Being a regular Death Valley visitor – and probably a Death Valley return visitor in the next month or two – I like to keep up with the conditions in the park. If you aren’t familiar with the place you might envision static, hot, dry desert conditions in all seasons. You would be very wrong! [...]
Yesterday I drove toward the Monterey Bay area planning to visit Point Lobos for a half day of morning photography. As I passed through Castroville I heard a report on the radio: Highway 1 was closed south of Carmel for the Big Sur Marathon. Yikes! Point Lobos is about five minutes south of the road [...]
Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.
There is a post today at Two-Heel Drive about the possibility of cleaning up the summit of Santa Clara Valley’s (or Santa Cruz County’s, if you live on the other side of the hill) Mt. Umunhum so that the stunning views from this ridgetop location can become available to hikers and others. [...]
Over the past few years I have made it a habit to head to Death Valley to do photography during the spring break. As a faculty member at an institution that is on the quarter system, my break is always right around the first week of April and just a week or so into spring. [...]
This afternoon I headed over to Big Basin for a few hours of hiking and photography. (This evening it occurred to me that I’m, well, lucky to be able to drive a bit more than an hour and hike among coastal redwoods.) I arrived at the park in the early afternoon to find that a) [...]
Winter Solstice at Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument, California. December 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Last December I first found out about this wonderful annual event at Muir Woods – a winter solstice festival. Although the event starts in the afternoon (officially at 3:00 p.m.), the real fun at [...]
SFGate has posted a Tom Stienstra piece about Castle Rock State Park in the hills above Saratoga. This has been one of my favorite locale parks for years – OK, decades – and winter is perhaps the nicest time to visit.
Photo: © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
From a West Coast Imaging blog report:
Tuolumne Gas Station Closed For Upgrades Beginning Monday, 9/8, the Tuolumne Gas Station will be temporarily closed for vapor recovery and dispenser upgrades. Fuel will not be available from 9/8 until 9/29. The sport shop will remain open for business and propane will still be available through [...]
I see that Gambolin’ Man has posted another trip report, this time on Point Reyes National Seashore.
These posts are interesting, and a bit different from the typical blog trip reports. Those tend to be heavy on photos (and Gambolin’ Man includes a bunch) but somewhat shorter on narrative – and there is a lot of [...]
Today’s Hike – New Almaden Quicksilver
Since school is out (yes, teachers look forward to that, too!) and I have a major pack trip coming up later this summer (more about that later) it is time to get serious about whacking the old body back into some sort of shape. Although I’ve always felt that the best conditioning for backpacking is [...]
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