Mar 29-30 - Morro Bay, CA. A huge rock just off-shore, given the name Morro Rock by the early Spanish explorers. It's the remnant of a volcano, actually the "plug". One of seven or so as you go north up the coast from San Luis Obispo. Neat little town and harbor area. Home to sea otters - mothers & their kits were in the harbor and we got some real close-up time watching them. Boy, was it ever windy these couple of days!
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| Morro Rock at Sunset |
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| Morro Rock & Bay |
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| Sea Otter mothers & kits at MB |
We found we couldn't drive the coastal route too far north of San Simeon (north of Morro Bay) since the winter storms had taken out a bridge on Route 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway - PCH) somewhere just south of Big Sur. Bummer! (And not just for the backtracking inland that we had to do as a detour.)
Stopped at Hearst Castle in San Simeon (watched movie in the visitor center but didn't take the castle tour). It's an amazing place from what we saw from the movie and exhibits in the visitor center. We then drove north to the Elephant Seal rookery at Piedras Blancas.
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| Elephant Seal rookery at Piedras Blancas |
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| Elephant Seals |
Mar 31 to Apr 9 -- Carmel Valley, CA, and San Francisco. We spent the weekend with our son, Kelan, and his girlfriend, Tammy, in Carmel Valley. A nice quiet weekend, really. Then a night in Pacific Grove, CA (between Pebble Beach & Monterey) - we did the famed "17-mile Drive" of Pebble Beach followed by the just-as-scenic drive around the point on Oceanview & Sunset Blvds at Pacific Grove. The onto San Francisco (with a stop at eBay in San Jose to pickup Kelan from work). We stayed with Kelan through the 9th with just a bunch of low-key, local sightseeing since this obviously wasn't our first time in San Francisco.
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| Dolores, Tammy, Kelan at Point Lobos |
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| Hillside in bloom near Big Sur |
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| Dolores at Point Lobos |
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Famous "Lone Cypress" along
Pebble Beach's "17-mile Drive"
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For you golfers:
the 18th Green at Pebble Beach
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We left San Francisco on Apr 10th and headed up the coast. We took Hwy 101 part-way then headed west to the coast. Really winding, mountainous roads - Dolores didn't take to it very well. She didn't get sick but definitely felt queasy! We drove up the coast to Fort Bragg, CA and spent the night there. The next morning we learned that Rt 1 (the PCH) was out just north of Fort Bragg so we had to backtrack 30+ miles of winding mountain roads to get out to Hwy 101. Stopped to get Dolores some motion-sickness pills before the trip and that seemed to help.
On the way north on Hwy 101, we came upon a section of the national/state redwood park system called the "Avenue of the Giants", which a young bartender in San Francisco recommended to us. It's the best way to see old growth redwoods close-up and there are plenty of hiking opportunities along the way.
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| Inside the Chimney Tree |
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Hard to imagine how tall these
coastal redwoods can get!
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The "Dyerville Giant" was estimated to be
about 1600 years old and stood about 370 feet tall.
They estimated it's weight at over 1 million pounds!
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We stayed the night in Crescent City, CA. On the way there, just before dark, we were passing through the Humboldt Lagoon State Park and saw a sign for elk crossing. I'd just said to Dolores that I'd really like to see an elk when we came around a bend and saw a car stopped barely off the road. I started to vocalize my feelings about that when I happened to look to my left and saw why he was stopped. There was a herd of elk - at least 50 - in the meadow on the west side of the road. So, of course, we had to stop, too!
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| Elk at dusk |
After Crescent City, we made a stop at the Jedidiah Smith Redwood State Park for a short hike through an old growth grove of redwoods and then it was off to Oregon.
We stayed the night of April 11th in Shady Cove, OR with hopes of going to Crater Lake NP on Wednesday the 12th. The weather forecast was discouraging - calling for a winter weather advisory to start at 11am on the 12th with snow up to 6+ inches. Plus, on the drive the day before we couldn't see the top of the mountain where Crater Lake is - all socked-in by the clouds. But I woke in the middle of the night with a premonition that we'd be able to get there & see the lake before the weather turned, so I set the alarm and we got up and on our way by 8am. We got to the park without incident - no new snow yet - before the visitor center opened and made our way up to the Rim Village where there was 10+ feet of snow piled up. We were directed by a ranger to walk up the top of a particular snowbank and we might be able to see the lake. She wasn't sure since she'd just gotten there and hadn't checked herself. You see, in the winter months, even from the rim, you can only see the lake about half of the time because of the clouds, fog & snow. We walked up and sure enough - we got could see the lake! Awesome! Afterwards, we stopped at the visitor center and when we were leaving at 11am, the snow had started (just like the weatherman predicted) and visibility was dropping. I suspect the later arrivals probably didn't get much of a view of the lake.
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| At Crater Lake |
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| Crater Lake (panoramic) |
After Crater Lake, we headed to Portland, OR but in our typical round-about fashion. First, we drove to the Oregon coast and stayed the night in Newport, OR. In the morning, we continued up the coast a bit to Lincoln City before we turned inland for Portland. Along the drive we passed through what must be Oregon's wine country. From Dundee (maybe even before?) to Newburg, all you see along the road are vineyards & wineries! (Joni R - put this on your list if you ever get out this way.)
We met up with our friends' (Mike & Laurie Greenawalt) son, Mark who lives in the Portland area. Had a few beers and a meal at a local brewpub. Portland is apparently known for its craft brewing and seems to have a brewpub at almost every turn in some parts of the city. It was nice seeing Mark - I couldn't believe it when he said he's been in the Portland area for about 12 years now! Mark gave us some good suggestions on what to see and where to go for the few days we were in the area.
So, on Friday, Apr 14th, we headed out along the Columbia River highway trail to see Multnomah Falls and some of the other falls in the area. At Multnomah Falls, we walked about halfway up the trail going to the top of the falls - I figured we weren't going to get a better view of the falls going any further. We did see two bald eagles soaring along the river on our way up the trail. Plus, at that point it had been raining fairly steady and we were both getting soaked so it was a good point to turn back. Besides the falls, we drove up to the Vista House along the scenic drive - a really cool building atop Crown Point at 733 feet above the Columbia River. Great views!
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| Wahkeena Falls |
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| Multnomah Falls |
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| Multnomah Falls |
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| Latourell Falls |
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| Columbia River Gorge from Crown Point |
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| Columbia River Gorge from Crown Point |
From there, we drove out to Mt Hood, the highest peak in Oregon and another potentially active volcano. It boasts year-round skiing. There's a really neat lodge, Timberline Lodge, which is apparently as far up the mountain as you can drive. We drove up and (surprise!) it was snowing. The lodge was built between 1936-1938 by the WPA and local artisans. The lodge has a number of exhibits showing the construction of the lodge. It fell on bad times & was in disrepair and was closed for a time in the 1950s. The big boom in the skiing industry was critical in its recovery and restoration.
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| Timberline Lodge |
Factoid: Several movies have been shot at or around the lodge but of them the best known is probably The Shining, Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of the novel by Stephen King (starred Jack Nicholson), which used exterior shots of Timberline Lodge.
On Saturday, we drove around Portland and went to Washington Park, a huge city park. We walked around the Rose Gardens (Portland is known as the "City of Roses") but of course it was way too early in the season so none were in bloom. We also rode the aerial tram from he west banks of the Willamette River in Portland up to the top of the Marquam Hill. It was a clear day and from the top station we could see Mt St Helens to the northeast and Mt Hood to the west.
On Sunday (Easter), we attended services at a nearby church then we were off to our next stop - Mt St Helens.
That's all for now ..... Dan
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