A new trick on the iPhone

After visiting Maple falls and playing with some pictures, learned a new trick on the iPhone to get long exposure shots! Usually this needs my Canon 5D mark ii and the heavy tripod and a lot of post processing.. 

Now it is just a lot of post processing.

We went on a hike to Cataract Falls yesterday. I got exhausted from the climbing. It was the toughest trail we went on to date during COVID times.. but .. but.. it was a great experience. Will recover from that and post a blog..

In the meantime, here are some milky waterfall shots!

I tried to do a toe stand on that log and it was not a good idea. . . 

This thing is going to come in handy on future waterfall trails as well as ripping ponds and lakes! 

Well played Apple, well played!

When I am old and gray.. a day not far away..

We went on the Wunderlich trail today in the Portola hills. This place is famous for the horse stable and it is a place where they teach horse riding. The trails behind the horse ranch are beautiful! We went maybe 1400+ feet on a 7 mile hike. 

Parking was not easy. We should have started earlier. The trail was also closed at one point to skyline ridge because of slush and fallen trees.. so we went as far as we were allowed to go and turned back. 

We got a lot of pictures of me and San.. when I came home and saw them, it made me smile. There was a time when being empty nesters seemed a far fetched prospect.. we are almost there! Glad that we can still do things together and smile and share laughs. Somewhere, sometime, must have done something good to deserve this!

It was nowhere as steep as the other recent hikes and we were ambling along at a steady pace. The sunbeams through the clouds made for some amazing views!

We got to see an algae filled pond up in the flats! The photo does not do justice to how serene this place was!

This trail was great. Gentle slopes, steady climb, people on horseback going past us, some challenges with slush everywhere and the canopy and sunbeams that are a photographers delight! 

Reasonably sure we will be revisiting this one and go all the way to Skyline and back in the near future! 

Forest of Nisene Marks State park

Went to another state park, this time in Aptos. The Forest of Nisene Marks, is beautiful. This is our first time visiting this state park in Aptos.

The trails were not too steep and we covered a lot of distance fast. The path got a little too slippery and muddy at one point and we decided to turn back. We were very very close to a falls view point but safety first and that was that..

The tall trees in this park everywhere are the first things I noticed. Nothing matches the majestic redwoods towering over us!

We will definitely be making multiple visits to this one to cover the range of trails we missed! 

Here are the pictures.. 

and we also got a great photo of the two of us as a bonus..

Outside the park was bright and sunny, but the entire hike felt cold because not much sunlight filtered in. Given the cold we didn't sweat much either and it made the hike pleasant. Perfect conditions inside the park for hiking!

There was water trickling through the park but not enough to make falls.. should be amazing to revisit when there is a lot more water going through the creeks.

Loved it!