Redwood National and State Parks is more than just the redwood trees in its names. While the trees are often the star, the parks covers a lot of territory so a visit will allow you to see more than just trees. On our second day in the park we saw trees, but we saw more as well. During our first stop of the day, we saw no redwoods. We would take a fairly short hike around the Yurok Loop. The…
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Unique Crescent City Forest and Beach Hikes
Redwood National Park is an interesting connection of both state and national parks. In fact the official name is Redwood National and State Parks. We traveled to the northern most section of the parks, Crescent City, and continued our exploration of the redwood area from there. After a hearty breakfast on Tuesday, we were ready to hit the forest. Our first park was Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. We were headed to a popular trail called the Boy Scout Trail.…
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From California’s Sea to the Redwood Forest
It was a cold but sunny morning as we left Fort Bragg and continued along the northern California coast. Our first stop was at a small beach called Seaside Beach. It is at the mouth of the Ten Mile River. From the parking lot and beach one can walk to Ten Mile Beach. Seaside Beach is fairly small with a very nice view of sea stacks. One of its unique features is that dogs are allowed on the beach which…
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Scenic Vistas Along the Northern California Coast
The California coastline stretches 840 miles along the western United States. There are many beautiful locations along the coast, but most people think of locations in southern California such as San Diego, Santa Barbara, Big Sur, or Laguna Beach. However, heading north of San Francisco one can encounter some stunning views along the coastline that are less crowded and well worth the visit. Highway 1 runs along the California coast. It is a winding and twisting road. It will take…
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Impressions of More US National Parks
Last week I shared about five National Parks I had visited before I started my blog. I didn’t feel I remembered enough to give a lot of detail, but thought I would share some thoughts and experiences about these parks. Today I want to share about five more parks. While last week’s list included parks from Maine to Hawaii, this week the parks are all in the southwestern section of the United States. Yosemite National Park is a well known…
My Impressions of Five US National Parks
There are 63 National Parks in the United States with the newest one in West Virginia added in just the last few years. How many can you name? Don’t feel bad, I can’t name that many either. However, I have been to 19 of them over the years. Some of them I have visited recently and have shared about my visits in this blog. You can peruse those articles in the index under National Parks. I have not shared about…
Discovering the Gardens of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara sits along the California coast north of Los Angeles. Many people think of it as a posh beach town. However, its Mediterranean climate makes it a unique place to garden. While it is fairly warm year round, it is also somewhat dry. This makes it suitable for a wide variety of plants. There are three gardens that I have enjoyed while visiting Santa Barbara. The first is the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in the foothills above the Santa…
Exciting Sights at Channel Islands National Park
Over Thanksgiving week my daughter and I had the opportunity to visit Channel Islands National park off the coast of California. Our family traveled to Santa Barbara to be with my wife’s family for Thanksgiving. We went down there two years ago, but a fire forced us to evacuate. It was time to try again. My daughter, Andrea, lived in Santa Barbara for five years for school. She graduated from Cal. State Channel Islands. I have been down to Santa…
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Touring Around the Beautiful Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is one of those vacation spots that one frequently hears about. From winter skiing to summer boating and hiking, the area seems to offer something for most everyone. We have wanted to visit the lake for some time. We actually had planned to go over Memorial Day weekend this year, but that didn’t work out. However with a low air fare thanks to QB Russell Wilson’s three touchdown passes, we were able to visit around Veterans Day. November…
Palms to Pines Road Trip
A fellow blogger Mike in his travel blog often talks about the value of just wandering in a city with no particular plan. This was about to happen to us. After realizing we were not going to go up in the Palm Springs Tram, we cast about for a way to spend out final day in Palm Springs. We ended up wandering through the nearby mountains traveling what is known as the Palms to Pines scenic byway. It had never…