Mountain Weekend

Well , this weekend I didn't travel far away from home. Instead, I ended up exploring places in my "own back yard." We went up to Tehachapi on Saturday, which is only about 40 or so miles from Bakersfield. There was a nice park up there, and campsites. The weather was crazy. There were some thunderstorms and occasional lightning. It was really neat to see. I love to watch the lightning. I am so fascinated by it. It is one of those natural wonders which just amazes me. In the park, there was a nice little nature trail to hike on, so we decided to do that. It was really cool because it was raining a little and kind of warm. On the trail amongst the trees, it almost felt like a rain forest. It was kind of hot and wet and very humid, and the water would drop off of the trees onto your face. In some spots, you could see the steam coming off of the ground. It looked like something out of a werewolf movie. We didn't see too much wildlife. We did spot a few squirrels running around. Maybe it was too wet and the animals had gone to seek shelter to wait out the rain.

That night, back in Bakersfield, we took a drive up Round Mountain Road. It is kind of odd that this place would even exist in Bakersfield. It is eerily quiet up there and dark. If you want to get a better view of the night sky and don't want to travel far, this is the best place probably to do it. We spotted a skunk on the road, and I made sure I didn't hit it!

On Sunday, we took a drive up to Mt Pinos. Mt Pinos is maybe 60 or so miles from Bakersfield. If you want to escape from the heat in a hurry, this is a good place to do it. It was so nice and cool up there. It felt great! We took a trail through the forest, which was a pretty easy one. It was nice to get away from all the people in town. There were so many bumblebees among the flowers, that when you walked by them, all you heard was a constant "hummming" sound. The bees were not very concerned with us. They just went about their business and paid no attention to us humans. I did some reading up on them, and for the most part, they are a pretty gentle species of bee, which is very good to know! Aside from the numerous bumblebees, there were many different birds and a few chipmunks, and we did spy some lizards as well. I turned over some rocks and branches hoping to maybe see a snake or something, but I didn't find any. Of course, that doesn't mean there weren't any.

When we were leaving, we saw some people in the parking lot setting up telescopes ... some very expensive looking equipment. They must have been part of an astronomy group or something. It does look like it would be a great place to stargaze. I would love to go up there on Thursday night to watch the Perseid meteor shower. It runs from July 17th thru August 24th, and astronomers predict an extra peak this year on August 12th. I love stargazing. I want a telescope! lol.

I have no idea what I will be up to this weekend. But that is part of the fun of it. Spontaneity is great!

I posted a few pictures below.