Despite its reputation for cities, California has some of the very best country anywhere, and that section of mountains is the best. Great photos. I was especially interested in the grouse, since you mentioned that it might have been a ruff, and I am very interested in locating a hunt-able population. I do not believe it was. It is either a female blue grouse or a ptarmigan. Both love the high country, and you were in one of the few places where ptarmigan still survive in the state. I do not know if they spend much time in trees the way grouse do. Very cool to have found one, if that was the case.
