We headed up a winding road with multiple switchbacks high above Burbank toward Mount Wilson and its observatories. All along the way we stared in wonder across the valleys at the heavily eroded and dark forested foothills with deep declivities making me feel as though we were down in the Andes mountains of South America. The higher we got the more we could see the distant higher peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains including Mount Baldy rising over 10,000 feet which brought back memories of having climbed to its summit over 65 years ago to have a marvelous view of distant downtown Los Angeles.
Up here on the slopes of Mount Wilson, we watched squawking ravens circle above in the indigo blue skies. We soon arrived at the parking areas for the observatories (closed for this day), the original one built in 1904, and the high solar observatory built in 1917.
In each of these, early astronomers discovered that our solar system was not a galactic center of the universe with its vast array of countless millions of galaxies and that our sun was covered with dark and very magnetic sunspots. My wife Maura and daughter Michelle husband Rob and I all hopped out of the car to take a ridge line trail through a rich array of sugar pines (with its gigantic cones), Douglas firs, red cedars, and scores of canyon oaks constantly shedding hundreds of acorns that covered the ground in-between penstemon shrubs, sharp-pointed yucca and palo Verde bushes.
Maura, my wife, stopped to pick up one of the acorns to taste it finding its flavor to be more than just edible. I remember when I had climbed Halla San on Cheju Island off the South Korean coast years ago amid a grove of oak trees to read a sign about an ancient Korean legend. A princess of ancient times sat under an oak tree at the base of Halla San during a severe famine on her island. When she casually picked up an acorn and tasted it, she suddenly realized that acorns surely could help end the famine.
As we ambled past a tall sugar pine, we suddenly saw a woodpecker scampering up the trunk and pecking for insects here and there. Rob noticed some acorns had been stuffed into some of the woodpecker holes by squirrels for future feeding. Here was an excellent great example of a symbiotic relationship between squirrels and woodpeckers!
We moved on to an overlook with magnificent views of higher snowcapped peaks as several western bluebirds fluttered from tree to tree on the edge of rocky cliffs. Far below we could see the blackened trees of a forest fire several years ago. After an altogether invigorating experience atop Mount Wilson, we descended to the valleys below to have a nice, tasty Mexican dinner in the village of Tujunga where we shared our thoughts of the day.
