The Apple of my Eye

 Today I woke up with the intention of going out. I needed to visit a new place, not the same places I have seen already. I wanted to see some fall color, and I had heard about Oak Glen, the place close to the mountains of San Bernardino where one finds many apple orchards and much fall color. I remembered seeing an old episode of Huell Howser's program, California's Gold, in which he had gone up there, and I also had seen a few photos published on social media by a friend. It is not supposed to be such a jarring ride up there, filled with hair-raising turns, the way we find when we go to Big Bear. It is supposed to be a much calmer trip, so I went.

I got up and fiddled around during the morning hours on the computer, and then, had lunch and left at about noon. The drive took me from the 91 freeway to the 215 to the 10 eastbound, and finally, to Oak Glen Drive.

It was a pleasant drive. There were spots with traffic, but they are the usual spots. One would not ordinarily expect them going east, one expects them on the drive west to the coast and the megalopolis of Los Angeles, but now, Riverside also has traffic tie-ups. I wonder what the population of the city will be determined to be after the census count of 2020. I am sure it has grown. All this area has grown. I do not see how California's population could have remained static during this past decade when everything seems bursting in the seams.

I was driving along looking for Riley's Farms and not finding it. I needed to pull over and look on my phone. I passed by this sign for Los Rios Farm, and it had another sign that said "Botanic Garden". There was a garden out here? I pulled in, because I had to anyway, and because I was curious about the garden.

It turns out that this was the garden:

It was quite a discovery! And to think, after a cursory walk around the other end of the parking lot, I was about to leave. I am glad I walked into this garden, I went to the other parking lot and saw part of the path pictured above, and I thought, what do I have to lose? Why not visit it?

So I went in, and there was no admission charge. I started walking and found an enjoyable place. There were trees that had turned color, and it was a pleasure to see them. Nothing outlandishly colorful like in the photos we see of the forests back east, we don't have those types of trees occurring naturally, as a park volunteer told me, but I did see color. Here are a few photos. This is only the first batch. I also took about three photos (only three!) with my Holga 120 Pan, and four photos with my 4x5 Travelwide. 

At this point, I was about to leave but then I saw the rock paths in the garden, which seemed like just a humble apple orchard at first, and I though, Why not? Why not go visit and see what they had there? I am glad I did!

More photos to come.