This time while we were driving north to the pinnacle national park the kids noticed the environment. I took the opportunity to talk about the different biomes and explained that where we are living at this moment is considered the desert biome. That the Joshua National park is also part of the desert biome.
I had the kids look around more and tell what biome they thought they were in. One stated grass and the other two were unsure. Upon looking up our location and learning we were in the San Benito County and Monterrey County we leaned that the Pinnacles national Park is part of the Grasslands and Chapperal biomes.
While hiking we were able take out time and observe some of the different types of plant life and animal species. Kaarina had her own little camera that she took pictures of different birds and moss that she found interesting. We talked about vascular and nonvascular plants and how the grow.
Lucas observed that the dirt, rocks, and cliffs look similar to the desert. He felt that the Pinnacle must have been part of the desert biome at some point. I took this opportunity to ask him if he remembers the dirt in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and Mississippi. He said yes so I pointed out that different locations have different rocks, dirt, and cliffs/mountain’s.
In the above picture you can see the moss and Lichen. The lichen is the pale green nonvascular plant growing on the logs. I discussed with them that nonvascular plants grow mostly in shade and they like a lot of water and oxygen (air).
We stayed the night in King City, California so we could go back to the Pinnacle National Park and hike through the Balconies cave. I am glad we took the way to climb up in the cave rather then down. It was wet and slippery. I don’t know about anyone else but I would much rather climb up the wet then come down. I am more afraid of stepping in the wrong place going down then up.
This is the last of our adventures for this week. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you for stopping by and either reading my blog or just looking at the pictures. Have a wonderful day.
Everything and Anything 