Where Are We?

On By cindy knokeIn Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, TRAVEL REVIEWS, Wild Life

Looking at the first six photos only,

no metadata peeks,

or google image seeks, please.

Where would you guess this is?

There are wild buffalo,

and vast empty spaces of nature conservatory land.

Now, with these photos, the answer is far more obvious!

We are off season in The Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. This is Catalina Island, the most visited of the islands and not a National Park,

but still replete with wild spaces and wild faces. There are about 150 buffalo roaming free on the island.

Off Season, we are mostly alone with the locals, and their four legged paddling companions.

Cheers to you from The Channel Islands~

285 thoughts on “Where Are We?”

  9. Anonymous

    I never would have guessed. When I saw the Buffalo I though North Dakota.. of course there’s no water ways there. Thank you Cindy!

    Reply

    1. I would have guessed easily from The Avalon photos, but I would never have been able to from the first four photos. I may have guessed Channel Islands, but not Catalina დ

      Reply

  32. Now that was fun! Try as I might, couldn’t read the plaque. Scrub hills, sure, California, maybe South. My heart said Pacific, because. But Buffalo… what? Fun, like I said. Maybe provincial of my N.Calif. history, don’t “think” Catalina, ever. So, great game Cindy. Think you did post there once/twice in long past. Beautiful place. Thank you.

    Reply

    1. Oh you wise man! The plaque got me too! I never saw it until I looked at the photo. And then, I’m enlarging, going dang, what’s that??? I could google image search it and probably find out, but what’s the fun in that! Thank you for making me smile & be safe and well my friend დ

      Reply

  48. I had no idea where the photos were from — so thank you for this surprising and delightful discovery of Catalina Island. I love that so much of the place is under a nature conservancy. I hope you’re enjoying your time there 🙂

    Reply
  52. Diane

    Geez, how utterly beautiful! I always wanted to see Catalina, but alas…life got in the way. Thanks for sharing these beautiful images. With all that sea, the actual island looks SOOOOOO dry.

    Reply

    1. Southern California is semi-desert, so you are quite correct about the dryness, even following a year of exceptional rain amounts, it will still look dry by summer. Hopefully we are getting an upcoming El Nino year with lots more rain ღ

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  59. Thanks for the fun tour of the Channel Islands Cindy! I had no idea they have buffalo roaming there. It seems a weird place to have them when their natural range is mid-west grass plains with cold weather.

    Reply

    1. Thankfully. Yes! There are two groups of wild buffalo in Southern California. The second group are on Camp Pendleton Marine Base also on the ocean. There are about 31,000 wild buffalo left in the lower 48, compared to the tens of millions that used to roam wild ღ

      Reply

    1. Thankfully there still are some, although most have been decimated. We have two groups of wild buffalo in Southern California, the other group roams on Camp Pendleton Marine Base also by the ocean. There are about 31,000 wild buffalo in the United States compared to the many millions that were here before ღ

      Reply

      1. Not familiar with the Camp Pendleton herd, Cindy, although our son was stationed there for a while… Possibly it was before the herd was established there? it would have been the 90s.

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  68. Well, certainly I didn’t guess right. I was guessing Alberta, Canada…until I saw the coastline.
    Beautiful place, fabulous shots. Thanks Cindy!

    Reply

  74. Great pics. Never would have guessed the location. Now, how would I go about kissing those cute, big noses? They can’t reach their butts, so they may be kissy ready. I have issues, but I know you get me.

    Reply

    1. That is a very good guess. No one expects them in SoCal but we actually have herds in two different locations. The second is on Camp Pendleton Marine Base. Hope all is well with you Josh დ

      Reply

    1. Yes, that is a sure bet. Montana and Wyomming for Buffalo. But we have them in two separate places in Southern California. Happy you enjoyed my friend & have a wonderful weekend დ

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  84. I was thinking Hearst Castle. It looked like California, and I know he had a bit of a zoo there at one point. I’d have never guessed Catalina Island – nice.

    Reply

  85. Thank you so much for taking us there with you! Gorgeous place. Beautiful photos. That far view of the bay one is my favorite I think. Hard to say. I love them all. ♥

    Reply

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  89. I tried to post, it disappeared, so here I try again.
    I was going to guess Heaven. 😇
    Thanks so much for sharing your heavenly visit with us. 💖

    Reply

  90. At first, I thought Wyoming, but I realized the vegetation did not look like it. However, I did not expect it to be California. When I think of California I think about palm trees, beaches, Hollywood, and Disneyland, but I admit I have not visited California a lot. Catalina island looks beautiful. Great photos.

    Reply

    1. Good deductive reasoning. We have varied ecosystems in Cali. The Sierras often get the most snow in the nation. Death Valley is often the hottest place on earth. We have the oldest living organisms on earth, the bristle cone pines, the biggest, the redwoods/sequoias, and the only Torrey Pine groves. We have 28 National Parks and two separate free roaming herds of buffalo in Southern California. დ

      Reply

  92. At first my only guess was Mediterranean climate, Spain, Argentina? But then, of course, California, where I live. It’s such a beautiful bio- and geographically diverse state with so many micro-climates. You can find almost anything here, even the tropics when the balmy winds are blowing and palm trees swaying.

    Reply

    1. I agree with you entirely. Cali has the oldest living things on earth, the bristlecone pines, the sequoias, the coastline, the deserts, the mighty Sierras, and 28 national parks. Hard to top this. I also agree with you that Catalina looks like the Med, Spain and possibly Argentina. Greek Islands too დ

      Reply
  94. Anonymous

    Late to chime in, but thank you for posting and sharing, wonderful photos, and adding that I too, had no idea there were/are buffalo on Catalina island!

    Reply

        1. I used to find WordPress so much easier to navigate. I lost a lot of followers as I could not find them independently and could only respond to them once they had left a comment or a like on my posts.

          Reply

  107. I thought of Poe’s “Never more said the crow”, but I had no idea. The buffalo made me think of certain areas of Canada. I had no idea about those “Channel islands”. (“Ours” are Jersey, Guernesey et al…)
    Enjoy the island…

    Reply
    2. Candia Dixon-Stuart

      Hi, Cindy. Just a little problem. I am receiving all your followers’ notifications not to my WordPress dashboard, but to my personal email candiads@gmail.com since the weekend. Do you know how we can prevent this? Thanks!

      Reply

      1. Ooops. Sorry Candia… I never meant to intrude… WP is changing stuff everyday… You might have clicked – unwillingly – on a button called, “send me updates on the comments” or something like that… Happened to me once…
        Try to do another reply to Cindy, there might me a “new” screen popping up with a number of buttons…
        The other solution would be to unfollow Cindy. Let a coupla days pass and then re-follow her taking great care to chose the right option.
        I hope this helps…
        Cheers
        Brian

        Reply

          1. Yikes Candia! I am so sorry this is happening to you. I would contact WP Happiness Engineers and tell them what is happening. There is no end to WP gremlins! You can also go to your notification settings on your dashboard. Find my blog and turn off all email notifications from my blog to you. Good luck and let me know what happens. Unfollowing me for awhile also sounds like a good idea

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  108. Hi Cindy, I happened to see your comment on Amy’s L-A post today and realized I haven’t been getting your emails of your posts! I have been to Catalina (years ago) and I wouldn’t have guessed Catalina until I saw the Casino in the iconic harbor of Avalon! Beautiful–hopefully I can correct why I’m not getting your posts 🙂

    Reply

    1. Yes. Ditto here. I saw your comment, realized I hadn’t been getting your posts, went to your blog, and saw WP unfollowed me from you. I refollowed. It seems to happen to blogs that get lots of interaction. I feel your pain დ

      Reply

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