The Santa Margarita road follows the river, which shows up a rather hidden creek since there is not much water. Apparently, the dryness isn’t as severe as a few years ago, but much of California is in some level of drought. Again. This seems to happen a lot and the state spends quite a bit of effort in managing the water systems to mitigate the rather variable climate, storing and moving water mainly from north to south. This gives the area a lot of variety in the types of foliage growing naturally which makes for great textures in photography.
I saw many coast live oak covered in dead branches giving the trees a slightly ghost-like fabulous texture distinctive of wild, unpruned trees. I don’t think too many folks would tolerate so many dead branches…. Slightly unkempt but the overall effect is slightly ethereal, like a large swirling, diaphanously layered tree.
This burned post was randomly in the middle of the clearing in the oak trees. Nothing around it was burned, so it must have been dragged there after it was charred.
This was just beyond the post, looking into the grove and the grouping of oaks with a view of the hills beyond that. Most of the green under the trees was poison oak, one of the evilest of plants.
Looking evil also, the prickly pear cactus mixed with the grass and a variety of mostly spiky plants. Beware stepping off the road!