Stevens Creek Nature Trail, Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, CA, 3/25/2017
Here is one of my favorite views in all the San Francisco Bay Area. On this glorious afternoon immediately following a winter with abundant rainfall, I was able to photograph Monte Bello under my favorite kind of sky! Italian for “Beautiful Mountain,” Monte Bello Open Space Preserve has rolling grasslands, dense creekside forests, and spectacular vistas. We are looking southeast through a valley that has formed along the San Andreas Fault, with the North American Plate to the left and the Pacific Plate to the right. Over thousands of years, fault movement has produced this beautiful landscape with two soil systems and thus two plant communities: brush and grass on one side, woodland on the other. In the distance are Mt. Umunhum and Loma Prieta.
