Picnic table in Avalon Canyon
Catalina Island has had a winter of wonderful, welcome, nourishing rain. After a very long drought, the Island earth and plant life soaked up the rain. For a brief time, our Island plant life was green again. There were actual puddles of water to be seen. Before the moment passed, we decided to photograph an island greener than it has been in a long while. We photographed Avalon and we went into the interior of the Island as far as Airport in the Sky. We thought we would share our pictures with you before the memory fades:
Wild Oxalis blooming on the hillside and by the forgotten foundations of the long gone St. Catherine Hotel at the Descanso Beach Club.
The rains have brought a new freshness to the Hermit Gulch campground.
Buffalo running free in the interior of Catalina Island, showing fresh green against the red clay of the Island earth.
Haypress full of water along the stagecoach road in the interior of Catalina Island. The Catalina Island Conservancy has been importing water from the mainland for the animal life. Now, with the rains, this is a place for Buffalo and other animals to drink.
Buffalo herds roam wild through the interior of Catalina Island. They are not native to the island. Their great grand-parents were brought to the Island for a film shoot during the silent movie days and just stayed when the movie company left.
Big puddle on the side of the road to Airport in the Sky. Green hills, too. It’s not going to last long, but it’s a nice memory.
Green hills in the interior of Catalina Island. The road in the foreground was built in the 1880’s by the Banning family, who provided stagecoach service. It has been smoothed and taken care of, but it is basically a historic stagecoach road. There are not many left in the West.
Please don’t feed the fox. This rare little Catalina Island Fox hangs out on the dining patio at Airport in the Sky, hoping for a handout. He is hard to resist.
Aeroplane hangar next to the runway on the top of a green mountain. Air passengers flying into Catalina Island’s Airport in The Sky travel down to the City of Avalon by the old stagecoach road.
Out of the interior and into Avalon Canyon, where our Catalina golf course hasn’t looked this green in years.
The green hills around Avalon, shot from the Bahia Vista Condominiums, where are home is located.
We took this picture from our patio. We are hoping for rain next winter so we can see this again.