Orestimba Wilderness hike

Orestimba is a particularly remote section of the enormous Henry Coe State Park, which lies east of Morgan Hill, CA. Henry Coe is not far from Silicon Valley as the crow flies, but in some ways it might as well be the Yukon Territory. Public roads barely pierce the perimeter, and visitors are relatively few. Our guide, Ron Erskine, seems to know this country as if it were the city block he grew up on, even though the park encompasses nearly 90,000 acres. (Kudos to Bay Nature, the fine magazine and nonprofit that sponsored the walk.)

These hills, part of the Diablo Range, have a specific muted color palette that is difficult for a snapshooter to capture. So I abandoned color, and focused on the textures of the photogenic blue oaks...

   













with a return to color for portraits of a couple of native reptiles...