Golden Moments

We've returned from a week of business meetings in San Francisco. In the weekend we took some time out to explore the Marin Headlands. The weather played its part with blue skies and sunshine. We even had an impromptu show by the local Coast Guard putting out to sea.  Here's a few visual highlights.

Finally here's a panorama I've stitched together using my favourite software application.  This tool is amazing.

Filling in the gaps

A weekend in Benbow gave Garry and I an opportunity to drive a section of California’s Route 1 coastal highway we missed during our West Coast Road Trip in 2012. At the time our itinerary had taken us inland to see Yosemite National Park.  We’ve now filled in the missing gap by driving from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach, then turning north through the idyllic town of Port Reyes Station and onwards to Bodega Bay.

We stopped overnight in Gualala before heading north through Port Arena, Mendocino, Fort Bragg and the rugged, isolated coastal town of Westport. Along the way we several stops to soak in the scenery and uncover some fascinating local history.  Highlights included watching sea lions frolicking in the surf at Goat Rock State Beach on the mouth of the Russian River, a whirlwind tour of a restored Russian Fort and climbing the historic lighthouse at Port Arena.

Fort Ross was a fascinating stop.  The State Park here preserves North America’s southernmost Russian settlement.  The Fort Ross Colony was founded in 1812 by members of the Russian-American Company.  Much of its initial infrastructure was built with the help of Alaskan Alutiiq natives.  The Russians eventually gave up on their colonial dreams and sold the settlement to an American, John Sutter in December 1841.

The Russians built numerous Redwood structures including a wooden stockade containing two cannon-fortified blockhouses, workshops and barracks.  A well in the centre of the fort provided water.  Today only one of the original structures remains.  However, the State Park has meticulously rebuilt replica structures that faithfully recreate the fort for modern visitors.   Garry and I arrived 20 minutes before the complex closed.  However friendly park staff allowed us to spend an additional 15 minutes inside the stockade before it was finally locked for the night.

The Port Arena Lighthouse was equally enjoyable.  We spent more than an hour soaking in dramatic coastal views and climbing the lighthouse itself.  Today’s 100-foot concrete tower is not the original lighthouse. The site’s first brick and mortar structure was damaged beyond repair in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.  However, the original spiral cast-iron staircase was preserved and still provides access to the lighthouse’s lantern room.

We also enjoyed a leisurely hour wandering the streets of picturesque Mendocino.  Its iconic village streetscape is popular with Hollywood producers; and was the location for television’s popular “Murder She Wrote” detective series.  Garry and I couldn’t resist selecting a gift box of handmade chocolates from a local artisan store.

However, nothing can beat a classic country breakfast in Queenie's Roadhouse Cafe in Elk.  This tiny hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere certainly lives up to its impressive TripAdvisor ranking. The menu was a roadhouse classic and the staff were as friendly and hospitable as those in any Hollywood blockbuster.

Perhaps the most unexpected highlight was the remote and desolate coast north of Rockport.  It’s here that the road turns inland to avoid steep cliffs formed by the western slopes of California's King Range. We briefly stopped to enjoy the view and were delighted to discover the area’s wildflowers in full bloom. It's no surprise to learn that this desolate stretch marks the start of an undeveloped coastline known simply as the Lost Coast.

Avenue of the Giants

The Coast Redwoods of northern California are world’s tallest trees. The current record holder, Hyperion, towers more than 115 metres and one of dozens that exceed 100 metres in height.  Coast Redwoods grow in a narrow strip of land on the Pacific west coast covering an area approximately 750km in length that stretches inland between 8 and 75kms.

The largest and tallest surviving population of trees can be found in Humboldt County in Northern California.  Most are now protected within the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  Within the park a former Route 101 highway provides visitors with ready access to many of its tallest trees.  A four-lane freeway by-pass, opened in 1960, saw this wonderfully scenic route aptly renamed the Avenue of the Giants.  Its 51km length takes motorist through one towering groves of trees after another.  In places the road narrows and weaves to accommodate the trunks of mature trees along its verge.

Garry and I spent a weekend exploring the area earlier this month while on a business trip to San Francisco.  We based ourselves at the Benbow Historic Inn situated on a picturesque bend of the South Fork Eel River. We stayed in one of the Inn’s original rooms that included an expansive private balcony overlooking the hotel’s landscaped grounds, an old stone arch bridge and the river’s crystal clear waters.

The Redwood groves are truly magical.  Nothing can prepare you for the majesty of these unique trees or the wonderfully serene and relatively open forest that surrounds them.  Highlights of our visit included the Founder’s Grove where the 112 metre long Dyerville Giant rests after falling in 1991. Nearby the Founder’s Tree still stands at almost 100 metres.  We also did the inevitable tourist thing and drove our car through the impressive Shrine Drive-Thru Tree near Myers Flats.

However, the most impressive grove we visited would have to have been the Tall Trees Grove on Mattole Road, a side road that winds for miles through the State Park’s densest concentration of mature trees.  The Tall Tree Grove was filled with dozens of mature fallen trees that were simply breath-taking in size and scope.  The grove is also home to the Giant Tree whose girth exceeds a staggering 16 metres in circumference. (Oh yes – it’s also the world’s 18^th tallest tree.

The last line of defence

Last Saturday Garry and I visited the Nike Missile Defence Museum. I’d stumbled across this unique site by chance during a Google search a few months earlier. I was surprised to learn that until 1974 the San Francisco region has been surrounded by a defensive ring of nuclear missile batteries.

The museum, located on the Marin Headlands, tells the story of hundreds of similar sites that once protected cities throughout the USA from the threat of nuclear-armed Soviet bombers. In recent years, declassified records have revealed that the Soviets had made plans to explode at least one 40 megatons nuclear weapon in front of Alcatraz; just below the surface of San Francisco Bay.

The resulting fallout of contaminated water and debris was designed to render the entire region uninhabitable for more than a century. The strategic value of such an act is clear when you learn that the Bay Area is the only significant sheltered harbour on the US west coast for more than 1000 kilometres.

The Nike-Ajax, and its successor the nuclear-capable Nike-Hercules, were medium range antiaircraft missiles. Guided by a complex system of radars and tracking computers, they had ranges of up to 37 miles (Ajax) and 87 miles (Hercules) and could shoot down planes travelling at two to three times the speed of sound. Nike-Hercules could achieve supersonic speeds within a couple of seconds of launch and reach its target in less than a minute.

We learnt that the Nike system was not only the most expensive missile system ever deployed, it was also the most widespread (300 sites in 30 states) and longest-lived (25 years nationwide). Around the Bay Area alone 12 permanent launch sites and their associated control, housing, and command sites were constructed.

However, after an investment of US$1.16 billion this defensive network was ultimately decommissioned as Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) ICBM missiles superseded the role of long-range bombers. ICBMs could fly at altitudes and speeds beyond which defensive missiles could reach, effectively leaving them without targets to hit. The Nike missile system was declared obsolete by 1974 and the last missiles were taken out of service in 1979.

The Nike Missile Defence Museum was created to preserve a lasting record of this period. It’s the last surviving site of its kind. We were lucky enough to visit on a day when former army veterans were conducting on-site tours. It was fascinating to hear their stories about maintaining the missiles, preparing them for launch and living with the ever-present threat of nuclear Armageddon.  It was also rather terrifying to learn that a 19-year-old Army recruit was ultimately responsible for pushing the button.

Our veteran guides explained that, in the San Francisco area, the Nike antiaircraft defences oeprated at a continual high state of readiness from 1954 and through to the implementation of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) in 1974. This state of readiness meant that one or more Nike batteries in the Bay Area were always ready to launch missiles with three minutes of positively identify an incoming Soviet bomber more than 150 miles away.

Our tour of the site took us into a range of facilities that included the ordinance shed where nuclear weapons were installed in each missile, into one of two underground bunkers where six missiles were stored and into the mobile radar tracking and missile firing control centre. However, the highlight of the tour was watching a missile being raised from the underground bunker on a hydraulic lift and then erected into a vertical position for launch. Despite its age, the technology remains impressive!

Panorama fiesta

I've spent this evening creating a few panorama images from recent vacations in Canada and New York.  Be sure to click on each image to get the full scenic impact that smaller images don't really do justice to.  The post opens with a view of Niagara Falls, followed by a couple of stunning panoramas from the Canadian Rockies.  I've then finished the post with a view of Yosemite Valley.

 

Groveland

It's easy to forget that the Sierra Nevada mountains were once gold rush territory. Therefore we shouldn't have been surprised to discover the wild west charm of Groveland, tonight's hotel stop. We're staying in the delightful Charlotte Hotel, a two-storey wooden structure with a classic roadside verandah. The building is beautifully maintained and has obligatory creaking pine floor boards.

The hotel sits just across the road from the Iron Door Saloon, reputedly the oldest continually trading saloon in California. It's one of a number of carefully restored buildings that line the narrow main street. To call Groveland charming is an understatement. Furthermore, despite its tiny size there appear several quality dining options available. Our hotel even has its own restaurant with a rather tasty menu. I think we'll be dining in this evening.

The Charlotte Hotel was built in 1921 by Charlotte DeFerrari, a feisty miner's widow. I overheard the staff telling one guest that people claim to have seen her ghost, most often in Room 6. We're across the hall in Room 9 so hopefully we'll sleep undisturbed tonight.

Groveland has been an unexpected gem. I found this town and our hotel via a random online search. If you're heading towards Yosemite, stay a night at the Chalotte Hotel.

UPDATE: 9.00pm
We've just finished dinner. Without a doubt it was one of the best meals we've had on the road in the USA, if not worldwide. When we went to offer our compliments to the chef we discovered he was the hotel's owner. Doug and his wife, Jenn, bought the complex last year. The owner is a local boy who trained as a chef then sailed the world working as a private chef on the yachts of billionaires.

PS: Did I mention Charlotte Hotel has the fastest wi-fi connection we've ever encountered on the road? This hotel just gets better and better.

Deep in the heart of Yosemite

We've reached Yosemite National Park after driving four hours across the state of California. We made Wawona Hotel on the park's southern boundary our first overnight stop. This is an incredibly quaint old Victorian hotel nestled among a grove of towering pine trees. The wooden structure and it's numerous annex buildings have been preserved largely in their original wooden form down to the weathered pine shingles that clad the roof.

 

Wawona was an ideal staging post for visiting the giant Sequoia trees in Mariposa Grove the following morning. These enormous trees are billed at the most massive living things on Earth. This means that they're not the tallest trees or even trees with the widest trunk; however in total mass these towering giants have no equal. it's an awe inspiring sight to see their red trunks soaring skyward.

 

 

Access to the largest grove involves a two-hour hike up a track that rises almost 300 metres in elevation. It's not for the weak hearted. However an open air tram takes tourists up the slope every 30 minutes. No prize for guessing which option we chose. I did get off the tram about one kilometre from the car park to spend a sobering moment walking past these wonderful trees.

Our second night's accommodation is somewhat less salubrious. We've based ourselves in a hard wall tent at Camp Curry. Sadly the tent looks rather worn and definitely not the "glamping" (glamorous camping) experience we'd hoped for. Fortunately the disappointing accommodation is more than compensated for by our simply stunning surroundings. Yosemite Valley is breathtaking. It's proven far more spectacular and jaw-droppingly beautiful than expected. It's easy to see why Abe Lincoln was moved to declare this area the world's first National Park back in 1863.

Our first taste of this remarkable valley came earlier today as we turned into the Tunnel outlook perched high above the valley floor.  This location offfers the most extraordinary view down the entire valley, taking in both its towering granite cliffs, jagged peaks and lush river-side meadows. Our next stop was lunch by the river in the shadow of a granite face called El Capitan, before moving on to hike to the foot of the delicate Bridalveil Falls.

UPDATE: August 16
Our final day was spent exploring the museums and art galleries in Yosemite Village before heading out of town to hike to the foot of the Yosemite Falls. These falls run dry towards the end of Summer so we were thrilled to find some water falling, albeit somewhat haphazardly.  Access to the falls is via a trail carefully constructed so that a row of pines frame the distant falls.  It's the perfect union between nature and planned human intervention.

However, its been the animal encounters that have created the most memorable moments.  Yesterday evening as I sat reading a magazine outside our tent an inquisitive squirrel showed up at my feet.  He was clearly keen on the pre-dinner nibbles I was enjoying.  Incredibly, the furry fellow was soon eating out of my hand.  Amazing.  This experience was then topped this morning when we walked out of our tent and found a deer calmly sitting in the shade of trees nearby.

 

Posted from my iPhone

Location:E Keyes Rd,Ceres,United States