I was over last weekend for four days to California combining a two day company meeting with revisiting some old favorite roads and a trip to Sequoia and King's Canyon National Park and then Yosemite National Park on Saturday and Sunday. Drove about 1300 miles total over 2 1/2 days. Quite tiring but awesome. After the flat roads in Texas it was nice to catch some curves and elevation changes
1. Skyline Drive
Made my way to Skyline Drive (Highway 35) - this is a very curvy road offers views to the Pacific Ocean on one side and the cities on the Bay Area on the right
Miles of this
Alice's restaurant ... Iconic place ... usually there are some cool cars gathered there.
Today there were some bikes only ... one looked like a Ducati Monster to me but I couldnt say for sure ..
My ride for the trip ... Pontiac Sunfire .. a veritable rocketship
Views of the East Bay
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The trees flashing past
Views of the Pacific
A small lake
Looking down on Highway 92
2. Highway 92 and Highway 1
Near Half Moon Bay there is a field where they grow Christmas trees
Wanted to take a pic of the Highway 1 sign .. frikkin polluting F250 ruined it - he gassed the throttle just as I clicked
Half Moon Bay ... nice beach ... unfortunately the water is too cold to do extensive swimming even in summer. All the beaches have a nice cliff on one side and ocean on the other view
Lot of strong wind here ... look at the lean of the poor trees
An interesting tree a few blocks away from the beach
Highway 92 again close to 280 ... nice lake split by the road
Highway 92 W close to the bridge crossing the Bay
Big ass bridge leading to the East Bay
Went to a friends place in Freemont. How's this for a view a block away from his house
3. Enroute to Sequoia and King's Canyon National Park
Started off early in the morning and drove down 101 ---> 152 -->5 ---> 198
View from Highway 101
Got onto 152 .. saw some Vipers in the rear view mirror .. quickly stopped on the side to snap a pic ... they were going at a pretty good clip
The golden hills of California ... awesome stuff
The begin of the climb thru the hills
A lake in the middle
The hills by the side of the lake
How about this? Cool isn't it
Close to Sequoia NP
4. Sequoia National Park and King's Canyon National Park
Home of the world's tallest trees.
Tunnel Rock
View from the General's Highway
The road splits among the trees
Your neck hurts to look so high up .. see how small the car is by comparison ...
A fallen giant Seqouia ... see the diameter of the thing compared to the car
The "General Sherman" biggest tree there .. named after a Civil War hero
... data ...
... the base ...
... its the one in the middle ... the Sequoias dont look as tall as they actually are because they are pretty wide unlike redwoods which are slimmer and look taller as a result
Now that's what I am talking about ... lovely valley
Another ..
The "General Grant" tree ... slightly smaller than Sherman
Came across a valley of trees that were leafless. Was after a fire to renew the soil there ...
Exited the park from the King's Canyon side
5. En-route to Yosemite via route 99
Envy the cows
The rising moon - love the colors on display here
6. Yosemite NP
Definitely one of the best natural wonders of the world in my book. Last time I was there I hit two trails and hung around the base valley. This time IO drove thryu every square inch of the place 8)
En-route ... why I love California
Every 50 metres I stopped the scenary was that beautiful ... Half Dome here ...
With me blocking the view
Wish it was a better car .. the view deserved better
A look to El Capitan - tall granite mountain on the left up to half dome the furthest away in the centre of the picture
El Capitan closer up
A reflecting pool near El C
Don't remember the name of this one
Half Dome closer up
Yosemite falls - not ... it was nearly bone dry ... well me taking a leak could have generated a greater fall
Actually I came at the wrong time - this thing is a gusher during spring ...
En-route to 120E - quite a few bikers ...
En-route to the Tioga Pass
Looking down at Tenaya Lake
Tenaya Lake .. the water changes color from green to blue depending on where you look
Clouds changing the colors on the mountains
Tioga Pass ... elevation 9945 feet
Saw a Cobra exiting the park
Drove back to the Hetch Hetchy reservoir on the West side of the Yosemite ... it was dammed in 1913 to provide fresh water to San Francisco.
A waterfall downstream of the dam
7. The route back to the Bay Area
A humble version of the Stelvio Pass ... nice road though even though I was balked by 2 RVs on the way down
My trip to California - Lots of thumbs - really long post
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