular swimming hole in the summer.

It pays to know people in high places. Isn’t that how the saying goes? Something like that anyway.

There are a lot of waterfalls in the Napa County area that are, unfortunately, on private land. Many of these beautiful waterfalls are no longer accessible to the public. There are some, though, that are on land owned by a group called Napa County Land Trust. This land is protected now from development and this group often leads hikes into these areas. But the general public is still not allowed to go there.

Linda Falls in Angwin is one such waterfall, which is actually a fairly recent acquisition by Napa County Land Trust. I’ve been trying to get permission to go to Linda Falls for a couple years now.

Well, as luck would have it, I just recently learned that one of my Flickr friends is a member of Napa County Land Trust, and he offered to take me to Linda Falls, as well as another waterfall in the Napa area. Cool! So George and I made arrangements to meet up in Angwin last weekend. It would be an all day affair. Another friend of his, Paul, drove up from Oakland to meet us for the excitement as well.

The walk in to Linda Falls is quite short and easy, though getting down to the bottom of the falls is a bit steep. Although George is 65, I was surprised how he was crawling around the cliffs like a slow mountain goat. He climbed up the steep cliffs on the far side of the creek to the top of the falls, while Paul and I watched from below, praying that he would not slip and fall. I really didn’t want to be carrying him back out.

Linda Falls is definitely a pretty little waterfall, which I measured to be 31 ft. high. It is surprising how steep the canyon walls are here where the waterfall drops into, considering how flat it is up at the road, just a short distance away. It is definitely a gorgeous area. We spent a long time here, photographing and exploring the area.

Just thought I’d give you folks something a bit different for a change. Time to take a breather from all the waterfalls lately. Nothing too exciting though. No raging waterfall here or anything like that. I’ll be off this weekend to find some more “new” waterfalls. Should be fun, and hopefully I’ll find something.
This is a really good close-up shot of a completely wild American Avocet bird. Taken somewhere on a beach in northern California. It is certainly not a captive bird inside the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Umm, well I guess I cannot tell a lie. It really is inside the Aquarium. It is not a wild bird. I cheated on this shot, I know it.

But seriously, it is rather interesting that you can get so close to these birds in the Aquarium. I was within a couple feet of this one, as I took this shot. Didn’t even need a zoom lens. They pay no attention to people (I’m sure they are very used to the hordes of people that see them every day). This one was just trying to get in some nap time.