Turkeyday at Carrizo Plain

[Ted]

What the heck is that?

We were on the backside of Painted Rock in Carrizo Plain. Being sandstone, the rock is heavily shaped by wind and water erosion. Many of the openings worn into the rock were used by birds for nesting areas or had rocks thrown in them by people. But this one appeared to have some type of dividers in it.

"Some one must have put them there" my wife said. "I've got to know", I replied. "I think I can get close."

(to be continued)

By the way, in my continuing quest to make Dirty Dog buy everyone a drink, all correct guesses as to what is in that hole before I post the answer will get the drink of their choice from DD. Heck, I'll even say he has to buy you a drink if you answer correctly after I post the answer.

 

[ski3pin]

<snip> Heck, I'll even say he has to buy you a drink if you answer correctly after I post the answer.





......................and on with the story?

 

[Ted]

Planning what to do over the extended Thanksgiving weekend was a travesty of indecision for us. We settled on Mt. Irish in Nevada. The next day we decided that was too far and decided to go to Monitor Valley instead. Temps were predicted to be in the teens at night. Too cold, let's do Death Valley. Too far again. What about Carrizo Plain? Never been there, weather forcast looks good, not too crowded. With less than 24 hours to departure, we were pretty sure where we were departing for.

As is typical of our trying to cram as much travel into our time off as possible, we left Wednesday night after work. This causes us to find places to camp enroute. This time we tried San Louis Reservoir near I-5. They have a developed campground ($30) and some primitive camping ($15). We chose the primitive campsites. This area is known to be windy so we took a space behind some trees but the weather was calm that night. We were serenaded by owls, coyotes, and noisy neighbors camping nearby.

Heading down I-5 on Thursday, it was clear a lot of people were on the way to visit relatives. To avoid some of the back-ups, we side-stepped over to Highway 33 southbound paralleling I-5. They don't call this the Petroleum Highway for nothing.

We arrived at Carrizo Plain a little after lunch and decided to establish camp before the holiday crowds arrived. There are two campgrounds in Carrizo Plain, one on the main road and one a little up the hills above the valley. We headed for the latter, Selby campground. Hurrying to beat the crowds had been unnecessary - we had the campground to ourselves.

We had lunch, napped, hiked, and then started to set up for a Thanksgiving meal. I had my BBQ, stove, and oven. I was set.

 

[dorocks]

By yourselves. The greatest way to go.

 

[ntsqd]

Trilobite?

 

[DLN]

Trilobite?


Good eye, it could be.

 

[Ted]

...continued

Friday morning the view from camp was not as good.

Painted Rock is a large, weathered sandstone outcropping with a little valley up the middle. Indians used to gather here and at one time much of the inner area was covered in ancient paintings. You need to get a free permit and a gate code to visit this location. You can do this over the same reservation system used for the National Park campgrounds. A National Monument and we were the only ones there.

Due to erosion and early vandalism much of the paintings are gone or damaged.

Today you are not allowed to touch or walk on the rock. A lone sentinel watched us the entire time to make sure we did not break the rules.

On the back side of Painted Rock was the hole with the strange plates inside. We made our way close enough to finally figure out what we were seeing. "I'm glad it is a cold day" my wife stated.

...more of the Plain to come

 

[generubin]

Those may be spaces to increase the nesting of the Peregrine Falcons. The endangered Peregrines nest there in certain times of year at which time the public is not allowed to visit.

 

[ski3pin]

All alone, barn owl, bees, ancient rock art, musicians, you hit the jackpot, more!

 

[Foy]

For the rock-jocks in the WTW community, the Wallace Creek Walking Tour of the San Andreas Fault is directly across the basin from the Selby Campground and the main Visitor Center. For an East Coast guy like me, visiting that was akin to finding the Holy Grail, as airphotos of the site were included in my Structural Geology undergraduate textbook published in the late 1960s.

At the Wallace Creek site, you'll see the fault trace in all its glory, with about 400' of lateral offset of the drainage gulch of Wallace Creek. There are a number of other fault-controlled topographic features, as well.

I passed through Carrizo Plain in early November 2007 enroute from my son's Navy Base at Port Hueneme to my sister's home near Santa Cruz. I ended up encountering a geology field trip there and stayed with them all the way up Bitterwater Road to Cholame, where the fault is again very well exposed, right there within sight of the James Dean Memorial Junction.

That's a VERY COOL part of California. Bitterwater Road is Da Bomb. I'm much wanting to get back there for some Wandering. It could happen in Summer 2012, as my son will likely be in the area for pre-deployment training at Ft Hunter Liggett.

Foy

 

[MarkBC]

Cool stuff, Ted!

I never would have guessed that there was interesting stuff in the Central Valley -- at least, none that wasn't overrun with people!
Thanks.

 

[generubin]

Again, about those dividers in the holes in the rock, I think it may be to keep the larger raptors from making off with the Peregrine chicks or eggs. Just read an article about Peregrines that their #1 predator are barn owls, like the one Ted took a picture of. Peregrines were on the brink of extinction until we banned DDT. Though we (Dow) still manufacture DDT to sell to other countries,such as Mexico, which comes back to us in our tomatoes.


I just found this very excellent video about Carrizo Plain. I have been going there for 20 years but I still had much to learn. Absolutelty worth watching. Don't share it with too many friends or else our secret Carrizo Plain will fill with too many campers: http://www.peregrineproductions.com/carrizo/index.html

 

[ski3pin]

Ted, you didn't want to get some honey for the holiday feast?

 

[Foy]

Cool stuff, Ted!

I never would have guessed that there was interesting stuff in the Central Valley -- at least, none that wasn't overrun with people!
Thanks.


Mark,
The one time I did a drive-through, it was a bluebird gorgeous Sunday in early November 2007. I pulled out of Oxnard by around 0800, cruised slowly up to Ojai, through and over the (Santa Monica?) mountains on CA 33 to CA 166. I accessed Soda Lake Road on its south end off of CA 166. I drove north all the way up to CA 58 at California Valley, stopping many times with my geology guidebook. I encountered but a small handful of vehicles during the entire traverse. The drive from CPNM on up Bitterwater Road was equally devoid of other cars and people. From the beginning point on Soda Lake Rd all the way to Cholame was from roughly 11 am until 3pm, and I pretty much had it all to myself. Given the crowds I encountered as soon as I got on CA 46 towards Paso Robles, multiplied x 10 on "the 101" up towards Santa Cruz, I was surprised at the solitude of the CPNM.

Foy

 

[Ted]

...continuing

The fog was clearing on the Plain as we drove back down from Painted Rock. We took in the walkway and hillside overlook at Soda Lake.

Next we drove across the Plain over to Elkhorn Road and the Wallace Creek Trail Foy described. Interesting to realize you are standing directly on the San Andreas Fault. The diversion in the creek is impressive.

We drove the rest of Elkhorn Road south looking for a place to boondock. Unfortunately the area was mostly overgrazed ranch land and we found nothing to our liking. We ended up taking the dirt road into Maricopa where we got gas and firewood and headed back to Carrizo Plain for one of the campgrounds. The drive took longer than planned and it was past sunset so we took KCLcampground which is closer to the main road this time. KCL campground is located at the site of an old ranch so there are a number of large trees there, a rarity on Carrizo Plain. This attracts many hawks during the day and owls at night which we enjoyed watching and hearing.

We noticed several pop-up campers as we neared the campground, including two All Terrain Campers. As soon as we were settled I had to go see if they were fellow WTW members. I was delighted to finally meet Gene Rubin and his friends Anne and Phil. Of course I was familiar with the videos of Gene's famous campsite jam sessions and to finally get to experience one was great. Phil had just picked up his new camper and was spending his first night in it.

 

[Ted]

Saturday started getting more crowded. We decided to start making our way north. Gene suggested a good boondock site but many hunters were coming in for the day so we decided to save that for a future trip.

The number of birds, especially raptors, at Carrizo Plain was impressive. It seemed you could spot several at any one time. I've got nothing on Lighthawk's bird photography, but a couple are pictured below. I am not much of a birder but was able to identify Red Tail and Northern Harrier Hawks, Prairie Falcons, Barn and Great Horned Owls, and a couple of sparrows. The lack of crowds, the birds, and the video Gene posted a link to earlier in this report is enough to make me want to return - perhaps the spring bloom. Thanks for reading.

Red Tail Hawk

Lark Sparrow

Sage Sparrows

 

[generubin]

Thanks Ted for posting this thread. Really great pictures. An, I am glad you enjoyed the video. It sure has me looking forward to returning.

 

[highz]

Another place to add to the list! Enjoyed the trip report and all the photos. Very cool.

 

[ski3pin]

Pretty neat, Ted! Thanks for sharing your adventure! The Lady loved the honey comb photo. She loves snakes and bees.

 

[SunMan]

So does that mean you're not gonna show us what was cookin' in that fancy oven Ted???

Nice to see you down in our neck o' the woods (sort of).