This view is from Russian Ridge Open Space, California, where the trail from Borel Hill meets Ancient Oaks Trail. When I rounded the bend and was struck with this scene, I was immediately reminded of the type of fjords that line the coasts of Alaska or Norway – the ones that are are lined with waterfall after waterfall, every one so large that you wonder how it's not in the record books... so high that you wonder how on earth there's enough precipitation above it to fuel it's flow. While this peaceful valley of the Santa Cruz Mountains is quite modest in comparison, the patterns of the mist looked to me like giant waterfalls. I'm not exactly sure why the fog hung in the crevices like that. It could be that it was just barely cresting the ridge and flowing into the valley, making these literal mistfalls, but I've seen that process before and it usually doesn't take that pattern here. It could also be that the rainfall that night had awoken some streambeds, and the fog was meandering above those.
MistfallsThanks for looking!
