California’s Highway 1 has a reputation as one of America’s most scenic highways. It lives up to it. A week ago we drove on the highway with visiting friends, and I took this spliced panorama a few miles north of Jenner. Jenner is small town at the mouth of the Russian River, about two hours north of San Francisco.

The bright violet flowers are wild pea plants, and the trumpet-shaped yellow-orange ones are bush monkeyflowers. I think the latter flowers are supposed to resemble a monkey’s face, but in all the times I’ve looked at them I’ve never been aware of a monkey looking back.

An enlarged version is here

In the photo, Highway 1 is below on the right. It loops behind the picture and re-enters the picture to the left. The Highway continues north following the ocean shore, hundreds of feet above the water. The hills are parched in the summer, but somehow the wildflowers don’t mind. Winter rains will restore greenery.

The only photo trickery involved in the image, beyond the standard splicing using the Photomerge™ panorama feature of Photoshop™, is darkening the sky. Fog and low clouds are characteristic of the summer coastline, so the sky is nearly white. I highlighted the sky with the magic wand tool, then filled it (Edit > Fill) with a 20% opaque blue. Photoshop won’t darken something that’s pure white, so you must add a tint to tone down the brightly-exposed clouds.