photo from noehill.com

Beginning at Putah creek, I’m traveling south through a narrow valley in the Pacific foothills. Along the way I’m passing through groves of oak trees interspersed with the “digger” pine. The hills on the west are covered with “buckbrush” and chemise, along with more oaks and pines. Continuing along, a variety of wildlife is spotted. There are wild turkeys, valley quail, an occasional gray squirrel, and black-tailed deer.

I finally end up in a large valley and come upon a monument  commemorating  a couple of young men who had come up from New Mexico with their families and settled in the area.  With promises to improve the land, they were given a Mexican land grant of approximately 40,000 acres which was called the Rancho Los Putos, a name  taken from the previously mentioned creek.

Nearby there is a restored “adobe” built by one of the men by the name of  Jaun Filipe Pena.  Standing at that spot the imagination is stimulated,  and it brings up images of ” fandangos”, and wild roaming grizzly bears that were once native to the area.

Now, interstate 80 cuts across the northern edge of the valley, and I find an on ramp heading east back to civilization.