Month: June 2016

Muir Woods

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

Jenn and I are taking a trip to Hawaii but she had to work, so I spent a few days with her in San Francisco.  Yesterday, I went to Muir Woods even though we’ve been before.

It was chilly in San Francisco so I brought a jacket but never did need it in the woods.  It was just about perfect weather, though the Golden Gate Bridge was completely obscured by fog.  Not that I could have snapped a photo anyway, traffic wasn’t slow enough.  The park was pretty busy (I thought) for a Tuesday and I had to park in a gravel overflow lot.  I just got a new phone (iphone se) with a much better camera and purchased a set of lenses (from photojojo) for it in the hopes I could take some nice pictures.

I decided to hike the Panoramic Trail since I hadn’t before.  It starts with the Canopy View Trail which was fantastic.  I really enjoyed viewing the redwoods as I climbed.  Muir Woods is a beautiful place and it was pretty tranquil in spite of the crowds.

Once the Canopy Trail ends, the Panoramic Trail begins.  At this point, the trees have thinned and the trail has reached peak elevation.  It was sunny and pleasantly warm.  A sign in the woods said you could see the ocean (later I was told the trees are too tall) but I couldn’t see through the fog between the mountains.  It’s interesting to see the forest stretch out in the valley before you.  IMG_0070

The Panoramic Trail and the Sun Trail are higher elevation and the trail cuts through dry, brown grasses.  It reminded me of the vegetation atop San Bruno.  It started getting warm and the trail goes near the road.  I really just wanted to get back into the trees.  I forgot to take a picture of the map BEFORE I hiked up the trail.  I got a little confused by the signs when I reached the end of the Sun Trail.IMG_0098

Once I got back to the park, I followed the Redwood Creek Trail and the Hillside Trail.  This route really is my favorite here.

There’s something special about a hike through the redwoods.  The faint scent of pine, the lush green carpet of clovers and ferns, the babbling of Redwood Creek and the relative quiet of the groves make Muir Woods a rare and calming place.

JnR’s Pacific Coast Highway Drive

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

Jenn and I wanted to make the Pacific Coast Highway drive from San Francisco to San Diego.  We started planning the trip and began adding other California sites to it.  In the end, we put 2000 miles on our rented mustang convertible over the course of ten days.  It was a blast driving that car in the beautiful California weather.

We had never been to Yosemite before and wanted to see giant sequoias, so that was the first site on the list.  Yosemite was lovely but as it was Memorial Day Weekend, there were a lot of cars on the small road winding through the park.  In fact, there were programmable to let you know how long you would sit in line to drive through the park and the times listed grew to more than three hours.  We stopped at a few lookouts but had been informed that Mariposa Grove (where the giant sequoias were) was closed.  We were disheartened and saw that we could also see sequoias at Sequoia National Park.

Sequoia National Park was deserted compared to Yosemite.  It was fantastic.  It was tranquil walking between the trees, and everywhere we went had a slight smell of pine.  I would love to be able to be able to take a walk through that park every day with Walnut.  (he didn’t get to join us on this trip)  The huge trees are humbling- you feel small in their presence.

After Sequoia National Park we drove back to San Francisco so we could follow the PCH south.  Though it was a bit of a drive, the weather and the convertible made it pleasant.  We got to route 1 at Half Moon Bay.  Of course, there was no parking but we drove slowly through the park and nearby neighborhoods to get a sense of the beach.  It’s massive, and very popular.

We continued south through Santa Cruz and on to Monterrey.  The aquarium in Monterrey was fantastic.  The weather was touch cool, and we didn’t really pack jackets so we found the Goodwill in Monterrey and bought jackets to stay warm before our whale watching trip.  We saw sunfish, humpback whales and dolphins.  The 17 mile drive was beautiful.  The scenery, the ocean, the cliffs, the rocks, the houses were pretty amazing.

We continued south across the Bixby Bridge and through Big Sur to Cambria where we stayed at the Bluebird Inn.  Nearby Hearst castle was like a history museum full of artifacts purchased from all over the world.  It is an incredible collection.  Somewhere near here, we saw an elephant seal nesting site.  It was crazy (and loud)!  It was getting late so we were running out of light but we watched the seals jockey for a spot on the beach to sleep.  Several fights broke out and some of them just stayed in the water.  There must have been 200 or more of them.

We kept on driving south through Santa Barbara, Malibu, Santa Monica, Los Angeles.  We stayed in LA and went to the Getty Villa.  The Villa was fantastic and is filled with artifacts from Greece and Rome.   At the Getty Center, we saw their Cave Temples installation which was fascinating.

It was a beautiful drive on route 1.  We frequently stopped by the road side and looked out over the cliffs and to the ocean.  The weather was great (we were thankful for the convertible).  We went through a lot of sunscreen!