Unsettled Winter Day at Confluence Area, Auburn, Sierra Foothills

Below: the various shades of the American River at the Confluence Area on a winter weekend, filled with silt and rockmilk. Most of the color variation is from light rather than water content. One of the samples is from a holly berry (and to the expert, it will be obvious.) Average colors of California and of forest around the world can be seen here.



Every year I say "I'm glad we're getting all this rain because we need it" and also I say "I'm really sick of this rain." Today was no exception, as I uttered both during my quickly aborted attempt to get a run in at Auburn. (But it made for some great photos.) For those curious: it was actively raining on 2/17, the trails around Auburn were quite muddy (except maybe on the way from No Hands to Calcutta Falls) and of course No Hands itself had a lake in the middle. But there were a lot of falls and creeks going that are normally just gullies. In this first image you can see the mud slide in the parking area across the road from the lower gate.

Suffice it to say, a much different mood than the warm sunny day in October a bit downriver documented at this link Here is the confluence area in multiple seasons.














True black and white vs grayscale, take your pick. If you like, pretend the one above is from an indie album from the 90s or a scary movie poster. Of possible interest: Rohrschach tests don't have a ton of evidence behind them, but for what it's worth, people with psychosis or learnings there-toward often perceive color in the black-and-white images. When I look at the grayscale version of the photo, I have a strong suggestion of color and have to remind my eyes it's black-and-white.