Carrizo Cows & Fences - Where the Old West is Alive

Literal painted hills! Vibrant colors come alive in this one. A dream farmhouse for sure.

Random cattle fencing abutting a wildflower patch.

Wildflowers, Soda Lake, Temblor Range viewed through barbed wire cattle fence.

The mountains clearly reflected off of the lake surface! As though nature desired a second opportunity to revel in its own image.

Vestiges of the Old West remain, with rusty barbed wire framing the efforts of wildflowers attempting to reclaim trammeled hillsides.

Panorama of the earlier scene west of Bakersfield, CA. The hills are ALIVE.

I tried to hide adequately, but hey the cow saw me anyway. Such watchful creatures.

This cow took offense to my presence and I snapped a blurry picture before getting up and running away. Thankfully I was fast enough this time. All respect to the boundaries established by living things concerned for their wellbeing.

The Carrizo Plain National Monument sign! Sound weird for a grassy plain and hills to be a monument? Expand your perception of what that word means! It's not all about statues and figures.

Y'all know I had to post up on the Plain!

Probably the sort of maneuver that got me into the aforementioned situation. I have a zoom lens now! No need to be so proximate.

Cows roaming in and out of enclosures and fences and across the plain. This appeared to be a cattle ranch still in full operation. This is a curious detail in the establishment of conservation lands - working with private landowners whose properties either abut or are entirely within conservation area boundaries to allow for the continuation of certain uses, sometimes for a specified time frame, while managing the rest of the land in the interest(s) of the public at large.

More juxtaposition of human uses with the landscape's innate grandeur.

Alert cows, rolling hills of Fiddleneck and invasive grasses, and a pattern of fluffy clouds rolling in over the distant Temblors.

A rusty gate abutting a dead end in the road carpeted with wildflowers. I assume this was once a somewhat isolated grazing spot. This spur road was not on my offline map, so careful trekking through the hills for anyone who reads this and is inspired to venture forth into Central California!

A close up of cows once I safely retreated to the car. They continued to stare intently and unwaveringly, then proceeded to collectively lick the car, in unison no less. I am not kidding, we probably had a dozen or so cows just all licking the side. It was super weird. But I guess that is just what cows do?

More field cows prior to my being run off the pitch.

More cows from the car. This one was either blinded by the light of the midday sun or soul searching, and I will accept no other possibilities.

After I learned that lightly tapping a car horn is in fact enough to safely escape a horde of cows surrounding your car in an oddly intimate, lick-filled embrace. Really didn't think we were gonna get out of this one so easily.