New Melones Detour Once Again!

   Yesterday, my daughter, Amber, and her son, Giovanni, and I headed to the hills.  Our destination was Murphys, a picturesque town at 2100 feet in Calaveras County.

   Once again, my Nissan Maxima took a detour to Tuolomne County.  And this time, Amber was driving!  Instead of the vineyards between Vallecito and Murphys we saw that the road to our right was a sheer drop to a canyon of evergreen.  Soon, we came up on a almost unrecognizable site.  We were divinely led to see the heartbreaking state of a very, very dry New Melones Reservoir.

   Today, New Melones has 543,495 acre feet in storage.  The total capacity of the reservoir is 2,420,000 acre feet.

   In August, Stockton East Water District determined that no irrigation water from New Melones Reservoir will be available to the district's water users past mid-August.

An even scarier photo of  New Melones.

   I am continually amazed at the number of people who say that the drought is over!  Even one of our presidential candidates has visited California and uttered those words.  He apparently did not visit New Melones.
An upside to this dreary news is that we passed Natural Bridges on the way to the reservoir.  Cars were parked on the shoulder of the road, so there had to be water down there for people to enjoy!  We saw a woman carrying a kayak.
Natural Bridges Calaveras-county
   Amber had never before seen Natural Bridges, and she felt that she and Giovanni were led to discover a cool place to hike and enjoy the water!
Look here for future blogs about Natural Bridges.

Monterey County's Best Kept Secret: Salinas River National Wildlife Refuge

Today's post is not an activist post, but instead, an informational one about a beautiful water area that we visited ten days ago.

This refuge is in such an unobtrusive location that we almost drove right by.  On CA-183 N, our GPS was telling us that we had arrived at our destination.  All we could see was a dirt agricultural road ahead of us, flanked by strawberry fields.  I thought the GPS was mistaken.  However, Jim spotted the brown U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sign up ahead at the end of the field.
We drove up the dirt road.  The field road is the only access to the refuge! We wondered: How many people drive by that sign, see the dirt road, and decide to skip it because Mapquest, or the GPS must be mistaken?
Once again, we were divinely led to a beautiful sanctuary. We had experienced another metaphysical event.  We were supposed to be there.

We visited on April 24, and everything was in full bloom!

Breathtaking wildflowers.

 The refuge is nature at its best!

Salt Marsh with Gabilan Mountain Range in the background.

We took the beach trail, which is about a 20 minute walk from the 
entrance to the beach.  On the way, we encountered many fishermen/
women walking back to their cars.  The first couple we spoke to had
 a good-sized perch in their creel.  The others we asked all had the
 same reply:  "No keepers.  We threw them back."

We saw a pair of Mallards.

The refuge is packed with wildlife--especially during the spring and fall.
  The NWRS (National Wildlife Refuge Salinas) brochure states that
 the  American goldfinch and Wilson's warblers are common spring
 migrants to view.  There are also warnings to stay on the trail: 
 Plovers make their nests on the dunes, and walking there can disturb
 the nests and keep the adults away from their chicks.  Pets are not
allowed on the refuge.

We were there at straight up noon, which is the worst time to
 photograph flowers.  I could not get a picture of the sand
verbena, which is so prevalent where the snowy plovers like
 to make their nests.

The end of the beach trail

A photo of me taking a photo of the Monterey Bay

Next time, we visit the refuge, we will go earlier in the morning, and

we will bring our fishing poles!