Whenever we head over to Clear Lake, our normal route of travel is via Interstate 5 to Williams, then east on Highway 20. But driving home a few years ago I decided to explore a less direct option — Highway 16, which splits off from Highway 20 to wind alongside Bear and Cache creeks and through the Capay Valley before […]
Hiking up the Dorn Nature Trail at Clear Lake State Park two months ago was one of my most enjoyable outings this year. I had the trail nearly to myself, and while the sun frequently vanished behind clouds, leaving behind a chilly wind, I was able to take things at my own pace and spend time just listening to the […]
Why — and how — do random cars always seem to end up in the bottom of an otherwise attractive ravine? The sight of this abandoned wreck of a pickup truck in Roseville a couple of weeks ago instantly brought back to mind a similar eyesore that rested in Orangevale’s Snipes Ravine for many years (although I suspect it may […]
One day during our stay in Nice last month, the Big Guy suggested that I drive around to the opposite side of Clear Lake and explore the trails at Clear Lake State Park. I’d been to the state park a few times in the past but only to launch the boat and go fishing. He was convinced that I’d find […]
Looks like the end of the road — and it is actually an extremely short section of paved bike path that comes from nowhere and leads nowhere, at least for now. But I had searched out this spot after noticing what looked like a couple of old quarries on Google Maps, and when I arrived, I wasn’t disappointed. Well, maybe […]
About a month ago, I discovered an amazing undeveloped green space along the border between Roseville and Rocklin completely by accident; and once the rainstorms finally let up I was able to get out and do some exploring. As I wandered the many trails that crisscross the area I was reminded of the pre-development landscape near Whitney Oaks in Rocklin. […]
As I write this, it seems that winter has returned for another round of rain, snow, sleet, hail, and everything in between — not only in my neck of the woods but all around the continental US. Going on vacation in the coastal redwoods may not have been the greatest idea right now, but we were eager to escape from […]
Our final stop within the Petrified Forest National Park was at the Giant Logs Trail; I’ve shared some of my photos from this spot previously, but I shot all these with my phone. We arrived around 12 noon local time — although keeping track of time on this trip got a little confusing, especially since the park doesn’t observe Daylight […]
We had parked alongside Highway 1 not too far south of Fort Bragg in Mendocino County; while I wandered the windy bluff top, the Big Guy was getting down to the serious business of casting out into the surf, looking for fish. It was just across the road from where he was fishing that I eventually discovered part of the […]