In addition to the very pronounced slope effect, amidst the blue you can also see the bare, skeletal remains of old Ceanothus that was burned in the fire that came through the area in 2007. Chaparral fires are of high intensity and burn everything (so-called crown fires), but the heat isn’t enough to damage the deeper roots of plants. Ceanothus tomentosus, among many other bushes and shrubs in the chaparral, re-grows from the root when its above-ground parts are destroyed in a fire.