Cuyamaca Mountains Village, Morteros, and a Woodpecker

I believe the last post I made from the Cuyamaca mountains related to our hike up the Memorial Peak Trail to see the remains of the hundred year old plane crash near the top of Japacha Peak.
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In the early 1800's (and long before) there were many Indian villages in the Cuyamaca and Laguna mountains in Southern California. These villages were used by the Kumeyaay (and earlier) Indians as their spring and summer homes. They spent their winters in the local deserts (in and around what is now Anza-Borrego SP), or along the Pacific coast line.

The place we were looking on this day was once part of the ancient village of Pisclim. The mortars (morteros) we found there were used to grind acorns, seeds, etc.

 A non-nondescript trail heading off into nowhere.

Nothing but dead-fall and vegetation. 

A nice scene that may or may not even be in the area. 

 Nothing...

 There is no trail here, but we do have an idea where what we are looking for is.

See? Even he's surprised to see us!

I get excited if I come across one of two morteros. Imagine how I feel when I run across a mother load like this...

This spot really gets a person to thinking about how many people were fed because of these mortars and for how many hundreds or thousands of years they were used. 

Obligatory black and white. 

We stopped counting at 75! I'm sure there were more in the vegetation. 

Yes, I know that you are surprised to see birds in my blog posts. There aren't very many pine trees this big still in the area (due to many fires). So, this tree was in our campground a few miles away. This guy is an acorn woodpecker. They drill holes in the bark, and then force an acorn into the hole. Eventually larval worms develop in the acorn and the woodpecker pecks it open and eats the larva. The woodpeckers act like a big family and can store thousands of acorns in a single tree. It's still like the 1960's to them and they have a communal life. They need a lot of birds involved, because you know who also wants those woodpeckers, right? Yep, squirrels! 

You can see many more wild birds by following this link to my friend Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday extravaganza!

The next few are only here because I liked them. 

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Some Odd Sights

Just a few odd things I've seen in the past couple of weeks. I've had a lot going on recently and I promise, I'll get back to "real" posts very soon...

I was trying to take a photo of the two deer in the photo. They were heading up that hill and I had to shoot from the hip (not very well).  I thought the yellow thing was just some kind of farm machinery, or plumbing thing.  It's a small submarine!  Submarines aren't all that rare, but submarines sitting on top of a mountain at over 5000 feet above sea level, is very rare...

Everybody knows what rabbits are because they are pretty much everywhere. BUT, this is not a cute little cottontail. It's also not very good to eat.  It's a jack rabbit. They are more wild animal than bunny. I bet this guy was twenty pounds.

It's strange enough that these woodpeckers are making holes in this cabin. It's even more strange that they seem to be doing it in the shape of a square.

Of course there are always abandoned and/or junk cars in the desert. This one just happens to be a Plymouth Barracuda and pretty valuable.

Sorry, I just couldn't help snapping this one. Just one more reason not to smoke! The stub of a finger, was a real bonus.

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This post was just for fun, real stuff coming up next...

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Weekend Reflection - Sedona Store Window

This is why Sedona, Arizona is one of the most beautiful places in the world. There is nowhere you can go in the city and not see beautiful scenery. I took this photo last week.

For reflections by other photographers go to Weekend Reflections by James.

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Critters We Saw This Week

Ground squirrel. Not too popular because they undermine hillsides. Pretty darn cute though!

As the crow flies (or gull), we weren't that far from the ocean.

I don't know what he was. If you can spot him in this photo, maybe you know.

A shop in Julian had 5 hummingbird feeders out and all of them were being used.

A cottontail who didn't seem to mind me very much.

A crow riding the thermals. It may have been a raven, he was too high for me to really know.

A Horny Toad. They really aren't a "toad" at all, but a lizard. These guys are said to be able to squirt blood from their eyes (into yours) from five feet away. I don't know if that is fact or fable.

Red Headed Woodpeckers. These are guys who make thousands of holes in trees and then put acorns in the holes.

A covey of Quail at one of the camp sites.

Although my friend's dog is not a "wild" animal, he is one heck of a tether ball player. I've never seen a Boston Terrier jump as high as this guy can. Chuck (apocalypse now), this pic is for you! 

Those woodpeckers peck on everything. We were battling one who was trying to peck a whole in the roof of our RV!

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I also saw some deer and cottontails, but couldn't get a decent shot at them!

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Road Trip to the Cuyamaca Mountains

A few weeks ago we took a trip up to the Cuyamaca Mountains, up above the old mining town of Julian (I'm sure some of you are familiar with Julian and I'll post a photo tour of it soon).  The camp ground is one of our favorite places. The camp sites are very spread out and some of them have views that are truly AMAZING.  I'll only do a couple of blog posts on it right now because we've already gone and returned from another roadie to an awesome campground up the coast.

On the way down the coast we stopped at San Onofre State Park. It's not the best for camping but they do have miles and miles of awesome coastline.  The entire place is actually part of Camp Pendleton (USMC) base (ooh-rah!). Thanks to them, the state was allowed to put a state park on their property. Beautiful waves without a surfer in sight. I was stationed at this base MANY moons ago. This is a look to the south.

This is a view to the north. If you enlarge this photo you can see where my town's electricity comes from. The two huge domes in the background that look like a giant bra, is actually the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant.

Here's a couple of "bear with me" photos. This is yet another example of my fixation with closeups and out of focus backgrounds

A solitary (and empty) bench sitting on the cliff top. (this one's for you Faye).

I didn't want to take his pic, but he wouldn't stop begging.

Okay, finally up into the mountains and into the campground. See, I told you this place was spread out.  The raised antenna is a joke, we couldn't get a single TV station. But, hey we're supposed to be roughing it. Right?

The campground has been overrun by wildfires twice in the past 10 years. Here's an example of a scorched tree that may or may not make it. I thought it was pretty cool looking either way.

Note the woodpecker hard at work. Not only are there thousands of holes "pecked" into the bark of this huge tree...

The woodpeckers come back and put a single acorn into each and every hole. Thousands and thousands. Of course this leads to a not so delicate ballet between the squirrels and the woodpeckers.

This view is from a campsite we hope to get next time. It's on the very edge of the mountain and looks down into the Anza-Borrego Desert. In the far distance you can see the Salton Sea. The day I took this, it was about 75 degrees. It was close to 110 degrees down below.

Here I am contemplating. Contemplating what I have no idea. I was probably wondering if it was too early to invoke my own personal "happy hour."  Hey, this camping is tough and brutal, but somebody has to keep the pioneering spirit alive...

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