I had managed to cover the looping half-mile Main Trail at the Petrified Forest near Calistoga, California. It was nearly time to leave, but when you find yourself in such beautiful surroundings, it can be difficult to drag yourself away! But as I approached the main building and the entrance gate once more, this amazing place still had one or […]
Today, the last series of images from my trek up Mt Konocti last May. I do still have a few photos I’m not including because they’re very similar and/or because I would have to extend the series. And I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to move on to other topics! I’ll most likely share those images at a […]
There are times when I’m so happy to be hiking through along a forest trail that I feel I’m stopping about every few steps to shoot a photo; and then there’s the time last May when I did actually manage to document nearly every step I took around the back of the Robert Louis Stevenson Tree. As I was doing […]
Today’s post title is actually borrowed from a recent library find that now graces my bookshelves: subtitled Life, Legends, and Religion of the Blackfeet Indians, it was written by Walter McClintock and originally published in 1910. While the North Trail at Mendocino Botanical Gardens isn’t all that old, the sign (see above) certainly looks like it’s survived a few hard […]
I’m always drawn to San Francisco’s Chinatown whenever I’m in the city, partly because of its history but also because there is always so much to see just wandering the sidewalks. With my hotel located on the lower slope of Nob Hill, I’m actually within walking distance of the Stockton Tunnel, and I used this as my gateway to Chinatown […]
Continuing the images from my visit to the Petrified Forest in Napa, California. Although the property is relatively small — especially when compared to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona! — there is still so much to see that anyone who, like me, loves to pick out interesting details, it’s easy to spend half a day happily exploring. The […]
Walking through the two groves at Hendy Woods State Park, it’s clear that at some point in the past fire has come through and left its mark. But the giant coast redwood trees manage to survive the flames fairly easily, and fire can be beneficial to the health of the forest by clearing out the dense undergrowth. Whenever I feel […]
Probably my favorite part of exploring the Mendocino Botanical Gardens was when I diverted from the main North Trail onto the steep, narrow Fern Canyon and Canyon Rim trails. In early October the coastal morning was sunny but a bit cool. Even better, I had these paths all to myself because most of the visitors to the garden seemed focused […]
By the time I reached the first mileage marker on my way up the mountain, I was more than ready to stop for a breather. The wide dirt road may have looked flat, but the incline was obvious to my legs and hips. I think I remember wishing I had tackled Mt. Konocti at least a couple of decades earlier, […]