I’m trading in my beach sandals for hiking boots
I discovered the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge a few months ago.
It’s about 9,200 acres in southwest San Diego County and is rapidly becoming my favorite place in all of the County. I’m trading in my beach sandals for hiking boots.
There are dozens of trails throughout the Refuge, and although the trails look well used, the most people I have ever seen was about fifteen on a four-hour hike, and that was on a Saturday, too. During the weekdays, there are hikers, bikers, dog walkers, and horse riders early in the morning and late in the evening. Other than that, I seem to be the only one who can take off during the day to enjoy the Refuge.
I don’t have to fight with billions of people for my own little spot like I would at the beach, and I never come home all salty and sandy. The roar of the ocean is replaced with the call of the wild.
Here is my first blog post about the Refuge.
Following are some pictures in new areas of the Refuge that I have recently explored.
I found a pile of rocks which attracted my attention because it was about four feet high and wide, obviously taking someone a significant amount of effort to create:
As you can see, there’s a rectangular piece of wood on the pile, informing us that the pile of rocks is a memorial, but a very odd memorial:
I don’t understand the memorial because I saw men, women, children, horses, and dogs enjoying the wonderful nature trek.
I couldn’t find anything online about it. The best I can figure is that it was created when the land became part of the National Wildlife Refuge. An alternate possibility is that this specific piece of land is part of the horse ranch located directly above rather than part of the Wildlife Refuge. When the horse ranch bought the land, someone created the memorial, thinking that the land would no longer be available for the public to enjoy.
Birds are plentiful throughout the Refuge:
I don’t know what kind of bird that second one is but it was playing the old broken wing trick, trying to lure me away from whatever it wanted to protect, probably a nest. You can see that it pretty much is giving me a little attitude with that look.
If you let your eyes go a little fuzzy and use your imagination, you can see a ram’s head in the following rock. It looks a little freaky in person because its gaze seems to follow you as you meander along the trails in front of it.
The Sweetwater River which runs through the refuge:
I know, I know. Many of you are thinking “That’s not a river. That’s a creek.” Out here in dry San Diego, if it flows year-round, it’s a river!
If you enjoy different kinds of plants, there are many to be found, like these lichens growing on this rock:
Most of the refuge is open and sunny, but here and there are small groves of oaks, willows, and sycamores under which one can rest:
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Posted on December 26, 2012, in Birds, Fauna, Flora, Mother & Father Nature, Out & About, Photos. Bookmark the permalink. 23 Comments.
Is most of the wildlife of the timid variety? Nothing large and fierce, other than a large horde of raucous people, of course?
So far the largest wildlife I’ve seen was a coyote: http://russelrayphotos2.com/2012/12/10/its-a-staredown/
My goal is to find a rattlesnake. I have never seen one in the wild, only at Zoos and Sanctuaries.
A coyote would be too much wildlife for me, let alone a rattlesnake. Have fun on your quest.
Both of them would rather avoid you, so keep an eye out for them and you’ll be alright.
What a beautiful place!
This post I liked a lot. A great place -not all that far from your home. Nice pics.
The old broken wing trick? How low.
Yep. Possibly even thought that I would fall for it!
We’ll be in Encinitas visiting the kids next month. How far are we? I’d consider a side trip based on this post and your photos.
You’ll be about 40 miles away. I-5 to I-805 to I-8 to 125 to 94.
Thank you. Maybe we’ll see you there.
That “ram’s” gaze is a little freaky!
I just emailed the capt (he’s here but in the office upstairs so it’s easier to email than yell, ha ha) cos this sounds like a great day hike! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
This looks so wonderful!!
It’s a wondrous personal experience to venture out into the wild. I’m sure that you are inspired by all that you felt and saw. Such adventures seem to keep giving more and more, even after the experience.
I always enjoy your wonderful work. I have my son-in-law busy trying to “learn” my new camera so he can teach technically challenged me. Speaking of such…
Once again, I am having difficulty getting wordpress to publish anything I do-using any of the tricks that worked before-(like pushing edit before I was through and it started messing up and going back quickly and editing) or going to the page where “reader, new post, etc are listed and working from there-nothing and I cannot find a way to get in touch with wordpress by email or “help”. Im just asking some fellow bloggers who have been on a long time for suggestions-any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Email and help are basically useless as far as I have been able to determine in my 11 months here. However, the forums are excellent. Go to http://en.forums.wordpress.com/ and start a thread and a few billion people will be by to help you.
When I started using WordPress, the “Support” was excellent, now it seems to have vanished! What a shame, it was one of its best seeling points.
Re: the memorial sign, I took it to mean that all those men, women, children etc. were now dead, and thus not able to enjoy the trek any longer.
Oops, do not press ‘submit’ before seeing what Spellcheck has to say. I mean “selling” points, of course.
The last picture is fantastic, looks like a fairy tale
I thought the sign meant people,horses etc. that were no longer able to get out of their homes – disabled in some way. I didn’t think dead ro restricted from usage, though.
Very cool post! Love all the photos! Thank you!
Pingback: Dead can be beautiful « Russel Ray Photos