flowers

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The cherry blossoms - reason for the whole trip

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Previous post in this series is here..

It was 3PM when we came out of the Shinkansen to Osaka station. We were seeing on social media that we were already a week late and the Cherry Blossoms were already on their way to falling off. By the time we reached Kyoto and Tokyo, there would be no blossoms. So if we wanted to see them in Osaka, there was one place on the hill to go see them. The Katsuoji temple!

It was an hour by car and they closed on the dot. We decided to grab two taxis again and just made a dash to the temple. An hour later we were dropped off outside the temple. There was a line for tickets. Yet again, Jr. came to the rescue by buying the tickets from her phone as we were going to the place. We went straight in with the “web tickets”. The temple is just beautiful. The cherry blossoms were still there. The whole place was surreal and immaculate. There were cute mini versions of the shinto gods everywhere.. placed on rocks, trees, in the water..

There were six locations which had stamps in different colors. You got a card at the entrance. If you put all stamps on them, you got a nice composite picture with the stamps. We made it to all the spots in the map, got the stamps and were literally the last visitors to be kicked out of the temple complex. We were all tired but happy. It was nice and cool in the hill. There were still a few taxis waiting. So we were lucky to get two taxis to go to our next destination.

Way too many photos post edit. Have created two galleries..

Portrait gallery

The final image after we stamped the card in all six locations.. The best one is mine as I used multiple alignment marks like a real integration engineer would!

Here is a short video of Katsuoji temple visit..

We were all happy at the end of the entire trip that we decided to go up to this temple even after an all day Hiroshima visit. We never saw Cherry blossoms like this after that day in Kyoto or Tokyo.

Our day was not over. The temple closes at 5:15 sharp. We got out at 5:14 PM. There was an hour plus drive back towards busy streets. Will pick it up in the next post..

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Super bloom revisited..

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In early May? we visited Cal Poly and checked out a local super bloom. Given the thing moves up north every week, it came closer to us last month.

The previous year our hiking group had noticed this amazing hillside on the return path from Monument peak. So we decided to go to Monument peak in reverse and try to get pictures of the hillsides with wild flowers.

It was great for pictures, but somehow really really bad for allergies to the point that I called the photo album "sea of allergies". 

The wild mustard was 6-8 feet tall and the trails were full of thorny shrubs that had not been cleared well. Between the flowers and thorns, 3/8 people in the hiking group started sneezing and two (myself included) had nosebleeds before we exit the trail. It took a good 2 weeks to recover from that hike. 

However, the pictures did come out great! The thing was beautiful till my watering eyes could see clearly no more..

This was the path from Ed Levin County Park to Monument peak. This summer has also been extremely hot and I would not recommend going up on these barren hikes with no possibility of shade. Take lots of water with you and hydrate well. Wear a mask if that helps. Like my old mentor told me "you should have just stayed home and watched a youtube video of someone else doing this hike given your allergies!". For a second he turned into Gounder saying "dei naaye, unakku idhellam thevai dhaana daa?!" and I burst out laughing. 

I sang "vazhi neduga, kaatu mustard" for San on this hike.. why not?!

The superbloom is more interesing when there are multiple colors.. this was all wild mustard and yellow. we didnt see the poppies or the lavenders.. so compared to the one near SLO, this was okay!

Maybe someone who has severe allergies and wants to see what this is all about.. can just watch the video below and save themselves the pain.. 

Next year, not falling for the "super" hype!

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Monument Peak - aka Cow Paradise

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After the Yosemite Firefall adventure, finishing a 60 day yoga challenge and getting a week off from hiking, we went to Monument Peak. 

Started in the morning and were waiting for the Ed R Levin park gates to open at 8AM (there is a parking fee of 6 dollars and they accept cards!). Started hiking right away after parking as we knew the 10 miles of hiking across some steep ascent areas would take us 4+ hours and it did. There was also some time for photos planned in for once!

This is ~2200 feet climb and the wind can make it feel pretty cold past a point. You feel you are above the clouds once you reach the peak. (the photo below is not at the peak, but on the way down..)

This is at the peak..

The views were amazing throughout!

Two things stood out.. 

Cows everywhere, some blocking the hiking path and we had to ask them to move nicely or in some cases go close so they wandered off the trails. This also meant cow dung on the entire trail.. so we were all doing a dance, stepping past the dung.. at the end of the trail, we were all cow dung experts! 

Presenting .. The Monumental cows..

The second thing that stood out was the fields of yellow, white and lavender flowers which made for amazing backdrops but the photos somehow did not even come close to what we saw with our eyes! It was just magical walking through that! 

We were the only ones on the trail on the return loop and that made it interesting for the group! 

The place has no cover and this was the right time to go, given it had rained yesterday.  This hike in summer would have been a lot more challenging. The rolling green hills and rain clouds also made it beautiful..

We had chai on top of Monument peak which was a highlight! Chai tastes amazing after a long hike when your fingers are frozen from the cold winds and altitude!

Here are some more pictures! A beautiful golf course you walk along when coming back to the parking lot..

a flower carpet as far as the eye can see with green rolling hills on one side!

A lone tree on the way back from the peak..

watching the clouds move on top and on the reflections in the water below! 

This is an amazing place for a view of the bay!

the vibrant colors on all the rocks on the hillsides..

the clouds shadows moving over the hills..

A view of snow covered peaks and mountains on the next range, from the top!

interesting rock faces..

and last but not the least.. a candid shot .. didn't know the camera was still rolling.. or I would have gotten into this as well..this is my favorite photo from this hike!

all said and dung, loved this hike!  It was a great feeling getting to the top of Monument peak and staring at nature on one side and what humans have created with the sprawling city scape on the other side!

Wandered off to the edge to take a picture and saw this on a rock!! Was just amazed by how much work has gone into creating and preserving these open spaces so we can enjoy it! 

This made my day!

Today was an interesting day of highs and lows. This blog always presents the positive highlights.. and that is a good thing! The lesson we have learnt recently is to grab opportunities to go outdoors when we can..

Strongly recommend Monument peak hike as a loop by going in reverse, from Agua Caliente trail, as an all morning hike.. this time of the year!

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