| Satwiwa/Rancho
Sierra Vista December Hike - Page 1
|
||
 |
 |
|
| View
from a spot on the plateau above Potrero Road. The mountain in the
background is called Satwiwa by the Chumash people who have lived in
this area for 12,000 years. |
From
the parking area, this trail leads past fragrant chaparral and young
willows to the visitor center, the ap (traditional Chumash housing) and
trails that wander through the hills. In winter, most of the lower
hills are dressed in shades of tan and brown, as if their vegetation had
been left too long in an oven. |
|
This spring-fed
pond is often nothing more than a bowl of dried, cracked earth by the
time fall arrives, but a cool, foggy summer coupled with unusual early
fall rains kept the pond going in the fall of 2001. Mallards nest
in the rushes at water's edge and red-winged blackbirds perch on reeds
and call into the quiet. |
The trail leads
upward. Although situated a scant quarter-mile frm the edge of a
housing tract, this natural preserve is wonderfully quiet and filled
with the sweet smell of dry summer grasses.
|
|
|
||