Yerba Buena Trail, Joseph D. Grant County Park, Santa Clara County, CA, 3/23/2017
Early one evening at the start of spring, I spotted this lone graceful dormant oak on a grassy ridge, and I stopped to admire the elegant simplicity of the scene. The sun was low to the west, and the cloud-diffused lighting was soft and even. The landscape at Joseph Grant County Park with grasslands and majestic oak trees is characteristic of the east foothills of Santa Clara Valley. The oak-woodland community here includes such species as this Valley Oak (Quercus lobata), and also Blue, Black, and Live Oaks. The loneness of this tree inspired an acquaintance to paraphrase from a book he’d read about the California ghost town of Bodie: "Alas my comrades all are gone, none remain to toast. I'm left here with my memories, like some forgotten ghost".
