Chaparral in July

Ok, this isn't all from the chaparral and it is from early July mostly.  Late July is very dry and most of the wildflowers have turned to berries or puff balls.  I still see lots of rattlesnakes and just don't take pictures of them now.  One reason is because they are plenty warm and move pretty fast, but really, how many rattlesnake pictures do you want to see?  Today I saw a great big wavy track across the dirt road on which I was running where a rattlesnake had recently passed.  The track was about as wide as my foot.  I didn't want to run into that snake.

Lavender fields in Hidden Valley.  Smells so nice in the heat of the morning sun.

Strange metal crates for no apparent reason.

Not a thistle - looks like an artichoke gone wild.

Chris at sunset.

Sycamore Canyon.

Coyote at Satwiwa.

Look back at Chaparral in June.  This is pearly everlasting.  The buds open into what feels like dried straw flowers.

 Nathaniel and some friends did a service project at one of the park trailheads.  They cleaned up trash from a stream.

Emma, Dylan, Christian, Nathaniel, and Riley.

You can't see it (and we didn't at first either) but there is a bees nest in the hole. We were about to climb up over this branch when Nathaniel spotted the bees.

 A couple of pics from Utah.  I didn't take photos of all the wildflowers, although we did see a lot of them.  With the late spring all the wildflowers were out along the wasatch front and in Park City.

2 mile turn-around point from Ferndale trail head.

Chasing Courtney on the bike, and it was still hard to keep up with her.

Chris on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

Stream crossing