Picture of the Month – June 2011

My favorite wild flower patch is on Route 1, which runs across the ridge of the South Fork Mountains, from Titlow Hill on Hwy. 299 to Mad River on Hwy. 36.

I first discovered this patch in 2004, and have made a point of returning each spring to see it in bloom. In 2005 I took one of my favorite models, Maria, to the patch.

Because this patch of wild flowers is at its prime for only a couple of weeks, I usually start heading up there the first weekend in June to check their progress. Usually by this time the road has been cleared of any remaining snow. Depending on the winter we had, the patch is usually at its best the 2nd or 3rd week in June.

This year I went up at the beginning of June on my Triumph Sprint ST. I started from the north side and only got about 10 miles up the road when I started having to pick my way through the tracks in the snow. When I got to this blockage, I decided to turn around, since the Triumph isn’t the kind of bike I wanted to be on at the moment.

I tried again a couple of weeks later, this time taking my KLR650 and tried it from the south side. Same story. Still too much snow. I figured by the time the road would be opened this year the flowers were going to be long gone. I really wasn’t expecting to be featuring snow in June’s Picture of the Month, but that’s what Mother Nature dealt.

Picture of the Month – June 2009

After moving away to the big city, Maria’s return to Humboldt County coincided with the blooming of my favorite wildflower patch. Maria and I had shot at this location a few years ago, and it’s a spot I find so beautiful that I try and return there every year. Last year we had such a late spring that when I visited it at the normal time the flowers were just getting started. That also happened to be the day that all the forest fires started and so I didn’t make a return trip back last year because it was so smoky.

So it was with great anticipation that I was looking forward to shooting there again during Maria’s visit. On the drive up, it kept getting foggier and foggier and we almost turned back. But just as I was thinking of turning the truck around, we’d get a break in the fog and it would encourage me on. Not knowing if there’d be enough light to shoot with when we got there, and if we would hit the flowers at their peak, we proceeded on, until finally we rounded one corner and there they were. My first thought was if nature can put on such a spectacle of color, how come the weeds in my yard aren’t this pretty?

The fog rolling through added to the scene, and we shot for about an hour before it finally just got too dark. Even though the display only lasts for a week or so, it’s such a beautiful spot it has a permanent date on my calendar.

Picture of the Month – June 2005

Last year I photographed this patch of wildflowers up on Route 1 and at the time I thought it would make an excellent background for a portrait. So I marked my calendar for this year so I would remember when they bloomed. My first two trips up to Route 1 this year I found that it was still closed due to late snow. So finally, the day after summer officially began, I made a trip up to Route 1 with Maria to photograph the “Spring” flowers. Maybe they should change the rhyme to “May showers bring June flowers.”

Picture of the Month – August 2004

On the way back from our Eastern Sierra vacation, we made our way over Highway 108 in the late afternoon. Coming around one corner we were stunned by this meadow of lupine in full bloom. We were surprised to see lupine in bloom several months after it has disappeared in our coastal climate. I was able to get a few pictures before my batteries in the camera, and since I had earlier toasted my backup set trying to charge them while we were driving, I had no more rechargeables to use. We went back the next day with everything recharged hoping to take more pictures. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the spot again, even though it was so obvious the first time. Very frustrating, but at least the few pictures that I did get turned out very nice.

Picture of the Month – June 2004

On a beautiful June Sunday, my wife and I went for a drive up to Route 1. I had been through Route 1 several times before, and in fact had tried on the motorcycle just a couple of weeks earlier and had found it was still blocked by snow in a few places. On this trip we found only one small patch of snow left, but the wildflowers were exploding. We found several meadows that were carpeted in various purple and yellow wildflowers. Two weeks later I revisited the area and unfortunately, the show was over, making it a very short season.

By the way, the Route 1 that I am referring to is a Forest Service road that runs along the South Fork ridge, not the coastal highway that most are familiar with. Route 1 runs from Hwy 36 in Mad River to Hwy 299 at Titlow Hill.