As the shelter-in-place orders continue, I have continued to restrict my hiking as much as I can on the weekend. I am going out midweek with my toddler because the parks are just so much less populated midweek. Yesterday, we went a little further from home than we have ventured in the past two months, but still not very far: Round Valley Regional Preserve in nearby Brentwood. Click "read more" to see about our little adventure for the day.
We have been having a lot of fun wading in creeks in places like Sycamore Grove and Bishop Ranch, and so I figured that this was a great opportunity to continue the riparian fun.
I was shocked at how different Round Valley looks in mid-March as opposed to early May. In 2019, the hills were a vibrant, emerald green in March. In early May of 2020, the green on the hills has almost entirely faded to the normal golden brown that we get in the summer in California. The creek was still flowing, and it was fairly green right next to the creek, but all around us it was already feeling like summer. I suspect that Marsh Creek entirely dries up later in the year, so I suppose we were lucky to get the green that we did get. It feels like it was an awful short spring. We had a blast. There were butterflies all around us, and I think I have identified them as western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus, link). They were very active, so I could not get a photograph of them. We also saw lots of birds, including hummingbirds. The California buckeye trees were blooming too (Aesculus californica, link). I love this tree, with its big showy blossoms. We hiked to a little spot on the creek and had ourselves a snack. We scoped out lady bugs and tadpoles, and we threw small rocks into the water. We played in the dusty dirt and waved hello to the horseback riders going by. We climbed up on the bigger rocks and then jumped down to the ground below. We waded in the water of the creek and wiggled the mud between our toes. In our little spot off the main trail, we had a little social distancing utopia. It was a good day.
1 Comment
3/1/2024 11:04:15 pm
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