King of the Hammers

If you have ever wondered what it is like to run King of the Hammers in Johnson Valley, California, here is a video of a young couple I follow on YouTube...

Massive Fireworks Display

When I arrived in Crescent City last Monday, I asked one of the locals if they were going to have a fireworks show for the 4th of July. She said "no" they were cancelled due to the virus. Well, somebody did not get the memo as the following has been going on since about 7:00 p.m. and it's almost 11:00 p.m. as I write this...

That is a full moon in the background

Jedediah Smith Redwoods

Just east of Crescent City along Highway 199 is the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. It's a scenic drive winding its way through some of the largest trees on the planet. I am finding it difficult to capture the uniqueness of the park as the trees are too big to photograph in one shot and the dash cam footage has been either too dark or too bright due to the rapidly changing lighting. Here's what I have come up with so far...

The car on the left gives you some idea of how big these trees are
(click on photo to enlarge)

Highway 101

The Pacific Coast Highway through California, Oregon and Washington should be on every traveler's "bucket list". It is one of the most scenic roads in the country. Today, I drove Highway 101 South (a/k/a Redwood Highway) down to Eureka. One moment you are hugging the coast looking out over the Pacific Ocean and then before you know it, you are driving through a majestic redwood forest. Here are some of today's highlights...

Northern California beach

A tight fit

Herd of elk

Crescent City, California

The next stop on my itinerary is Crescent City, California which is located off Highway 101 along the Pacific Ocean. From here I plan to travel up and down the coast taking in the beaches and redwood forests.

City Harbor

Battery Point

Battery Point Lighthouse

View from the Battery Point Lighthouse

Juniper Lake

This area is a fisherman's paradise. There are numerous lakes, most with primitive campgrounds, that would make for a great weekend getaway. Juniper Lake is located in the southern portion of Lassen Volcanic National Park about 13 miles north of Chester, California. The drive starts out as a paved road lined with tall evergreens...

Click on photos to enlarge

It then turns into a rough dirt road that is like driving on rumble strips...

At the lake people were kayaking and enjoying the warm, sunny weather...

On the north end of the lake there are private cottages that were built before the area became a national park...

Mystery of the day: "What was this suitcase with boots on top doing out in the middle of nowhere with no one around"...

Lassen Volcanic National Park

The main reason I stopped in this part of California was to tour the Lassen Volcanic National Park where all four types of volcanoes (shield, composite, cinder cone, and plug dome) can be found here. Lassen Peak is one of the largest plug dome volcanoes in the world. Its last eruptions were between 1914 and 1921, with the largest explosion on May 22, 1915. No one can say when or where the next eruption will occur, only that it will.

The other major feature of the park are the boiling mudpots created by the hydrothermic system deep underground. The sulfurous gas they give off allows you to smell them before you see them.

I have some videos that I shot in the park, but the Internet connection here is so slow I will have to post them once I get back into good 4G territory.

Update (6/18/2020): Was able to upload boiling mudpot video early this morining...

Update (6/19/2020): It took 3 hours, but I finally got the last video uploaded...

Lake Almanor

After taking the morning to rest and pay some bills, I took a leisurely drive this afternoon around Lake Almanor, a pristine lake surrounded by old growth evergreen trees...

Paul Bunyan & Babe the Blue Ox, Westwood, CA

Lake Almanor with snow-capped peaks in the background

First pelican I have ever seen on a fresh water lake

Lassen West RV Village

It has been a long time since I stayed in a wooded campground, much less one that advertises an average site size of 8,000 square feet (talk about social-distancing)...

I am using the Lassen West RV Village as my basecamp for the next week to explore the northeast corner of California in my Jeep. It is currently raining and 61 degrees which I am enjoying immensely. Starting tomorrow, the forecast for the week is sunshine and moderate temperatures - just what I was hoping for.

Mojave Megaphone

Located on a rocky outcropping in a remote area of the Mojave Desert miles from civilization is a large, metal object that no one seems to know what its original purpose was...

Getting to it involves a challenging climb

Imagine the work needed to place it on those rocks

Someone recently used turnbuckles to attach an animal skin, perhaps, hoping to turn it into a drum

In researching this mystery object, I found a number of suggestions as to what it is and what it did. My favorite explanation is that it was used to amplify the sound of a hand cranked siren to warn people in the valley that the military was testing poisonous gas/chemicals. Knowing this blog is frequented by some of the smartest people on the planet, tell me what you think it is in the comment section below.

Lastly, if you have ever wondered where the "middle of nowhere" is located...

Dublin Gulch

Just outside of Shoshone, CA is Dublin Gulch, an area where in the 1920’s miners carved residences into the sides of clay embankments. They remained occupied up until the 1970’s...

Click on photos to enlarge

Those are old tin cans in the foreground (must have eaten a lot of pork n beans)

Along the way, I discovered another lonely road...

And another boat abandoned in the middle of the desert...

Earp Falls

I took advantage of today's nice weather by taking a leisurely Sunday drive to Earp Falls on the California side of the Colorado River...

Crossed the Parker Dam into California

Enjoyed the view on the way to the falls

Arrived at the falls

Avoided the road hazards on the way home

All in all, a nice day exploring off-highway.

Eagle Pass

The Eagle Pass trail is just across the border in California south of I-40 and the town of Needles (home of Snoopy's brother Spike). I cannot recommend this ride due to the seemingly endless washboard washes that beat up both you and your machine. Plus, there is not much in the way of scenery. This is the only photo that I thought was worth showing...

Shark Fishing (1988)

It has been cold and windy here the past couple of days so I have stayed busy by digitizing some old camcorder tapes. One of my favorite memories of my Dad is us shark fishing together off the coast of Dana Point, CA. Here's a highlight video...

The downside to catching these large sharks is I no longer enjoy bass fishing as much as before. As I told my cousin, "my bait was bigger than the bass we are catching".

Desert Oddities

While driving across the California desert on Highway 62 in the middle of nowhere (there's a lot of that out here), I came across a couple of sights that I thought were worth photographing.

For my friends, Sunny & Stormy, who are back on the east coast experiencing bumper to bumper traffic...

Rush hour
(click on photos to enlarge)

Next was a large collection of shoes on a fence...

Then there were these names formed from rocks on the embankment of a railroad track. It was not just one but hundreds of names that ran for miles and miles...

What I found particularly interesting about the above items was that as far as I could tell there was not a house or any sign of civilization within 30 miles. Must get pretty boring in the desert.

Casino Ride

Don, Cathy, Dan, Lynn and I followed the power line from Black Meadow Landing to the Indian casino on the California side of the Colorado River where we had lunch...

Along the way, we came across several wild burros...

Including one who checked out the inside of my jeep...

Blythe Intaglios

The Blythe Intaglios are a group of gigantic figures found on the ground ~15 miles north of Blythe, CA. The figures are so immense that many of them were not observed by non-Indians until the 1930s. Many of them are believed to date from the prehistoric period but their age and the identity of their creators are still uncertain.

Satellite photo from Google Earth

Today's photos...

CA RV Show

The CA RV Show in Pomona is huge! I started at 10 in the morning and finished at 2 in the afternoon when my knees gave out from all the stairs and saw only a fraction of what was there. Every major manufacturer and model appeared to be represented.

Generally, I do not see many toyhaulers at these shows. Today, however, they were everywhere including this monster with not one but two patios...

The new RVs were fun to explore but it was the nostalgia associated with the vintage RVs that brought back the great memories ...

Here's one for you trick or treaters...

Lastly, if I ever win the lottery...