Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Ahhh....Spring!

Spring has arrived on the Northern California coast!  We spent a wonderful day in Redwood NP under a piercing blue sky, warm sun and cool breeze.  We hiked on the Coastal Trail, the Ah Pah Trail and some of the trails around Wolf Creek.  The green grasses are growing, flowers are blooming, buds are showing up on the trees...  It's a great time of year!! 

Jasper and I inspect a trillium

 
A sweeping view from the Coastal Trail


Looking at the mouth of the Klamath River

Saturday, March 2, 2013

To the desert and back...

In mid February, I began a marathon drive to reach the deserts of Southern California for a work detail.  It's a two day drive to get to Dumont Dunes, a large area of sand dunes just south of Death Valley National Park.  On holiday weekends, the dunes see thousands of visitors (on any other given day you would be lucky to find a hand-full).  After four very busy days of law enforcement and medicals, I drove the two days back to the Northern California coast.  I ended up putting over 2,000 miles on my work truck!

The drive was spectacular.  I began by driving east through the Trinity Alps, then past a very snowy Lassen area, through Susanville and down to Reno and finally Carson City (my hotel for the night).  The next day, I drove south on 395 into the Sierra's.  Again, there was tons of snow and the mountains were absolutely spectacular.  I then cut east on a road just north of Death Valley.  From there, it was a short, easy drive south to Pahrump, Nevada, my home-base for the next 5 nights.

On the drive home, I cut up straight through Death Valley and then angled back in to Nevada.  I stayed east of the Sierra's on my drive back north because of a raging blizzard in the higher mountains.  After another night in Carson City, I re-traced my steps through fresh snow and finally back to the coast. 
The Sierra's!

June Lake

A look back at the Sierra's from Owens Valley


Dumont Dunes
Death Valley

Walker Lake in Nevada

Poison Lake (north of Susanville)

Friday, March 1, 2013

A long hike in Trinidad

In early February, we set out on a long hike of all the local trails in Trinidad.  This involved hiking from Trinidad Beach to Elk Head, back to Trinidad Beach, over to Trinidad Head, past the lighthouse in town, down to the south cove beach, up Paloma Creek, through town and finally back to Trinidad Beach.  It was a day full of adventure! 
On the trail out to Elk Head

Elk Head

Stairs going down to Elk Head

A winter ocean
Trinidad Beach

Still smiling on top of Trinidad Head


Trinidad Lighthouse

South Cove Beach

Back at the parking lot in Trinidad Beach.  Success!