Northern California

Finally, I have decent internet access and no particular place to go. Although we are nowhere near northern California right now it was the next stop in our wonderful journey.

The first stop in Redding, Cal took us to Elk Country RV Park and yes there are Elk everywhere. The only problem is that they are never in the RV Park while we are. We hear them bugling off in the forest and see all of the hoof prints they leave while passing through camp. To tell the truth I am okay with that. I can’t imagine how Edgar would react to an animal the size of a mature Elk.

We are really close to the coast, but it isn’t like any east coast beach at home. Finding a big sandy beach to walk on is the rarity. However, we did manage to find one and we anticipated some really pretty sunsets, unfortunately we were not afforded such because almost every day we were socked in by fog by 5:00 PM.

In northern California highway 101 is called the Redwood Highway and trust me the name applies perfectly. Without much effort one can find a park not too distant from Highway 101 that has a stand of redwoods. Our first exposure to Giant Redwoods was in Prairie Creek Redwood State Park and I wasn’t ready for just how big the trees are.

Just a short way down Highway 101 we entered the Redwood National and State Park which is the home of the Lady Bird Johnson Grove which was dedicated in August of 1969 as a result of a bill passed by congress to establish the Redwood National Park. The hike from the parking lot to the actual grove was a fantastic experience. The size and numbers of giant redwood trees is something to encounter. I was amazed to learn how tenacious redwood trees are. They continue to survive regardless of what they are exposed to. However due to climate change and some rather aggressive woodpeckers they are dying off at a rather rapid rate. I hate to think of a world without these giant trees.

From here we traveled to Lake Shasta and the severity of the current drought the state of California is experiencing was blatantly evident. I was not prepared for how low the water was. Part of the tour is a boat ride across the lake to the entrance of Shasta Caverns. When the water levels are near normal it is a short walk to the dock where you board a boat which takes you across the lake. On our visit we had to board a bus which took us to a temporary pier. Once across the lake it was a pretty good hike back up to the entrance of the cavern! Since most caverns are created the same way, I really didn’t take too many photos, but I did get a picture of graffiti in this cavern. Yes, it is graffiti and no they will not do anything with it since it was put there by the first two visitors into the cavern.

While in Redding, CA we came across a city park that had a bridge that used the support to create a huge sundial. The enormity of the design made it somewhat difficult to use to tell time, but the concept was unique to say the least. If I remember correctly, it only worked accurately on the first day of summer.

Our next move is over the mountains into the interior of the state finally stopping east of Sacramento in Groveland, CA. This will be our home base while visiting Yosemetie National Park and other places of interest in the area. Yosemite has three entrances, a western one, a southern one, and an eastern one. Since we are on the west side of the park, we will start each exploration through the western entrance. The first day we are going to the central village of the park and the first attraction we come upon is El Capitan! It is a daunting rock formation that beckons rock climbers from around the world. This is one of those things that photos taken by armatures cannot reproduce what we see with our eyes! Although we spent the entire day in the park, I didn’t come up with too many photos. I guess the scenery was too big for my little smart phone.

As one nears the western entrance there is a turn off that goes to Hetch Hetchy Lake and O’Shaughnessy Dam. The hydroelectric plant provides Los Angeles with 1% of its electricity. The road back into here was crooked, rough and interesting.

Another day we decided to travel all the way through the park just to see what was on the Eastern side of the park. To our surprise we ended up at Mono Lake, which is just south of Mono City, CA. Although we are only a few miles from Nevada that will have to wait until a later adventure. Mono Lake is an unusual lake and very much like the Great Salt Lake it is a dead lake with no outlet to release water and minerals the lake became very salty. The only life the lake supports is brine shrimp, which in turn becomes food for over two million migrating birds that will stop there to feed. While exploring the shoreline of the lake we noticed a dark formation on the water that upon closer inspection we discovered it to be alive! The formation was a mass of Akali Flies or brine flies and according to google they have an unusual life cycle where three of the four phases is spent under water. Just like the Great Salt Lake the shoreline is encrusted with a salt like coating and a not too aromatic fragrance.

After exploring the lake, we ventured into the town of Mono City where we stopped at a convenience store to get a cup of coffee and it was good, we didn’t need fuel.

There are two well-known rock formations in Yosemite Park, one being El Capitan and the other being Half Dome. The first time we were there we didn’t get any photos of Half Dome but finally we did and here it is! On the way back from the southern entrance we stopped at a point of interest that had a scale model of Half Dome in bronze. I realized that if I stood at just the right place, I could get a photo of the model and the real thing in one photo.

One last thought about our visit to Yosemite was this interesting sign that was posted at one of the visitor’s centers. I guess you cannot feel too threatened by the chipmunk. However, according to the sign below one should be really careful around them!

We will be heading back to the coast for a while with our next stop being San Francisco.

Currently, we are in New Mexico and are actually headed East. I hope that I can get some more updates posted but I won’t make any promises. Somehow, we manage to find so many interesting things to do or absolutely the worse cell or internet service.