California Quail

I am running days behind on blip even though I have been busy every day with my camera during this California vacation.  

On this day, we decided to take a "moderate" hike in the Los Padres National Forest hills above Santa Barbara.  It was perfect hiking weather, overcast and cool.  As has happened to us before, we bit off quite a bit more than we anticipated and this moderate 3-mile hike took us 4 hours to complete.  There was a 1000 foot elevation change and at times we were climbing over steep rocks.  The views were spectacular especially when the sun came out and burned off some of the haze.  We could see all the way down the mountains, over the many spectacular homes all the way to the ocean.  

When we were near the highest point of our hike, this Quail flew in and landed on a rock nearby.  

We were quite a couple of sad sacks when we were done. 

Backblipped 6-26-2019