Woo Hoo! It’s On!

Ever since I returned from my awesome week in Death Valley and the Eastern Sierra / Lone Pine area around Hwy 395 in California, I have had two purposes: one, to process and catalog my thousands of gigabytes of trip photos ( visit http://sarasilver.com or my flickr photos ) and to watch for any sign of spring.

I saw the Mustard, of course-this being Sonoma County it seems like it is almost always in bloom. Then I saw my first wild native flowers, the first I saw last year as well-sweet pink to white Milkmaids, but only a single plant here and there. Then last weekend I decided it was time to go to the coast so I packed up my puppy and took my gear to Bodega Bay via Bay Hill Road. This road is between the other two entry points to Bodega Bay (Bodega Highway to the South and Coleman Valley Road to the north) and comes over the hill joining Highway 1 near Salmon Creek.

I drove to Bodega Head, hiked around for an hour or so then returned to a spot on Bay Hill Road  then returned home via Coleman Valley Road.

I was looking for any wildflowers, and while I had to search for some, I was not disappointed in the abundance of my main focus for my drive: Douglas Iris.

I also saw Roberts Geranium, Lupine, Bee Plant, Cow Parsnip, Strawberry, Thimbleberry, Sourgrass, Seaside Daisy, Silverleaf Phacelia, California Poppy, and several I still haven’t identified.