Into The Woods: Snow, Water Falls and Creeks
One of the most joyful activities on a day off work is to go on an excursion. Last Sunday, Mike C. and I embarked on an old fashioned Sunday drive.
Only a short distance further up into the foothills, Mike C. and I stopped off at Michigan Bluff (in the photo below) where we were afforded a gorgeous old fashioned snow-scape. The air was fresh, the snow was brilliant white and the sun was a-glow…
Snow had just fallen the previous week, late February, in the northern California foothills. A perfect day it was - a blend of crisp winter and pre-spring sunshine.
An old fashioned barn covered with snow caught my eye as for being the ideal winter time picture post card - also in historic Michigan Bluff.
Proceding down and around the winding, then bending and potentially dangerous road, we found ourselves parked near a little water fall that trickled, then crashed out of a rock protruding over the side of the road. There is nothing quite so soothing as the sound of flowing water in the middle of quiet nature.
Once melting snow, then flowing from the tiniest of origins, small trickles of water congregate and pull into purposeful allignment, crashing, descending toward and inevitable place - The American River below.
Splashing into a pool, the chaotic waters settle for a moment before continuing on its course…
I took a cross-legged seat near the babbling waters. From this intimate stance, shapes, textures and colors of nature’s rock, water and earth took on abstract proportions.
Stretching, pointing like wicked fingers across the sky, gnarly tree branches hovered and protruded above the creek flow, giving this little place in the woods an aura of strange, yet vital, urgency and enchantment.
Alongside the water fall an odd sight caught my attention - a curious cut-out angel had been erected and placed atop a pile of assorted boulders and rocks. Was this a burial of someone’s beloved family pet? A strange monument of sorts paying homage to this place? A real mystery in an unlikely and uninhabited place…
