Trip to the Other Side

[bigbendmarine]

On a semi-habitat related note, took a rushed trip the week before my daughter's school started back up to show her a part of the country she's never seen. Her birthday always hits on the first week of school, so also used the trip as a celebratory gift for her hitting her "tween" years (10 years old).

Flew to San Fran and got out of there quick as I possibly could / for many reasons... just not my personal favorite place in the world. Immediately drove down to Monterey where we spent a day sightseeing, drove to the edge of Yosemite the next day (though fires kept us from driving through the park), headed south to visit Sequoia National Park the next day, and finished by treating my daughter to a day at Disneyland before flying back to FL.

Much as I don't love all things Cali (especially on the radical political front / laughed at one of the hotels actually having signs posted at the entry and kitchen that basically said the hotel and kitchen caused cancer) it does offer some stunning natural scenery and thought some of you guys on the forum would enjoy some of the pics I captured.

A big fan of Steinbeck's books, easy to see the influence the hometown area had on his writing and vice-versa...





And views only get more stunning as you drive to Big Sur... ran a marathon there a little over 10 years (and 20 pounds) ago, though could barely believe it this trip as driving it made me tired.









Yosemite fire was pretty much at its peak when we arrived... driving through the mountains to reach our hotel this was about all we could see, and ash truly was falling like rain as we checked in.



Smoke-filled sky did make for a few of the most interesting sunset pics I've ever captured...

 

[bigbendmarine]

Main reason for posting was to share pics of sequoia and redwood trees... for those who've never seen them, pictures honestly don't do their size justice, but did the best I could to capture their massive size.

 

[bigbendmarine]

No more pictures, but one thing driving between the areas did do is help me appreciate just how tremendously ag-based much of central CA is... when driving west from Monterey to Yosemite the vast majority of land was planted in crops... salad fixings near Monterey, followed by good bit of fruit, grains, and then nut trees... all for as far as the eye could see. Drive down from Yosemite to the Sequoia area had us seeing more citrus and nut trees. Guess good many tourist would find the drives through the ag portion of the state boring, but I found it to be stunning in scope.

 

[H20fwler]

Very nice! My little brother lives in Portland and the wife and I flew out to see his family a couple years ago and did the 101 from Astoria down to San Fran and back up putting close to 3K miles on the rental car in ten days exploring around...beautiful country in the pacific NW. I know what your saying about the ag country, we thought driving through the Willamette Valley in Oregon was awesome.

 

[Bill]

Nice pics . I did that trek when I was 18 years old.
I'm sure I'd appreciate it much more today

 

[Red Picqua]

sequoia national forrest... when I was there. I thought it was fake. you are so correct, pics don't do it justice. Muir Forrest the same. It is a national treasure. great pics. Cali is sweet.

 

[Catscratch]

Great pics! They remind me of the trips we've taken from Oregon down through the coast of Cali.

You've ran Big Sur? Cool! I was invited to it once but didn't go... always kind of wished I had.

 

[KDdid]

So cool to see this, as my wife and I are planning to fly into Sacramento next year and drive up the coast to see the redwoods. I’d also like to see Mount Lassen, just to see the country that Ishi came from.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Mortenson]

Thanks for sharing that post, and the beautiful photography. Definitely a trip worth making just to see the scenery you saw. Your daughter will surely talk about those trees at school. I was able to make it there for a few short days, 10 years ago, with my brother and sister (and her husband). We thought we were prepared for the size of them, but it was shocking. Here's a picture of the siblings standing with two redwoods that were dedicated to my grandparents after their passing. They're located in an Honor Grove in Humboldt Redwood State Park. It was a bit of a hike to find them, using a sketchy at best map. To this day we're still the only family members to have seen them.

 

[bigbendmarine]

That's truly awesome, Mortenson!

Didn't make it to Humboldt this trip but did visit it once to run the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon. It was one of the easiest marathons I ran as it felt MAGICAL running through the forest with such tall trees and the course was fairly flat and not suprisingly heavily shaded too.

Catscratch, on the other hand Big Sur was tougher than $#*+! Started in a shady forest area with a relatively gentle sloping downhill run the first six miles... then went up a gentle grade two miles... then steeply down a mile... then it REALLY got tough at mile 10 with a BIG two mile climb before trashing quads with two miles back down a decent grade... after that just remember lots of hilly PAIN and prayers to finish. Did it in 4:06 but honestly prouder of that time on that course than I am of the few races I ran under 4, Humboldt being one of them.


Those two marathons are really what gave me and my wife a love for the scenic areas and the motivation to show them to our daughter over 10 years later.

 

[weekender21]

California is a beautiful state, too bad it's in the "state" it's in. I lived in southern CA for 15 years and hunted throughout the state from the southern border to the northern border. Lots of great places to see.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I am sure there are some very nice places to see (your pics prove that) just cant convince myself that it is worth the trip to deal with the rest of the "wildlife" that calls it home. Thanks for posting

 

[Catscratch]

That's truly awesome, Mortenson!

Didn't make it to Humboldt this trip but did visit it once to run the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon. It was one of the easiest marathons I ran as it felt MAGICAL running through the forest with such tall trees and the course was fairly flat and not suprisingly heavily shaded too.

Catscratch, on the other hand Big Sur was tougher than $#*+! Started in a shady forest area with a relatively gentle sloping downhill run the first six miles... then went up a gentle grade two miles... then steeply down a mile... then it REALLY got tough at mile 10 with a BIG two mile climb before trashing quads with two miles back down a decent grade... after that just remember lots of hilly PAIN and prayers to finish. Did it in 4:06 but honestly prouder of that time on that course than I am of the few races I ran under 4, Humboldt being one of them.
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Those two marathons are really what gave me and my wife a love for the scenic areas and the motivation to show them to our daughter over 10 years later.

Easy course and hard courses both give you an appreciation for running. It would have been a great experience for me to do it but I didn't. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

Turkey - Cali and Oregon are great visits/drives! Their "wildlife" won't rub off on you, I promise!

 

[ksgobbler]

BIL lives on acreage near Drain Oregon. Beautiful area.the coastal highway was a neat drive.

 

[bigbendmarine]

I am sure there are some very nice places to see (your pics prove that) just cant convince myself that it is worth the trip to deal with the rest of the "wildlife" that calls it home. Thanks for posting

No shortage of conservative folks in CA, at least for the moment... they just don't live in the densely populated cities. While CA wasn't a close call in the 2016 election, easy to see a significant portion of the state still doesn't embrace all things leftist.



And would add that what the press and liberal social media would have you believe about CA differs from reality... entire time we were there EVERY place we visited still had clearly identified "MEN" and "WOMENS" restrooms, and plastic straws were out at EVERY single place we grabbed a bite. Only would add caveat, we got out of San Fran almost instantly and didn't go into LA other to catch our flight. Worries that our 10 year old daughter might get exposed to any number of things I personally don't agree with blessedly never came to fruition.

 

[j-bird]

Funny how the media and the like can show one thing when the reality can be far different...... so at least the entire state isn't a waste! Also goes to show why we don't elect based on popular vote. Our fore-fathers were no dummies.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Easy course and hard courses both give you an appreciation for running. It would have been a great experience for me to do it but I didn't. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

Turkey - Cali and Oregon are great visits/drives! Their "wildlife" won't rub off on you, I promise!

I would like to visit parts of OR and WA. Especially the fruit growing regions.