Author Archives: santacruzmountainrunners

Just a short 2-3 mile hike from the Leavitt Meadows campground is this hidden gem of a lake that has a silver mountain backdrop. This lake on the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Range offers warmer swimming in the summer.

For 2 summers, we visited the Gulf Islands in BC Canada on various trips. There are just numerous little islands that are served by 1-2 daily Ferry’s off of the larger Vancouver Island. This island is a few hours North of Victoria and has an old light house on it. The sun was setting late,Continue reading “Quadra Island, BC Canada”

A few summers back I visited Mono Lake, off of Hwy 395 on the Eastern side of the Sierras. I went swimming in the very salty water and came prepared to partially rinse ourselves of the excessive salt once we got back to the cars. Mono lake is a very salt concentrated lake since thereContinue reading “Mono Lake, California”

Marmot Lake is a un-named lake on US topo maps at 8,263 feet just south of Gianelli Cabin Trail Head. One year while hiking above this point at Burst Rock, I looked down and saw this wonderful lake from a distance that was not really mentioned or labeled on the US topo maps. I wentContinue reading “Marmot Lake, California”

Blue lake is over 10,000 feet on a un-marked trail off of Highway 108 or Sonora Pass. The lake often has a snow glacier running into one corner of the lake and it has this blue and green look to this lake that gets fairly deep in one section. It is above well above treeContinue reading “Blue Lake, CA”

The northerly most city of the 5 (cinque) terra cities is Monterosso. We stay in this city for about 4 days while we visited and hikes the trails to reach the other cities. We were there in September when the weather was still warm and the beaches were busy but not overly crowed.

A few years back I was visiting Provence France in mid to late June. The lavender fields were not quite in their peak yet but enough to see and smell the large lavender fields of the region. As I was creating this painting, I just couldn’t create the lavender color I wanted to express. IContinue reading “Provence France”

A few years back I was out East in the Boston/Topsfield area visiting friends during the fall and capture this scene on a photo from which to paint this canvas from.

Huddart Park is a large San Mateo County park that is located in the redwood foothills in Woodside, CA. The park is filled with steep canyons of redwoods and creeks.

As you drive over to the coast on Hwy 84, there is this classic red barn that is there with a wonderful field and coastal scene behind it. On this cloudy and gray day in the fall, the grass was dry and brown.