3. Central Coast Canyon

#WithoutTheRoar Quiz: Where in California am I?

You walk up a dirt road, entering the bottom of a canyon next to a sycamore-lined creek. You see a classic mix of Central California vegetation: yucca, northern monkeyflower, coastal sagebrush, deerweed, coyotebush, poison oak, bay, coast live oak. There are a few non-natives, notably eucalyptus trees on the hillside to the south. The former sheep pastures at the entrance of the canyon are now covered in relatively new housing and parking lots. Once you are through the narrows, the canyon opens up into grassy hills beyond a ranch house. Horses graze among unique dilapidated structures.

Where is this? Guess at #WithoutTheRoar.

Click here for Quiz 2.

2: calm coastal waters

This is the second question in the new quiz category on my blog and on Twitter: #WithoutTheRoar, where I give information about a place and you guess where in California it is. See the first question (and answer) here.

You arrive. The first thing you hear might be the honking of Canada Geese on the lawn near the lagoon. An angler walks by with his catch of starry flounder and striped bass.You cross the railroad tracks--apparently abandoned--and scramble down the rip-rap boulders to the shore of a large, calm, salty body of water. You head uphill, hoping to get a better view from above the fog. You cross a street and head up a trail, taking care not to touch the poison oak as you ascend under the coast live oaks. You recognize coyotebush and toyon, and California poppies as you ascend into open rocky grassland. The fog does not clear, so you head back down to the water's edge, noticing that automobiles must go through a tunnel to get here. The fog clears just enough for this view:

Where in California are you?

Without the Roar

Wow, I've never had a tweet go viral before.

This photo I tweeted got over 18,000 views, hundreds of likes,
and over a hundred retweets. In two days!

I'm not sure what to say... except thank you. And follow me live next weekend on Twitter as I climb Mt. Shasta--just kidding. My favorite comment: "this looks like my lawn during baseball season."