Surfing Dolphins

 Torrey Pines Cliffs and Mist

It's pretty windy today (1/28/12) for a hike in the mountains and valleys. The sound of the howling wind brought us to take a more relaxing walk/hike along the coastal bluffs instead, from Torrey Pines to Del Mar. 

 Del Mar Beach

The Santa Ana wind brought some warmth again to us this winter, the warmth is very welcome, but not so much the very strong wind. Nevertheless, we chose a path where we would be hidden from the Easterly winds, that is a walk from Torrey Pines to Del Mar, thus, most of the time in our walk, we hardly felt the strong wind.

 Dolphin Riding the Wave (1/28/12)

The tide was high when we were out on top of the bluffs, and it is during high tide that we usually see dolphins. It is not very unusual for us to see dolphins from on top of the bluffs,

 Dolphin sightings from on top of the bluffs from one of our walks before 

 However, today, what was different was that we saw dolphins jumping very high with the wave as if competing with the wave, but of course, when we saw dolphins jumping, we did not have our camera out yet, and when we took our camera out, dolphins were no longer jumping, but nevertheless, they were still playful. This time, they were not swimming South to North or vice versa, the dolphins were riding the waves back and forth and it was so joyful watching them surfing with the waves. 

Here are some more pictures we took today. :) Okay, I stand corrected, my pictures were the first three pictures above in this post, and the rest of these pictures were taken by my hubby who is more patient in holding his camera to wait for the surfing dolphins. 

 Surfing Dolphins (1/28/12)

 Smiling dolphin While Surfing (1/28/12)

 Flipping Dolphin (1/28/12)

 dolphins were now swimming back out like the surfer to catch more waves (1/28/12)

And back riding waves again :) (1/28/12)

I love dolphins, each time I see them whether I am walking along the bluffs or swimming I always get a high of happiness. Dolphins are very happy, friendly and intelligent creatures. I hope they bring happiness your way too. Happy weekend, everyone. Hope you have a great weekend enjoying the priceless gifts of nature around you. 

Hot Creek Springs, Eastern Sierra, CA

 Hot Creek Springs, Eastern Sierra, CA

A visit to the Eastern Sierra is like a window to how the persistent earthquake and volcanic activity has marvelously shaped this landscape for millions of years. These forces that brought changes to the landscape here in the past are still continually working right now bringing changes to the present. The Eastern Sierra, especially Mammoth Lakes, is most popularly known as a skiing heaven, being one of the snowiest places on Earth (but very unusually not this year), and last year's Earth's snowiest with more than 600 inches of snow accumulation during the winter season. However, aside from Mammoth Lakes adventure skiing and downhill biking attraction, the Eastern Sierra is a land of mind boggling geological diversity. 

 Hot Creek Geological Site

From vast desert sand dunes, to desert riparian landscape, to the alpine slopes, there is just so much to see in the Eastern Sierra. It is one of our favorite adventure vacation destinations in California. We usually love to stay at Mammoth Lakes, because it seems to be closest to the places where we wanted to explore. There is Devil's Postpile National Monument, Rainbow Falls, the lakes, hundreds of scenic and peaceful trails from easy to most challenging, and close enough to Mono Lake, Yosemite National Park and the Hot Creek Geological site featured in this post is just right outside town. 

It is hard to miss Hot Creek Geological site, since you will see steam rising from Hway 395 as you approach Mammoth Lakes from Bishop. However, once you made a turn, you will see so many steam coming out from the so many hot springs. The other hot springs in the area are owned by private resort, but the Hot Creek Geological Site is maintained by USGS. For directions, click the image below to enlarge, the direction below is courtesy of USGS.

Directions to Hot Creek Geological Site

The two pictures below were taken on our way to Hot Creek, the quality may be poor because I took them from inside of a speeding car in Hwy 395. I was just inspired to take the picture even though I knew the picture may not be good because our car's window was far from sparkling clean because of all our travels, but then, there was no way for us to stop safely, and I could not let the scenery escape me, thus I quickly snapped it.

 Low clouds and Fogs at Eastern Sierra, CA

The Eastern Sierra, its awe-inspiring landscape will greet you with stillness and peacefulness.Hopefully, one of your vacations will bring you to the wonders of this landscape that has been shaped by fire and ice.

Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen Peak Reflection on Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA

The picture above is my favorite among the hundreds of pictures I took at Lassen Volcanic National Park. In fact, it is my laptop's wall paper right now. This is the first picture I posted here in my blog which I did not reduce the size all the way to a 550 pixels width for faster uploading. I still reduced it though from an original size of 7 MB to 1.2 MB to give my site more uploading space. But the 1.2 MB is good enough for screen saver if in case anyone is interested to have the above piece in their screen.

If Bumpass Hell was filled with steaming and geothermal action, the 1.8 mile loop walk around the lake was simply quiet and very relaxing. The water was surprisingly not that cold, however, we did not bring any swim wear with us, so, we passed the opportunity to swim in this lake. There were a few people kayaking in the lake, and I took the liberty of taking some shots with them in the picture. 

Kayaking at Manzanita Lake

However, as they get nearer, they created more ripples in the lake that the reflection of Lassen Peak was lost, thus I settled for the above picture with them, with a little bit of reflection still. Also, they actually shifted their direction away from where we were later.

Large Old Growth Jeffrey Pine Forest, Manzanita Lake

Around the lake, the trail winds between tall and big trees.  

Some of the the trees have light green lichens hanging from the trunk or the branches.

Light Green Lichens

Lichens on the Branch, Lassen Peak, and Manzanita Lake

The forest actually have a lot of different kind of lichens hanging on the tree, some grey, some bright green, some orange, which is actually a happy news for the environment here. In places where the air is very dirty, no lichens survive usually.

Another  interesting observation we had is seeing how a mother bird feeds her baby. The mother bird dives for food, and then, give it to the baby bird. So sweet to look at. Would have been nice if I had videocam, or if my lens can zoom enough to capture the moment. The pictures below were cropped just to enlarge the action.

Mom Dives for Food

Mom Gives Baby Food

The mom was a very active mom, always diving and always giving something to her babies. The babies took turns in being fed. The one who was fed tried to follow mom as close as possible. The South East side of the lake has some mother and baby geese as well.

Geese Family

The scenery above reminded me of Ratty's wonderful experience with the geese family.

Hikers Enjoying the View at Manzanita Lake

We had a simple lunch ( picnic style) at Manzanita Lake, and afterwards, we took a last glimpse of its calm beauty before moving to our next destination.