After a couple of days of rain, D. and I returned to Sunol Regional Wilderness Area on Saturday to check out the waterfalls in the scenic gorge known as Little Yosemite. I took these pics.
The hills are very green from recent rain.
A decomposing log hosts lichens and fungus.
Red alders line the creek. We see the pendulous green male catkins and smaller cone-like female catkins.
A close-up of the male catkins and their scores of individual florets.
Another odd little fungus pushing up through the grass. I think this one is a small morel.
Moss has a lot to grown on right next to Alameda Creek.
There is something profoundly peaceful and soothing about mossy logs. It makes me want to go to sleep on one, imagining how soft and comfortable it would be.
One of the side paths off the Camp Ohlone Road trail leading down to Alameda Creek.
Looking downstream in the Little Yosemite gorge.
A little fall and pool amid the jumble of boulders.
A view downstream.
Another little fall in the gorge.
The gnarled, exposed roots of a sycamore in the gorge, polished smooth by fast high water. And yet the tree lives.
Upstream from the gorge we find a little meadow of sycamores.
Looking back downstream into the mossy gorge.
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