Round Valley Cows (Cellphone Photos) - Brentwood, CA

Yesterday, on 19 February 2023, my parents and I took a hike and walk in Round Valley Regional Preserve in Brentwood, CA. We saw lots of cows. You're probably wondering, "Didn't you just go on the 18th (the day before)?". Yes I did, but my dad saw the photos my mom and I took, and he wanted to go check out the preserve as well. My mom and I ended up going again taking him with us. I only took photos on my cellphone on this walk and hike. I hope you enjoy viewing my photos. 

My dad still haven't recovered from his leg injuries a year ago, so he's back on crutches again (after tearing the muscle again). He climbed over the "gatekeeper hills" near the parking lot with my mom and they both sat near the creek for a while. I went on a hike and walk myself going from Miwok Trail to Murphy Meadow Trail then to Miwok Trail again, hitting the gate to the Los Vaqueros Watershed (which was closed), before returning via the same route. 

Both photos I took are of cows, and they were both shot on Miwok trail.

A photo of cows and trees taken on Miwok Trail.

A photo of cows and trees taken on Miwok Trail.

My mom told me after sitting by the creek for a while, my dad wanted to go back to the car to take a nap. After, my mom took my dad back to the car, she came back to look for me. 

Since cellphone service in the preserve is patchy, my mom and I communicated via the Midland GXT1030 FRS Two-Way Radio (Affiliate Link) and the Midland GXT1050 FRS Two-Way Radio (Affiliate Link). I did not expect the radio to be working too well in the preserve as the area is hilly and my communications with my mom would be partially obstructed, but the radios surprised me. I set both radios to transmit on "High". Our communication was somewhat broken and quite noisy at the 2 mile mark. I did off trail onto a slight hill on the side of Murphy Meadow Trail (GPS Coordinates: 37° 51' 04.6" N 121° 46' 56.4" W) to check-in with my mom twice. We were able to get the gist of what we were trying to communicate the first time (approximately 2 miles apart), and we had to repeat several times, but it was enough to get the message across. My mom said the radios completely stopped working at the 2.5 mile mark (second time I tried to check-in with her), but she thinks someone was using the same channel chatting in the parking lot (I heard patchy transmissions too and it seems a few kids were playing with their radios). As my mom came back to look for me, we used the radios to set a meet up point. Once we were within 1 to 1.5 miles, the communications were very clear despite the partial obstruction. We ended up meeting on Murphy Meadow Trail and started our walk back to the parking lot. I had a 3rd radio in the car because I knew my dad was going to go back for a nap. My dad used the extra radio I put in the car to communicate with us when we were around 3/4 of a mile from the parking lot. The communication was loud and clear despite the partial obstruction and the batteries in that radio running low (that radio switched itself to low power transmission due to the almost dead batteries). Overall, I was surprised at the performance of these 2 FRS radios from Midland!

The other story I wanted to tell was that around 1/2 a mile from the parking lot, my mom and I saw 2 Latino teenagers (probably around high school age) making attempts to tip calves and running. My mom said she saw them doing it earlier closer to the parking lot as well. We hiked as fast as we can toward the parking lot to put as much distance as we can between those 2 crazy teenagers and the cows they angered. As we were hiking away we heard several adult cows mooing very aggressively and they were running very fast toward those 2 crazy teens. If they got gored by a bull or headbutted by a heifer, they deserve it. 😂

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Round Valley Regional Preserve (Cellphone Photos) - Brentwood, CA

Yesterday, on 18 February 2023, my mom and I took a hike and walk in Round Valley Regional Preserve in Brentwood, CA. We saw lots of cows. My original plan was to do a clockwise loop via Hardy Canyon Trail and Miwok Trail, but Hardy Canyon is closed due to the recent rain storms. We ended up doing a counter-clockwise look via Murphy Meadow Trail and Miwok Trail. It seems a park ranger or rancher accidentally chained the pedestrian gate closed on Miwok Trail, so my mom and I ended up having to climb the gate in order to hike back to the parking lot. I only took photos on my cellphones on this walk and hike. I hope you enjoy viewing my photos. 

A photo of a cow taken on Miwok Trail.

A photo of a cow taken on Miwok Trail.

A photo of cows and trees taken on Miwok Trail.

A photo of cows, trees, green hills, and clouds taken on Miwok Trail.

A scenery photo of a creek, trees, cows, green hills, and clouds. The photo was shot on Murphy Meadow Trail.

Next are the photos of the pedestrian gate on Miwok Trail that a ranger or rancher most likely accidentally chained closed. It is also the gate my mom and I had to climb to get over in order to hike back to the parking lot. There were no closure signs or anything on the trails we took, so I think this was just an honest mistake by someone.

The locked pedestrian gate on Miwok Trail.

The locked pedestrian gate on Miwok Trail.

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Round Valley Regional Preserve & Los Vaqueros Reservoir (Cellphone Photos)

Yesterday, on 2 March 2022, my mom and I took a walk and hike in Round Valley Regional Preserve in Brentwood, CA and Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County, CA. I took 4 photos with my cellphone while I was there. I hope you enjoy viewing my photos! Surprising story at the end, so make sure you keep reading until the very last photo.

A scenery photo from Miwok Trail in Round Valley Regional Preserve in Brentwood, CA.

A scenery photo from Miwok Trail in Round Valley Regional Preserve in Brentwood, CA. In the distance is Los Vaqueros Reservoir.

A scenery photo from Adobe Trail in Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County, CA.

A scenery photo from Adobe Trail in Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County, CA. The photo was shot near the intersection of Adobe Trail and Oak Savannah Trail. In the photo are cows and Los Vaqueros Reservoir (in the distance).

You are probably wondering where is the surprising story? See those cows in the last photo I took? My mom and I were quite some distance away from them, and we've been hiking for many years now. We are usually very careful around cows, keeping our distance, checking for calves, and talking and making noise so they know we are there. We usually wait a while for them to clear the trail, and if they don't, we'll keep our distance by walking around them. We are always on guard because we're scared the cows might charge at us. We didn't do anything to aggravate the cows, we waited for them to clear the trail, but they made us U-turn on Adobe Trail by aggressively chasing us for around a third of a mile. The entire herd of cows closed in on us from 3 sides and began chasing us. They were clearly not happy people were there. Out of the years we've hiked, this was the first time we've been aggressively attacked by a herd of cows.

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Los Vaqueros Watershed - Contra Costa County, CA

On January 26th, 2020, I went to Morgan Territory Regional Preserve for a hike through the preserve along with Los Vaqueros Watershed. I parked at Morgan Territory Road Staging Area. I'm telling you that so you can get a general idea of where I was in the preserve as it is huge.

High Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best Morgan Territory Regional Preserve and Los Vaqueros Watershed photos, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

In this blog post, I have photos from Los Vaqueros Watershed in Contra Costa County, CA. Photos from Morgan Territory Regional Preserve can be viewed here.

Photo from Whipsnake Loop Trail. Photo of Los Vaqueros Reservoir, Discovery Bay (left), Clifton Court Forebay (slightly left from center), and Tracy (right).

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 49' 06" N 121° 46' 42" W

A black and white process of the photo above.

Photo from Whipsnake Loop Trail. Photo of Discovery Bay and Los Vaqueros Reservoir (bottom right). Photo shot at the same spot as above.

A black and white process of the photo above.

Photo from Whipsnake Loop Trail. Photo of windmills, Tracy, and Los Vaqueros Reservoir (bottom left). Photo shot at the same spot as above.

A black and white process of the photo above.

Photo from Whipsnake Loop Trail. Photo of Los Vaqueros Reservoir, Discovery Bay (left), Clifton Court Forebay (right), Stockton (in the distance). Photo shot at the same spot as above.

A black and white process of the photo above.

Photo from near Whipsnake Loop Trail. Photo of Discovery Bay, Brentwood (left), and Los Vaqueros Reservoir and Clifton Court Forebay (right).

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 49' 07" N 121° 46' 36" W

A black and white process of the photo above.

Photo from near Whipsnake Loop Trail. Photo of Discovery Bay and Los Vaqueros Reservoir (bottom right). Photo shot at the same spot as above.

A black and white process of the photo above.

Photo from near Whipsnake Loop Trail. Photo of windmills, Tracy, and Los Vaqueros Reservoir (left). Photo shot at the same spot as above.

A black and white process of the photo above.

Photo from Whipsnake Loop Trail. Photo of windmills, Los Vaqueros Reservoir, Clifton Court Forebay, Discovery Bay (left), and Tracy (right).

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 49' 05" N 121° 46' 42" W

A black and white process of the photo above.

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos! The photos from Morgan Territory Regional Preserve can be viewed here. Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Cherry Picking in Brentwood, CA

I recently went cherry picking at a U-Pick cherry farm (called Nunn Better Farms) in Brentwood, CA. Here are some photos from my trip! The cherries sure was good! :) This was the same farm I went to last year. You can check out that blog post here.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Brentwood (and surrounding areas) photos, use this link. To see all of my Brentwood photos, use this link.

First photo is of the farm.  

 Two photos of the cherries on the trees.

The clouds up in the sky was awesome so I took 2 photos of that.  

A photo of the cherry trees.  

My bucket of cherries!

These are all the photos for today. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Fruit Picking in Brentwood, CA

Brentwood, CA has many self pick farms. When the time is right, and the fruits are ripe, many farms open up for you to go in and pick the fruits yourself. A while back, I did just that out in the country side. While I didn't really pick much fruit (my friends and family did most of that), I did take some photos. Here are the photos I took on the trip out in the country side. Most of these photos are from Brentwood or from surrounding cities. I forgot my Canon GP-E2 GPS that day so I don't have exact locations for these shots.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. View my best Brentwood photos here. To see all the photos of my trip, use this link.

The first farm I was at was a cherry farm called "Nunn Better Farms". Here is a shot of some cherries on the tree.

A few portrait shot of trees at Nunn Better Farms.

In the parking lot of Nunn Better Farms, I spotted a nice shot of an adjacent field. I thought the lines in the field made really great lead-in lines, so I took a few shots from different perspectives.

After picking cherries my family and friends decided to go to a peach farm to go picking peaches. Not sure what the name is for this farm, but there were some run down buildings there that I thought would make a great shot. Above is a regular shot of one of the buildings. 

I then proceeded to take an HDR composition of the building from a different perspective. 

Photography Tip: HDR compositions are very useful with buildings like this. See how the "dark shadows" in the building are also lit up? You can do this without driving the noise up in the photo when doing this with a multiple exposure HDR composition. Just exposure bracket your shots in camera and then combine them into HDR using Photoshop in post. I enjoy processing them via the 32-bit process because the colors look more natural.

A few photos of the peaches on the farm. 

A shot of the peach field. I thought the gap between the trees made a great lead in line. Sadly the sky was not very good that day and it started to rain a little bit when I was about to leave. Pretty sure the shot would have been much better on a sunny day.

A shot of the road and a field adjacent to the farm. A drop of rain actually got on my lens and you can see it on the left. 

This is a shot I took on my way home. This is in Byron, CA of a river. Approximate location of this image was at 37.812242,-121.57854. Thanks Google Maps and Street View! The reason I was able to find the location of this one is because the river is very easy to spot on the map, plus I remembered what street it was. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.