Dos Picos County Park

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Scent of Ramona lilac blossoms

The color purple: the beautiful blooms of the Ramona lilacs

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Well, it’s taken me a while but I finally did it! I went through all the photos I took of the Ramona lilacs in bloom during my latest visit at Dos Picos County Park in Ramona, California. I ended with a few good photos I’m sharing below in a gallery format.

If you’d like to see any image larger, just click on it and it will open a different screen with a photo slideshow. Then stroll down the page to see below the image and click “View full size” on the right hand size.

Ramona lilacs are different from the regular lilac trees you’re probably used to. The flowers are a lot smaller and much less fragrant, but just as beautiful. You can see on some photos that the trees are completely covered with clusters of purple flowers. The flowers actually look blue when they are unopened. As they open they get dark purple and when they’re open completely, they’re more of a light purple. This gives each tree a unique look and color. That’s why each cluster looks different on the photos.

Thank you for your patience! I hope you enjoy the show. And let me know what you think if the comments section if you’d like.

Trail bordered by Ramona lilacs

Purple and whote Ramona lilac in bloom

Blooming Ramona lilacs

Ramona lilacs on a trail in Dos Picos County Park

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Scent of Ramona lilac blossoms

Close-up of Ramona lilac in bloom

Flower clusters of Ramona lilacs

Purple lilac flowers

April 30, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Bloom Photos, Forest Photos, Photography, Photos of San DiegoTags: blooming lilac, blue lilac, California pictures, Dos Picos County Park, lilac blooms, lilac blossoms, nature photography, photography, photos, photos of blooms, photos of flowers, purple lilac, ramona california, Ramona lilac trees, Ramona lilacs 11 Comments

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Walking down the trail

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Walks, paths and trails

This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge theme is indoor and outdoors walks – anything designed for walking. All my photos are of the outdoors because that’s where I like to be best.

Once you take a trail at the back of Dos Picos County Park and pass the enchanted stone steps I showcased last week, you find yourself walking on a path bordered with many Ramona lilacs. If you hike in the spring, when the lilacs are in bloom, this is what you get to see as you follow the trail:

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Trail in Dos Picos County Park — Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trail in Dos Picos County Park

And it only gets better as you walk along. Here’s a blast of green, purple and bright blue! I know, I still owe you a few close-ups of the Ramona lilacs, but at least you can see what the lilac trees look like full size. Aren’t they pretty?

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Trail bordered by Ramona lilacs — Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trail bordered by Ramona lilacs

Another favorite spot where we enjoy hiking in Louis Stelzer County Park. On the day I took the photos below, the sky was completely gray but everything on the ground looked very green. In a couple of months, most of it will turn to yellow or brown, and the green probably won’t return until next January.

Here’s the trail that follows the side of the hill. This trail is fun to walk on a cloudy day, but I avoid it like the plague in the heat of summer since there’s no shade.

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Trail at Louis Stelzer County Park — Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trail at Louis Stelzer County Park

Fortunately, this park offers a lot of wooded areas by the small creek. This is a great trail to walk on any day of the year. This is as green as it gets in San Diego.

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Green trail at Louis Stelzer County Park — Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Green trail at Louis Stelzer County Park

Like many parks in San Diego County, this park is full of coast live oak trees, which tend to feature many thick, often contorted branches. Look how this large tree branch curves over the trail to create an arch.

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Trail with coast live oak trees — Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trail with coast live oak trees

To me, there’s nothing more pleasant than walking down a shaded trail to make me feel in unison with nature. What about you?

April 24, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, Landscape Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Plant Photos, Tree PhotosTags: blooms, California pictures, Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, coast live oak tree, Dos Picos County Park, hiking trails San Diego, lilac blooms, Louis Stelzer County Park, nature photography, photography, photos, photos of blooms, ramona lilac, walking trails San Diego 10 Comments

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Steps or stairs

This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge theme is steps or stairs. I only have one photo to share for this theme, but when I saw these beautiful steps a couple of weeks ago, I knew they deserved their own photo post.

I found these amazing stone steps at Dos Picos County Park in Ramona, California, while hiking on a trail at the back of the park. In the spring, Dos Picos Park is simply beautiful. The grass that grows there is quite particular. It’s very fine, very tall, very soft, and very… green! Believe me, living in San Diego, you don’t get to see grass this green very often.

Between the many coast live oaks, the blooming lilacs (you can see photos of those lilacs here and here), and greener than green grass, sometimes I feel like I’ve stepped into some type of fairyland. And that’s why I think these stone steps fit perfectly with the fairyland theme. What do you think?

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Stone steps or stairs — Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Stone steps or stairs

April 16, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, Landscape Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Tree PhotosTags: California pictures, Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, Dos Picos County Park, dos picos park, dos picos ramona, green grass, nature photography, photography, photos, stone stairs, stone steps 17 Comments

Cee's fun foto challenge: raindrops on green branches

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Green

February 14, 2013 update: I just found out I won the Let’s be Wild Audience Award for this photo challenge on Green! I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on my photos. This is the first time I’ve been recognized for my photo work, so this is a big deal for me. 🙂

I’m participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s Challenge is: Green.

You can click on the photos below for a larger view.

Green isn’t something you see a lot of in San Diego. The outdoor scenery is gray, brown and yellow most of the year. Still, you can be lucky and capture some green on camera, like that spring day when I stumbled upon this patch of surreal green at Dos Picos County Park. You can view more photos of Dos Picos County Park here, and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass — Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass

Green is the color of grass, even when it’s covered with dew and spiderwebs from grass spiders. You can view more photos of these spiderwebs with dew in this post.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass covered with spider webs — Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass covered with spider webs

I love the bold green on the plants below, even when covered with winter frost. You can view more photos of plants covered in frost here, here and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green plants covered with frost — Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green plants covered with frost

Even the rain can’t wash out the green of this tree branch. You can view more photos of raindrops on these tree branches here and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green branches and raindrops — Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green branches and raindrops

There’s plenty of green at the San Diego Botanic Garden, including on this beautiful topiary of a dancing couple. You can see more amazing topiary in this post.