Alta Vista Trail, Foothill Regional Park

It’s almost exactly a year since the Kincade fire burned through this park. As I walked, I thought of the dramatic stand the firefighters staged, to stop the fire from spreading into the neighborhood bordering the park, and the potential for far greater losses that they prevented. As far as the eye can see, the oaks are still eerily blackened and leafless, though the manzanita has begun to come back. The black trunks against the golden grasses offer a ghostly scene. Rain can’t come soon enough.