Living Our Dream

Joshua Tree National Park Part I

With the long day the day before we didn't rush in the morning to get to Joshua Tree National Park. There are two main entrances on the northern side of the park - the west entrance near Joshua Tree, CA, about a half an hour from where we were staying in Yucca Valley and the north entrance about an hour away near Twenty-nine Palms, CA. A winding road known as Park Boulevard runs through the northern end of the park and connects the two entrances.

We decided to drive to the farther entrance near Twenty-nine Palms and stop at the visitor center to reconnoiter, then drive back toward the west on Park Boulevard. We planned to see some of the sights closer to the north entrance that were easily accessible from the road and save the hiking for the next day after we had more time to rest up.

Joshua Tree National Park gets its name from the plant known as the Joshua tree. The Joshua tree, which was named by Mormon settlers crossing the Mohave Desert in the mid-1800s, is not really a tree, but a large, branching variety of yucca. Joshua trees have root systems that spread out over a large area to gather moisture from the desert soil. The wood of the Joshua tree doesn't have growth rings, so determining the age is difficult; but Joshua trees can live hundreds of years and grow to be 40 feet tall.

Joshua trees bloom in April, and by the time we got there many had started to produce clusters of 4 inch seed pods.

 

Conditions have to be just right for the Joshua trees to propagate. It is thought a crisp winter freeze is required to stimulate the tree to send out flower stalks in spring. Once the flowers bloom, they are pollinated by the yucca moth. The female moth spreads pollen while laying her eggs in the flower's ovary. When the larvae hatch, they will feed on the developing seeds. When the seeds that haven't been eaten ripen and fall, they depend on well-timed rains to sprout. The young sprouts will grow several inches a year for the first few years, then they slow down to about half an inch a year.

We stopped at the visitor center at the north entrance and picked up a map and visitor guide. Outside the visitor center we walked the half-mile loop trail around the Oasis of Mara. The Serrano Indians settled at the oasis and gave it the name Mara meaning "place of little water and much grass." They used water from the oasis to cultivate corn, beans and squash. Later, ranchers used the water for their cattle.

The oasis also supports a colony of desert fan palms. The palms, which can grow up to 75 feet tall, are named for their 6 foot, fan-shaped leaves. The dead leaves frequently hang on to the tree and cover the trunk. For this reason the fan palm is sometimes called the petticoat palm. The dead branches provide a habitat for birds, insects  and small mammals.

When prospectors and cattlemen came to the area in the late 1800s, there were 29 palms growing at the oasis so the town that grew up adjacent to the oasis was named Twenty-nine Palms. In the early 1900s, rainfall decreased, the oasis began to dry up, and most of the Serrano Indians drifted away. Today, water is piped into the oasis.

The southeastern half of Joshua Tree National Park lies below 3,000 feet in elevation and is in the Colorado Desert which is part of the larger Sonoran Desert. In this area, vegetation consists of mostly creosote bush, ocotillo and cholla. We were more interested in seeing the Joshua trees that lie in the northwestern half of the park, which is part of the Mohave desert. For that reason, we decided not to take the road that branched off toward the southern entrance to the park, and we continued on Park Boulevard.

The rocks in Joshua Tree National Park are monzogranite, which is a form of soft granite. Granite is a volcanic rock that is formed from solidified magma.  The rock  formations in Joshua Tree, which are more like huge rock piles, were created when magma forced its way up into the overlying gneiss (pronounced nice) layers. The magma formed both horizontal and vertical cracks as it cooled. Chemical weathering caused by groundwater in contact with the rock rounded the edges and corners of the granite blocks. When the area was later uplifted and the surface soil and rock were eventually worn away, large piles of monzogranite were exposed.

There aren't any places to get food in Joshua Tree National Park, so we packed a lunch. It was mid-afternoon when we stopped at one of many picnic areas to eat. After lunch we explored some of the surrounding rocks. The stripe in the upper left of the photo below is called a dike. It was formed when new magma was forced into a crack in existing magma.

The next photo taken along Park Boulevard shows even larger piles of monzogranite off in the distance.

 

Joshua Tree National Park has numerous primitive campgrounds, most of which are located at the base of large rock piles. We drove into several of the camping areas to see what the sites were like and to see some of the rock formations. Most of the camp sites were small and only suitable for tents, but the way they were nestled in among the rocks was cool. The rocks had formed the small arch in the photo below at one of the camping areas. The arch was only about 6 feet long and 3 or 4 feet high.

Skull Rock is located along Park Boulevard a little to the west of the last camping area. There is a pull-off parking area, so we stopped for a photo.

We enjoyed the scenery as we continued on our way west on Park Boulevard. It was getting late, so we headed back to the motor home without making any further stops. Our next post will tell you about our second day in Joshua Tree National Park and about the hikes we took.

Simi Valley to Yucca Valley, CA

After we left Simi Valley we had a relatively short drive of about 100 miles to Riverside, CA. Simi Valley is located to the northwest of Los Angeles and Riverside is located to the east, which meant we had to drive around LA. Therefore, we scheduled our departure from Simi Valley for Sunday so we could avoid the infamous LA traffic. Even on Sunday traffic was heavy, but there were no tie-ups.

At Riverside we stayed at Rancho Jurupa Park, which is yet another county park (Riverside County). There are new and old sections in the campground. The old section (Lakeview) has no-hookup, partial-hookup and full-hookup sites, and it has gravel roads and pads. The new section (Cottonwood) has all full hookups with 30/50 amp electric, cable and free Wi-Fi. It has paved roads and pads with nice grass between the sites. The new section has recently been completed. In fact, it is so new they are still working on parts of it.

When Margery made reservations, she thought she was reserving in the new section; but when we got there we found out our site was in the old section. Since we arrived on Sunday, the campground was pretty empty so they were able to switch us to a site in the new section. The price is a little higher, but the sites are much nicer. There are some pull-throughs, but most of the sites are back-ins. The sites are nicely spaced and extra, extra long.

Margery's parents had friends from back in Pittsburgh who moved to Riverside years ago. Margery's parents kept in touch, and so has Margery even though her folks have both passed away. We visited Birdy and Bob when we were in Riverside back in 2007, and we made plans to stop again since we were so close when we were in Simi Valley.

Margery's mom was Swiss, and so is Birdy. We had a nice visit and a delicious lunch of a traditional Swiss dish called raclette. Raclette is both the name of a cheese as well as the dish that is made with the cheese. The cheese is served melted over small, boiled potatoes. Originally, the round of cheese was placed in front of the campfire or the fireplace. As the cheese on the surface facing the fire melted it was scraped onto the diners' places and eaten with the potatoes.

Margery has also been in contact with an old high school friend who lives in the area. On another evening we met with Herb and his wife Gloria at a nearby restaurant called Polly's Pies where they treated us to dinner. In addition to being famous for delicious pies, Polly's has great sandwiches and dinners. We both had chicken pot pie, which is one of their specialties.

Riverside is a nice town. It isn't too big, and it's away from the congestion of LA. The downtown has a lot of picturesque Spanish-style architecture. It also has a quirky restaurant we noticed one day driving through town called Tio's Tacos. We didn't eat there, but we did stop for some photos. They have whimsical sculptures and fountains all over the grounds. The next photo shows the one that first caught our eye. It is a wire cage in the shape of a man sitting on their balcony. The cage is filled with beer cans.

 

At the entrance to their parking lot was a similar figure, except this one was a two-headed chef filled with oyster shells. The buttons on his smock are hard to see, but they are smashed beer cans.

 

Behind the restaurant is a very large patio that has sculptures everywhere. Some of them are 20 or 25 feet high. Among the sculptures there are numerous areas for outdoor dining. The entire patio is a mosaic made up from pieces of marble and ceramic tile of various colors. One of the more unusual features was a beer bottle chapel that was similar to the glass houses that we saw recently in Rhyolite and Calico Ghost Towns.

When we left Riverside we only had about a 75-mile drive to our next destination at Yucca Valley, CA, where we wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park. On our way to Yucca Valley we would pass near Redlands, CA, which is the home of Redlands Truck and RV. Redlands Truck is a contributor and sponsor of iRV2.com, which is an online RV forum in which Paul participates. We needed to have the oil changed and the radiator flushed in the motor home. Redlands Truck has a reputation for doing good work, so we decided to support one of the forum sponsors, and we scheduled an appointment to stop on our way by.

When we dropped the motor home off, they said it would take most of the day so we headed off to Walmart and to run a few other errands. We also stopped for lunch at Qdoba Mexican Grill, which is one of our favorite chain restaurants. It wasn't too hot, so we ate outside.

We took our time getting back to Redlands Truck. When we got there, they told us the serpentine belt was pretty badly cracked, and they recommended replacing it. The serpentine belt runs the power steering and the water pump, so if it goes you're not going to get too far. We didn't get out of there until their closing time at 5:00 PM, so we were glad we only had another hour and a half or so to drive.

By the time we stopped to gas up, we didn't get to Yucca Valley until almost 7:00, which is way later than we normally arrive at our destination. We had reservations at Yucca Valley RV Park, so we called ahead to tell them we would be arriving late.

Yucca Valley RV is a small campground with only about 15 sites. The sites have full hookups with 30/50 amp electric and cable. The road is paved, but the sites are all gravel, and they are all back-ins. The sites are a little narrow, but most of them are fairly long. Backing into our site was a little tricky because of the close spacing of the trees and the permanently fixed picnic table and charcoal grill, but we made it with no scrapes.

 

The campground is right on a 4-lane road that is a major route for north-south traffic between the Palm Springs area and Barstow, and it is also the east-west route from Twenty-nine Palms with its big Marine base to the LA area. Therefore, there is a fair amount of road noise in the campground.

There is also a ready-mix concrete plant behind the campground, and you can hear the piercing backup beepers of the trucks and front-end loaders in the morning. The beepers start at 5:30 AM.

The main purpose for our stop in Yucca Valley was to visit Joshua Tree National Park, and we headed there the following morning. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Reagan Presidential Library

After having recently visited the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock and the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, we found out we really enjoy visiting presidential libraries. We were disappointed that we didn't take the time last year to visit the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. In May when we were finalizing our summer travel plans for this year, we decided to go the extra 500 miles from the Grand Canyon to visit it.

It was about a three hour drive from the county park at Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, CA, to Simi Valley where we stayed at Tapo Canyon Regional Park, which is another county park (Ventura County). Tapo Canyon is located a little north of the city of Simi Valley. The park only has about 20 sites, but they all have full hookups with 30/50 amp electric. The road around the campground and the pads are paved, but the rest of the campground is all dirt. Even with a 10% senior discount, the nightly rate was a bit high at almost $40 when the reservation fee was added in. However, the sites are generously spaced, the surrounding hills are attractive, and the campground is nice and quiet.

When we arrived, only a few sites were occupied, but we saw most of the rest of the sites had "Reserved" tags on them, so we waited for the place to full up and get zooy on the weekend. When only one other RV showed up Friday night, we checked the reserved tags and found they were all left over from the previous weekend which was Memorial Day. We ended up sharing the campground with only 6 other RVs, including the campground hosts.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, located in the hills above Simi Valley, and was only about 20 minutes from the campground. The library was opened in 1991 and is designed in a Spanish colonial style. The intimate appearance of the entrance belies the fact this is the largest of all the presidential libraries.

We decided to go to the library on Friday hoping there would be fewer people there than on the weekend. However, we forgot about school field trips, and there were at least 5 school buses in the parking lot when we arrived. As it turned out, the library is plenty big enough we hardly noticed the kids. Plus, when we did cross paths with them, we found them to be among the best behaved school groups we have ever seen.

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was born in Illinois, and, after spending a few years in radio in the mid-west, he moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s where he became an actor. He appeared in numerous TV programs and 52 movies, one of the most famous of which is Knute Rockne, All American. Ronald Reagan played the role of George "the Gipper" Gip (win one for the Gipper). Reagan was known by the nickname "the Gipper" for the rest of his life.

In his younger days, Ronald Reagan was a liberal Democrat who admired Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. In the early 1950s, however, he began supporting Republican political candidates, and he served as Republican Governor of California from 1967 to 1975.

In 1976, Reagan narrowly lost the Republican Presidential nomination to incumbent Gerald Ford, who ultimately lost the election to Jimmy Carter. Reagan won the Republican nomination in 1980 and defeated Carter in November of that year.

Parts of the library were closed for renovations when we were there in preparation for Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday in 2011. However, most of the exhibits were open including the full-size replica of the Oval Office as it appeared during President Reagan's terms in office.

The Air Force One Pavilion was opened in 2001 after the retirement of the Boeing 707 that was used as Air Force One by President Reagan. The 747 that is currently in use was ordered during the Reagan Administration, but was not put into service until Reagan's successor, President George H. W. Bush, took office.

We were able to tour the aircraft, but photographs were not permitted on board. We did, however, stop for a photo at the exit by the tail.

The Air Force One Pavilion also has a Marine One helicopter on display. President Eisenhower was the first U. S. President to use a helicopter for transportation. "White Tops," as they are called because of the familiar green and white paint scheme started by President Kennedy, are used for on shorter journeys and to shuttle the President back and forth from the White House to Andrews Air Base in Maryland to board Air Force One.

 

As we explained when we visited the retired Air Force One plane at the LBJ Library, these aircraft are commonly called Air Force One and Marine One, but they do not receive that official designation until the President is actually on board. 

President Reagan's limousine is also on display in the pavilion. This 1984 Cadillac was state-of-the-art when it was first built. Incidentally, President Clinton's limo in Little Rock will be the last one put on display. All limos after that will undergo destructive testing when they are decommissioned to evaluate the effectiveness of the armor in order to make improvements in the future.

There are beautiful views down into the valley from several locations at the library, including from the terrace outside the pavilion. They even say you can see the Pacific Ocean, but it was pretty hazy the day we were there. The haze in Simi Valley was gray because it was caused mostly by the marine layer (fog off the ocean), but the haze looking toward LA (out of the photo to the left) was brownish because it was a combination of marine layer and smog.

From the outside stairway to the upper level of the pavilion we could see a whimsical topiary in the shape of an Republican elephant.

President Reagan visited 26 foreign countries during his two terms in office. These countries are represented by their flags displayed on the upper floor of the Air Force One Pavilion. There is an accompanying display of a number of photos showing some of those visits.

 

President Reagan is credited by many as being instrumental in bringing about the end to the Cold War. The upper floor of the pavilion also has a display symbolizing Checkpoint Charlie, which was the best-known crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

There was also an excellent video detailing Reagan's role in ending the Cold War. He took a tough stance against the USSR by strengthening the U. S. Military, by reviving the B-1 bomber program canceled by Carter, by strengthening ties with our allies, and by proposing the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). SDI was a land and space-based nuclear missile defense system. Opponents of dubbed it "Star Wars" and said it wouldn't work. But it did work to help end the Cold War, and we didn't even have to build it. Just the prospect of a comprehensive defense system was enough.

In a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin, Ronald Reagan challenged Michail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, by saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The wall came down a little over two years later in 1989, and the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991.

Outside on the lawn of the Reagan Library is a section of the Berlin Wall. The East Berlin (communist) side of the wall is stark, gray concrete. The West Berlin side was decorated with artwork and graffiti.

From the pavilion the tour went to the National Treasures Gallery where there were some of gifts given to President Reagan by visiting heads of state.

Also on display is the suit President Reagan was wearing when he was shot during an assassination attempt by John Hinkley, Jr. on March 30, 1981. Although Reagan recovered, the bullet narrowly missed his heart and pierced his left lung.

 

One of ours favorites at the museum was a temporary display of a miniature of the White House. With a scale of one inch equals one foot, the model is 50 feet long and 18 feet wide. The model, which was created by the Zweiffel family, took over 600,000 hours to build. First exhibited in 1979, this model has been seen by 42 million people.

You can peer through the windows and see hand-carved tables and chairs, crystal chandeliers and working televisions. The wall on the back side is open revealing even more of the amazing detail.

There are also displays of individual rooms from various periods in history including this one with President Lincoln. Lincoln appears to be looking into the fireplace in deep thought.

We left the library by way of Reagan Memorial site. After struggling with Alzheimer's Disease in his later years, Ronald Reagan Died on June 5, 2004. After a state funeral in Washington, D. C., his body was flown to the library in Simi Valley for burial.

President Reagan once said, "There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." This presidential library exemplifies his belief. There were bronze plaques and pictures recognizing many, many of the people who served with him. Although we've only visited three presidential libraries so far, this was the first time we have seen such a magnanimous gesture in such a setting.

We enjoyed our visit to the Reagan Presidential Library and learning more about this period in history. After our visit we had a day to chill out around the motor home, then we headed for a new location. Stay tuned.

Calico Ghost Town

Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, CA, turned up in Margery's online research, and it sounded interesting. Calico Ghost Town is part of a county park, and it also has a campground. Yermo, which is right next to Barstow, CA, is about four hours from Beatty, NV, so it made a good place for our next stop.

We scheduled two nights at Calico since we also needed to stop at a grocery store, and we wanted time to visit the ghost town.

The rate at the campground is a little high at $30 a night, even for full hookups, but it also includes admission to the ghost town. There are no hookup sites, partial hookup sites, and full hookup sites. We're not sure about the partial hookup sites, but it looked like all the full hookup sites had 30/50 amp electric.

The road into the campground is paved, but the entire rest of the campground is dirt. It's probably the only time we were glad we didn't have Molly! We can only imagine how gray her fur would have gotten. The sites are very narrow, and most of them are pretty short. Some of the sites aren't very level. The photo below shows our site at Calico Ghost Town Park.

 

The next photo shows several of the neighboring sites.

There is no traffic noise and there are no trains. The campground was very quiet, at least it was when we were there during the week. Although off-highway vehicles (OHVs - dirt bikes, dune buggies, quads, etc.) are not permitted in the campground, riding is allowed in the surrounding mountains, so it could get noisy on the weekends.

After we got set up, we headed into Barstow to run our errands. The next morning Margery went into town for a haircut while Paul made a small repair to one of the slide toppers on the motor home. When Margery got back, we walked up the dirt road to the ghost town.

As we said, Calico Ghost Town is operated as a county park. The town was founded in 1881 as a silver mining town. Calico hit its peak population of about 1,200 people in 1887. Shortly after that, the price of silver fell, and the mines in Calico were no longer economically viable. The town was essentially abandoned by 1907.

In 1951, Walter Knott of Knott's Berry Farms bought the town and began restoring it. Only five of the original buildings exist today, but Knott rebuilt the rest of the buildings on the original foundations using old photographs for reference. Some of these old photographs, sometimes even showing former residents, were posted with a written history on some of the buildings. Margery found the photos to be especially interesting.

Most of the buildings house gift shops, a restaurant and snack shops. Walter Knott donated the town to San Bernadino County in 1966. The next photo shows the main street of Calico.

The building in the photo below is one of the original buildings. It used to be a residence, and now it is used as the park office.

Another of the original buildings is the Lane House.

John and Lucy Bell Lane lived in this house until they left Calico in 1899. They returned in 1916 and moved into what was their former store. John died in 1954, and Mrs. Lane continued to live in Calico until 1965. She died in 1967.

The Lane House is now a museum with artifacts from the town and items that belonged to the Lanes.

Calico gets its name from the bright colors in the rocks in the hills surrounding the town. They used to say, "They're as purdy as a gal's calico skirt." The building in the next photo is the schoolhouse, which is reconstructed on its original site, with one of the colorful hills in the background.

You can climb partway up the hill behind the town where some of the mines used to be. There were as many as 500 mines around Calico, and there are tunnel entrances everywhere in the hillsides. There are also "Do Not Enter" warning signs everywhere. There is, however, a tour of the Maggie Mine that is open to the public.

On the hill you can also see how some of the miners built huts under rock overhangs using stones and adobe mud.

The hill is pretty steep, but you can get all the way up to most of the huts.

 

There are other things in Calico to do like mock gunfights and panning for gold, although those things didn't seem to be going on the day we were there. Maybe they only have them on weekends. The train that you can ride to the other side of the hill and back was operating.

 

The Hyena House was a hotel of sorts that was originally constructed of sugar barrel staves under a rock overhang. When the stage came to town, the owner of the hotel would grab a wheelbarrow, run to the depot and yell, "Free bus to the Hyena House."

The next photo shows one of the rooms. If you think the room is grim, wait till you hear what was on the menu for breakfast - beans and whiskey.

Calico has a bottle house similar to the one we saw at Rhyolite, although this one isn't original to the town. This one was built in 1951 by Walter Knott.

Unlike the bottle house at Rhyolite, this one isn't plastered over on the inside. The exposed bottles, although hard to keep clean, allow in an amazing amount of light. It would be almost impossible to oversleep.

On our way out of the ghost town, we stopped by the sheriff's office.

The building isn't open, but inside they had a very unusually-styled safe that we had never seen before.  Known as a cannonball safe, the heavy weight and rounded corners made them hard to pick up to steal.

Back at the motor home, we chilled out for the rest of the day. The next morning, we were off to our next destination.

Death Valley Part III: Scotty's Castle

We left the Stovepipe Wells area and drove toward the northern end of Death Valley to visit Scotty's Castle. Scotty's Castle is a two-story Spanish-style villa built by millionaire Albert Johnson as a vacation home in the 1920's.

The next tour of the castle was scheduled to begin about 20 minutes after we arrived, so we had a few minutes to look around the grounds. The next photo shows the guest house.

 

And the next photo shows the stable.

On display in the stable are several old vehicles including the 1938 Dodge sedan that once belonged to Death Valley Scotty, for whom the house was named. We'll tell you all about Scotty shortly.

Margery even found a seat carved from solid stone.

When our tour began we entered the courtyard between the main house (left) and the annex, and sat on benches in a shady alcove at the far end on the right.

Our tour guide, who was really a ranger in period costume, was an excellent story teller. She began with a background and history of the people and events behind Scotty's Castle.

Scotty's Castle was built by Albert and Bessie Johnson. Albert Johnson was from a prominent, wealthy family in Ohio, and Bessie was the daughter of a wealthy fruit and nut rancher from California. Although he was trained as a civil engineer, Albert Johnson made his fortune in insurance. Albert Johnson married Bessie in 1896.

As a civil engineer Albert had an interest in mining. He also had a strong interest in the west and dreamed of being a cowboy. After successfully investing in a lead and zinc mine, Albert convinced his father to accompany him out west in 1899 to investigate other mining claims for further investment.

On that trip the train on which Albert and his father were riding was rear-ended by another train. Albert's father was killed, and Albert suffered a broken back. The doctors initially thought Albert would die; but when he didn't, the doctors told him he would be permanently paralyzed below the waist. Fortunately, Albert made a miraculous recovery and within 18 months was able to walk, albeit with a limp. He also had some other physical limitations. Following his recovery, Albert and Bessie moved to Chicago.

Albert Johnson was approached in 1904 by an intermediary for Walter Scott, a.k.a. Death Valley Scotty. Scotty was an interesting character. He was a cowboy, a prospector, a performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and somewhat of a con man. He was known for having supposedly discovered a mysterious gold mine in Death Valley. He also was good at soliciting wealthy investors to "grubstake" his mining operation.

Albert Johnson and another man agreed to invest in Scotty's fictional mine. After a few years of receiving no return on his investment, Albert decided to visit Scotty's mine. Of course, Scotty had no mine, so he and his friends concocted a scheme to stage a mock bandit attack to scare off Albert. When Scotty's brother was accidentally shot in the fake robbery, Scotty had to call off the ruse.

Albert realized he had been duped; but he still he wanted to believe in the mine, and he continued to visit Scotty in Death Valley. By visiting Death Valley he could in some way fulfill his dream of being a cowboy. The hot, dry climate seemed to improve his health, and the experiences helped relieve the depression that resulted from his earlier accident. He eventually forgave Scotty for bilking him out of his money, and he and Scotty became friends. In fact, Albert continued to bankroll Scotty.

In 1915, Albert bought a ranch in Grapevine Canyon, which is a side canyon off Death Valley toward the northern end. The following year he built a small shack that he and Scotty used for camping. Eventually, Bessie became curious about Death Valley, and she began to accompany Albert on his winter trips.

Bessie, however, was appalled at having to sleep on the ground or in a dirty shack with snakes, scorpions and spiders. So in 1922, Albert Johnson began constructing what was to become Scotty's Castle.

After our history lesson, we entered the great room. Everything in the castle is original including the clothes still hanging in the closets!

The fireplaces at each end of the great room are surrounded by decorative ceramic tiles made in Spain.

And there is a massive chandelier hanging from the two-story, redwood ceiling.

During the tour, our guide continued her story about the house and about interesting relationship between Albert Johnson and Scotty. Although the official name of Death Valley Ranch is carved over the door, the mansion has always been known as Scotty's Castle. Scotty was a flamboyant story teller. He had convinced everyone he had built the castle with gold from his mine. Scotty told everyone Mr. Johnson was his banker. Albert Johnson didn't seem to mind and allowed the stories to continue.

Albert even installed whimsical, prospector weathervanes in Scotty's honor.

Not only didn't Scotty's Castle belong to Scotty, it isn't a real castle either. Although elaborately decorated inside and designed to look like stone outside, the walls are stucco over a wooden frame.

Although Scotty had a room at the castle, he didn't sleep there. The Johnsons were devout believers and had too many rules for Scotty, like no drinking or smoking. Albert built a 5-room cabin for Scotty about 5 miles away on property known as Lower Vine Ranch. Scotty would go to the castle to help entertain guests with his outrageous stories. After dinner, he would retire to his room, which had a door to the outside. He would slip out and drive to his own cabin to spend the night, then he would return in the morning in time to change clothes (the housekeeping staff at the castle would do his laundry) and have breakfast. The next photo shows Scotty's room.

 

Scotty liked to cook, and the castle had a well equipped kitchen complete with more Spanish tile.

 

The kitchen even had a refrigeration unit installed in the icebox. The ranch had a spring that produced 300 gallons of water a minute, and Albert used some of the water to power a water wheel to generate electricity.

Albert built a library at the castle because he loved to read. However, Albert eventually converted the library into a dining room. Scotty would eat beforehand in the kitchen so he could sit in the corner and entertain guests with his stories while they dined.

Work on the castle slowed with the start of the Depression. In 1930, President Herbert Hoover named Death Valley a national monument, after which it was discovered the Johnsons had built their ranch on land that wasn't theirs due to an earlier surveying error. When that was discovered, all work on the castle ceased. In fact, in the first photo showing the outside of Scotty's Castle, the weedy patch below the wall in front of the house is the unfinished swimming pool.

After much negotiation, the government finally allowed the Johnsons purchase the land their house was sitting on in exchange for conducting tours of the house and renting out rooms to tourists. The annex on the opposite side of the courtyard from the main house is where the the guest rooms are located that were rented out. Rooms rented for $45 a night, which was a lot of money back in the 1930s; but guests didn't seem to mind because the rent included meals which also included Scotty's famous stories.

After the death of Bessie in 1943, Albert wasn't as interested in staying at the castle, and he attempted to sell it to the Government. The Johnsons had no heirs due to Albert's injuries. However, the United States was in WWII at the time and had no funds with which to purchase a castle. Albert created a charitable organization called the Gospel Foundation receive all his assets, to care for him until his death, and to care for his property after his death. Albert died in 1948, and the foundation continued to rent rooms afterward. The Government eventually bought the castle from the foundation in 1970.

Death Valley Scotty died in 1954 and is buried on the hill overlooking Scotty's Castle.

Albert and Scotty had a very unique friendship that lasted for 40+ years for such diverse backgrounds. Albert loved to read. Scotty's education ended when he left home when he was 11. However, Albert always wanted to be a cowboy, and Scotty always wanted to be rich. Through their friendship, they both were able to realize their dream.

When we left Scotty's Castle we had one more thing we wanted to see in the northern part of Death Valley. Ubehebe (YOU-bee-HEE-bee) Crater is located about 8 miles northwest of the castle. Ubehebe, which is the largest of several craters in Death Valley, is about 500 feet across and almost 800 feet deep. It was created by steam explosions that occurred when hot magma reached the water table. The entire area is covered by a layer of cinders up to 150 feet thick, most of which came from Ubehebe.

We left Ubehebe and drove back up Grapevine Canyon and through Grapevine Pass out of Death Valley. The road intersects with U. S. Route 95 about 30 miles north of the campground, so is was a fairly quick trip back to the motor home from there. We still have more to see in Death Valley, so look for our next post.

Death Valley Part II: Stovepipe Wells Area

After studying the maps we picked up on our first day, we headed back into Death Valley on the second day with some ideas of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see.

To get to Death Valley from where we were staying in Beatty, NV, we had to drive through Daylight Pass to get up over the Amargosa Mountain Range  that lies to the east of the valley . Beatty has an elevation of 3,300 feet, and the mountains have an altitude of around 8,000 feet. It was interesting to see the changes in vegetation as we drove along. The slopes of the mountains, although arid, had a fairly dense population of creosote bushes and other shrubs as well as spring wildflowers.

On the valley floor, most of which is at or below sea level, the vegetation is quite sparse. The mountains on both sides of Death Valley (the Amargosa Range to the east and the Panamint Range to the west) block most of the rain and the valley only gets an average of less than two inches of rain a year.

As we descended into Death Valley, we noticed there were still some high, hazy clouds hanging over the southern part of the valley, so we decided to explore the area around Stovepipe Wells, which had only a few fluffy clouds overhead. Stovepipe Wells is located at the bottom of the road coming in from Beatty and is around the center of Death Valley.

Our first stop was at Salt Creek. As the name suggests, the water of Salt Creek is brackish. A boardwalk runs along the creek for a round-trip walk of about a half mile.

 

The creek starts about a mile upstream of the boardwalk and gets saltier as it flows because some of the water evaporates along the way. Along the creek in the area of the boardwalk the water can be saltier than seawater.

Near the end of the boardwalk, the flow fans out, and a little beyond that all the water has been evaporated and the creek ends.

The plants growing in this area are called pickleweed. Pickleweed is a a low-growing, salt-tolerant, succulent shrub.

An endangered fish called the Death Valley pupfish lives in Salt Creek. The southern part of Death Valley was once covered by Lake Manly. This lake, fed by glacial melt water from the north at the end of the last Ice Age, was up to 80 miles long and 800 feet deep. The pupfish was originally a resident of Lake Manly. As the Ice Age ended, the flow of water slowed, the climate warmed, and the lake evaporated. The pupfish adapted to the growing salinity of the water.

As the lake disappeared, the pupfish also became isolated and separated in different pools and streams in and around Death Valley. They developed into 10 distinct subspecies. The photo below shows one of the Salt Creek pupfish, which grow to be about two inches long. The blue on its back indicates this is an adult male.

From Salt Creek, we drove west toward Tucki Mountain. We passed Devil's Cornfield where clumps of arrowweed look like shocks of corn.

A short distance away are Mesquite Dunes. Tucki Mountain creates eddy currents in the prevailing winds that cause quartz and feldspar sand grains to collect and build ever-changing dunes up to 150 feet high. The dunes have appeared in a number of Hollywood movies including the desert scenes for the Star Wars series. You can hike out into the dunes, but walking in the loose sand is difficult so we just went far enough for a photo.

 

Right down the road from the dunes is Stovepipe Wells Village where there is a motel, a general store and a rustic campground. A little way past Stovepipe Wells Village is the spur road to the trailhead for Mosaic Canyon.

Mosaic Canyon has been cut into the side of Tucki Mountain by flash floods. The unpaved, washboard road to the trailhead is almost two miles long, and it is steep; but Mosaic Canyon is worth the bumpy ride. The next photo shows the trailhead from the edge of the parking area.

Mosaic Canyon is lined with marble that has been worn away and polished by the sand and gravel particles being washed down the canyon by flash floods. Along with the marble, the canyon walls are also made up of a composite stone called breccia, which consists of angular fragments of rock from various types of parent rock cemented together in a concrete-like matrix. The lighter-colored, variegated material is marble.

 

The breccia looks like gravel and mud, but the matrix is quite hard.

Water runoff follows natural cracks and faults in the rock, and it eventually widened the fault into a canyon. In some places the canyon is narrow and you have to pass single file.

Some spots in the canyon are a little wider.

 

There are also drops that you have to scramble up (and back down on the return). Fine, loose gravel on smoothly-polished, hard marble can make for unstable footing. Just ask Margery.

You can hike about two miles back the canyon until a dry waterfall makes it virtually impassible. We probably hiked about a mile until we came to this somewhat higher, steeper step. The step was about 6 feet high with very few apparent toeholds, so we decided that was a good place to turn around.

Back down at the mouth of the canyon, we could see how all the sand, gravel and rock that washes down the canyon during flash floods is spilled out onto the valley floor in what is called an alluvial fan. The fans are evident all up and down Death Valley anywhere there is a side canyon or even a crack that channels water.

We really enjoyed the hike up Mosaic Canyon. It was different from anything we have seen before. It was a little bit of a challenge, but Margery's knees were great, even having to scramble up and down the marble slickrock.

By the time we finished with Mosaic Canyon, the high clouds we had seen to the south when we were driving down into Death Valley were starting to creep northward and were almost up to the Stovepipe Wells area. Therefore, we decided to drive to the northern end of Death Valley and continue our exploration there. Look for our next post, and we'll tell you all about it.

Death Valley Part I: Mining

We left Grand Canyon and drove south through Williams, AZ, then west on I-40 to Laughlin, NV, where we stayed at Avi Casino RV Park. The RV park is operated by KOA, but it recognizes Good Sam and AAA discounts. The roads in the campground are paved, but the sites are all gravel. There are full hookups with 30/50 amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The campground is pretty far from the casino, and it's pretty quiet.

The sites, which are mostly pull-throughs, are fairly narrow, but they're very long. In addition to the sites being narrow, they also have side-by-side hookups. Fortunately, the hookups aren't shared, but they are close together. It's hard to walk behind the rig to dump or to get things out of the storage bays without tripping on your own and your neighbor's hoses and wires, especially since our slides are on that side.

It looked like about two thirds of the campground was closed (maybe they just use that part for rallies), and the rest was less than 20% filled. Unfortunately, instead of putting the RVs on every other site to give everyone a little more room when the campground isn't full, they tended to put RVs together in clumps of two or three.

We stayed two nights because we needed to make a Walmart stop. We had just left the Grand Canyon, which obviously doesn't have a Walmart, and we were heading to Beatty, NV, to visit Death Valley; and there's no Walmart anywhere near Beatty either.

After our Walmart stop, we relaxed the rest of the day then took off the next morning for Beatty, NV. Our home base for the next week would be Beatty RV Park. Beatty RV is a relatively small RV park that is all somewhat dusty gravel. Most sites are pull-throughs. Some sites have 30 amp electric and some have 30/50 amp, all have full hookups, and there is free Wi-Fi. The sites are a little narrow, and they are also a little short. The sites in the front row are a little longer, but we would have had to work at being able to reach the utilities without blocking the road if we had only been making an overnight stop and had wanted to leave our toad attached. Fortunately for us, the campground wasn't very full when we arrived, so it didn't seem too crowded even though the sites are a little small.

It did get a little more crowded later in the week. There were a number of RVs that came and went with one-night stops, and there were several additional RVs that came in for the Memorial Day weekend. As we said, the sites in the front row seemed to be a little longer than those in the back, so they seemed to concentrate everyone in the front row where we were.

The managers at Beatty RV are super-friendly. Unfortunately, the campground is very close to U. S. Highway 95, which is the main route between Las Vegas and Reno. Although traffic dies down somewhat at night, the speed limit is 70 mph, and there are a LOT of trucks that travel that road. The trucks are really loud when they rumble by, especially at night. Although you do eventually get used to it, light sleepers might be more bothered by it.

Beatty, NV, calls itself the gateway to Death Valley National Park. It's one of the closest towns to any of the several entrances to the park. Also, at an altitude of a little over 3,000 feet, it tends to run 20 degrees cooler than Death Valley, which usually has highs around 95 during May when we were there, and 120+ degrees in summer. Death Valley is the warmest place in North America.

Unfortunately, on our first full day there, it was mostly cloudy. It rains less than two inches a year in Death Valley. The mountains stop almost all the rain and most of the clouds, but we happened to hit one of the few cloudy days.

We were anxious to see Death Valley, so even with the clouds we decided to drive into the park mostly to reconnoiter. We went to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and saw an excellent slide presentation on Death Valley. We got maps and the Death Valley Visitor Guide so we could decide what we wanted to do.

We also toured the small museum in the visitor center. Much of the history of Death Valley is linked to mining. Death Valley got its name in 1849 from prospectors crossing it to get to the gold fields in California. In spite of its name, there was only one recorded death there during the Gold rush. In the 1850s, gold and silver were mined in Death Valley.

In the 1880s, borax was discovered in Death Valley. Borax refers to several similar chemical compounds that are sodium borate salts. Borax is used primarily as a welding flux, in glass making, and in detergents. Remember Boraxo hand cleaner? 20 Mule Team Borax? Ronald Reagan hosting the TV program "Death Valley Days?"

By the time we finished at the visitor center, the sky started to clear a bit, although there were some clouds right overhead. We stopped at old Harmony Borax Works, which is located right near the visitor center.

Harmony was the first borax operation in Death Valley and operated from 1883 to 1888. The borax was hauled by the famous 20 mule teams. The wagon unit consisted of two custom-made borax wagons and a third wagon that contained 4,200 gallons of drinking water. The loaded wagons weighed 72,000 lbs. and the whole rig including the mules was about 100 feet long.

Because of the remote location of Death Valley, the borax had to be hauled 165 miles to the rail head in Mohave, California. Therefore, the borax was refined in Death Valley rather than hauling rock and waste all that distance.

The boiler (with smokestack) was used to make steam to heat water. The ore was dumped into hot water along with other additives. The borax dissolved, and the mud and lime settled out. The hot liquid was drained into cooling tanks, and the borax crystallized onto metal rods. The crystals were chipped off the rods, and the process was repeated to further refine the borax. The problem is borax will not crystallize at temperatures above 120 degrees, so operations had to be suspended in summer.

Also in the vicinity of the visitor center is Furnace Creek Resort, which includes a ranch, a golf course, a couple of restaurants, a general store. There is also a free museum that has mining equipment from in and around Death Valley, and logging equipment from the surrounding mountains. Part of the museum is indoors in the oldest remaining building in the valley. It was built in 1883 and was used for a bunkhouse, an office and a checking station. It was moved to its present site as a museum in 1954.

 

Outside, large equipment like this ore crusher was on display.

The carts in the next photo were used to transport timber. The one on the left has wheels made from solid sections of logs. From the width of the wheels you can see they were designed to carry heavy loads over soft ground.

Even with some clouds overhead and haze in the air from dust being kicked up by the winds, we were still impressed by the varied colors of the rocks and hills in Death Valley.

On our way back to the motor home, we stopped in town at Beatty Mercantile for some lunch meat. There aren't many places to eat in Death Valley, so we'll be packing our lunch for the next few days. The market is also a hardware, so you can buy your groceries and a cooler to put them in at the same time.

Back at the campground, we studied our maps, and we relaxed for the evening. The clouds to the west over Death Valley started to thin out and they made for a colorful sunset.

As we said, we're planning to go back to do some more exploring in Death Valley, so look for our next post.

Southern Oregon Coast

Our drive from Joseph Stewart Recreation Area near Medford to our next stop in Reedsport, OR, on the coast took about four hours. It should have been shorter, but we ran into construction in a couple of areas. We finally made it to Winchester Bay RV Resort located at Salmon Harbor Marina just a few miles south of the town of Reedsport where the Umpqua River meets the Pacific.

Most of the sites at Winchester Bay RV have a view of the water, and some are located directly on the water overlooking either the marina or the river. The sites located directly on the marina are designed with the hookups near the street so motor homes can pull in frontwards. Trailers or 5th wheels that must back in will need extra-long electrical cables and hoses to reach the utilities. The photo below shows our site overlooking the marina at Winchester Bay RV Resort.

Winchester Bay has full hookups with 50 amp electric, cable, and free Wi-Fi. The roads, pads, and patios are all paved, and the sites are well-spaced with well-manicured grass and shrubs between. The campground was fairly quiet except for when the wind was flapping our slide-toppers. It got windy in the late afternoon the first two days of our stay, and it was windy almost all day the other two days we were there. Fortunately, the wind died down at night.

One attraction in the area that was recommended to us by friends was the Sea Lion Caves located about 45 minutes north of Reedsport. The Sea Lion Caves are the largest sea caves in the world. A colony of hundreds of sea lions live in and around the caves. Other colonies live on the rocks offshore. They are Stellar Sea Lions, which is a non-migratory species, so the animals spend all year in the area. In winter, much of the colony tends to seek shelter from the weather in the cave. In summer, most of them spend more time outside on the rocks. In spring, the pups are born on the rocks, also known as the rookery. The photo below shows hundreds of sea lions on the rocks below the cliff.

 

The next photo is a little closer view. You can see several sea lions that have just climbed up from the water onto the rocks.

 

The caves were reportedly discovered in 1880 by William Cox, who was a sea captain. Cox was fascinated by the caves and the sea lions and bought the land from the state in 1887. In 1927, R. E. Clanton bought the land from the estate of William Cox intending to develop the caves into a tourist attraction. Clanton's friends considered it to be a foolhardy venture because there weren't very many tourists at that time. Highway 101 didn't exist yet, and the only access to the coast was by a gravel road. Still, Clanton persuaded two others to join him in partnership.

Brave visitors originally entered the caves by climbing down a rope ladder hanging over the cliff to a primitive foot bridge. The business struggled during the 1930s, and the original partnership was dissolved and a new one was formed. A new, enclosed stairway was eventually built 200 feet down the north face of the cliff into the cave. After WWII, the business finally started to prosper.

When the original roadside entrance building was destroyed by a fire in 1946, a new one was built to look just like the old one. The next photo shows the building perched on the edge of the cliff. There is additional parking across the road, including a few spaces for RVs.

 

In 1958, the owners decided to replace the old stairway with an elevator. It took two years to blast the 215-foot shaft for the elevator down into the rock because they only worked during the spring when most of the sea lions were outside the cave, and then only on days when most of the remaining sea lions had voluntarily left the cave. They didn't want to harm the sea lions or scare them away permanently. The elevator, which was opened in 1961, was specially designed to resist all the damp, salt air.

Behind the entrance building, there are platforms that can be used for whale watching when the California gray whales are on their way north a little earlier in the spring. There is also a sculpture of a sea lion family, and the next photo shows Margery with the sea lions.

A path winds down the face of the cliff to the left where you can see the sea lions on the rocks. Another trail to the right takes you to the elevator to the cave. The next photo shows the area down over the cliff where the inlet leads into the cave from the ocean.

 

At the bottom of the 215 foot elevator ride, it is a short walk down a ramp to the cave where the sea lions hang out.

 

The next photo is a closer shot of a number of the sea lions sitting on a large rock in the center of the cave. Sea lions were also scattered on the rocks around the edges of the cave.

We were glad to have been able to have a more up close and personal view of elephant seals in Moro Bay and the sea lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco. The shear number of seals here on the Oregon coast was noteworthy, and the cave was interesting; but seeing them from such a long distance was frustrating.

The Sea Lion Caves are located in volcanic rock. To the north of the caves is Heceta Head Lighthouse located on a volcanic rock headland. The 56-foot tall lighthouse was first lit in 1894. The light is visible for up to 21 miles. Heceta Head Lighthouse claims to be the most photographed lighthouse in the world.

While the coastal area from the caves northward is mostly volcanic rock, the area to the south is covered by sand dunes. From the caves, you can see where rocks end and the dunes begin.

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area covers a 40-mile stretch of coastline from a little south of the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, OR, past Reedsport, and on down to Coos Bay. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is used for camping, hiking, picnicking, horseback riding, and off-road vehicles.

Unlike the dunes at Marina Dunes in California which are covered by a variety of wildflowers, these dunes are covered mostly by grasses. The dunes here are also much higher than in California. Although the biggest dunes we saw in Oregon were probably less than 100 feet high, they can reportedly reach heights of up to 500 feet. As you move inland, there are an increasing number of shrubs on the dunes, and eventually some trees. There are also islands of trees, which are the remnants of forested land that has been overrun by the dunes. The area covered by dunes along the Oregon coast can be up to two or three miles wide. The next photo is a little closer view of the dunes.

On another day, we drove south to Coos Bay to make a Walmart stop. With a population of 15,000 to 16,000 people, the city of Coos Bay is the largest city along the Oregon coast and the only city on the Oregon coast with a Walmart.

Along the way, we passed Umpqua River Lighthouse just south of the campground. The first lighthouse was built near this site at the mouth of the Umpqua River in 1857, but when the river overflowed its banks in 1861, it caused the lighthouse to topple. The lighthouse that stands today is 65 feet tall and was first lit on Dec. 31, 1894. The photo below shows the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

 

The body of water called Coos Bay is the largest natural harbor between San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA. The major products exported from Coos Bay Harbor are logs and wood chips used for paper. In Coos Bay, we came across this huge pile of wood chips being collected for export. The pile was several blocks long and about 40 to 50 feet high.

The little town of Charleston is located on the western side of Coos Bay and is the home of a marina where many pleasure boats and a large, commercial-fishing fleet are docked. We took a drive over there to take a look. The next photo shows some of the fishing boats docked at Charleston.

After our little sightseeing tour around the Coos Bay area, we made our Walmart stop. Then we headed back to the motor home, relaxed a little, and made preparations to pack up and head out the next morning. The weather was in the 50s and low 60s the entire time we were in Reedsport, and it was windy much of the time; but at least it was sunny. We're looking forward to going inland again to warm up.

Burney Falls, CA

Another day trip we took while we were staying in Redding, CA, was a drive northeast to visit Burney Falls in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park. At a height of 129 feet, the falls aren't the tallest in California by any means. But from descriptions we read and from photos we saw, the falls were strikingly beautiful. The thing that makes the falls unique is the water comes almost entirely from springs. Although there is some surface runoff in the early part of the year, most of the water comes from underground about half a mile above the falls at the rate of about 100 million gallons a day.

There is an overlook for the falls right at the parking area. You can get a pretty good look at the falls without walking very far at all, but it's hard to see the entire width of the falls through the trees.

It is a short, but steep walk to the base of the falls. The next photo was taken from another overlook about two thirds of the way down. This area provides an excellent view of the falls.

 

You can see the two main streams of the falls near the center of the photo coming from the top, but the interesting thing about the falls is there is water coming out from the rocks at various levels. Some of the water from the springs stays underground until it gets to the face of the falls. The next photo is taken from a little different angle.

And the next photo is from the base of the falls. The pool below the falls is 22 feet deep.

There are several hiking trails in the state park. From the base of the falls, there is a 1.3-mile loop trail that goes a little farther downstream, across a wooden bridge, and back up to the top of the hill on the other side of the stream. We decided to do the loop trail, which turned out to be a good choice. The ascent on the other side of the stream was a lot more gradual than going back up the hill the way we came down.

As we started down the trail, we were fascinated by the large amount of rocks strewn on the hillside. The rock is from a layer of volcanic basalt that once covered flat ground. Burney Creek originally flowed over the top of the basalt layer. When the creek found a crack or hole in the basalt and began to flow underneath, it quickly eroded the softer layers below. Basalt is relatively brittle, and once the support underneath was gone, the basalt layer fell away as the creek continued to widen the gorge. The photo below shows Paul standing at the base of the basalt-strewn hillside along the creek.

 

It was a pleasant walk down the sun-dappled path with the sound of the falls in the distance and birds singing in the trees. The next photo shows us on the bridge crossing Burney Creek.

The next photo is a view looking upstream from the bridge. We saw a several people fishing along the stream. Most were kids, but a few were serious anglers. Trout reportedly thrive in the cold water which runs 42 to 48 degrees year round.

 

Along the far side of Burney Creek, the trail gradually climbed up to a level even with the top of the falls. Unfortunately, we could only catch glimpses of the falls through the trees from the far side. The drop-off along the trail is very steep with lots of loose chunks of basalt, and there are numerous signs warning against straying off the trail to try to get a better view. The photo below shows a limited view of Burney Falls from the far side of Burney Creek.

After we completed the 1.3-mile hike, we had our lunch at the state park, then headed back to the motor home. We had seen shrubs along the road to the falls that were covered with beautiful, light blue flowers that looked like small lilac blooms. The loop trail we hiked at the falls had a number of informative plaques about the geology of the area and about the plants along the trail. We learned the shrubs are called deer brush, apparently because deer love to eat them. The shrubs come in white and blue. We had seen a few white ones here and there in other locations, but on the road to the falls, there were whole hillsides covered with blue-flowering deer brush. On the way back, we stopped for some photos.



The next photo is a close-up of the flowers.

 

We made it back to the motor home with a little time to relax before dinner. From Redding, we headed north to Oregon.

Shasta State Historic Park

About 6 miles west of Redding, CA, is the town of Shasta, or more accurately, the remnants of the town of Shasta. Shasta was a booming mining town in the 1850s into the 1870s, and what remains of the town is now part of Shasta State Historic Park. There's not a whole lot to Shasta, but what is there is a gem. The photo below shows the former Shasta County Courthouse, which is now a museum.

Pierson Reading, who was born in New Jersey, came to California in 1843 and worked for John Sutter for a time. You can read more about John Sutter in our previous post Sacramento, CA Part I: Sutter's Fort. Pierson Reading received a land grant from the Mexican government in 1844 for over 26,000 acres along the Sacramento River near the site of present-day Redding. Notice the difference in the spelling of the names. We'll explain that a little later.

Pierson Reading was one of the first to visit the site of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 to the south near Sarcamento. When he returned to his home, he also discovered gold nearby. Word spread, and soon there was a community of tents and lean-tos called Reading Springs. The town began to prosper as a commercial center, and the tents gave way to permanent houses, barber shops, stores, hotels, and saloons. In 1850, Reading Springs was renamed Shasta.

By the late 1860s, most of the mining claims were mined out, and the town started to decline. When the railroad decided in 1871 not to detour six miles out of its way to pass through Shasta, it was a big blow to the town. The new city that popped up on the banks of the Sacramento River six miles east of Shasta along the railroad line was named Redding by the railroad in honor of railroad man Benjamin Redding. In 1874, residents changed the name of the town to Reading in honor of the area's original resident Pierson Reading, but the railroad refused to accept the new name so it was changed back to Redding in 1880.

Redding grew quickly because of the railroad, and when the county seat was moved from Shasta to Redding, Shasta's fate was sealed. By the late 1880s, residents of Shasta began moving to Redding. Residents who couldn't sell their houses and businesses abandoned them. Some buildings were dismantled and rebuilt in Redding.

In the early 1900s, several individuals and groups recognized the historical value of the old town and made efforts to save the remaining buildings. The state acquired the property and opened the museum in the old courthouse in 1950.

The admission to the museum is $2. There is a 5-minute movie about the history of Shasta, as well as stories about life in Shasta and displays of some of the furnishings and other possessions that belonged to Shasta residents. There was a display of some balances and weights that were used for gold back in the day.

The courtroom, shown below, is set up the way it was in 1861.

 

The next photo shows the jail in the basement of the courthouse.

The photo below shows one of the cells. The cells were bigger than those at Alcatraz, but they were still grim. The cells in Shasta didn't look to be nearly as secure as those in Alcatraz, but the ball and chain on the floor would help take care of that.

Out on the main street, which is California Highway 299, you can see the remains of some of Shasta's businesses. The buildings have been stabilized with steel beams and supports, and it looks like there has been preparation for the installation of some informational plaques; but California's budget problems undoubtedly have put everything on hold. In fact, all the California State Parks we have visited are concerned about being closed altogether, or at least closed during the week. In the next photo, Margery is exploring the remnants of some of the old buildings.

 

Fire destroyed most of Shasta in 1852, but residents quickly rebuilt. When another fire destroyed about 70 businesses along Main Street six months later, the merchants rebuilt again, but this time with brick and heavy iron shutters which enabled them to boast they had fireproof construction.

The real star of Shasta State Historic Park is the Litsch General Store, shown in the next photo.

 

Frank Litsch purchased an existing building and opened the store in 1873. Even though this was after Shasta's heyday, the business prospered for a time. But the new railroad station in Redding and the moving of the county seat from Shasta to Redding in 1888 took their toll. Frank finally sold the business to his nephew in 1895 and moved to Redding himself.

The nephew kept the business going by adding postal services in 1903 and gasoline pumps in the 1920s. The antique store fixtures and old fashioned merchandise helped earn the store a reputation as a museum of sorts, which helped attract customers. Finally in 1960, the store and all its contents were sold to the State of California and became part of the State Historic Park.

The great thing about this general store is some of the items in the store are reproductions and some are antiques that are original to the store. The photo below shows the interior of Litsch General Store.

We have seen quite a few old general stores, but most of what was on display in them was pretty rusty and dusty. With many of the items on display being reproductions, the Litsch Store feels more like a real 1880s general store with new merchandise for sale rather than a museum. For example, the labels on the cans in the photo above were provided by Del Monte and are reprints of the original labels. The new look to the cans makes it feel like you are back in 1880.

Jon, who was the volunteer on duty the day we were there, was very informative. In the next photo, he is demonstrating a ribbon crimper. The purpose of crimping the ribbon was to make it more decorative for use as trim on things such as ladies' hats.

 

Another advantage to reproductions is that they can be handled. While the curators come in periodically with white gloves to clean and care for the antiques, visitors can pick up and examine the reproductions. Jon showed us a pair of blue jeans that Levi's made for the museum to their original 1870s pattern.

There is also a restored, working bakery in Shasta, but it wasn't open the day we were there.

If you're ever in the Redding, CA, area, we recommend checking out Shasta State Historic Park. The hours for the general store and bakery are different from those of the museum so call find out the hours, especially of the general store, before you go.

The Redding area still has more to see, so look for our next post.

Redding, CA

We originally planned to leave Napa, drive north up U. S. Highway 101, then head west to visit several areas along the northern California coast. We checked the ten-day weather forecast for the coast, and it was calling for temperatures in the 50s, clouds, and a chance of rain several of the days. Well, we were tired of the cool, gray weather and playing peek-a-boo with the sun, so we changed our plans to travel farther inland instead.

We learned the locals call the coastal weather "Gray May" and "June Gloom." Apparently, the land warms up faster than the Pacific Ocean in spring, and this temperature difference creates a lot of fog as the cool air blows in off the water. So, if we ever make it back to the northern California coast, we'll have to try to schedule the trip for some other time of the year.

Our new route took us inland to I-5 and north to Redding, CA where we stayed at Mountain Gate RV Park. Mountain Gate is north of Redding near Shasta Lake. The office staff at Mountain Gate RV was very friendly and helpful, especially when we asked if they would accept mail for us and then wanted to change sites because we couldn't get satellite reception in the first site they assigned us. The photo below shows our site at Mountain Gate RV.

Mountain Gate RV has paved roads and pads with grass between the sites, and site width isn't bad for a private campground. There are full hookups with 50 amp electric and cable, and they have free Wi-Fi. The campground is very attractive and the grass and landscaping are well-groomed. As with the other campgrounds we saw in the Redding area, Mountain Gate RV is a little close to the interstate, which means there is some traffic noise. Fortunately, our change in travel plans worked, and it was hot most of the time we were there. Running the air helped cover the sound of the traffic.

The morning following our arrival, we drove a few miles over to Shasta Dam. Shasta Dam was built from 1938 to 1945 across Sacramento River for water retention and for the generation of electricity. It is the second largest dam in the United States based on volume of concrete. The largest is Grand Coulee Dam across the Columbia River in Washington State. The photo below shows Shasta Dam.

The building of Shasta Dam created Shasta Lake, which is shown in the next photo. Shasta Lake is the largest man-made lake in California and is popular for boating, especially house boating. Somewhere lost in the clouds on the horizon is Mount Shasta way off in the distance.

 

There are free tours that take visitors down into the dam to see some of the many passageways and to see the generator room. Unfortunately, we just missed a tour, and we decided it was too long to wait for the next one, so instead we watched the movie about the building of the dam and looked at some of the photos and displays before taking off.

A well known feature of Redding is the Sundial Bridge. The bridge, which is part of the Sacramento River Trail system, is a pedestrian bridge that spans the Sacramento River in the heart of Redding. It was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and is constructed from steel and granite. It has a translucent glass deck with lights below the glass which makes it seem to glow at night. The bridge is suspended from cables attached to a large pylon on the northern end. The photo below shows the bridge as we walked across.

 

The white pylon was striking against the cloudless sky.

The pylon also acts as the gnomon of a sundial to indicate the time on a scale on the ground. It was about 12:20 PM. The sundial was indicating 11:20 because it doesn't account for Daylight Savings Time.

 

In addition to being part of the Sacramento River Trail, the Sundial Bridge also connects the northern part of Turtle Bay Exploration Park with the southern part. Turtle Bay has a museum, a maze, a butterfly house, and various historical and cultural exhibits. It also has the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens at the north end of the bridge. We didn't realize it was that close until we got there; but since it was close, we decided to check out the gardens. The photo below shows Margery enjoying some of the flowers near the entrance to the botanical gardens.

The next several photos show views from different areas of the garden. As with any successful garden, there was an excellent variety of color and texture.

 

 

We haven't visited that many gardens in California, but a common thread seems to be the presence of art and sculpture along with the plants. There was a sculpture called Lookout Tree created by sculptor Patrick Dougherty. He does natural sculptures from willow. It took about three weeks for Dougherty, park staff, and volunteers to complete the work. The photo below shows Lookout Tree.

 

It was fun walking in and out of the openings and looking up at the patterns of light through the openings in the top.

There was also a very interesting mosaic sculpture at the far end of the garden called Mosaic Oasis. There was a drinking fountain, a decorative fountain, and benches covered in ceramic tiles, mirrors, and stones.

 

The next photo is a closeup of the turtle covered with bits of colored glass, ceramic tiles, and pebbles.

 

We walked back a different path and passed a sculpture made from three large stones surrounded by water gardens filled with pickerel rush, giant horsetail rush, papyrus, and water lilies.

 

We enjoyed our visit to the Sundial Bridge and to the botanical garden. We'll finish our post off with a composite of some closeups of a few of the flowers we saw at the garden.

There are a lot more things to see in and around Redding. Look for our next post to see what else we found.

Napa, CA Part III: More Sightseeing

Napa is the heart of California Wine Country. Almost everywhere you go in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys there are stately wineries like the one in the photo below. We enjoyed seeing rows and rows of grape vines as we drove around the area.

 

But, as we said in our last post, there are also a lot of other things to see and do in the area. Just a few miles north of Sterling Vineyards that we wrote about in our first post about Napa, is California's Old Faithful Geyser. We stopped there on our way to the vineyard. The web site says the geyser erupts faithfully every 30 to 40 minutes and shoots 60 to 100 feet high. The day we were there, it was going off every 10 to 20 minutes, and it was only about 30 to 40 feet high. The eruptions aren't all that impressive, especially after we were in Yellowstone last year, but they are quite frequent so you don't have to wait long. The photo below shows California's Old Faithful Geyser.

 

Old Faithful Geyser is on private property. Records aren't clear, but it's likely the geyser was artificially made. The hydrothermal source is real, but there is evidence the geyser was formed when the drilling of a well back in the early 1800s accidentally tapped into the natural hydrothermal system. At any rate, the geyser was turned into a tourist attraction in 1974 when the property was sold to Howard and Olga Cream.

At the geyser site, they also have llamas, Jacobs four-horned sheep, and Tennessee fainting goats. You may have seen these goats on TV or on YouTube. They stiffen up and fall over when frightened. Actually, they do not faint, but they have a genetic problem with muscle control and their muscles sometimes lock up when the goats are frightened. The breed can be traced back to the 1880s in Tennessee. Of course, everyone tried to scare the goats, but they seemed to be used to the tourists by now and resisted fainting. The photo below shows a Tennessee fainting goat.

Another interesting place we visited was Cornerstone Sonoma in Sonoma, CA. Cornerstone Sonoma is a little hard to describe. It is an eclectic collection of shops, galleries, a cafe, gardens, and wine-tasting rooms. Admission is free. We went there to see the gardens; but when we saw the oversize Adirondack chair right out front, we knew we were in for some surprises.



One surprise was the shop that sold salvaged architectural artifacts and other large-scale decorative items. Shown in the photo below are just a few of the things they had including a fountain that looked like it came from an old town square in a Mexican village, a tangled piece of driftwood, and a pair of huge doors from a Spanish villa.

 

They also had things like bathtubs carved out of one piece of stone, a hippo skull, an elephant skull, millstones, stone statues taken from old buildings, and many unusual items from all over the world. Prices were astronomical, but it was fun to look.

There was also a shop that sold garden accessories such as large crocks and cement, stone, and ceramic fountains.



The shops were fun, but we did go for the gardens. There are about 20 garden vignettes that have been designed by artists, landscape architects, and garden designers. Some were pretty modern and pretty "artsy," but we tended to like the ones that were a little more traditional. Most of the gardens were very striking. The tree in the photo below was one of the more "artsy" (but very interesting) ones. The tree was dead and scheduled for removal, but landscape architect Claude Cormier gave the tree new life by covering it with 25,000 blue Christmas balls. When viewed from the proper angle at the right time of day, it almost seems to disappear against the sky.



Another garden we liked was the Garden of Contrasts. The soft, tan grass swayed in the breeze and contrasted the stiff, spiky agave. The long-stemmed flowers swayed in the breeze with the grass and added a little punch of color.

 

The garden in the next photo was also a little more traditional. It had recently been planted, so there wasn't any information available on it yet. It featured waves of purple candytuft, feathery papyrus, and pink poppies.

 

Paul liked the ceramic bamboo decorating the garden shown in the next photo.



There was also a Mediterranean meadow with different types of grasses.



The next photo is a composite of some of the interesting flowers in the gardens.

After our stay in Napa, we changed our travel itinerary and headed farther inland instead of back toward the coast as we originally planned. We just weren't ready for 50-60 degree temperatures and clouds again. Check out our next post to see our new destination.

Napa, CA Part II: Sightseeing

We came to Napa to see the beauty of California's Wine Country, but it seems the flowers grow there almost as well as the grapes. Almost all the wineries were lavishly landscaped. We also happened upon the nature center in the photo below just driving along the road and we stopped for a photo. The whole hillside was covered with flowers, decorative shrubs, and ornamental grasses.

 

Another thing we stopped to see was the Charles M. Schultz Museum located in nearby Santa Rosa about an hour northwest of Napa. Charles M. Schultz (1922 - 2000) was the cartoonist who drew the Peanuts comic strip. Margery's dad always liked the Peanuts comic strip, and that's probably the reason she is fond of it, too. In the next photo, Margery is scratching Snoopy's nose outside the museum.

Not to be left out, the photo below shows Paul making friends with Charlie Brown.



For years, many Peanuts fans flocked to see traveling exhibits of the original drawings for the cartoon strips. With the 50th anniversary of the Peanuts cartoon strip approaching in the late 1990s, several of Schultz's friends wanted a permanent place for fans to be able to view his original drawings. However, Charles Schultz didn't consider himself to be a "museum piece," so he resisted the idea. A local historian, Schultz's wife, and his attorney continued working on the idea of a museum, and Charles Schultz eventually become more enthusiastic. Unfortunately, he would pass away in 2000 before the museum could be completed. The museum opened in 2002.

The site chosen for the museum was in the area where Schultz lived, worked, and hung out for the last 30 years of his life - near his studio, his home, and next to the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, which Charles Schultz owned and visited every day.

The Peanuts syndicated cartoon strip first appeared in seven newspapers in 1950. Charles Schultz announced his retirement in 1999 for health reasons and passed away shortly thereafter. Although there are animated specials under development (the story lines are based on themes from the comic strips Schultz has drawn over the years), by Schultz's wishes no new Peanuts cartoon strips will ever be drawn. Cartoons still appear daily, but they are from the 17,897 strips already in existence.

Inside the museum, there are loads of original Peanuts drawings on display. These include not only the formal drawings that Charles Schultz inked for final publication, but also numerous pencil sketches that he drew as he worked out his ideas in preparation for the final drawings. At the end of the day, Schultz used to wad the sketches up and throw them away. His secretary would rescue them from the trash, take them home, and iron them flat again.

Photography isn't permitted in any of the areas were there is original art on display, but we were able to photograph this collage of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.  This was a common story line as Lucy would yank the football away every time at the last second, and poor Charlie Brown would end up flat on his back. 

The collage, which is at least 12 or 15 feet wide, is made up of ceramic tiles that are in the form of actual cartoon strips. The lines on the collage come from dark areas on the cartoon strips. The next photo shows a closeup of some of the tiles.



The museum also has a hands-on drawing area for kids of all ages. You can make an original drawing or color a pre-printed drawing. They post the drawings for a day or two, then take them down and save ALL of them in 3-ring binders. Margery is checking out some of the drawings in the photo below.



She's pointing out one that was particularly cute. In case you can't make it out, Snoopy is colored pink and Charlie Brown is saying, "I told you not to eat so much cotton candy!"



Another fun place we visited in the area was the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA, about 20 miles to the west of Napa. The visitor center is shown in the photo below.

 

There are factory tours, but, unfortunately, the factory is shut down the entire month of June for maintenance. It was also a Saturday when we were there, but they had tours anyway - even on the weekends. Since we entered a food preparation area, we had to wear mandatory head coverings, even though they were not in production. The photo below shows Margery making a fashion statement in her Jelly Belly hat.



Photography wasn't permitted in the factory, but there wasn't much to photograph anyway since they were not in operation. However, there were excellent videos documenting the process at various stops along the elevated walkway.

Jelly Belly was started in 1976, and Jelly Belly considers their jelly beans to be gourmet quality. They have 50 flavors, including some unusual ones like buttered popcorn (their number one seller), jalapeno, toasted marshmallow, A & W root beer, dark chocolate (new), and cream soda. Jelly Belly uses all natural flavorings where possible. The centers of Jelly Bellies are also flavored, not just the outer shell like most other jelly beans.

We learned it can take 7 to 21 days to make jelly beans. Jelly beans are made in several stages, and they must rest to "cure" for several days between each stage.

The jelly beans are checked at various stages throughout the production. At the end of production, the Jelly Bellies are inspected again for size. Jelly Bellies that don't measure up are called "belly flops" and are sold at a discount in the store in the visitor center.

There was also a gallery of mosaics in the factory depicting various famous people. These were made from thousands of Jelly Belly candies. We were able to get the photo below of the mosaic of Ronald Reagan because it was in the lobby. Ronald Reagan was a big fan of Jelly Bellies while he was governor of California, and he carried the tradition with him to the White House causing Jelly Belly sales to soar. Blueberry was a new flavor created for Ronald Reagan's inauguration so they would have a flavor that was blue in color. Three tons of red, white, and blue jelly beans were consumed during the inauguration festivities.



Jelly Belly makes several other types of candy beside jelly beans, including Sunkist Fruit Gems, which Paul LOVES! Even though he is on a low carb diet, he HAD to buy a few chocolate-covered, orange-flavored Sunkist Fruit Gems before we left. Yum!

There's still more to see in the Napa area, so check out our next post.

Napa, CA Part I: Wine Country

We left Sacramento and drove a little over an hour to the southwest to Napa, CA. In Napa, we stayed at Napa Valley Expo RV Park, which is another fairground campground. Napa Valley Expo RV Park is a very nice, full hookup campground that has been recently redone. There are 18 sites, most of which are pull-throughs, except the back row where we were, which are back-ins. The sites are decent width and are extra long. The pads are newly paved with grass between. The photo below shows our site at Napa Valley Expo.

 

The campground is fairly quiet, except for a little noise from local traffic on the two-lane road running past the campground into town. It was probably more noticeable since we were in the back row. Fortunately, traffic is almost non-existent at night, and there are no big trucks. You can also hear the Wine Train that runs through town a couple of times a day. The train doesn't run late at night and passes through town at about 5 miles an hour, so there are only a few short toots of the horn.

When we first arrived, we found out the weekly Napa Chef's Market was scheduled to kick off for the season that evening, so we headed downtown after dinner. There are cooking demonstrations every hour or so where chefs from local restaurants prepare dishes with free samples for the crowd. The photo below shows Chef Terry Letson and his assistant. The seats were all taken by the time we got there, so we didn't hang around to try to get a taste of the finished results.

 

In addition to the cooking demonstrations, the Chef's Market had a few crafts, a lot of food and wine booths, and a farmers' market. The photo below shows Margery checking out some of the delicious-looking fruits.

Of course, there was wine available for sampling and for purchase either by the glass or by the bottle. The gentleman in the photo below is explaining the virtues of the red wine sample he is offering.

 

Even though Paul doesn't drink alcohol and Margery only takes a few sips now and then, the reason we came to Napa is to see some of the beautiful wine country that the Napa and Sonoma Valleys are so famous for. The earliest wineries date back to the mid 1800s, and many of the original wineries still exist. The wineries struggled during prohibition and also because of an infestation of aphid-like insects, but they began to thrive again after WWII.

There are over 400 wineries located in Napa and Sonoma Valleys, and in the nearby Alexander, Dry Creek, and Russian River Valleys. The soil and climate make this area ideal for viticulture. Some of the biggest names in American wine are located here, and there are also many smaller "mom and pop" wineries as well.

You can tour wine country on your own or you can take a minibus or limo tour and let someone else drive - not a bad idea if you're planning to do a lot of tasting. We already mentioned the Wine Train where you can ride restored, vintage railroad cars through beautiful wine country while tasting wine from their onboard selection or while enjoying a gourmet meal in the dining car. They also have numerous theme tours such as a murder mystery, comedy night, and tasting seminars with area winemakers.

Upon the recommendation of a friend, we opted to tour Sterling Vineyards. Sterling offers a unique experience with a ride on an aerial tram to the winery at the top of a hill. At the winery, you get panoramic views of the vineyards and surrounding areas. In addition, there is a self-guided tour of the wine-making facilities with tasting along the way. There is also a tasting room and wine shop at the end of the tour. Since we weren't as interested in tasting as we were in seeing the scenery, we chose to visit Sterling Vineyards because of the tram ride.

Sterling Vineyards is located about 25 miles up the Napa Valley in the town of Calistoga. The vineyard is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.

The photo below shows the lower tram terminal and the attractive landscaping.

Below is a composite of some of the beautiful flowers we found in the gardens at Sterling Vineyards.

There is a charge of $20 for adults to ride the tram and to participate in wine tasting. We found an online coupon for $5 off (We love our satellite internet access!), so that made it a little more reasonable, especially since we weren't going to sample much wine. The next photo shows the tram car ahead of ours departing from the lower terminal.

 

We were next, and it only took a few minutes to get the top. The photo below shows Margery getting ready to enjoy the view as we took off for the top.

 

We went over a pond with a huge colony of water lilies.

 

At the top, Margery liked the sample of a not-too-dry sauvignon blanc they were pouring. The lovely view in the photo greeted us at the start of our tour of the wine-making area.

Fall is harvest time, and there isn't much going on at the wineries at this time of year. In spring, all the action is in the vineyards tending the vines. The vines had recently leafed out and small grapes are just started to form. The grapes in the photo below are less than a quarter inch in diameter.

Although the wine-making area was quiet, we still got to see the facilities from an elevated walkway where they had plaques explaining the process. First, the grapes are crushed. White grapes are then pressed, but red grapes go directly from the crusher to primary fermentation to undergo the first part of fermentation on the skins. Almost all grape juice used for wine is white, but red wine gets its color and bold, complex flavors from the skins.

From the crusher and/or press, the juice goes to the primary fermentation vats. Some wine, especially white wine, is fermented in stainless steel to preserve the light, fruity flavors.

 

Other wines, especially reds, are fermented in large oak vats to add complex flavors and to help soften any harshness.

Secondary fermentation takes place in oak barrels like the ones in the background of the photo above.

After fermentation and initial aging, the wine is bottled and aged for an additional period. Red wines are aged for a longer time than whites. Red wine that is aged properly will often continue to improve for many years after it's bottled.

From the wine-making process, the self-guided tour goes to the south terrace, which is shown in the photo below.

More wine tasting is available on the terrace. Margery sampled a second white wine, and we checked out the views. The next photo shows us on the south terrace.

 

And the next two photos show views of the surrounding vineyards.

 

From the terrace, we walked through the tasting rooms and the wine shop, then caught a tram back down to the parking area. After our visit to Sterling Vineyards, we went off in search of some new sightseeing adventures.

Sacramento, CA Part II: California Railroad Museum

In addition to being near the place where gold was discovered, Sacramento was also the starting point for the western end of the first transcontinental railroad. It is fitting that Sacramento is also the home of the California State Railroad Museum. The State Railroad Museum is a tribute to the "iron horse" and its role in connecting California to the rest of the nation. It was a "must see" recommended by a couple of Sacramento residents we met at the Stockyards in Fort Worth. Like Sutter's Fort that we wrote about in our last post, the railroad museum is run by the California State Park System.

The museum is extremely well done. There are 21 faithfully restored locomotives and rail cars on display. There are also exhibits of photos and artifacts relating to railroad history. Throughout the museum, there are many VERY WELL DONE life-like figures that help bring the stories to life. One example is the scene shown below where railroad workers are shown repairing track.

A major part of the museum is appropriately devoted to the building of the first transcontinental railroad. Theodore Judah was the chief construction engineer for the Sacramento Valley Railroad that ran 22 miles from Sacramento to Folsom. Upon completion of the line in 1855, Judah began making surveys of the mountains looking for a practical route for a railroad to connect California to the east. Having decided on a route through the infamous Donner Pass, Judah was unable to find backing in San Francisco to build the railroad, so he turned to Sacramento.

Judah contacted a group of four investors, who later became known as the Big Four, and they formed the Central Pacific Railroad in 1861. Central Pacific surveyors carefully plotted the path for the railroad. Expensive tunnels, grading, cuts, and fills were required for the route. In the photo below, Chinese laborers are depicted transporting blasting supplies. Many of the laborers for the Central Pacific were Chinese.

The next photo shows the first locomotive of the Central Pacific Railroad. It was built in 1862 in Philadelphia and had to be transported by ship around the tip of South America. The locomotive is a 4-4-0 type, meaning it has four leading wheels, four drive wheels, and no trailing wheels.

With the Civil War going on, many in California were beginning to express sympathies with the South, and there were rumblings of a secession movement. Therefore, there was an urgent need to for Washington, D. C. to establish a link with California. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act to aid in building the transcontinental railroad. The act provided funds to the railroads for each mile of track laid, plus generous grants of public lands. The railroads sold unused land at a handsome profit.

Back in the 1860s, there were several track widths in use in the country. When rail cars came to the end of one rail line, freight had to be transferred to different cars. The Pacific Railroad Act specified a gauge of 56 1/2 inches, effectively establishing a standard track width going forward for the whole country.

While the Central Pacific Railroad was laying track from Sacramento eastward, the Union Pacific Railroad was laying track westward from their starting point in Council Bluffs, IA. Although the Union Pacific started later, they ended up laying more track than the Central Pacific because of the more difficult route the Central Pacific had through the mountains. The two railroads finally met at Promontory, UT. The transcontinental railroad was opened on May 10, 1869 with the driving of the last spike.

In addition to an emphasis on the transcontinental railroad, the museum has many other historic locomotives and rail cars. The photo below shows Margery with a Nevada Central Railway 1880s narrow gauge coach.

And the next photo shows the interior of the car. Again, life-like figures help bring the scene to life.

The monster in the next photo is Locomotive No. 4294 built in 1944 for the Southern Pacific Railroad. It is an oil-fired, type 4-8-8-2 (four leading wheels, two sets of eight drive wheels, and 2 following wheels. It weighs over 1 million pounds. One of the unique features about this locomotive is it has a cab-forward design.

One of the newest locomotives on display was this Western Pacific Railroad F-7 diesel. General Motors built about 7,500 of these F-series locomotives between 1939 and 1960. When Paul was into HO-scale model railroading in the early 1960s, the F-7 was a very popular locomotive. 

Speaking of model railroading, the museum also has an excellent collection of Lionel toy trains. A few examples of the many toy trains on display are shown in the photo below.

There was also a model train layout complete with buildings, autos, lights, and even an airplane in the sky (top center just above the mountain in the background).

The California Railroad Museum is located at the eastern end of Old Sacramento, which is a collection of 53 historic buildings covering about 28 acres along the Sacramento River. This area used to be the heart of downtown Sacramento until the business district moved eastward where is is located today. The area of Old Sacramento became a rundown, neglected, high-crime area. In the 1960s, plans were set into place to redevelop the area, and many of the historic buildings were saved and restored.

We took the long way back to the car and walked around the block. The buildings now house lots of shops selling everything from toys to fine jewelry. There are also a few bars and numerous restaurants, like the Mexican restaurant on the second floor of the building in the photo below.

The next two photos show more of the buildings in Old Sacramento.

 

There was also a statue commemorating the Pony Express.

The pony Express was an express mail service that ran from St. Joseph, MO, to Sacramento. By using the Pony Express, the total time for mail to travel from coast to coast could be reduced to 10 days. The service only operated from April, 1860 to October, 1861, but it proved transcontinental travel was possible year-round. Pony Express announced its closure two days after the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed connecting Omaha and Sacramento.

After the museum and our stroll through Old Sacramento, we needed to hit a Walmart. There aren't all that many Walmarts in California, and VERY few of them are Super Walmarts. In other states, it seems like 80 to 90% of all Walmarts are Super Walmarts. In California, it's the other way around. There aren't that many Walmarts to begin with, and only about 10 to 20% are Super Walmarts. Sacramento is one of those rare locations that has a Super Walmart, so we stopped on our way back to the motor home to stock up on supplies.

From Sacramento, we backtracked a little and headed southwest to Napa, CA. We'll have more info about Napa in our next post.

Sacramento, CA Part I: Sutter's Fort

After going into San Francisco on Saturday to tour the city and on Sunday to visit Alcatraz, we drove about a hundred miles north on Monday to Sacramento where we pulled into Cal Expo RV Park. Cal Expo is the California State Fairgrounds.

Cal Expo RV Park is a paved parking lot with full-hookup sites. We had 30 amp electrical service, but 50 amp is available. The park has pull-throughs with back-ins around the perimeter. There are a few trees here and there, especially along the back. The campground was fairly quiet with little traffic noise and only an occasional, very distant train. The photo below shows our site at Cal Expo.

Sacramento is the capital of California, and it is also near the location of the discovery of gold in 1848 that started the California Gold Rush. The discovery was made by workmen during the construction of Sutter's Mill. Sutter's Mill is long gone, but there is a reconstruction of Sutter's Fort, so that's where we went. Sutter's Fort State Historic Park is administered by California State Parks.

John Sutter was born in Germany in 1803, but he was considered a Swiss citizen because his father was Swiss. When Margery learned he was Swiss (her mother was VERY Swiss), she wanted to learn more about John Sutter. He married in 1828; but in 1834 after economic hard times, Sutter left his wife, children, and debts behind in Switzerland and sailed for America.

John Sutter, whose given name was Johan, changed his name when he came to America. He traveled around the country, and even to Hawaii and Alaska, before arriving in California in 1839. California was part of Mexico at the time, and Sutter became a Mexican citizen in order to be eligible for land. He received a grant of almost 50,000 acres from the Mexican Government.

In those days, there were fewer than 1,000 Europeans in California, so Sutter built an adobe fort for protection near the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers using Native American labor. Sutter named his settlement New Helvetia (New Switzerland). Sutter's Fort is shown in the photo below.

The fort had walls that were 2 1/2 feet thick and 15 to 18 feet high. The compound was 320 feet long. For protection, there were numerous cannons like the ones in the photo below.

 

Small arms were stored in the guardhouse next to the gate.

Farming and ranching were John Sutter's primary sources of income. He grew wheat, barley, and cotton. He also had a blanket factory, a grist mill, and a bakery, which is shown in the photo below.

 

Bread was baked in a beehive oven like the one in the next photo.

 

Many travelers found temporary refuge in Sutter's Fort. Settlers for New Helvetia were sometimes recruited from the ranks of the travelers passing through. The photo below shows typical guest quarters at the fort.

Although no more than 50 people stayed inside the fort at any given time, there was also housing outside the fort for Sutter's guests and his vaqueros (cowboys). By 1845, Sutter had 1,700 horses and mules, 4,000 cattle, and 3,000 sheep, and the vaqueros helped take care of the animals.

There were several interpreters at the fort depicting life back in the 1840s. One girl was explaining early medical instruments. Medical care back then was very grim to say the least. There were few, if any, pain killers or anesthetics. She had a fairly extensive display of medical "tools," and was knowledgeable about explaining what they were used for.

 

The fellow in the next photo was a trapper. He showed examples of pelts from various animals and explained how different animals were trapped.

 

In 1848, one of the workers who was constructing a sawmill for John Sutter about 50 miles east of the fort was deepening the tailrace of the mill when he discovered gold. Sutter tried to keep the discovery secret, but word leaked out. Soon, thousands arrived in California to seek their fortune.

At first, John Sutter made lots of money selling supplies to the miners. His wife and children were finally able to join him. Eventually, however, miners began to steal from him, and his lack of business sense allowed unscrupulous men to swindle him. Eventually, he lost the fort and his nearby farm. He finally ended up settling in Lititz, PA, where he died in 1880. He wasn't exactly penniless, but he had lost his land and his dream.

 Sutter's Fort fell into disrepair, and by the 1850s, all that was left standing was the central building. The Native Sons of the West purchased the fort in 1880 and donated it to the state. The fort was reconstructed in 1891. The central building is shown in the photo below.

One may think of John Sutter as a failure because he ended up loosing his land and his fortune, but he played an important role in the history of California. His settlement paved the way for the founding of the city of Sacremento, and he helped an untold number of other pioneers, travelers, and settlers fulfill their dreams.

After our visit to Sutter's Fort, we took time for one more photo...

 

...then headed back to the motor home. There's more history in Sacramento, so look for our next post.

San Francisco Part III: Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island sits about a mile and a half north of the city of San Francisco in San Francisco Bay. The island was first discovered by the Spanish in 1775 and was named "La Isla de los Alcatraces" or The Island of the Pelicans. Alcatraz Island is commonly called just Alcatraz or sometimes The Rock.

Although Alcatraz Island has been the home of a lighthouse, a military fort, and a military prison, it is best known for the Federal prison which operated there from 1934 until 1963. The prison had, and still has, a mystique as being inescapable. The island is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is operated by the National Park Service. Alcatraz Cruises is the concessionaire that operates the ferries to the island. The photo below shows the boat we took to Alcatraz.



After a nice, sunny day for our bus and walking tour of the city on Saturday, we were blessed with another sunny day on Sunday for our tour of Alcatraz. Although it was quite windy, we enjoyed the sun and the sights as we crossed the bay on the ferry.



The next photo is a view of Alcatraz as we approached.



As we reached the island, we were greeted by the sign in the next photo.



The photo below shows the view as we were docking. The tall structure is the lighthouse, which was built in 1853 and first lit in 1854. It was the first lighthouse on the Pacific coast. The building directly below the lighthouse is what remains of the warden's house. In the foreground is the military barracks, which later became apartments for the prison employees and their families.

 

After the 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War and with the discovery of gold in California, the United States began looking at the Alcatraz Island as a possible location for gun batteries to protect San Francisco Bay. In 1853, construction of the lighthouse was started, and the Corps of Engineers began fortifying the island. Howitzers, like the one shown in the photo below were among the guns defending San Francisco against attackers who never came.

During the Civil War, there were so many advancements in armaments that the guns at Alcatraz rapidly became obsolete. Because of its isolated location, the military decided Alcatraz was better suited to detention rather than defense. A brick jailhouse was built in 1867, and Alcatraz was designated a long-term military detention facility.

Work on a three-story, concrete cellhouse began in 1909. This structure still dominates the island today. In 1934, Alcatraz became a Federal prison, and the cellhouse was updated. It wasn't the most dangerous criminals who were housed there - just the ones that were likely to be the greatest escape risk. The prison has housed such men as Al Capone, Robert Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), and George "Machine Gun" Kelly.

We watched an excellent movie on Alcatraz in the barracks building, after which we began our trek up the hill. It is about a quarter-mile walk and a climb of 130 feet from the dock to the cellhouse at the top of the hill. The building on the right is the remnants of the social hall that originally built as a post exchange and an officers' club in 1910 when the island was being used by the military. When Alcatraz became a Federal prison, the building was converted to a social hall for use by the employees and their families.

 

The next photo is another view of the social hall. It had a gymnasium, bowling alley, dance floor, and soda fountain.

We think of the tough inmates in their cells, but never realized the people who worked at the prison as guards and maintenance workers also had families who lived on the island. The workers' families rarely, if ever, even saw the prisoners.

Another surprise was the number of flowers on the island. Many of the plants are descendants of those originally planted by workers' families. Some plants survived for decades on their own after the prison closed. The Garden Conservancy has been working with the Park Service to restore the beauty of the gardens on Alcatraz Island. In the photo below, you can see some of the flowers in front of what was the military chapel. It's doubtful the chapel was used for religious services during the time Alcatraz was a Federal prison.

There were also quite a few of these calla lilies on our way up the hill.

 

The gardens in the next photo have been planted in the foundations of former employee housing.

In addition to the gardens, the Island is a popular nesting site for several species of birds including snowy egrets. cormorants, and gulls. We saw quite a few gulls like the ones in the photo below sitting on nests. In fact, a couple of areas were closed to the public because of nesting.

When the main cellhouse was completed in 1912, it was the largest reinforced-concrete building in the world. There is an audio tour of the cellhouse that, in addition to narration, also includes voices of actual former prisoners and guards. The audio tour takes about 45 minutes and was informative, but it seemed a little long. The tour includes various cells blocks, the prison kitchen, the visitation area, the dining room, and the warden's office. The photo below shows a typical three-high row of cells.

 

And the next photo shows the inside of one of the cells. Pretty grim.

 

From the top of the hill where the cellhouse is located, there is an excellent view of San Francisco. The sun was at just the right angle so you can see some streets running up some of the famous hills.

 

The fact that San Francisco was so close, but was yet out of reach was one thing that made imprisonment at Alcatraz difficult. On clear, quiet evenings, the prisoners could sometimes hear laughter and music drifting across the bay. Alcatraz was also cool and damp much of the time. Life was also hard, because Alcatraz was a no-nonsense prison with rules that were strictly enforced.

There were 14 attempts at prison breaks, but the penitentiary maintained none was ever successful. The most violent attempt was made in 1946 when six prisoners tried to escape. After the attempt went awry, a three-day battle ensued in which two guards and three prisoners were killed before the remaining inmates were subdued.

One of the best-known escape attempts occurred in 1962. Three inmates carried out an intricate escape plan that may have been up to a year in the making. The men dug through moisture-damaged concrete in the back of their cells using make-shift tools. They used the music hour in the evenings to hide the sounds of digging, and they used false walls and the dim lighting in their cells to hide their progress. They enlarged the vent openings and climbed to freedom through the ventilation system. They were never found and were presumed to have drowned, but no one really knows for sure. It's only a mile and a half to San Francisco, but the water is cold and there are treacherous currents.

From the cellhouse, we headed back on down the hill. We stopped for a photo with a guard tower in the background.

The prison was closed in 1963 because of high maintenance costs. The years of damp, salt air had taken their toll. There was also a new emphasis on rehabilitation rather than punishment, and Alcatraz didn't fit in with rehabilitation very well.

There are still two prisoners living who were transferred to other facilities upon the closing of Alcatraz. Both are now in their 80's. One will be eligible for parole in 2013 and is currently incarcerated in Ohio. The other is in a prison in Minnesota. He's eligible for release in 2075. We think their move to other prisons was a step up in their quality of life.

In 1969, the abandoned prison was taken over by a group of Native Americans from a number of different tribes who wanted educational, ecological, and cultural centers to be built on the island. The occupation lasted 18 months, during which time the warden's house, the social hall, and several other buildings were damaged by fire. The Indians never got permanent possession of the island, but a new policy of self-determination was established. They also got publicity and awareness of many Native American issues.

We caught the next ferry back to San Francisco and headed back to the motor home. It was a busy, but interesting visit San Francisco and the surrounding area.

San Francisco Part I: Guided Tour

One of the main things we wanted to do while staying in Pleasanton was to visit San Francisco. We're not fond of big cities and usually try to avoid them, but San Francisco has charming features like the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Victorian houses, so we didn't want to be this close and pass it up. We did, however, tour the surrounding area during the week and save the city for the weekend to try to avoid as much traffic as possible.

We usually like to start with a guided tour of a new city. We can get an overview, some history, and learn where things are located. Margery's online research turned up dozens of tours from quick one-hour tours to all-day tours. We chose a double-decker bus tour that provided hop-off, hop-on privileges so we could do a little exploring on our own on foot. One reason we chose the double-decker bus is so we could get a better view from higher up. Although we were happy with our tour, one thing to remember when scheduling a tour is a smaller mini-bus can sometimes get to locations a larger bus can't. The photo below shows one of the double-decker buses.



The tour company has a pick-up service if you're staying at a downtown hotel, but since we were obviously staying outside town, we could start our tour at any of the regular stops. We chose the stop in the heart of downtown at Union Square. Even though this is the high-priced shopping district, our online research showed the parking garage right under the square was fairly reasonably priced, at least on the weekend. A majority of parking (especially in the tourist areas) was $2 for 20 minutes, or $6 an hour (with a maximum of $30/day). We found a "bargain" at $21 for all day at the Union Square garage.

From Union Square, the bus headed toward the financial district where most of the tall buildings are located. One of the first things we saw after the bus departed was one of San Francisco's ubiquitous cable cars.

 

San Francisco is famous for its cable cars, and we saw quite a few while on our tour. Andrew Hallidie opened the first cable car line in 1873. Cable cars run on a system of cables that travel underground at a constant speed of 9 1/2 miles per hour. The gripman operates a lever that extends from the car down through a slot in the street to grab the cable and propel the car. Cable cars are very effective at navigating up and down the steep hills for which San Francisco is so famous.

After the 1906 earthquake destroyed cable car power houses and many cable cars themselves, most of the cable car lines were replaced with electric streetcars, which were a lot cheaper to build and operate. Cable cars were retained only on the steepest hills. Over the years as the climbing ability of buses improved, more and more cable cars were replaced. Incidentally, the transit buses in San Francisco are electric rather than diesel. That helps reduce pollution and smog in the city, but there were numerous times the maze of overhead wires intruded on our views from the upper deck of our tour bus.

Cable car service was almost discontinued several times, but the historical value of the cable cars was finally recognized, and there were efforts to save the cable cars. There have been several rebuilding projects, and there are three cable car lines still operating.

The most recognizable building in San Francisco is the Transamerica Pyramid located in the financial district. At 853 feet and 43 floors, it is the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi.



From the financial district, the bus went past Chinatown. We caught a glimpse of Chinatown Gate shown in the photo below. We later walked through part of Chinatown, and we'll have more about Chinatown in our next post.

From Chinatown, the bus swung east, then northwest along the waterfront. Many of the docks are no longer used for shipping because of the the advent of container shipping. Container shipping requires large, overhead cranes to unload the ships rather than smaller cranes and warehouses to sort and store cargo. Consequently, new docks were built elsewhere, and much of the old dock region has been converted to a tourist area.

There are, however, numerous ferries that use the docks. The ferries travel to various locations across the bay. One of the ferries, which is shown in the photo below, takes tours to Alcatraz. We'll have more about Alcatraz in a future post.

 

After the waterfront, the tour headed west through the city toward the Golden Gate Bridge. On the way, we passed the Palace of Fine Arts, which is shown in the next photo. The building was originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.

 

As we headed across the Golden Gate Bridge, we could see a little fog rolling over the tops of the towers. It was a little chilly and windy on the top deck of the bus, but at least the sun was out.

 

We were happy to have better weather around the San Francisco area instead of the cool, foggy, cloudy weather we had down around Morro Bay, Monterey, and Big Sur. It was still cool in San Francisco - the closer you get to the Pacific, the cooler it gets. It was in the upper 50s at the bridge and overlooks, mid-60s in the city, and 75 to 80 degrees in Pleasanton, San Jose, and Silicon Valley. It was sunny most of the time inland, but we could see fog in the mornings to the west. It usually cleared by mid-morning. We're especially grateful it was clear the day we took our city tour.

The next photo is the Golden Gate Bridge from the pull-off just past the northern end. It is a little different view than we got a couple of days earlier from the overlook high above on top of the hill to the right.

 

After a short stop for photos at the pull-off, the bus headed back across the bridge. Back in the city, the tour went through a neighborhood called Alamo Square. Painted Ladies is a name given to Victorian and Edwardian houses that are painted bright colors. There are several Painted Ladies in a row in Alamo Square that are quite well known and much-photographed. They are shown in the photo below with the city in the background.

 

San Francisco is well-known for its Victorian and Edwardian houses. As many as 48,000 were built between 1849 and about 1915. Many have been torn down, and many were destroyed by the 1906 earthquake or the three days of fires that followed. Although they were fairly inexpensive to build, they are very expensive to maintain. Many of the wooden exteriors were covered by stucco in recent years to reduce maintenance costs. The next photo shows more examples of Painted Ladies with the original wood exteriors.

Before returning to our starting point at Union Square, the tour passed City Hall. The present building was opened in 1915 and replaced one that was completely destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. City Hall is immense and covers 500,000 square feet and occupies two city blocks. The dome is the fifth largest in the world and is 14 inches taller than the one on the United States Capitol.

From City Hall is was a short distance back to Union Square where we started our guided bus tour. As we said, our bus tour had hop-off, hop-on privlidges, and we did take advantage of that. In the next post, we'll tell you about where we got off and about some of the things we saw while on foot.

Sausalito, CA

Sausalito, CA, is a small town on San Francisco Bay just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. We wanted to avoid the city of San Francisco during the week because of the traffic, so we approached Sausalito from the north. The distance was a little farther than going through the city, but the time was about the same, especially with the potential for heavy traffic in the city.

Just north of Sausalito in Kappas Marina and Waldo Point Harbor is a floating community of about 400 houseboats, some of which are shown in the photo below.

The houseboat community got its start in the late 1940s at the end of WWII. During the war, a large portion of the Sausalito waterfront was turned into shipyards to build Liberty Ships (more about the shipyards later). After the war, portions of the waterfront were sold off, primarily for the purposes of salvaging equipment and material.

In the 1950s, "beatniks" began to occupy abandoned barges and buildings. San Francisco was a favorite destination of hippies in the '60s and '70s, so the inhabitants of the houseboat community grew even more rapidly during that time. There was no zoning on the waterfront, so they built whatever they wanted from whatever materials they could round up.

By the '70s, the alternative community began to clash the wealthy residents who lived on the hill above the bay and with with governmental regulations primarily brought about by environmental concerns around the bay. In the '70s and '80s, the houseboat area underwent a rebuilding and transformation that led to the eclectic mix of styles that exist there today.

The houseboats range from luxurious to marginally habitable. There are a few like the one in the photo below. It's hard to see in the photo, but the barge it's sitting on is all rusted out. It probably won't be floating very much longer.

 

A little farther south of the houseboats is a model of the San Francisco Bay built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s to test a plan to dam the bay. The model covers one and one half acres, holds 180,000 gallons of water, and mimics the tides and currents of the bay. The idea for the dam died, but the model was subsequently used to study oil spills, pollution, the mixing of salt and fresh water, and various dredging and filling projects. Although computers are used for these types of studies today, the physical model has been maintained as an educational and teaching tool.

On the way to the viewing area for the model, there are displays about the ecology of the bay. These include a display of how the water from snow melt in the Sierra Nevada Mountains flows down to the bay. The water that flows from the mountains is carried to the bay by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Approximately 40% of the area of California drains into San Francisco Bay. In the photo below, Margery is pointing out the San Joaquin river.

 

There is a high overlook area where you can see the main part of the model from a height equivalent to flying in a plane at 12,000 feet. You can also walk down and stand at the edge of the water. The photo below shows a portion of the bay model from the water's edge.

San Francisco Bay is actually a series of interconnected bays. The Sacramento and San Jaoquin Rivers flow into Suisun Bay to the east. Honker and Grizzly Bays branch off Suisun Bay. San Pablo Bay lies to the north of the Golden Gate, and South Bay is obviously to the south.

The main part of the San Francisco Bay is 3 to 12 miles wide east to west and between 48 and 60 miles long north to south and covers about 400 square miles. Various other estuaries, river deltas, and wetlands associated with the bay cover even more area. Consequently, the model is huge. You can't see all of it from one location. It has a horizontal scale of 1 foot equals 1,000 feet, but the vertical scale is exaggerated at 1 foot equals 100 feet to better see differences in depth. The model goes through a complete tide cycle every 14.9 minutes.

San Francisco Bay has an average depth of less than 18 feet, although there are many deeper channels. The deepest part of the bay is right at the Golden Gate Bridge where the depth is 300 feet. An average of 390 billion gallons of seawater flows through the Golden Gate with each outgoing and incoming tide. There are two high and two low tides a day.

The bay used to be navigable as far south as San Jose, but hydraulic mining for gold in the 1850s brought tons of sediment down from the mountains. Much of the sediment settled in the South Bay where there is little current.

There are also areas around the model where you can go down so the water is at about waist level. Paul is standing at such a location and pointing out the Golden Gate Bridge in the photo below.

 

The model of San Francisco Bay is built on a site that was part of the shipyards we mentioned earlier. There is a museum in a corner of the building that houses the bay model dedicated to shipbuilding during WWII along the shore of the bay in this area. A company called Marinship was formed to bid on government contracts to build Liberty Ships, which were cargo ships, and tankers. In the photo below, Margery is checking out one of the displays in the shipyard museum.

 

The keel of the first ship was laid only 91 days after the start of construction of the shipyard. In a newsreel-type film shown at the museum, one ship was sliding into the water being launched as a crane simultaneously swung the first steel into place for the keel of the next ship. At the peak, 20,000 workers were employed at Marinship. Marinship built a total of 93 Liberty Ships, oilers, and tankers from June, 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.

On our way out of the museum we stopped at the Corps of Engineers dock along the bay. One of the tasks of the Corps of Engineers is keeping the bay free from floating debris. They have a boat with a large conveyor and a boom with a claw to pick up floating objects.

From the model of the bay, it was only a few minutes farther south to the town of Sausalito. In the mid-1800s, boats could easily reach Sausalito from San Francisco, but wagons had to make the arduous journey all the way around the northern part of the bay. Consequently, Sausalito was generally dominated by two diverse groups who had access to boats - commercial fishermen and wealthy yacht owners. In the late 1800s, the North Pacific Railroad extended its tracks southward to Sausalito, and a ferry across to San Francisco was established.

In 1926, a major auto ferry connected San Francisco and Sausalito, and long lines of cars waiting for the ferry were commonplace. During Prohibition, Sausalito became a major distribution point for illegal booze brought in from Canada.

Sausalito has long attracted artists, writers, and the wealthy. William Randolph Hearst lived here in the early 1900s before he built Hearst Castle in San Simeon to the south. Today, because Sausalito is right at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, it is a popular tourist destination. There are small hotels, restaurants and open-air cafes, high-end shops, and picturesque views of San Francisco from the marinas along the bay. We walked along the bay and around the square where Margery and Molly enjoyed the views.

 

As we said, Sausalito is only a short distance north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The headlands on the north side of the Golden Gate are part of a National Recreation Area, so we drove a little farther south of Sausalito and up to the top of the hill where we could see the bridge.

 

Incidentally, the Golden Gate Bridge has never been painted gold. The bridge gets its name form the Golden Gate, which is the name of the opening across which the bridge is built.

Although the idea for a bridge was not new, the first practical plan took shape in 1916. It took more than a decade to drum up support for the project and to raise funding. There were those who said the bridge could not be built because of the great depth of the water and because of the strong currents. The California Legislature approved the bridge in 1928, but the Stock Market crash of 1929 put the project on hold until a backer for a bond measure could be found. Construction finally started in 1933 and was completed in 1937.

The total length of the bridge is 1.7 miles. The length of the center span is 4,200 feet. When it was built, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world, but it has since been surpassed by 8 other bridges. The center span is still the second longest main span surpassed only by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. Based on average high tide level, the clearance under the bridge is 220 feet, and the tops of the towers are 476 feet above the water.

San Francisco is a major seaport. Container shipping has all but replaced bulk cargo, and there were several container ships like the one in the photo below sailing into the bay while we were at the overlook.

 

There was another overlook near the one where we stopped first. The second overlook is on the site of Battery Spencer, which was part of Fort Baker. Fort Baker, along with the Presidio at the south end of the bridge and Alcatraz Island, was an important part of the defense of San Francisco Bay from the late 1800s until the 1940s. Construction of Battery Spencer was started in 1893 and completed in 1897. The photo below shows some of the remaining buildings at Battery Spencer. The circular foundation to the left was for one of three 12-inch, breech-loading guns at Battery Spencer. The last gun was removed in 1943, and Fort Baker was closed in 2000.

 

The next photo is the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Battery Spencer. San Francisco is visible through the vertical bridge supports to the left.

 

It was a little late in the day, and headed back to the motor home by the northern route rather than drive through the city at the beginning of rush hour. We still hit some rush-hour traffic going through Oakland, but we finally made it back to the motor home. We're really glad we don't have to fight traffic like that every day. After a good night's rest and a day off to catch up on some grocery shopping and chores, we were off on another adventure. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Silicon Valley Part II: Computer History Museum

From the Intel Museum, we headed along Silicon Valley to Mountain View, CA to the Computer History Museum. The Computer History Museum is dedicated to preserving the artifacts and history of the Information Age. It has the largest collection of computer-related artifacts in the world. The collection includes hardware, software, photographs, movies and videos, and documents. Admission is free, but donations are accepted.

The Intel Museum traced the company history, which is closely linked to personal computers. The Computer History Museum, on the other hand, looks at the history of all computers from the earliest roots in mechanical devices such as the abacus, mechanical adding machines, and slide rules. The photo below shows a collection of slide rules.

 

Finding slide rules in the museum made Paul feel a little old because he started his engineering career using a slide rule. He remembers having one hanging from his belt as he went to engineering classes in college, and he used one for the first few years of work until electronic calculators became available.

The star of the museum was an early mechanical computer first proposed by British mathematician and engineer Charles Babbage in 1822. Logarithmic and trigonometric tables were used in many mathematical calculations, and Charles Babbage was dismayed at errors he found in mathematical tables of his day. He proposed a mechanical device that would calculate the numbers that appeared in the tables by solving polynomial equations using finite differences.

Although the British government originally funded building the machine, funding was withdrawn when Babbage asked for more money without having made any apparent progress. In reality, he did make some progress, but the real problem was the degree of machining accuracy he needed wasn't available at the time.

In the late 1840s, Babbage proposed a design for a simpler machine, which he called Difference Engine No. 2, but he could not obtain funding and nothing was ever built during his lifetime. In 1989, London Science Museum built a Difference Engine No. 2 to Babbage's design, and with a little debugging, the machine worked. In 2000, the printer section of the machine was completed.

The Computer History Museum has a duplicate Babbage Difference Engine No. 2 on temporary loan. This duplicate machine was built by the London Science Museum for a private collector in the United States. It was this private collector who funded completing the printer section for the machine at the London Science Museum in exchange for building a duplicate machine for him. The cost of the machine wasn't disclosed, but the museum had to insure it for $4 million when it was shipped to them. The Babbage Differential Engine No. 2 is shown in the photo below.

 

We were fortunate to be there for a demonstration of the machine. The Babbage Difference Engine No. 2 is made from steel, bronze and cast iron. It weighs an estimated five tons and has over 8,000 parts. The machine is powered by a hand crank, which turns a series of cams, gears, and levers. Paul was fascinated watching the gears turn and clank up and down as the machine went through its calculations. The results can be read from the last column of wheels. The machine can also print the results on a paper roll and can make an impression of the results into wet plaster. The purpose of the plaster impression was to make a mold to cast a lead printing plate to eliminate any transcription or typographical errors that Babbage was so concerned about.

Another computer-like device developed at the end of WWI was the Enigma machine used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages. The Enigma was an electro-mechanical device that was used by the military in several countries, most notably the Nazis during WWII. Allied forces were able to capture a machine and decrypt a vast number of Nazi messages. An Enigma machine is shown below.

One of the first general purpose computers was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer). It was designed to calculate firing tables for WWII artillery, but it wasn't completed until after the end of the war. The ENIAC had almost 18,000 vacuum tubes, occupied 680 square feet of space, and used enough power for 50 homes. The ENIAC could perform about 5,000 operations per second, but it had to be rewired for each new job. For comparison, the Intel 8088 microprocessor we saw at the Intel museum is capable of up to 1 million operations per second.

The SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) computer was developed by IBM for the Air Force during the Cold War. The SAGE had over 50,000 vacuum tubes, weighed 250 tons, and occupied an acre of floor space. There were 27 SAGE computer installations throughout North America. Because of the unreliability of a device with that many vacuum tubes, there were two complete SAGE computers at each installation. The computers were used to monitor radar, to track and report any possible enemy intrusion, and to direct defensive action. Fortunately, we never came under enemy attack because several experts doubt the SAGE would have really been that effective in tracking them. The photo below shows only a small part of a SAGE computer. The racks behind the console are filled with rows and rows of vacuum tubes.

 

Computers continued to grow in power, capability, and usefulness. Up until the mid-1960s, the problem with computers was they all used unique components. The components from one line of computers to another line, even by the same manufacturer, were not interchangeable. The IBM System/360 computer, announced in 1964, attempted to remedy all that. The System/360 consisted of a family of 6 mutually compatible computers and 40 peripherals that would all work together. This meant if a company wanted to upgrade, they wouldn't have to scrap everything and start over. A System/360 computer is shown in the next photo.

 

As all those high-powered mainframe computers were being developed, Digital Equipment Company introduced what was considered a mini-computer in 1965. Although it was called a mini-computer, it wasn't very small by today's standards. At $18,000, however, it was one fifth the cost of an IBM 360 mainframe. The relatively reasonable price allowed small businesses, manufacturing plants, and scientific labs to buy a computer.

The size and price of computers continued to fall. In 1971, what was considered by many to be the first commercial personal computer, the Kenbak-1, went on sale for $750. This was before the microprocessor was readily available, and the Kenbak-1 used a series of discrete chips. Input was by means of a series of switches and buttons and output was a series of lights. Only about 40 were sold.

Much of the early work with so-called personal computers like the Kenbak-1 was done by hobbyists, or geeks as they are called today. In 1976, Steve Wozniak showed his prototype Apple 1 computer to his friends at the Homebrew Computer Club. For $666.66, you got a kit, but you had to supply your own case, power supply, and display. Steve Wozniak and his high school friend, Steve Jobs, went into small-scale production when a local computer shop ordered 50 of the computers. An Apple 1 is shown in the photo below. It's hard to see in the photo, but Steve Wozniak has signed "Woz" at the top of the wooden case.

 

The Computer Museum also has a vast array of personal computers from the late 70s through the 80s and 90s on display. They also have examples of other devices such as the first computer mouse shown in the photo below. The first mouse was designed in 1964 and was encased in a block of wood. It only had only one button. The other mouse is a little later model by Logitech with the more-familiar three buttons.

 

As an example of how the size of computers has shrunk, the large metal disc in the photo below is about three feet in diameter and is a 10-megabyte hard disc platter from 1974. The white rectangle in the very center is a 1 gigabyte micro drive. One gigabyte equals 1,000 megabytes, so the micro drive holds 100 times as much data as the large, 10-megabyte disc.

 

While the Intel museum was fascinating because it related to more-familiar personal computers, the Computer History Museum was also interesting because we were able to learn more about the history of other forms of computing.

Since it was mid-afternoon by the time we had seen the Computer History Museum and we hadn't had anything for lunch, we decided to drive up toward the southern part of San Francisco to check out Joe's Cable Car Restaurant. We definitely wanted to visit San Francisco, but we were waiting until the weekend so we would have an easier time parking downtown and so we wouldn't have to battle traffic. But since Joe's is in the southern outskirts of town and since we weren't that far away, we thought it might be a good time to go. The photo below shows the outside of Joe's.

We had recently seen a story about Joe's on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Joe's features hamburgers made from fresh (never Frozen) chuck that is ground on-site daily. The chuck is hand-trimmed to about 94 to 96% lean. The next photo shows the cook trimming chuck prior to grinding.

We both had 4 ounce burgers, and Paul had his with American cheese. It's amazing how big a 4 ounce burger is with honest weights and with the small amount of shrinkage you get with lean meat. The next photo shows Paul ready to enjoy his burger.

 

The hamburgers at Joe's aren't cheap. The starting price is $10 for a 4 ounce burger and it goes up from there with fancy toppings (including four or five types of cheese, mushrooms, bacon, avocado, etc.) and larger sizes of 6 and 8 ounces. It was the most we have ever spent for a hamburger meal, but they were probably the best burgers we have ever had. We always like the burgers at Red Robin - theirs have fabulous toppings; but at Joe's, it's all about the meat.

We managed to sneak around traffic and make it back to the motor home without too much delay. As we said, San Francisco was scheduled for the weekend, but our next excursion was to the north of the city.

Silicon Valley Part I: Intel Museum

While we were staying in Pleasanton, CA, we decided to pay a visit to Silicon Valley, which was only about 40 minutes away. Silicon Valley is the area of California around the southern end of San Francisco Bay. It includes cities like Stanford, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Santa Clara, and San Jose. It gets its name from the fact that many silicon chip manufacturing and computer-related companies are located in the area.

William Shockley was a co-inventor of the transistor while working at Bell Labs after WWII. The goal was to replace expensive, fragile vacuum tubes. Shockley broke away from Bell Labs in the early 1950s and returned to his native California, settled in Mountain View, and founded Shockley Semiconductors in an effort to commercialize the transistor. A history of Naval research in the San Francisco Bay area and the presence of universities such as Stanford and the University of California were also instrumental in the development of the semiconductor and high-tech industries in the area.

Many of the early semiconductor companies spawned new companies. For example, Robert Noyce worked at Shockley Semiconductor. In 1957, Noyce left Shockley and co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor. Gordon Moore also worked for Shockley, and left to join Noyce at Fairchild. In 1968, both Noyce and Moore left Fairchild and co-founded Intel.

Intel headquarters are located in Santa Clara, CA. The name comes from Integrated Electronics Co. Intel has a free museum at their headquarters, so we stopped for a visit. The photo below shows us in front of the main building on the Intel campus.



Intel is the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer. Intel microprocessors are found in many personal computers and other electronic devices. Intel also makes memory chips, graphic chips, network cards, and a variety of other embedded processors.

The girl behind the counter at the museum offered us a guided tour, so we took her up on it. This gave us a good overview, then we had time afterward to go back and look at some of the displays in more detail. One of the first displays gave information on Intel's founders, Robert Noyce (left) and Gordon Moore.



Gordon Moore is the author of Moore's Law, first published in 1965. Moore's Law states the number of semiconductors that could be economically placed on a chip would double every two years. This has held true since it was first published 44 years ago. In fact, they're doing a little better than that. The number of transistors on a chip is now doubling about every 15 to 18 months.

Intel's first microprocessor was the 4004. In 1969, a Japanese company originally hired Intel to design 12 custom chips for a calculator, but Intel ended up being able to combine everything into only four chips, one of which was the 4004 multi-purpose chip. Intel refunded the fee they were paid for the development of the chips and instead retained the rights to the design of the 4004 chip. The photo below shows an enlarged model of the 4004 chip and one of the calculators in which the chip was originally used.



Microprocessors eventually led to the development of the personal computer. Personal computers were initially built by hobbyists (people we call geeks today), but initially didn't have enough computing power to be of much practical use. Interest in personal computers, however, really began to grow with the introduction of the 8086/8088 microprocessor in 1979. In 1982, the more powerful i286 (officially known as the 80286) processor was introduced, followed by the i386 in 1985-6, and the i486 in 1989. The 8088 could perform up to 1 million instructions per second. The 486 had more than a million transistors and could perform up to 41 million instructions a second.

When the courts disallowed the trademarking of numerical names such as the i386 and 486, the microprocessor that would have been the 586 was introduced in 1993 with the name Pentuim (penta means five in Greek). The first Pentium microprocessors had 3.1 million transistors and provided much faster performance as well as speech recognition and video capability.

The Intel Museum had a section on how the chips are made. Intel purchases silicon wafers that are made by putting a seed crystal of silicon into a bath of high-purity, molten silicon. The seed is then slowly pulled out and the molten silicon forms a cylindrical ingot as it cools like the one shown below, except usually three to four times longer.

 

The ingot is then ground to a uniform diameter of 12 inches and sliced into discs. Polished discs like the one to the right in the photo above are then shipped to Intel. Intel produces numerous chips on each disc by depositing layers of oxide coatings on the disc. Each oxide layers is etched by using a photo resist to create the desired patterns and an acid etch to remove portions of the oxide coating. The multiple, etched layers of the chips include metal layers to conduct electricity between the oxide layers. All this processing takes place in an ultra-clean room. Technicians must wear "bunny suits" like those shown in the next photo.

 

The Intel museum also had demonstrations showing some of the basics of how computers work. Computers use binary code, which is made up of two electrical signals - on and off. Binary code is made up of series of ones to signify on and zeros to signify off. In the photo below, Margery has just successfully spelled her name in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Exchange) code.

 

There are also demonstrations of some of the uses for Intel microprocessors. In the next photo, weather conditions for the entire world are being projected into the inside of a rotating globe.

 

And in the next photo, the robot is showing its capability of speech recognition as Margery asks it questions.

 

The Intel Museum has a lot of interesting displays about microprocessors. It is especially appealing for anyone who uses a personal computer either at work or at home.

We have more to see in Silicon Valley. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

San Jose, CA: Winchester Mystery House

We had a short drive to our next stop in Pleasanton, CA, and we pulled into the Alameda County Fairgrounds a little after noon. Alameda County Fairgrounds Campground has full hookups including free Wi-Fi. The photo below shows our site at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.

Roads are paved and sites are a mixture of gravel and dirt. Actually, the material on the sites looked more like ground up, reclaimed asphalt paving material, so it really was pretty dirty. Sites are narrow as with most fairgrounds, but the campground was less than half filled when we were there, and most sites had an empty space between.

Pleasanton is a little over half an hour from San Jose, and the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose turned up in our research of things to see in the area. Sarah Winchester began construction of the house in 1884 upon the death of her husband William Wirt Winchester. Sarah Winchester was the wealthy heiress of the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune. Carpenters and craftsmen worked on the house continuously (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) for 38 years until the widow's death. The house has so many strange design features, it became known as the Mystery House.

The house is Queen Anne Victorian mansion with approximately 160 rooms. The photo below shows the front of the house.

 

Indoor toilets, push-button gas lights, forced-air heating, three elevators (two hydraulic and one electric), and an indoor shower with heated water are some of the conveniences in the house that were rare for the time. The cost of the 38-year building project is estimated at $5.5 million. This is the equivalent of about $70 million today. The reason Mrs. Winchester was able to afford to build such an extravagant house with all those modern conveniences was she inherited about $20 million cash plus a 50% interest in the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. when her husband died. This provided her with an income of approximately $1,000 per day (equivalent to about $21,000 a day today).

At Winchester House, you can take a guided house tour that also includes a self-guided tour of the gardens and out buildings. You can also take a behind-the-scenes tour that takes you into some of the rooms and out buildings that are not accessible on the regular tour. The basement is also included with the behind-the-scenes tour. We opted for the combo tour that included everything.

Mrs. Winchester became so distraught after the death of her husband that she consulted with a medium. The psychic is rumored to have told Mrs. Winchester the family was cursed because of all the people killed by her husband's rifles, and that Mrs. Winchester should build a house for herself and all the spirits who had died. The psychic also told her she should never stop building.

When we started the tour, we quickly realized there was no master plan for the house. Rooms seem to have been added on a whim. Later room additions block windows and doors from rooms that were built previously. The photo below shows a stairway to nowhere. You can see the joists of the floor above running across the top of the stairway.

And the next photo is a door to nowhere. It exits the house about 12 feet above the ground.

The house rambles on so much some servants had to have maps so they wouldn't get lost. In the next photo taken from an upper-story balcony, you can see many of the roofs, angles, and skylights at various levels and running in all directions.

Some say Mrs. Winchester built the house with so many rooms and passages and with doors and windows that went nowhere to confuse the angry spirits from the people who died because of her husband's guns. The more likely explanation is she closely controlled all the design and construction, but she didn't really know much about the mechanics of it. If something didn't work out, she simply had the workmen build around it rather than ripping it out and correcting the problem. Unlike William Randolph Hearst, Sarah Winchester did not have an architect to make plans and drawings and to do the engineering. There were never any plans or drawings for Winchester House, only sketches sometimes done on tablecloths.

The house started out as eight-room farm house that was under construction. Mrs. Winchester bought the property. The house and the barn of that original farm house were quickly and completely absorbed into her mansion.

Winchester House was taller at one time, but an earthquake in 1906 brought down the seven-story tower. The house has only four stories today. Several rooms in the front of the house were damaged when the tower fell, so Mrs. Winchester had the workmen close off all the damaged rooms rather than repair them.

The house has approximately 160 rooms, but the exact number is uncertain. The floor plan is so confusing, every time a count is taken, the number comes up different. There are 47 fireplaces, approximately 40 bedrooms, 5 or 6 kitchens, and two ballrooms (one was never completed). The house is 24,000 square feet and takes over 20,000 gallons of paint to paint the outside of the entire structure.

Today, there isn't much furniture in the house and none of it is original. When Mrs. Winchester died in 1922, she left the furniture to her niece, who lived in the house with her as a companion and assistant. The Winchesters only had one child - a daughter who died in 1866 when she was only a few weeks old. The niece kept what furniture she wanted and sold the rest. They hauled away eight truck-loads of furniture and personal belongings a day for six and a half weeks before the house was empty.

One of the features Mrs. Winchester included in her house were plenty of Tiffany stained-glass windows. There is a storage room in what used to be the barn of the original farm house where numerous stained glass windows and doors are on display.

 

Mrs. Winchester's bedroom is shown in the next photo. She died in this room in 1922 at the age of 83.

The next photo shows the conservatory. The floor under the wood decking is galvanized to resist rust. Flower pots would be placed on the floor to be watered from a hose. The water would run across the floor, which had a slight slope, and run out into the garden to water some of the plants there.

 

Even though Sarah Winchester never had any guests, the house had two ballrooms, and the photo below shows the one that is finished. It has doweled paneling, a carved ceiling, and a chandelier imported from Germany. The chandelier has 13 candles on it. Thirteen was Mrs. Winchester's favorite number and it is used frequently throughout the house.

 

The tour of the house takes over an hour and covers about a mile of rooms, hallways, passages, and stairs. Following the house tour, we went on the behind-the-scenes tour. The tour took us into several of the out buildings and to a few rooms of the house that we didn't see on the regular house tour. Then the tour went to one of the two basements. The basement is low and we had to wear hard hats.

The next photo shows the coal-fired boiler that was used to heat the house.

 

After the behind-the-scenes tour, we spent a little time strolling around the garden. Although there were many beautiful flowers, we particularly liked the lace cap hydrangeas.

 

We have more to see in the area, but it was getting a little late, so we headed back to the motor home. Look for our next post to see what else we were up to.

Pinnacles National Monument

We finally got tired of the cold, foggy, cloudy, dreary weather along the coast, so we abandoned our idea of taking the 17-mile scenic drive around Monterey Peninsula and started to look for something else to do inland in hope of finding some warmer, sunnier weather. Margery found a writeup about Pinnacles National Monument in one of the travel brochures we picked up. Going to Pinnacles would take us about an hour southeast of where we were staying and pretty far inland, so that's what we decided to do.

Pinnacles National Monument is located right along the San Andreas Fault and is the remnant of an ancient volcano. There are rocky crags, spires, and peaks that are quite different in appearance from the surrounding landscape. The photo below is the main feature of the national monument called the High Peaks.



The Pacific and North American Plates grind past each other along the San Andreas Fault. The Pacific Plate on the western side of the fault is moving to the north and the North American Plate is moving west and diving under the Pacific Plate. The reason the area at Pinnacles National Monument doesn't resemble the surrounding landscape is that it came from an area about 195 miles to the southeast.

The remnants of the ancient volcano that sat astride the fault was split by the fault, and about two thirds of it moved north with the Pacific Plate to its present location. The rest of the volcano still sits down near Los Angeles and is called the Neenach Formation. On its journey north, the Pinnacles portion of the volcano sank below the surface. It was eventually exposed again by erosion.

Pinnacles National Monument has a western entrance and an eastern entrance, but the roads do not connect in the middle. We chose the eastern entrance even though it was a little farther because the visitor center is on the eastern side and there are more hiking trails on the eastern side.

You need to hike in Pinnacles National Monument to be able to see its features. From the day use area, you can get see High Peaks, but it isn't a very good view. You need to hike at least part way up the trail to get a better view of the Peaks, or to see any other feature in Pinnacles such as the caves or the formation called The Balconies. We chose to hike the Condor Gulch Trail from the Day Use Area to an overlook at the base of the High Peaks because the trail provides good views of the Peaks on the way up. The photo below shows Margery at the start of the trail with High Peaks in the background.



It is about a mile up Condor Gulch Trail to the overlook with a climb of about 500 feet. The next photo is from about half way to the overlook.



It was interesting to get closer to the peaks and see the rock formations from different angles. The photo below is a different part of the formation and was taken from a spot close to the overlook.

We finally made it to the overlook where we could look back down into the valley and see the switchbacks we just ascended.



Looking up from the overlook we could see the High Peaks, which were still almost another 1000 feet higher.



For those with more time, more energy, and who were in better shape, you can continue to hike all the way up to and around the High Peaks. We were already tired and hot (yes, we finally found temperatures warm enough to make us sweat), so we headed back down after a brief rest.

Back in the parking area, we saw a Stellar's jay...



...and an acorn woodpecker.



We had lunch under a tree in the parking area, then headed back to the motor home. However, we took a slightly circuituous route and traveled a few miles out of our way to the north to stop by the headquarters of Goldsmith Seeds in Gilroy, CA. Goldsmith Seeds is a multi-national plant breeder and seed producer.



We read about the demonstration garden they had at their headquarters, so we though we would stop by to check it out. It was a little early in the season and not all the beds were planted yet, but they did have quite a few plantings of more cold-tolerant varieties such as snapdragons and dianthus. The photo below shows some of the beds that were in bloom.



There were some impatiens under the protection of a pergola.



There were also numerous rows of different varieties of plants in containers.



The field next to the garden also had some newly-planted flowers that were already starting to bloom.



We left Goldsmith Seeds and headed back to the motor home. As we made our way back, we could see the cloud/fog bank from the ocean to the west. The temperature dropped about five degrees from Pinnacles to Gilroy and another ten degrees from Gilroy to the motor home. We had the next day to chill out (literally and figuratively), then we were on our way to our next stop.

Big Sur, CA

As we said at the end of our last post, there were a few bright spots in the sky after we finished our visit to Monterey State Historic Park. We still wanted to take a scenic drive around the Monterey Peninsula past Pebble Beach, but the road that makes that loop is a private toll road that charges $9.25 per vehicle. Since we had to "pay to play," we wanted to do it in the best possible weather. Since it still wasn't really that sunny, we decided to head down Highway 1 toward Big Sur instead. The last time we tried that from where we were staying in Morro Bay to the south, we got fogged out.

Big Sur is the name given to an area of the coast that runs approximately from the Carmel River in the north to about about 10 or 12 miles north of San Simeon in the south. The name comes from Spanish el sur grande, "the big south" or el pais grande del sur, "the big country of the south." The photo below shows Carmel River State Beach, which is at the approximate northern edge of Big Sur country.

The sun was shining big time at the beach. However, you can see the fog in the distance sitting over the end of Monterey Peninsula at the left of the above photo. It was also pretty foggy/cloudy to the south, but we pressed on.

Just a little to the south of Carmel River Beach is Carmel Highlands. Carmel Highlands has some of the most expensive real estate in the United States. Many celebrities have homes or vacation homes here. There were at least four homes that we saw that were for sale for anyone who might be interested in a coastal investment.

We saw gated driveways leading to cliff-side homes, but the homes themselves were difficult to see. We caught a glimpse of the one in the next photo through the trees from a small pull-off. The house was stuck right on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean. The stone house and surrounding walls almost looked like they were part of the cliff.

We saw the house above when we originally pulled off to get a look at the rocks in the next photo.

Off and on, there were some spots of hazy sun. However, there always seemed to be a fog bank visible somewhere like the one in the next photo rolling over the top of mountain to the left.

 

The next photo shows the shoreline in the vicinity of the Bixby Canyon Bridge, about 12 miles south of Carmel River Beach. This is a famous part of Big Sur and it has been used in commercials, ads, TV shows, and movies.

Big Sur is also the name of a small settlement on California Highway 1 along the central California coast. The town of Big Sur is near Andrew Molera State Park and Los Padres National Forest, so there are plenty of big trees in the area. Camping and hiking are popular activities in Big Sur. The little town has several campgrounds, a couple of rustic motels, a gas station or two, a few restaurants, and few stores selling souvenirs and camping supplies, a school, and a church. There is even a Big Sur Chamber of Commerce.

A little south of Bixby Canyon and a little north of the town of Big Sur is the Point Sur Lighthouse, which is located on the volcanic rock off to the right in the photo below.

 

The next photo is a telephoto shot of the lighthouse itself as it sits 361 feet above the ocean.

The lighthouse was first lit in 1889. Lighthouse keepers lived at the site from 1889 to 1974 when the light was automated. Limited tours are conducted on weekends on a first-come, first-served basis. The hike to the lighthouse is steep and strenuous.

We drove a little farther just to see the town of Big Sur. Like we said, there are a few campgrounds, rustic motels, stores, and restaurants. By then it was getting late in the day, so we turned around and headed back to the motor home. We'll be doing more sightseeing before leaving Marina, CA, so stay tuned.

Monterey, CA

Monterey, CA is located about 15 minutes south of where we were staying in Marina. The central California coast is known for its scenic beauty, and we were hoping to drive along the coast around the Monterey Peninsula and also on down to the south to Big Sur. However, with the usual fog, we decided our first sightseeing would be to the historic district of Monterey rather than a drive along the coast.

There are numerous historic buildings in Monterey that have been preserved as part of the Monterey State Historic Park. The first building we visited was Pacific House, which has a free museum. Pacific House is shown in the photo below.

At the museum in Pacific House, we learned about the history of Monterey. The Rumsien Indians inhabited the shores of Monterey Bay for thousands of years drawn by the abundance of fish and wildlife. The first European to discover the bay was Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. The Spanish established a settlement in Monterey in 1770 with the building of a presidio (fort).

Monterey was declared the capital of Alta (upper) California and Baja (lower) California in 1775, but the town grew slowly. By 1815, the population was mostly male consisting primarily of military and government officials living inside the fort. By 1820, the population had grown to only about 200.

The Spanish prohibited Californians from trading with anyone other than Spain, but when Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, Monterey was opened to international trade and became California's port of entry.

After the end of the Mexican-American War, Monterey and the rest of present-day California officially became part of the United States in 1848. California became a state in 1850.

Pacific House itself is a two-story adobe structure. The original adobe walls lie within the stucco exterior and plastered interior. It was built in 1847 for merchant Thomas Larkin who rented it to the U. S. military in 1848 for storing supplies. In 1850, Pacific House became a rooming house for sailors. It also later housed law offices, the county courthouse, and even a church.

The courtyard of Pacific House, shown in the photo below, once hosted bull and bear fights.

 

The buildings that are part of the historic park are scattered across a several square block area. You can take a self-guided tour or join a free, guided walking tour every morning at 10:30. We were too late for the guided tour, so we just walked to some of the sites on our own.

Near Pacific House is Custom House, which was used by the Mexican Government to collect import taxes from 1821 to 1846. Archeological digs and old drawings indicate other buildings may have stood on this site prior to 1821.

 

In 1846, Thomas Larkin used an existing spit of land adjacent to the Custom House to build a rock-filled cribwork wharf. The wharf was expanded and improved several times over the years. Today, the wharf is the home of tourist shops, restaurants, and whale-watching cruises. The next photo shows Margery at the entrance to Fisherman's Wharf.

 

We found it interesting that while most tourist shops sell T-shirts, the ones here sold mostly sweat shirts and wind-breakers. It must be all that cool, foggy weather.

At the end of the wharf, there was a public observation deck where we could get a good view of some of the fishing boats anchored in the harbor...

 

...and some of the sailboats tied up at the docks.

 

The next photo is another view of the docks.

 

From the wharf, we walked up the street to the Old Whaling Station. The adobe building was built in 1847 as a residence, but it was purchased in 1855 by the Old Monterey Whaling Company as a headquarters and employee residence.

Monterey was once a center for whaling. Whales were killed at sea and hauled to shore for processing. The Old Monterey Whaling Company was such a processing company. In the photo below, Margery is checking out the sidewalk in front of the Whaling Station. The sidewalk is made entirely of whale vertebrae that were cut into diamonds and used as paving blocks.

 

The blubber of the whales was boiled to render oil that was used for machinery and lamps. The baleen (large, bony structures in the mouths of some whales for filtering food out of seawater) was used for corset and umbrella stays, and bones were ground for fertilizer.

Next to the Whaling station is the First Brick House. Up until 1847, all buildings in Monterey were constructed from adobe or wood. In 1847, Gallant Dickerson introduced fired-clay brick-making to California, and built the first brick house in the entire California territory.

 

Mama Garcia later had a restaurant in the house, and the kitchen is set up as it may have looked in Mama Garcia's time.

 

Between the First Brick House and the Old Whaling Station is the rose garden shown in the photo below.

We stopped at another garden next to Casa del Oro near Pacific House on the way back to the car. The day after we were there was to be a fund raising event of the Historic Garden League. The group maintains several historic gardens in Monterey and conducts tours, but this was to be their first fund raiser. Casa del Oro Garden is at the gateway to the historic area, and It was also to be the focus of the fund raiser and the location of a plant sale. Members had been busily getting the garden in shape, and it looked great.

 

We both enjoy gardens a lot, and Paul especially enjoys them when he doesn't have to keep it weeded and watered.

 

After touring the garden, we headed back to the car. Close to where we parked was California's First Theater, so we stopped for a photo. Jack Swan, a Scottish sailor, built the structure shown in the photo below in 1845 as a house and tavern using materials salvaged from a shipwreck. The white curves on the porch are whale bones.

After the Mexican-American War, some former army officers convinced Swan to build a stage and to add benches, whale-oil lights, and curtains made from blankets. The First Theater was born.

It was early afternoon, and there were some rare bright spots in the sky. From historic Monterey, we headed south along the coast in the hope of seeing a little sun and some picturesque scenery. We'll let you know what we found in our next post.

Marina, CA

We decided our next stop after Morro Bay would be in Marina, CA, about a two and a half hour drive north. Marina is just a little north of Monterey, CA, and sits on Monterey Bay.

In Marina, we stayed at Marina Dunes RV Park. Marina Dunes has full hookups, cable, and free Wi-Fi. The roads are paved and the sites are gravel with a small patio made from concrete paving stones. The sites are fairly wide, and there are shrubs and fences between sites. The photo below shows our site at Marina Dunes RV.

 

Most of California Highway 1 is narrow and winding, but it is four lanes in this stretch between Marina and Monterey. Unfortunately, the highway ran directly behind our site less than 100 feet down a little hill. Traffic was heavy during the day, but it diminished at night; and at least there were very few big trucks.

The other problem with Marina Dunes RV is the price was higher than the temperature. Although the temperatures were only in the upper 50s and lower 60s, that still made it a very expensive campground. Aside from the traffic noise, it was a pretty nice campground, but at $70 a night it was the most we had ever paid for a campsite.

Marina Dunes RV is adjacent to Marina State Beach and to Marina Dunes Preserve. The beach is known for hang-gliding, para sailing, and kite flying because of the winds. The campground is at least a quarter mile from the beach and is protected by dunes and trees, so we didn't experience as much of the wind at our site. The preserve is a 160-acre conservation area to protect the dunes in this area along Monterey Bay.

The preserve was once the site of an abandoned sand mining operation, and it also had significant off-road vehicle damage. The Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District was able to purchase the land in 1988. Restoration was started in 1990, and today, much of the native plant cover has recovered.

The access trail to the preserve is right across from the campground exit. It is about a .3 mile walk from the campground to the beach through the dunes along a trail follows what was originally the entrance road to the sand mine. The photo below shows some of the dunes along the walk.

 

We have experienced a lot of wind along the coast. Not being "coast" people, we don't know if it was the time of the year or if that's the norm. Since the beach is known for hang gliding, we suspect it's the norm, at least in this area. Here is a "self-portrait" with the wind in our hair.

We really liked the textures and colors of the plants. The dunes are formed by the wind blowing the sand inland, and they are constantly changing. The plants that grow on the dunes have adapted to growing in the shifting sands. The next two photos show some of the diversity of the vegetation.

The photo below is from the top of the low bluff overlooking the ocean.

 

And the next photo is looking south toward Marina State Beach.

Visiting the central California coast meant we didn't have much sun, but we did get to experience beauty in other ways. The colors and variety of beach vegetation was gorgeous. The photos below are closeups of two of the flower varieties.

And the next photo is a composite that shows how the different varieties grow together in a tapestry of texture and color.

Having the beauty of the dunes so close by was a bonus, but the reason we decided to stay in this area was to see Monterey Peninsula and more of the central California coast. We were hoping for a little sun, but we weren't holding our breath. We'll tell you more about our adventures in our next post.

Hearst Castle Part II: Main House and Indoor Pool

After seeing the Neptune Pool and visiting Casa del Sol guesthouse, our tour of Hearst Castle proceeded up the steps shown in the next photo and went past a portion of the rose garden toward the main house.

Many of the design features of the estate were influenced by Hearst's childhood trips to Europe with his mother. There is art, sculpture, and antiques in the mansion and around the grounds from all over the world. The next photo shows an Egyptian sculpture from 3500 AD outside the main house.

The facade of main house, shown in the photo below, was inspired by a church in Spain.

 

The buildings at Hearst Castle are constructed of reinforced concrete to resist earthquakes. The concrete is covered with stone for a more classical appearance.

Inside Casa Grande, we went into the Assembly Room, which is the largest of four sitting rooms in the main house. The fireplace, which is one of 41 at Hearst Castle (there are 30 in the main house alone), is from a castle in Europe. Art, sculpture, and antiques are everywhere. Some say Hearst built the estate just so he would have a place to put his immense collection of art and antiques. In fact, Hearst Castle houses the largest private collection of art in the world.

 

In the Assembly Room, guests of Hearst met for games and drinks before dinner. Some of the famous A-list guests at Hearst Castle over the years include Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Jean Harlow, Buster Keaton, the Marx brothers, Barbara Stanwix, Winston Churchill, Calvin Coolidge, Hedda Hopper, Charles Lindbergh, and Howard Hughes - just to name a few.

Dinner was served late - usually at 9:00 PM. Hearst Castle has only one dining room, which is shown below. The walls are hung with antique tapestries and lined with antique paneling from European cathedrals.

During the day, guests were usually left to fend for themselves while Mr. Hurst conducted the business of his many companies. The estate was so elaborate, guests were never at a loss for things to do. The Neptune Pool, which we wrote about in our previous post, was heated and there was also an indoor pool, so many guests enjoyed swimming.

William Hearst had a keen interest in animals. There was a zoo on the grounds of the estate with animals from around the world. It was the largest private zoo at the time. A herd of over 300 grazing animals such as elk, bison, European white fallow deer, several species of African and Asian antelope, zebras, camels, llamas, big horned sheep, musk oxen, kangaroos, ostriches, and emus roamed the hillsides. Giraffes were kept in a pen near the road. More dangerous animals like big cats and bears and even an elephant were kept in cages that were considered to be state of the art at the time and allowed the animals more room than most zoos of the era. Hearst began to dismantle the zoo in 1937 when he experienced financial difficulties. Most animals were donated to zoos or sold.

There was also a vine-covered pergola that was a mile and a half long where guests could stroll or ride horses in the shade.

Guests could also go to the theater where Mr. Hearst showed films from his motion picture studio to his guests. The tour visits the theater where today they show a few minutes of home movies of Mr. Hearst and some of his famous guests.

The last stop for the tour before boarding the bus to head back down the hill to the visitor center was the indoor pool. The design of the pool was inspired by a Roman bath. The pool has tile mosaics of fish on the ceiling and gold-leaf tiles in the shape of stars on the bottom of the pool. The idea was to turn your world upside down.

 

When we returned to the visitor center, we watched an excellent 40-minute film entitled "Hearst Castle - Building the Dream." The film traces the history of the family and the estate and was included with our tour.

After leaving Hearst Castle, we made a quick stop along the beach for photos. It was sunny on top of the hill at the estate, and by afternoon, the sun also made a rare appearance down at the shore. There were numerous picturesque overlooks on our way back like the one shown below.

 

Then it was back to the motor home. For our next stop, we will be moving north to stay near Monterey Peninsula.

Hearst Castle Part I: Neptune Pool and Casa del Sol Guesthouse

One reason we stayed in Morro Bay, CA, was to visit Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle is the palatial estate of the late newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

Construction of Hearst Castle began in 1919, but it was never really completed. William Randolph Hearst seemed to like the creative aspects of the designing and building processes themselves. He would make frequent changes during construction and would tear down structures and rebuild them on a whim. Therefore, there always was something being planned, built, or changed. Construction ceased in 1947 when Hearst no longer lived at the estate because of ill health.

Hearst Castle is built on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean at San Simeon, CA, which is about 30 miles north of where we were staying in Morro Bay. The next photo is a telephoto shot showing Hearst Castle from the visitor center. The visitor center is at the bottom of the hill 1,600 feet below Hearst Castle. It is a winding five-mile bus ride to the top.

 

William Randolph Hearst was the only child of George Hearst. George Hearst, who was born in Missouri, came to California in 1850 to seek his fortune in prospecting. He was successful as a prospector and eventually became the head of a company that invested in mines all over the west and even in Peru. His company grew to become the largest mining company in the United States. George Hearst bought land in the San Simeon area where he and his wife built a ranch.

William Randolph Hearst had fond boyhood memories of his days at the ranch, especially of the times the family would pack up tents and travel up the hill overlooking San Simeon on horseback to camp. William Randolph Hearst was 56 when he inherited the property at San Simeon after his mother died in 1919. His father died in 1891. The 40,000 acre ranch originally purchased by George Hearst in 1865 had grown to over 250,000 acres. Hearst soon made plans to build a bungalow on the hill where he had camped when he was a boy.

Over the years, William Randolph Hearst had become a very successful newspaper publisher. He owned several newspapers and had expanded his business to include a news service, magazines, news reels, and motion pictures. Hearst's publishing success enabled his plans for a bungalow on top of the hill to quickly grow to what was to eventually be a 60,645 square foot mansion with 56 bedrooms and 65 bathrooms. The estate also includes three separate guest houses with a total area of 10,770 square feet. The guesthouses could accommodate up to 50 guests.

William Randolph Hearst died in 1951 of a heart attack. The Hearst Corporation, which is still in the publishing business today, gave the estate along with about 150 acres to the State of California in 1957. The California State Park system manages the estate. However, members of the Hearst Family still have access to it for personal use.

We started our tour at the visitor center, which is shown in the photo below.

There are several different tours available that concentrate on different aspects of the estate. We chose Tour 1 - The Experience Tour, which is recommended for first-time visitors and which includes a variety of different areas - some of the rooms on the first floor of the main house, a little of the garden and outdoor terraces, the outdoor pool, the indoor pool, and a few rooms of one of the guesthouses. Other tours concentrate on more specific areas such as the garden, one of the guesthouses, or the upper floors of the main house. There is also an evening tour.

The estate is about a 15-minute bus ride up the hill. At the top, we were greeted by our tour guide, who was excellent. He was very knowledgeable, and he was humorous without resorting to any of the corny, worn-out tour-guide jokes.

From the outside of the mansion, there are several terraces from which you can look back down the hill toward the fog-shrouded ocean.

 

The estate was formally named La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill) by Hearst, but he usually just called it "The Ranch." The estate was designed by architect Julia Morgan more or less in Spanish Revival style. Hearst didn't hesitate mixing styles and time periods, and Julia Morgan seemed to be very adept at figuring out how to successfully blend the styles to please Hearst.

One of the best-known features of Hearst Castle is the Neptune Pool that features the pediment from an ancient Roman temple. There were three pools built on this site. Each replacement was larger than the pool before. The current pool, which holds 345,000 gallons, is still used from time to time, but usually only in late summer after the sun has had a chance to warm the water because the oil-fired heating system installed by Mr. Hearst is no longer operational.

The next photo shows detail of the marble swans on the lamp posts on the terrace above the pool.

Above the pool to the left was the guesthouse Casa del Monte (House of the Mountain). It is called Casa del Monte because it faces the mountain to the north. At 2,291 square feet, it is the smallest of the three guesthouses which all told can accommodate up to 50 guests at any one time.

The tour went in the opposite direction, and we entered Casa del Sol (House of the Sun) guesthouse. Many of the rooms of this guesthouse have a view of the setting sun. Casa del Sol is the middle-size guesthouse at 2,604 square feet. Although we went in a back door, the front of Casa del Sol is shown in the photo below.

The next photo shows one of the guest rooms in Casa del Sol.

The third guesthouse, Casa del Mar (House of the Sea - it faces the ocean), is the largest, most elaborate guesthouse. It has an area of 5,875 square feet. It is featured as part of the garden tour and wasn't included in our tour.

After the guesthouse, the tour went to the main house, which is called Casa Grande (Big House). We'll tell you about Casa Grande and the rest of our tour in our next post.

Morro Bay, CA

From Coarsegold, we drove south back through Fresno, CA, then headed southeast to Morro Bay, CA, on the Pacific Coast. It was Memorial Day, and as we headed toward the coast, we passed dozens and dozens of RVs returning home after the long weekend. It was interesting to see that at least half the RVs were toy haulers - those RVs with a "garage" in back used to haul motorcycles and ATVs.

We pulled into Morro Bay State Park in the early afternoon. Morro Bay State Park has about 140 campsites, but only 30 of them have water and electric (30 amp only). We reserved a site with hookups. The roads and pads are paved, but the sites themselves are dirt. The photo below shows our site at Morro Bay State Park.

Morro Bay is a large estuary where fresh water from surrounding streams mixes with ocean water. The most notable feature of the bay is Morro Rock, which is a 576-foot high plug from an extinct volcano. A Spanish explorer named the rock El Morro - Spanish for "The Pebble." The rock has been an important landmark for sailors since that time. Morro Rock is also a nesting site for the locally-endangered peregrine falcon and several species of other birds. Although stone used to be quarried from Morro Rock, the site is now a protected bird nesting area and is closed to the public. The photo below shows Morro Rock from a location near the campground.

Our camping fees also entitled us to free admission to the nature center, which has a lot of great hands-on displays on ecology and the wildlife of the estuary. Kids would have a ball in this museum.  In the photo below, Margery is trying out the display that shows how dunes are formed by the wind.



There is an observation deck, and they even loaned us binoculars since we left ours in the car. We could see cormorants diving in the bay and some white pelicans sitting on a sandbar. Unfortunately, it was foggy the day we were at the nature museum, so we could barely see Morro Rock.




We saw a description of the weather along this region of the coast. It said the winters were mild and the summers were cool and foggy. Well, we can't vouch for winter, but the description of summer seems to be accurate, even though it's not officially summer yet. We had temperatures of 100+ in Needles and Bakersfield, CA, and it was 85 to 90 degrees in Coarsegold. The temperatures along the coast struggled to get to the 60s. It was foggy every morning. As soon as you go inland, the fog would be gone and the temperature would be at least ten degrees higher. On a couple of the afternoons, the fog burned off, but most days it didn't. We heard the locals call the late spring weather "Gray May" and "June Gloom."

One morning, we took a chance and drove up along legendary California Highway 1 hoping the fog would burn off by the time we got an hour or two up the coast and were ready to turn around to come back so we could enjoy the beautiful views Highway 1 is so famous for. The cliffs extend right down into the ocean and the waves break over the picturesque rocks. Unfortunately, the farther north we drove, the foggier it got. When fog got so thick we could barely see the edge of the road, much less the ocean several hundred feet below us, we gave up and turned around and headed back to the motor home.

We did stop for a few photos on our way back where it was a little less foggy. The photo below is Piedras Blancas Light Station. Piedras Blancas mean "white rocks" in Spanish. If you think the lighthouse (on the left) looks truncated, you're right. The original light enclosure, railing, and upper portion of the tower were removed in 1949 after a 1948 earth quake caused a crack to form in the tower. The light station is currently under the Bureau of Land Management, and stabilization and restoration have been initiated.



The beach a little to the south of Piedras Blancas Light Station is known for its elephant seals. Different groups of elephant seals come to beaches in this area at various times of the year to mate, to give birth, and to molt. The seals there at this time in late May are mostly females and juveniles that have come to molt. There are literally hundreds of them on the beaches.



When the seals molt, blood vessels reach through the blubber to regrow the new skin. During this time, the seals are susceptible to cold and must rest on land. The seals' old coats are brownish, and their new coats are gray. The seals lie on the beach and use their flippers to sweep sand over themselves.

The seal in the next photo has a brown coat, indicating it hasn't started to molt yet.

 

Elephant seals were hunted to near extinction in the 19th century for their oil-rich blubber, but their numbers have rebounded. Their range has expanded from more remote islands to mainland beaches like the one at Piedras Blancas.

There were volunteers at the beach from a group called Friends of the Elephant Seal to provide information, to answer questions, and to make sure the crowd stays on the bluff and that no one bothers the seals. The volunteers have a lot of good information, and we enjoyed talking with one of them.

The male seals (bulls) are the ones that have the large, trunk-like proboscis  from which the animals get their name. The proboscis acts as an echo chamber to help produce the loud roaring noises the bulls make during mating. You can see the proboscis of several young bulls in the next photo, but they aren't fully developed to adult size yet.

Adult bulls are much larger than the cows and can weigh up to 3,000 pounds. While spending the month on shore to molt, the seals live off their fat losing as much as 400 lbs.

The juvenile males, like the ones shown in the photo below, play-fight by bumping each other with their chests and necks. When they mature, this fighting will become more serious as the bulls gather females into their harems.

 

We had a great time watching the seals. It helped redeem our disappointment of having our drive up Highway 1 fogged out. We still had other plans while in the area, so stay tuned for our next post.

Yosemite Part IV: Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne Meadows (pronounced Too-ALL-um-ee - the "n" is silent like it is in the word "column") is located north of Yosemite Valley along Tioga Road, which also leads to the east entrance of the park. Tuolumne Meadows are known for beautiful wildflowers. Tioga Road passes through altitudes of up to 9,000 feet, and it is usually closed from November until sometime in May because of snow.

As we climbed in altitude, we began to see a little snow, but most of it was on distant peaks.

 

Soon, we were high enough there was snow in spots along the road. We kept seeing standing columns of snow every so often. Apparently, there would be an occasional, dense chunk of snow that would melt more slowly than the surrounding snow. Paul called the columns "snow hoodoos."

 

We also crossed Yosemite Creek, which eventually flows over Yosemite Falls. Later in summer when all the snow in this area is melted, Yosemite Creek and Falls will run dry, or at least slow down to a trickle.

 

Olmstead Point is on the way to Tuolumne Meadows. Tenaya Canyon, which is the upper extension of Yosemite Valley, crosses Tioga Road at Olmstead Point. Tenaya Creek flows down Tenaya Canyon; and Mirror Lake, which we previously wrote about, is along Tenaya Creek at the base of Half Dome. You can also see the eastern end of Half Dome from Olmstead Point.

From Olmstead Point, you can also see Tenaya Lake a little farther up Tenaya Canyon.

 

Tioga Road follows Tenaya Canyon from Olmstead Point and passes Tanaya Lake. There were a number of people there having lunch and enjoying the picturesque views, and we stopped for a snack and some photos as well.

 

We finally arrived at Tuolumne Meadows. We knew it would be a little early in the season for wildflowers, but we were hoping for a few. No such luck. All we got was snow.

As we said earlier, Tioga Road doesn't open until sometime in May because of snow. We later found out it didn't open until two days before we drove it. No wonder there weren't any wildflowers yet.

We found two fellows sitting along the meadow. We hope they weren't waiting to see wildflowers, because if they were, they needed sleeping bags and tents, not chairs.

There is a visitor center at Tuolumne Medows. We were going to stop in; but it wasn't open for the season yet, so we turned around and headed back. It was a long drive to Tuolumne Meadows and back, and we were hungry by the time we got to Oakhurst, which is the town just north of Coarsegold where we were staying.

Every time we passed through Oakhurst on our way to and from Yosemite, we saw El Cid Mexican Restaurant. This time we stopped for an early dinner. We had dinner on the veranda overlooking the cactus garden behind the restaurant.

 

Margery had a beef chimichanga and Paul had a chili relleno-beef enchilada combo platter. Dinners included Mexican rice and refried beans, and Paul's combo also included a salad. The food was OK, but not as good as our favorite Mexican restaurant in Greensburg, PA (near where we used to live) called Cozumel. Dinner prices were in the $10-12 range, except for fancier beef and seafood dishes, which were more.

From El Cid, it was back to the motor home. We saw traffic on the way to and in the park increase over the several days we were there, and we're glad we had time to see everything we wanted to see before the Memorial Day weekend. We had a few days to chill out in RV park before heading out to our next destination.

Yosemite Part III: Glacier Point and Mariposa Grove

Glacier Point is an overlook that is about 3,000 feet above Yosemite Valley. The 16-mile road to Glacier Point usually doesn't open until sometime in May because of snow. This year it opened on May 5th.

Having seen the valley close up, we wanted to see it from high above at Glacier Point. A short way before we got Glacier Point, we came to a turnout that provided a view of the end of the end of Half Dome. As we said in our previous post about Yosemite Valley, Half Dome gets its name from the fact it looks like a dome with half of it missing. However, when viewed from the end, you can see that both the front and back are rather steep. Glaciers have cut the front face a little steeper and sharper than the back face, but geologists believe the majority of the original formation is still there.

 

In the photo above, you can also see Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls to the right of Half Dome. These falls are along the Merced River. The next photo is a little closer shot of Nevada Falls (the upper falls) and Vernal Falls (the lower falls). Nevada Falls is 594 feet high and Vernal Falls is 317 feet high. The Emerald Pool (which can't be seen in the photo) lies between the falls. The cascade below Vernal Falls is known as the Giant Staircase. The dome to the left of Nevada Falls is called Liberty Cap.

 

The photo below shows us at Glacier Point with Half Dome in the background. The perspective has changed and now you can see a little more of the dome-like profile of Half Dome that is visible from the valley.

 

Glacier Point provides a spectacular view of the eastern end of Yosemite Valley. Here is an unobstructed view of Half Dome from Glacier Point. You can follow a line down in the valley in front of Half Dome where Tenaya Creek flows. This is where we hiked to Mirror Lake as described in our previous Yosemite Valley post.

Yosemite Falls is shown in the next photo from Glacier Point. The building at the bottom right of the photo is the Ahwahnee Hotel, which opened in 1927.

 

Another feature of Yosemite National Park called Mariposa Grove is located in the southernmost corner of the park. It was just a short drive to the right of the main road just inside the south entrance.

Although there are sequoia trees throughout much of the park, there are several hundred mature sequoias in Mariposa Grove. In the photo below, Paul is demonstrating the size of one of the smaller sequoias in the grove.

 

In the next photo, the light-colored dot by the base of an even bigger sequoia is Margery.

Sequoias are resistant to insects, fire, and rot. Although they have been known to live over 3,000 years, sequoias do have one weakness. Their roots may extend up to 150 feet from the trunk, but the roots are only three to six feet deep. Weather (wind and snow) is what usually causes sequoias to eventually fall. Even after they fall, they remain rot resistant and may persist for many years. The next photo shows a tree named the Fallen Monarch, which fell about 300 years ago.

 

Sequoias are conifers and are members of the redwood family. The redwood family also includes the coast redwood and the dawn redwood. Sequoias are the largest living things on earth in terms of volume. They can grow up to 300 feet tall and up to 30 feet in diameter, and they can live over 3,000 years. Sequoias grow only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Although they can grow a little taller than sequoias, coast redwoods aren't as as big their sequoia cousins in terms of volume. Coast redwoods are the tallest trees in the world and can reach 370 feet, but the largest redwood measures only 18 feet in diameter. The oldest coast redwood is 2100 years old. Coast redwoods thrive along the foggy California and Oregon coasts. We should be seeing redwoods in the near future as we travel the California coast.

Dawn redwoods are native to China and only reach heights of 40 feet and a diameter of about six feet. Unlike the sequoias and coast redwoods, dawn redwoods are deciduous.

A giant sequoia named Grizzly Giant is the oldest tree in Mariposa Grove at an estimated age of 1,900 to 2,400 years. It is currently the 25th largest tree (by volume) in the world. It is 209 feet high and 25.5 feet in diameter.

As we hiked through Mariposa Grove, we saw dozens of 8 to 12-inch tall red plants, called snow plants, growing from the pine needle-covered ground.

 

Snow plants are a brittle, fungus-like plant. They lack chlorophyll and feed off the decaying organic matter on the forest floor. Snow plants bloom in May and June and grow in conifer forests at elevations of 4,000 to 8,000 feet.

As we got back almost to the parking area, we came upon a mule deer feeding on some downed pine branches.

 

It was late afternoon when we finished exploring Mariposa Grove, so we headed back to the motor home. We have one more area of Yosemite we want to check out, and we'll tell you about it in our next post.

Yosemite Part II: More Yosemite Valley

We continued up Yosemite Valley (east) on the south side of the Merced River. After passing Bridalveil Falls, there are several places along the road where you can see Half Dome. We also saw it from the Tunnel Overlook way off in the distance when we first entered the valley. The photo below shows Half Dome and also shows how flat the valley is.

 

Half Dome is a granite formation that rises over 4,700 feet above the valley floor. The name comes from the fact it looks like a dome that has been cut in half. In reality, when viewed from the end, both the front and back sides of the formation are rather flat and steep. The face toward the valley is a little steeper and has sharper edges because the glaciers have shaved that side somewhat; but geologists believe much of the original shape is intact.

Mirror Lake is located near the base of Half Dome along Tenaya Creek, and the trail to Mirror Lake starts more or less at the end of the road in the valley. The description on the trail map we picked up at the visitor center said Mirror Lake, when it is filled in winter and spring, has beautiful reflections of the surrounding cliffs. Well, that sounded nice, and the trail wasn't that long, so off we went. It turns out Mirror Lake isn't all that big. It's more like a wide spot in the creek. But is was still a pretty spot, and we're glad we went. The photo below shows Mirror Lake.

 

And the next photo is looking up at Half Dome from Mirror Lake.

We came across the large piece of driftwood in the next photo at the upper end of the lake.

From Mirror Lake we continued our way around Yosemite Valley now traveling down the valley (west) on the north side of the Merced River. Yosemite Falls is about halfway down the valley behind the visitor center.

 

Yosemite Falls is actually made up of three sections - the Upper Falls (1,430 feet), Middle Cascades (625 feet), and the Lower Falls (320 feet). At a total height of 2,425 feet, it is the tallest waterfall in the United States.

Yosemite Creek, which flows over the falls, is made up entirely of snow melt from an area of about 50 square miles above the falls. The peak volume in spring is 2,400 gallons per second; but when the snow is entirely melted in summer, the flow usually dries up completely.

We took the short hike to the base of the Lower Falls. The photo below shows Margery on the early part of the walk. You can see almost the full height of the falls behind her.

 

As we approached the base of the Lower Falls, the force of the falling water seemed to be creating its own wind that blew the mist right at us.

 

The next photo is looking from the base of Yosemite Falls as the water raced toward the Merced River.

 

As we walked the trail back toward the car, two bear cubs came tearing out of the woods, across the trail, and into Yosemite Creek.

 

We don't know where the mother was, but we kept a wary eye. The cubs played around in the water a while, then one of them went up on the far bank and swiped a lunch from right between a couple who were sitting on a rock and who apparently didn't realize the cubs had even come out of the woods. The cub proceeded to tear the bag apart and devour what was inside. When the cubs moved off to the shadows on the other side of the creek, we continued on our way back to the car.

After Yosemite Falls, our next stop was at El Capitan near the western end of the valley. That's Ribbon Falls to the left of El Cap.

 

El Capitan is a 3,000-foot tall granite monolith. Although you can reach the top by means of a trail that starts near Yosemite Falls, the sheer cliff of El Cap has become a favorite challenge to rock climbers, and there are numerous established climbing routes up the face. It normally takes two or three days to complete the climb, so climbers spend the night sleeping in hammocks hanging from the rock face. In the photo below, Margery is using binoculars to look for climbers. Even with binoculars, the climbers are only tiny specs and are difficult to spot.

From El Cap, we left the valley for the long drive back to the motor home. We have more to see in Yosemite, so stay tuned for our next post.