Pock pile alongside the Merced river in Snelling

This is a picture that brings back a lot of memories for me. This picture was taken in 2009, in a place called Snelling. I used to go here a lot when I was a kid.

Do you see all these rocks? This is on the banks of the Merced River. If you've ever seen those pictures from Yosemite of big waterfalls, those waterfalls feed into the Merced River, empties out of Yosemite, and down through the foothills.

That's how the city of Merced got it's name, from the Merced River. A Spanish Army officer named Moraga was going thorough the foothills with some soldiers in 1806. They came across a river that had very cold water from melting snow. After drinking the water, the Spanish Army officer proclaimed it a river of "mercy". In Spanish, "mercy" is "Merced".

Anyways, back to all the rocks in this picture. Back in the gold rush era, they just used this machine that was basically a gigantic shovel. They went to rivers and "scooped" the floor of the river, rocks and all, into a gigantic machine.

The gold was filtered out, and what was left - rocks - were just dumped on the river shore.

That's what you're seeing here. Industrial waste from like 1880. It goes on like this, for miles.

See why environmental regulations are kind of important?

Tagged Water Pump tower at Lake Yosemite

So, this picture, requires a little explanation. The picture seen here was taken at a place not far from where I grew up called Lake Yosemite.

This here is an old water pump tower. They've changed it a bit since when I was a teenager. When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to climb either over or around a protective barrier that was in place here at the entrance.

Since my teenage years, they have installed a much more secure door and sidewalls, to prevent people from climbing out onto the water pump.

I liked how this picture looked, mostly because it brings back a lot of memories for me.

If you want to see more pictures of this structure (which is rumored to be haunted), you can see them here, or here.

Gang Clothing and Attire is Prohibited

This picture is of a sign that pretty much says it all. Gang clothing is prohibited! No "baggy pants", you understand?

This is a sign at the entrance to a place called Lake Yosemite.

Cows on a wire

Cows on a wire! See this picture? This picture is of some cows. It was taken at a place near where I grew up called Lake Yosemite.

If you look in the upper left, it looks as if those two cows are actually walking ON the barbed wire fence!

Cool, huh!?! This is not to be confused with bird on a wire.

Abandoned barn visible from Lake Yosemite

Little hard to make out, but this picture is of an old abandoned barn. This picture was taken from a place in unincorporated Merced County called Lake Yosemite.

If I remember the story of this barn correctly, this barn is sitting on land that is technically part of the UC Merced campus. Out in the distance, you can see the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The bar has apparently been saved from demolition, and is frequently used as backdrop for promotional materials related to the campus.

This barn has been out there my entire life, and I think it has always been abandoned.

Colorful flowers in Merced

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I am colorblind. Specifically, I have this thing called red-green color blindness.

Before you ask: No, I don't see only black and white. I don't know how to describe it, other than to say that I probably don't see colors the same way that you do.

Still, I think I can spot bright colors, and I sure thought these flowers were bright!

These were some random flowers I took a picture of in my hometown of Merced, California in 2009.

I could be wrong, but I think that I took this picture on Olive Avenue.

View of a field on Dunn Road in Merced

See this picture? While this isn't a great picture, it does give you an accurate representation of what it looks like out where I grew up.

They had lots of land that looked like this, but the housing developments kept growing and growing during the housing boom.

But them the boom ended, and most of the new homes ended up vacant.

This picture was taken on a road called Dunn Road.