Bolsa Chica

Bolsa Chica was one of the first of Harriet’s places that I visited—long before I had decided on the five projects that I examine in detail in Grand Canyon to Hearst Ranch.  Russell and I had stopped at Topanga Canyon and Harmony Headlands State Park before exploring the largest saltwater marsh between Monterey Bay and […]

Fiscalini Ranch Preserve

The Fiscalini Ranch Preserve is surrounded by the coastal community of Cambria, California.  Threatened by development in the 1990s after the Fiscalini family had to sell their ranch, local residents gathered together as Friends of the RanchLand to save what was then called the East West Ranch and keep it as open space in the […]

Bear Valley

John Muir once exclaimed, “At my feet lay the Great Central Valley of California, level and flowery, like a lake of pure sunshine, forty or fifty miles wide, five hundred miles long, one rich furred garden of yellow Compositae.”  The yellow flowers covered the valley like liquid gold.  There are few places left in California […]

Limekiln

I visited this spectacular property located fifty-two miles south of Carmel, California in 2019.  At the entrance on Highway One, Pacific Ocean waves crash against rocky headlands and spread on a sandy beach.  Moving inland, coast redwoods and tanoak shade a narrow canyon.  I followed Limekiln Trail that ended with the remains of the four […]