Ghost towns2

Included here: Calico, Rhyolite, and Stein NM.

Ghost towns

Some pix of Jerome, Calico and another ghost town. Many towns sprung up the time of the Gold Rush starting in the 1840s. They would live for 30 years and, with no more mining, people would abandon the town and move on.

Tombstone AZ

A few pics of the town where the red cowboys dueled with Doc Holliday and his people. Trippy place. Yours truly visited this town in 1987. It has mostly become a tourist town...but the energy vibes of this place remain in spite of that. Here also is the OK Corral where the gunfight took place.

Old West I

Here's a hotel from the 1880s...a lynching and pistol from the day.

Remembering where it all began Mother's Day 1935

Earthquake Damage

Many examples...in big quakes you can sometimes see fissures in the earth that weren't there before. Fallen trees, bridges, power lines, whole buildings, sudden avalanches, rivers completely running a different course (as in Missouri 1812), broken gas lines, power outtages, fires, explosions, new emerging hilly terrain, ...these are just a few examples.

Great Earthquake Chile 5/22/60

One of the greatest recorded quakes. Here's where the tsunami went and time frame.

Great Earthquake I

Some pics from the Northridge Quake 1994 and great San Francisco Quake in 1906. The former was vicious, shaking with an "up and down" type motion on 1/17 at 430AM. Sometimes quakes may shake over a minute possibly up to 3 minutes (as the great Chile quake in 1960). In San Francisco, the quake shook and also started a large inferno which consumed much of the city in its aftermath. The Chilean quake, at 9.5 on the Richter scale, was so large that it sent a 30 foot tsunami across the Pacific Ocean...eventually hitting the shores of Tokyo.

Gratitude

People are grateful for the fab weather in Jolly weirdland.

Condor Peak 2008

Here are recent photos of a yours truly hike. The spring is nice and flowering extensive. This sylvan forest often has scrubby oak, ceanothus, poison oak, dwarf oak, big cone spruce, bay leaf, and dense chaparral throughout.
If you were here in 1900, you might see huge vultures called condors circling the left hogback mountain (left of the two steep triangular peaks). This bird had close to a 10 foot wingspan and would search for dead animals or animal kills...seeking carrion. Also at one time, the grizzly lived up here and would frequent Big Tujunga Canyon nearby. Probably to eat the common trout in the river. The smaller black bear was supposedly imported in the early 1900s. Now there are officially 500 bears...many of them nestling in the Mt. Baldy area.

Severe Weather VIII

Some examples of blizzards. Note the downed electrical wires and almost inaccessible car dealership.