Also, Also the Desert in December? - 3 / 3

And here is the last day trip in the desert in december. It also includes a lake, but i'll try to not end on quite as much of a depressing note as last time...

Now, the lake in question is Jackson Lake. And if you look that up, you might notice that this isn't truly in the desert, but rather in the mountains that surround it, specifically the San Gabriel Mountain range. But it's only about an 45-60 minute drive from the desert. On this day in December, it was about 30 degrees F.

and there was snow!

And water in the lake!

which was mostly frozen

The trees in the area aren't the large live oak that live in the lower parts

also, the sky was a lot more overcast

Several stumps had been left to rot, and positioned so you could look at what was happening inside

large tree!

Most of this is normal winter. However, this area has been hit in the drought as well, and with fires nearby. This lake hasn't burned though.

hiking trails

green trees!

pretty views, even if it was cold!

a little bit of that clear blue sky

It was fun to see all the variety of environments near home, and how different they all are. There are several more places on my list to visit soon, assuming the garden doesn't distract me!

Also the Desert in December? - 2 / 3

Continuing from last week's views of the desert in december, here is a totally different view. A few days after visiting parking lots and bottle tree farms in 70 degree weather, we visited a local park - Apollo Park. In case you were wondering, these are not natural lakes, so this isn't a "natural desert" environment. However, it does host a huge amount of varied wild life. It was 60 deg F on this day.

still brown and blue, but now with water and trees!

and lots of water fowl, mostly looking for handouts

the light still make for some amazing views

even though there is a lot of water, there isn't much extra irrigation for the plants

they wanted food. 

ducks!

while there is some man made stuff besides the lakes, it's not a super developed park

Some up-close shots of unique residents:

This is a nice place to visit on a mild winter day, but when it's windy or hot (or both, which happens a lot), it's less nice. But it does point out how important water is for all the wildlife in the area.

I was going to leave these next pictures off, but they really underscore that last point. On the same day that we visited Apollo Park, we also visited one of the few natural lakes in the area. These pictures are not as nice:

all the water is gone

this area has been hit twice - by drought and wild fires

 As the rain falls today, it's easy to think our drought is over. And it is true that the desert is adapted to long periods of no water, and some areas tend to recover quickly when our seasonal rains come back.

still blue, brown and mountains

But there's a difference between rain being gone for a season, and rain being gone for years. It will take a long time before this area recovers. And while humans can go visit our made lakes, Nature can't.

The Desert in December - 1 / 3

In late December, with family visiting, we drove all around the Mojave  desert area. In three days, we saw three completely different views of "the desert" in december. For fun (and because i can only share so many pictures of piles of trimmings...) I'm sharing some pictures from all three days.

The first visit was out near Victorville. If you wonder why we visited Victorville, it's because we went to go look at a parking lot:

specifically, one of the storage facilities of recalled diesel Volkswagens

there are also some airplanes:

mostly in storage, and hard to see. You can't really get closer

As the pictures show, it was a blue sky, light overcast kind of day. It was about 70 degrees F.

the desert - brown, blue, mountains, and joshua trees

Once we were done looking at parking lots, we visited a bottle tree farm. One of those random, only the Western US, middle of nowhere-ish kind of places.

it was actually very cool!

the clear desert sun light really made everything sparkle!

one person did a lot of this work - both the bottles and the metal sculptures

Perhaps this video gives a little better idea of how cool and eerie this place is:

the legacy of aerospace being a major area employer

december in the desert!

April Poppies!

After our winter of rain, we had a few weeks of spring weather. There were lots of comments about a #superbloom, so of course I had to visit the poppy reserve and see for myself. This was from about 2 weeks ago. It did not disappoint!

There were fields of orange

Lots of orange!

Poppies stay closed when it's overcast or windy, so early in the morning, they weren't as open. The fields were still pretty though.

A bit less bright, but still everywhere.

Poppies everywhere!

There were some areas where the yellow wild flowers were more prevalent:

Yellow fields on the west side of the park

Yellow and orange blending together

Up close, the color variations in the poppies are easier to see:

Yellow and orange.

Bi-colored and orange

There are many other flowers besides the California poppies, but they only really standout in close-ups!

Clover

White flowers

In addition to the plants, the desert wild life was out too:

From the friendly...

... to the not so friendly!

The super-bloom lived up to it's billing! It's already getting hot now (and windy), so I'm sure the flowers will be gone soon. The ones in my garden will stick around longer. But that's part of what makes the big fields of wild ones so special - the golden hills of California only stick around for a bit!

Joshua Tree - after flowering

A few weeks ago, I posted pictures of a flowering Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia). A few weeks later, those flowers had produced fruits:

Joshua tree fruits

More fruit - this is the same tree as pictured in the previous post

It made a lot of fruits - must have been a good year for Joshua moths...

Once a branch flowers, it will split into multiple branches

This is what an old flower stalk looks like - weird!

Signs of Spring

You know, after saying I was going to post 4 times a week, I don't think that I actually have done so. This last break was partially self-imposed (work) and partially technical difficulties (Internet down, again!). But this past weekend I had the time to go on a "gardening binge", and get back out there. Spring really does seem like it's here.

One of the unique signs of spring being here are these: - the Joshua trees are blooming!



Joshua Tree in full flowering

To get Joshua trees to flower, there needs to be the right combination of water, cold and time. Apparently, this winter was the right combination:

These weren't quite open yet, but they were big

Flowers against the blue sky

 Joshua tree flowers are pollinated by a specific moth. I didn't see any of them on this day. The flowers only open at night. Depending on who you talk to, they either smell like nothing, melted wax, or really bad.


Flower detail

  

Flower details

In this picture, you can see some of the left over bloom stalks. The way Joshua trees grow their branches has to do with their flowers. Once a branch blooms, it splits in two (or more) and continues to grow, until it flowers again. This makes for very interesting tree shapes:

Looking up at the tree

There are trees blooming over the city. Yet another sign that Spring is finally here. I really hope it stays!