It’s this time of the year again: the Marine Layer is covering the coast of Southern California!
We have to drive about 45 minutes, all the way to Alpine, to get out of the fog. From there on we have beautiful sunshine and nice warm temperatures.

Not long after I unpack the camera and turn it on, Marco stops in the middle of the gravel road, backs up a bit and leans out of the window to take the first picture – it’s not a rattle snake but it’s about 5 ft long (1.5 meter). Heading up on Boulder Creek Road to almost 4,000 feet (1’200 meter) we have a great view of the fog from far and all the Mountain Lilacs and blooming Yuccas. The creek has lots of water and it’s very green and springlike after the (hopefully) last snow of the last weekend.

Shortly before we reach “civilized” areas again our attention is drawn to a dead tree: about one to two dozen woodpeckers are flying around this one tree, chasing each other, ruffling their feathers and singing like crazy. We watch them for a while – it is absolutely fascinating and we certainly have never seen anything the like!

And, last but not least, we also see some wild turkeys.

We are glad we made it out of the fog and we enjoyed a the sun and the warmth!