Just Looking For A Little Shade

As I was driving out of Griffith Park after dropping some equipment off at the Zoo for work, I spotted this guy:



Horrible picture, I know, but it is a coyote resting in the shade right by the road. In a very busy green park area too!

He was pretty skinny and rough looking. A good reminder that the animals in the area are still adjusting to all of the burned out areas. I'm betting there isn't much shade in the hills, very little water (if any) and food is probably still a bit scarce. Poor guy was just looking for a little relief from the heat. I know how miserable I am already this summer, I can only imagine what life is like in the burn area.

He was a good sport about me stopping my car in the middle of the road to take a few cameraphone pictures ( I know, I'm an idiot). After a minute though he let me know it was time to move along.

Take me to the Zoo

I love the LA Zoo for so many reasons.

For one, zoos are just fun. It is a whole place dedicated to learning and play...what could be cooler than that. I so enjoy science, especially behavioral sciences that I could spend hours watching the animals interact with each other and trying to figure out what it all means.

The LA Zoo is extra special for me, though. I feel like I grew up there. I can remember visiting as a kid and loving it. As a teenager, I went to high school there and trust me...it was absolutely as fun as it sounds. We took classes and did research in front of animal exhibits, we got into areas that weren't open to the public, and I even got to touch a giraffe once.

As an adult, I am of course a member. If you find me bored on a Saturday afternoon, odds are I will head out to the zoo to take pictures. I was even able to do a programming project for work in one of the new buildings...talk about coming full circle. I love that as a grown-up, I can still have such a fun kid-like time there. As the responsibilities and problems of the world press down on us, everyone needs a place they can go to be a kid again.

Now I only wish they still sold those great animal shaped french fries! On a hot summer day I can still taste them...dipped in a cherry icee of course.

The Hills Still Aren't The Same

As many of my friends know, I was very sad about the Griffith Park fire.

Don't get me wrong. I fully appreciate how lucky everyone is that no one was hurt and I think the firemen were amazing to save all of the historic structures and homes. I just love the park and I hated to see it scarred.

Staying out of the park the last month has been difficult. It is my favorite regular hiking spot. I am the first to tell people how wrong I think it is to try and sneak into the burn areas as the land needs to heal...and it doesn't need us stomping all over it while it does. I also share in the frustrations held by many that we are be kept out of large portions of the hills where there has been no fire.

Conspiracy theories abound that the reason the majority of the park is closed is to make it easier for the powers-that-be to push through a new master plan allowing for more paving and deveoloping of the land. It is getting harder to call these theories crazy. There is definitely a group of people that would like to see Griffith Park opened up for more commercial uses. Parking lots, restauraunts, paved roads...the list goes on and on. All of these plans backed by arguments that talk about opening the park up for everyone and helping it to pay for itself. The problem is, of course, that the plan calls for a destruction of the very thing it is "developing".

Things change, time marches on, but sometimes you have to let things remain. Not everything should change. Not everything has to be fully accessible to everyone. Not everything has to be able to generate money for the city. When you are blessed with an urban wilderness as special as Griffith Park, it is the responsibility of the City of Los Angeles and the residents of the city to protect it.

http://savegriffithpark.org/

Fire in the Park

As everyone around LA has heard (or smelled, or seen, or wiped the ash off of their car and discovered), Griffith Park is burning away. Makes me a little sad as it is such a fun place to go hiking right in the middle of the city. In fact one of my most rewarding hiking moments was making it to the Hollywood sign from the Observatory. I was determined to figure out the route on my own and it took me a few tries, but it ended up being a great day. All will regrow and nature will recover, but I sure wish I had taken the time to hike up there recently as my favorite trails won't be the same for a very long time.

I headed out to the LA River at Los Feliz after work to watch the water dropping CDF planes do their thing. It was an amazing show. I took a few pictures with my camera phone:


There was a small crowd hanging out. You can't really tell in the picture, but there was also a woman with her 2 horses watching the fire to see if it started heading back towards the equestrian areas of the park.


One of the CDF planes making a drop. That is a tremendous amount of water. I heard that it would do serious damage to a house if they missed their target.


Things started to get much worse as I decided to head home. Power was going out, people were starting to evacuate and I didn't want to be in the way.

It is a bad sign for the fire season this year if a homeless man falling asleep with a lit cigarette on a golf course can cause all of this.

You can check out all of the pictures I took on Flickr.