When I visited the site of the Sutro Baths, I saw only a very small portion of San Francisco’s Lincoln Park. The park is located on the western edge of the peninsula, a bit north of Golden Gate Park, and includes the Legion of Honor Museum, the USS San Francisco Memorial, a golf course that used to be a cemetery, […]
When I visited Alcatraz last week, I wasn’t especially interested in seeing the cell house to which most of my fellow tourists made a beeline. Instead, I looked for the remnants of the earlier fort and for the gardens Huell featured in this episode of California’s Golden Parks. This episode aired 11 years ago, in 2007, so it was really […]
By the time you read this, I will be in San Francisco, eagerly embarking on the ferry to Alcatraz! After years of hearing about its history and seeing it across the water from a distance, I finally decided it was time to explore the island for myself. I’m looking forward to checking out the prison as well as the gardens […]
Huell gets another thrill ride in this episode of California’s Gold from 2006 when he goes up in a plane to witness baby trout being planted in mountain lakes. California Fish and Game have been using airplanes to drop the trout for over 50 years, and despite Huell’s nerves, their pilots are experts at maneuvering among the high mountain peaks. […]
I’ve never visited Lake Arrowhead in Southern California, but this is still one of my favorite episodes of California’s Gold. Maybe it’s because of the complicated history of the lake’s construction; or because I’m fascinated by the old tunnels that lead under Lake Arrowhead itself. Or maybe it’s because Huell has so much fun riding in an 80-year-old elevator and […]
The other day I just happened to catch a few minutes of the Science Channel’s show Impossible Engineering: Extreme Railroads and saw the Goat Canyon Trestle — I instantly remembered that I’d seen it before, in this episode of California’s Gold which first aired in 1999. The trestle, located within Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, is fairly hard to get to but […]
We are right smack in the middle of fire season here in California, with at least one dangerous wildland fire burning uncomfortably close to Yosemite National Park. So I thought it was fitting to have a look at one of the Forest Service’s historic fire towers. These days, most of the towers have been abandoned or even turned into vacation […]
California’s coastline is certainly beautiful — but I wasn’t aware that it also encompasses a unique and diverse national park formed in 2000. There are a lot of amazing rock formations up and down the coast, and each one is special in its own way. In this episode of California’s Golden Parks, Huell learns about the California Coastal Monument. In […]