August in Big Sur Read the rest of this entry »
Blue Moon Rising
August 31, 2012
2 Comments | 
Big Sur, Insects, Plants, Santa Lucias, Wildflowers | 
Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Small Fire Near Limekiln Creek
July 5, 2012We’ve been getting questions about why so many firetrucks and dozers have been headed south through Big Sur with lights and sirens ablaze this evening. They are on their way to the Limekiln Creek area where a small fire was reported around 4:30 this afternoon. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Big Sur, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, Santa Lucias | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Wildflower of the Week: Opium Poppies
June 30, 2012
Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, in one of its many guises (Photo: publicphoto.org)
We’re making opium poppies our Wildflower of the Week due to an article on page 11 of this week’s Carmel Pine Cone concerning an alert Carmel police officer who discovered an opium poppy growing on a city easement along the side of a Carmel street. The offending plant, you’ll be glad to know, was seized before it could further damage the town’s moral character. After the plant tested positive for morphine, down at the station, it was renditioned to a federal crime lab for “further analysis.” The article concludes by noting that “it’s unknown who planted the illegal poppy.” Your tax dollars at work. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Big Sur, Courts, Plants, Politics, Wildflowers | Tagged: drug laws, drug war, opium, papaver somniferum | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Garrapata State Park to Stay Open
June 28, 2012
Soberanes Pt. at Garrapata State Park
Update: State Parks has announced that, all possible benefits having been milked from this particular piece of political theater, no parks will actually close on Sunday. Sure couldn’t have seen that one coming!
The Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District and the Big Sur Land Trust have agreed to take over emptying the garbage cans and servicing the porta-pots at Garrapata State Park (which is about all the services the park currently receives from State Parks), meaning the Park, which had been scheduled to “close” Sunday, will now remain officially open. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Big Sur, Politics, Santa Lucias | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Garrapata State Park “Closing” Next Weekend
June 23, 2012
Garrapata State Park is scheduled to close next Sunday, July 1
When Gov. Brown announced plans last year to save $22 million by closing 70 of California’s State Parks, it was immediately obvious that it wasn’t really about the $22 million. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Big Sur, Politics, Santa Lucias | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Wildflower of the Week: Globe Lily
June 8, 2012
Globe Lilies, AKA Fairy Lanterns (Calochortus albus) growing along the Kirk Creek Trail. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Big Sur, Plants, Santa Lucias, Wildflowers | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
White Redwood Resurrection
May 15, 2012
For many, many years the banks of this precipitous South Coast stream were the home of the tallest white redwood (that we knew of anyway) to be found anywhere in the Santa Lucia Mountains. We’re not going to take sides in the argument over exactly how tall it was. Estimates range from 30 to 50 feet (which may have to do with the uppermost portion dying off somewhere along the line). Either way, this was a white redwood of genuinely tree-like proportions. A far cry from the more typical white redwood shrubs and saplings. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Big Sur, Plants, Santa Lucias | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Wildflower of the Week: Douglas Iris
May 3, 2012
Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana) on Skinner Ridge. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Big Sur, History, Plants, Santa Lucias, Wildflowers | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Death on the Little Sur
April 12, 2012
North Fork Little Sur
Among many wild and beautiful streams in the Santa Lucia Mountains, the North Fork of the Little Sur River stands out as one of the wildest and most beautiful. Rising on the north face of the Double Cone, it drains a deep, nearly trail-less, basin heavily forested with redwood and, unusually for the Santa Lucia, Douglas Fir; then squeezes through the narrow gap between Pico Blanco and Bixby Mountain to reach the coast. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Big Sur, Santa Lucias | Tagged: Bottcher's Gap, Pico Blanco, Ventana Wilderness | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Wildflower of the Week: Silver Lupine
March 26, 2012
Well, we’ve fallen a little behind in choosing a wildflower of the week, so we’re going to make up for it by choosing silver lupine (Lupinus albifrons): one of California’s most ubiquitous flowers. Although it leaks across the border a little into Southern Oregon and Northern Baja, this perennial shrub is a true Alta Californian. These are blooming near Soberanes Creek in Garrapata State Park – one of the many State parks scheduled to be “closed” this year. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Big Sur, Insects, Plants, Santa Lucias, Wildflowers | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Xasáuan Today 