Modjeska Canyon

Posted on October 6, 2002 in Biomes Photos The Orange

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Modjeska nearly sounds like “majestic”. It’s named for a renowned Polish actress of the 19th century who built a home at the mouth of this gorge whose woods reminded her of Shakespeare’s magical Forest of Arden.

I led a group of Quakers (who had gathered to welcome Lynn to their Meeting) to this point about five hundred feet above the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary. They followed me because I knew a little bit about the plants and the natural community: this scrubland was my spiritual home.

The cyan tint of the early evening made the narrow valley appear more verdant and moist than it actually was. Summer’s season of death left corpses waiting for a match or a lightning strike to offer cremation and renewal. If you took a bit of the hairy grey chamise between your fingers, it disintegrated.

My camera did not feel the chamise. It chose to believe the evidence of the light focused through the lense.

This isn’t going to be much of a series, though the view tempts me enough to climb a little further up the Harding Truck Trail and do a 360 degree panoramic of Modjeska and Harding Canyons. There will be a series from our day trip to Aliso Beach.

My websites on grizzlies and the chaparral:

• California’s Chaparral
• Ursus Horribilus

Some books I mentioned on the walk:

• California Grizzly by Tracy Storer
• The Control of Nature by John McPhee

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