Mike Peeples Photography: Carrizo Plain, February 2014

Jill and I visited one of our favorite, local getaways again in February, the Carrizo Plain National Monument. In fact, my very first post in May of 2011 to this photoblog featured the CPNM. This time my photo adventures not only included the obvious landscape opportunities, but some of the local "culture" too. You'll see what I mean as you go through the photographs. We arrived on a Friday afternoon of a three-day Presidents weekend, thankfully before the much awaited big California winter storm last week. After stopping in at the attractive, informative Goodwin Education Center, we headed to our campsite, a spot I've visited a couple times, once with musician campers! It is located 3-4 miles up a dirt road off Soda Lake Road between KCL campground and Traver Ranch. We spent one night there before a visit to Traver Ranch the next day and then a drive up the center of the plain - SE to NW - to visit some abandoned ranches and farms and to scope out un-maintained roads which we might take to Elkhorn Road. The first attempt turned into a small, very narrow and sandy wash (which we would eventually walk to from another campsite off Elkhorn Road) and our second attempt was stopped by, of all things, a Tumbleweed Invasion (see photo 12 below) at the end of the access road. We were literally 1/2 mile from Elkhorn, but had to once again turn around. Finally, on our third attempt, we found a route just north of monument's SE boundary which eventually connected with Elkhorn. Luckily for us, the road offered spectacular views of both the Santa Barbara mountains and fog, as well as snow-capped peaks of the Sierra. We then headed NW on Elkhorn and found another familiar site with great views of the plain and mountains to the SE.