Visiting the Proposed Site of Los Banos Grandes Reservoir

We’ve all managed, somehow,
to reach the summit. California poppies
clinging to the hillside that reaches up
in front of us. Our line of hikers wandering
up the trail in a ravine between the grassy hills
from which we looked back at Los Banos Creek,
a skeletal Sycamore casting shadows
on Pudding Stone and glassy water.

Our journey began early. The reservoir
boat ride took us leisurely through the Tule reeds
by the shoreline beneath the ancient sandstone
cliff. Heron floated on long silent wings.
A pair of Kingfishers was spotted
through binoculars. We listened
to the sounds -Western Grebe, Coots -
watched the Small Mouth Bass
swimming near the boat.

Path of the Padres took us
past an ancient Yokut village site.
Coyotes watched us from a grassy slope.
Wild pigs ran in front of the cattle
on the gravel and disappeared
into the Salt Cedar, Cottonwood and Willow.
A school of Carp scattered when we threw
a rock, and regathered in the same spot
in the pond near Pounding Rock,
the Indian Grinding Stone,
where we stopped and saw a Killdeer
guarding her eggs. Then we climbed
to see Menjoulet Valley, looking west,
570 acres, six miles, the largest
Sycamore grove in California.