LaJolla Beach Walk

Yesterday I took a bus up to LaJolla for a walk on the beach near the Scripps Pier.  Up on the bluff is a hang glider launch base so there are lots of them buzzing around.

Another Laguna Camping trip...

A nice half moon was visible on Thursday morning...

...and had a great morning to hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Tuesday at Balboa Park

On Tuesdays at San Diego's Balboa Park residents are able to get into the various museums for free on a rotating schedule. My favorite is the third Tuesdays when the Min Gei Museum, The San Diego Art Institute, and the Museum of Art are open.

This surfboard exhibit is terrific has been at the Min Gei Museum all summer.

Laguna Overnight

I took a quick trip up to Mt Laguna about an hour east of San Diego on Wednesday and Thursday.

There were swarms of these Acorn Woodpeckers all over the place...

On Thursday morning I hiked up to nearby Garnet Peak.

...and it was REALLY windy!

Huyler's Chocolate at the Mingei

I only discovered this art museum in Balboa Park a couple of months ago.  I had walked by it many times on free Tuesdays thinking it wasn't a free museum.  Well, my loss...  Every visit has been a pleasant surprise.

Today I went in and ran across this odd exhibit called "A Golden Age of Marketing Design" about Huyler's Chocolate.  ...never heard of it.  It turns out Huylers was in business for fifty years and for much of that time it was the biggest chocolate company in the country.  The company and it's products have now  completely disappeared.  The Huyler family sold the business in 1925 and it went bankrupt during the depression a few short years later.   I was born in 1952 and have never heard of this company before today.  Can you imagine Microsoft going out of business and within 20 years nobody has ever heard of it before.

Huyler's was the first candy company in the U.S. to use large-scale advertising to market its products-- as a result it became the major candy company in the U.S. during its fifty years.  By 1915 Huyler's was producing over 1600 varieties of candies.

During this period in our history few women worked outside the home, and those that did were often grossly underpaid and slaved in conditions that were pitifully unhealthy.  Huyler's factories were models of egalitarian reform which was very rare in that time.  Most of Hulyer's 2000 employees were women and given managable workloads, paid holidays, medical aid and disability compensation.

By the time the business was sold by the family in 1925 fourteen factories produced the chocolates that were sold in fifty-one Huyler's Stores and soda fountains throughout the East Coast while its products were sold in over 5000 small businesses nationwide.  Despite the rapid expansion Huyler's chocolates were never mass-produced.  The business relied on maintaining its reputation for supplying the best chocolate in America.

Tucson Fun

I spent the last week of April visiting my friends Phil and Jody from Seattle who were spending the month in Tucson.  We spent the week hiking or biking every day. 

I arrived in Tucson on Tuesday afternoon then on Wednesday we hiked Ventana Canyon literally out the door and across the parking lot from where they were staying.  The high temps require an early start so we were out the door before 8am and back shortly after noon.

Phil and Jody on the Ventana Canyon trail.

On Thursday we went for a hike at Mt Lemon in the Catalina Mountains on the north side of Tucson.  There were great views of Tucson in the distance.

On Friday we biked up nearby Sabino Canyon.  We were out the door at 7am in order to bike up the canyon road before the park service passenger trams start running at 9am.  The Saguaro were blooming like crazy as you can see here.











On Saturday I visited friends Dave and Loree in Green Valley fifteen miles south of Tucson who I know from when I lived in Alaska in the early '80's.  What was I thinking-- I didn't take any pictures!

On Sunday I went for a hike with Phil and Jody in Bear Canyon which involves going to the Sabino Canyon trail head and taking another short tram to the nearby Bear Canyon trail head.

On Monday we took a hike in Pima Canyon also in the lower Catalina Mountains on the north side of Tucson.

Zion and Snow Canyon

I left Tucson on Tuesday, April 29 to head for Hurricane, UT.  After arriving in Flagstaff Tuesday afternoon I hung out at the movie theater and saw Heaven Is Real and Draft Day.  Neither was a very good movie.  On Wednesday I met up with my friend Wayne in Hurricane for a few days of hiking in nearby Zion National Park and Snow Canyon State Park north of St George.

There was some great scenery on the drive from Tucson to Hurricane on Wednesday.  This view was on Highway 89A west of Page, AZ.

 On Thursday we took the bus from the main Zion Visitor center up to the end of the road at the Narrows trailhead-- shown here.  The water was way too bitter cold to consider hiking in it without waders.

The squirrels were incredibly tame and very persistent about demanding treats.

Joshua Tree

On Monday I drove up to Joshua Tree National Park for a couple days of hiking and camping.  The weather was pretty ideal the whole time;  mid to high 70's  during the day mid to high 60's at night.

Shortly after I arrived at the campground my neighbor spotted this rattle snake.  But it's the only one I saw during my three day stay.

The campground was near the remains of the long abandoned Ryan Ranch.  The ranch was established about 1896 and occupied by the Ryan family for nearly forty years.  What remains of the ranch house's adobe walls is shown here.








Three Ryan brothers and another prospector also ran the Lost Horse gold mine located about 4 miles south of the house until about 1908.  Water required for the gold mine was supplied from a spring located near the house and piped to the mine through a three inch steel pipe, much of which is still in place today.

On Tuesday I hiked east on the California Riding and  Hiking Trail that goes by the Ryan Campground.  The old Ryan water pipeline is visible along much of the trail.

Joshua Tree is known for it's great rock climbing.  Headstone Rock seemed really popular with the climbers and is located just a couple of hundred yards from where I was camped.

On Wednesday I hiked the California Riding and Hiking Trail to the west through Juniper Flats.  There was a very light overcast which made for perfect hiking weather.

 As luck would have it it seems like I arrived at the peak of the wildflower season.

 In many locations the ground seemed like it was covered with a carpet of wild flowers.

 Late in the afternoon on Wednesday a couple of climbers showed up at Headstone Rock.  It didn't really take them very long and they were at the top.

San Diego's Famosa Slough

Today I visited Famosa Slough located just a couple of blocks from where I live in San Diego. I learned about it while researching birding hot spots in San Diego and it turned out Famosa Slough was just a short distance from where I live in the Point Loma neighborhood. Sightings of nearly two hundred species of birds have been reported here.

More about Famosa Slough at: www.famosaslough.org/





My first sighting of a Little Blue Heron was along the San Diego River Estuary just a couple of days ago. I saw this one at the left this morning over at the Slough.

There were lots of Northern Pintail Ducks too.

I also saw several Snowy Egrets.

... and this beauty of a Great Blue Heron.

I'm not solid on this... but I think it's a Northern Mockingbird.













Other birds I saw today but didn't get pics of were:
Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Ruddy Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Great Egret, American Coot, Black-necked Stilt, Ring-billed Gull, Western Gull, Mourning Dove, Black Phoebe, House Finch, and a House Sparrow.