If you have not figured it out by now, I (Rebe too) really enjoy national parks and not just the US ones. All of these places have been set aside for the environment or their specialness, and all of this started back in 2012 when Rebe and I used to ride roller coasters. We were going on a weeklong trip with American Coaster Enthusiasts (yes, it’s a real thing) out to the San Francisco area, this was back in 2012 when I was a budding photographer and had discovered the wonder of Yosemite National Park. San Fran being nearish, I convinced Rebe that a day and a half to see it would be nice, Rebe still thinking beauty only resided on beaches was highly skeptical of this idea. We only spent 1.5 days in Yosemite, not enough time to really see all of it and in 2021 I was plotting to get back to Yosemite with a plan to make a reservation for a room in 2022 so we could go in 2023. Yes, some of the parks book up so fast that you have to book a year out.
Fast forward to the winter of 2022/2023, California got a record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range near Yosemite received over 240% of average snowfall. We had booked mid-June with the logic of all the snow would be gone, Yosemite even has a webpage dedicated to when all the roads open and typically by mid-June everything is clear. I write this on June 16th and the Tioga road isn’t close to open and park officials still have no timeline as to when it could be open.
Tioga Road in Yosemite as of June 16th
In May, we start considering whether we should still go to Yosemite or should we nix the idea and try again next year. The reason for the trip was to see the areas that are currently covered/blocked by snow and with that we started to plot a new adventure, maybe the entire Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) you know Seattle to LAX. Ok, that’s only 1100 miles maybe we can do Portland to San Fran? Nah, still too much to see and too little time. How about San Fran, up to the Redwoods and back to Big Sur?
With the new plan figured out, we ended up flying into San Jose with a flight that landed at 10:30am and after driving 6.5 hours up to the Redwood area we found ourselves in Fern Canyon. This is a coastal area where a creek has carved a canyon and it now supports a canyon of ferns.
Wall of Ferns
Us and ferns
After the canyon we took a stroll on the empty beach a few hours before sunset and then headed up to our hotel room in Klamath where there’s little to eat because the local diner closes at 2, the one bar that serves food closes at 8 and the casino restaurants closes at 9. Since we got to the hotel at 850pm we quickly put in an order for dinner and called it a night.
Beach near Fern Canyon
Day 2 - June 16th
Everything beats a hotel breakfast but since it was free we went ahead with it. The day was to start at the Tall Trees Grove in the National Park section of the Redwoods. The park is a state/federal combination park as the state protected a lot of the trees first before that feds came along in the 60’s after someone discovered even larger coast redwoods. On the way to the Tall Trees we took a quick detour down the Newton B Drury Scenic Drive just to see if there was anything cool that we might want to do later. We saw a sign that said “Big Tree,” well with a sign like that who would want to miss it?
Us at the Big Tree
After a quick stop at the Prairie Creek Visitor Center we did make our way over to the Tall Trees Grove and as you could imagine, the trees are quite tall. Coast Redwoods are the tallest tree species in the world reaching highs well over 300 feet (~91meters). This section of the Coast Redwoods was one of the last groves to be found, and the grove is down a big hill and it a nice grouping along a river. A really nice hike that requires a permit and really out of the way, if you can’t get a permit you definitely should visit the Lady Bird Johnson grove of trees (don’t worry we went there too), much easier to get to and definitely a less strenuous hike and almost as nice as the Tall Tree grove.
Trees of the Tall Trees Grove
More "Tall Trees"
All that hiking had us hungry as it was well after 3pm, we had an early dinner in Klamath at the Country Club, no it was not a real country club but just a bar with food. With dinner complete we headed over to the coast to check out a coastal section of the the park and more specifically High Bluffs Overlook. This view was so nice that I thought it would be worthwhile for sunset.
With that decided we continued along the coast and we passed a couple of farm buildings, well they weren’t really farm buildings as they were actually radar stations and 50 caliber machine gun hideouts from World War II when there were fears that the Japanese might attack the west coast.
A bit overgrown now, but this is the roof of the WWII radar station
Further along the coast we found a lot of seals sunning on a sandbar and lot of pelicans, osprey, turkey vultures and other birds circling about that we sat around and watched for a bit.
Harbour Seals and Pelicans
Earlier in the day we had passed the Ah-Pah hike on the scenic drive, this hike was a restoration area as this part of the park was formerly a logging road. The logging road was left in place but due to runoff it was causing erosion issues that were damaging the trees so the area was restored using the same equipment that originally built the road, even the streams were put back in place.
Magical Light in Ah-Pah
We headed back south towards the visitor center looking for elk but none were around, so we continued further south looking for more elk near the Fern Canyon entrance and low and behold we found 3 males in someone’s front yard and then a herd of females in the field. We followed them around for a little bit.
Sunset back at High Bluff’s Overlook
Day 3 - June 17th
Yesterday was all about the southern section of the Redwoods area, and today would be dedicated to the north. First was going to be the Boy Scout Trail, no the trail was not built by the Boy Scouts but it was named after a tree that a group of Boy Scouts took a picture in front of, the trail actually leads to a small waterfall about 3 miles in. This trail is hands down probably the most amazing forest walk I have ever been on (and in doing hikes like this for 10+ years now this means something), it was just redwood after redwood and the smallest of these large trees was 6’ (~2m) in diameter. And since we got in early-ish, we didn’t see many people on the trail so it was so quiet and peaceful. Oh and the waterfall was cute.
Images do not do this place justice
Note the tiny human
Fern Waterfall
Before I carry on, all of this is in the Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park section of the Redwoods area and there is a road that drives past all of these trailheads. If you don’t have time to do a hike, or don’t want to make the effort, the Howland Hill Road in and of itself is truly amazing.
The next hike was Grove of the Titans, which is 1.7 miles and not as good as the Boy Scout but if you’re up for more hills and a few big trees you can check it out.
Redwood with massive limb, tree with a tree
Last on the Howland Hill road was the Stout Grove and this was a flat half mile loop that is down a hill into a splendid grove of very large coast redwoods. Easily the 2nd best thing to see on the Howland Hill road. Maybe it was the great lighting at the time of day while we were there, but it was just nice and serene if you don’t count this lady and her crazy kids running around ruining the silence.
Stout Grove
Stout Grove
We left the state park and made a stop at the visitor center for a postcard and carried on back to Crescent City to grab dinner at SeaQuake Brewing, aptly named for the earthquake and tsunami that leveled the city back in ’64. An old tymer told us this story as we were waiting in line for a table and looking out at the water, not really a great feeling. After dinner we looked around the city as there is one of the famous old California lighthouses (Battery Point) in town and then other views along the coast.
Battery Point Lighthouse
Pacific Coastal View
On the way home we stopped at the Crescent Beach Overlook for a final view.
Crescent City Beach Overlook
Day 4 - June 18th
Today was transfer day from the Redwood area to the Golden Gate National Parks area (Sausalito, CA) but first we had to get a quick visit to a few more coast redwood trees down on the Avenue of the Giants. This is a road through Humbolt State Park, another great detour in northern California, while on the detour we stopped a saw the Giant Tree, the Tall Tree and the Flatiron tree… really descriptive names huh?
Giant Tree
Flatiron Tree (fallen)
Tall Tree
From there is was a long ride down the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1), and getting to the coast from CA-101 was quite an adventure as this had to be one of the curviest roads I’ve ever been on. As a person who likes driving, even I was getting tired of all the curves. Maybe it would have been a little more fun in a sports car than a rental compact SUV.
Views through this section of the PCH were not always the best but there were a few oohs and aahs and then a few “oh $#&*” as the road sometimes get a little thin with the amount of runoff. We stopped in Gualala for pizza and found a nice park nearby with a view of the Gualala River and the town.
Lunch View
We continued on south to our hotel in Mill Valley but not before getting some late night ice cream at Silbermann’s in San Rafael.
Views on the drive down to Sausalito
Day 5 - June 19th
Since we had some leftover pizza in the fridge, we decided that it would be a good breakfast and hit the road for Point Reyes. Point Reyes is a National Seashore in the National Park System, it is a large peninsula that is separated from mainland California by the San Andreas fault. Historically it was mainly farmland but also a key place for a lighthouse that protected ships from running into the coast while on the way to and from San Francisco. After stopping by the visitor’s center for some quick info and a movie, the lighthouse was our first stop for the day. Even after the lighthouse was installed many ships still managed to find the rocky shores along beneath the light, they even added a fog horn… and the ships still kept crashing. With the advent of GPS and all the fancy systems today, the lighthouse has little use these days.
Whale off Point Rayes
Point Rayes Lighthouse, too windy to walk down to
South Beach
Just down the road from the lighthouse was the Chimney Rock trailhead, this is a trail that leads to the other southern end of Point Reyes, but instead of hiking to the end we just went to check out the elephant seals who were lounging on the beach. Also in the area were the houses of the crews who rescued the crashed boat personnel from the shores, but while walking back to the car Rebe caught a case of the itchy swollen eyes. This prompted a rush back to Point Reyes Station (the town next to the park) for some eye and allergy meds. Luckily she was fine within an hour or two, so while in town we grabbed some lunch at Whale of a Deli.
Elephant Seals
Elephant Seals in the water
We took our lunches down to Drake’s Beach for a view of the coast, there was a chance to walk to see the same elephant seals but it was 3 miles down to them so we skipped on that. Afterwards we headed over to South Beach (not Miami) and North Beach to check out the epic waves that were plowing into the beach from the 60 mph winds for the day. I forgot to mention that while at the lighthouse, they didn’t let us actually go down to the lighthouse as wind speeds have to be below 40mph (65kph). Also, a quick cat nap at South Beach.
South Beach
Since Point Reyes was on the coast it made for a great location for a boat radio station, KPH. From there they would send messages to the boats, and the station was housed in the cool Art Deco building at the end of a road with tall Cypress trees. I imagine the trees were not always this tall but it turned out nicely.
KPH and the Cypress Trees
After a quick stop at Drake’s Estero we took our noble steed up to the top of Mount Vision, where there was supposedly a trail to an overlook. We found a trail but it didn’t seem to have been trafficked lately so we couldn’t actually find the end. We did score a view however.
Drake's Estero
Mount Vision
Lastly we headed to the north end of the Point Reyes in search of Tule Elk, the north end has been reserved for the elk and is designated as such. We found a few bucks just hanging out in a field and then a few more does further into the reserve. Along with elk we saw a skunk, quite a few quails, deer and all sorts of birds.
Six bull elk
Two does on a ridge
Fairfax Scoops for ice cream this night, no credit cards, no tasters, just cones and ice cream.
Day 6 - June 20th
You cannot visit the areas north of San Francisco and not spend a little time in Napa Valley, so that's what we did of course. Rebe is not much of a drinker but I have been known to partake in a little grape juice. The Venue was Ru Vango, a smallish vineyard where the 'vines' are 46 years old. I knew nothing of how they grew the grapes but it was really interesting to see these plants, it is an art that all the main stems of the 'vines' are 2.5 feet off the ground and then trained to form a tee of sorts. From the tee the vines grow up, but all the grapes are not used, only the lower 2/3 of grapes are used and the upper ones are cut off to promote the plant focusing on the lower grapes.
Rows of grape vines
Closeup of vines
The wine tour was at 1030 in the morning, we were the first people to the winery and they escort us into the tasting room and serve me a nice white wine. The weather was absolutely amazing so while we were waiting for the tour to start we sat out on the back patio to enjoy the views. Then to ruin the views the tour bus showed up with ~40+ people, luckily for us they were on a separate tour but we were grouped with a Portuguese family.
After the tour we were torn between checking out another winery or just going to enjoy lunch in Napa (the city), not wanting to get completely plastered before noon I opted for lunch at Grace's Table in downtown Napa. While driving back to our hotel for a nap we stopped and picked up some epic cherries from a roadside stall.
The last stop for this day was a trip back to Muir Woods, named after John Muir considered to be the Father of the National Parks. We visited Muir Woods back in 2014 on our initial visit to Yosemite and San Francisco and this was our first experience with coast redwoods, I remember that visit as a short one as we got to Muir Woods right before closing so we only got to see a portion of the park but the portion we saw was simply amazing. This revisit was, we refrain from calling it disappointing but after seeing the coast redwoods of Redwood National Park and Jedidiah Smith State Park the trees of Muir Woods almost appeared normal and not gigantic. Please don't take this as a slight to Muir Woods, the place is special especially being so close to a major city but to truly be wowed head further north.
Muir Woods
Muir Woods
Muir Woods
We spent a few minutes along the shore in Sausalito overlooking San Francisco and the bay before having dinner at Poggio. Ever had Dibs? Well I hadn't and that was our dessert from the hotel lobby.
Views of San Francisco
Day 7 - June 21st
The previous two nights I had been talking about going over to the Golden Gate Bridge for some night time pictures of the bridge and the city, but just being lazy and I guess tired from the long days I never took the short drive over. But since we were heading south today, we would have to drive by the bridge and we might as well make a stop. This area of the overlook is a former battery that was used to defend San Francisco until the technology of WWII made the battery obsolete.
We drove into the heart of San Fran to Jane the Bakery to pick up some breakfast snacks, you know a monkey bread or two, nutella brioche, 2 sandwiches for later. Leaving San Fran we headed back to the Pacific Coast Highway to finish our drive along the coast to our final destination, the Monterrey Peninsula.
Along the way I had Año Nuevo State Park marked, don't know why I had it marked but for some reason I did. Initially we actually drove by the park but turned around to enter, at the payment station a nice older lady greeted us with a smile and said "ARE YOU HERE TO SEE OUR ELEPHANT SEALS?!" Well, we didn't plan for a walk over to see some elephant seals, but now I guess we'd have to take the 3 mile out and back trail to go check them out. Everyone was so nice at this park, they even had rangers at the elephant seal overlook who we chatted with for a long time. After the hike we ate our sandwiches from Jane the Bakery.
Barn Swallow Chicks
Elephant Seals
Boardwalk trail
Wind surfers just off the coast
More wind surfers
Continued to make our way south until Google Maps told us that there was a big slow down on the road ahead. We stopped in the town of Santa Cruz at the Shanty Shack brewery for a flight to pass the time. There was also a DJ playing music, which I thought was going to be old school rock but he was playing 70's hits to salsa music and it was actually nice.
We finally made it to Monterey, no dinner but just some ice cream at Revival and subway sandwiches in preparation for the hikes tomorrow.
Day 8 - June 22nd
Continuing on the National Park journey today would be all about Pinnacles National Park, originally set aside in 1908 as a National Monument and then moved up to park status in 2013. Probably not as well known as some of the more famous parks in the country but let's see what this place is all about.
Our one day trip is based around seeing it all, well... most of it. The park is unique in that there is not a road that goes directly through the park and it has a west entrance and an east entrance but you can 'easily' hike from one side to the other, but you would need two cars to make that work. Our plan was to hike to Blue Oak Trail up to the Hike Peaks Trail via Juniper Canyon and then back down the Balconies Trail and home via the Old Pinnacles Trail. Around 10 miles (16km) of hiking with around 1900' (580m) of elevation gain.
Views as we made our way to the top
We started in the east section of the park and from the lower section of the east side of the park, you really cannot see what the park is famous for. We were going to have to earn a view of the good stuff. While at the top of the hike, we stopped and had our subway sandwiches to go along with the view.
"Stairs" to the top
Rocky face as seen coming down the west side
After hiking down to the west side of the park, we filled up on water and continued on to the Balconies Trail which actually contains a short cave you can go through. The cave was short and it was PITCH BLACK inside, luckily we brought lights but there was a family that was trying to enter at the same time we were and they didn't have lights, hopefully they made it out. Probably could use a cell phone flashlight and you would be okay. From the end of the cave we had another flat 2 miles before we would get back to the car.
After the cave we ran into a friend on the trail who was just crossing through.
Our friend (SNEK) on the trail
At the car, we snacked on a the leftover pastries we had from Jane's and headed back to the visitor's center, we had stopped by when we entered the park but it wasn't open and since we hiked so long it was now closed again. Don't worry I was able to get a stamp at the nature center.
By now Rebe has really had enough, but we did have another hike planned for the end of the day. The hike was up the Moses Spring Trail to Bear Gulch reservoir, a relatively short hike but sadly up hill. This trail also has a larger cave section but it was closed due to new baby bats being born this time of year.
Bear Gulch Reservoir
Rocks above the reservoir
After the hike we headed back to Monterrey for dinner at the Alvarado Street Brewery, they had an imperial stout on draft... so good I wanted to bring some home but at $28 for 12oz. I passed.
Day 9 - June 23rd
Today was our unplanned coast day, basically our day to see what the coast had to offer from Monterrey to Big Sur. We also learned that Big Sur isn't really a city but rather an entire region of California, Big Sur is also governed by some strict visual rules to help maintain its coastal beauty. Not going to say it's the least inhabited part of California but after leaving the Monterrey peninsula, communities were few and far between (if at all).
View from breakfast
We started the day at the world famous (well, golf famous) Pebble Beach Golf Links, it's actually one of the most famous American public golf courses that hosts the US Open. A lot of the courses that host the major golf tourneys are private courses so it's a big deal to be able to see, let alone play one of these courses. I was able to convince (to see not play) Rebe because it's so picturesque, did not play because... well you need to book well in advance and it's insanely expensive. Whatever you're thinking, multiply by 2 or 3 and that's just to play... you also now have to get a room on site.
The golf course is in this private enclave that guest have to pay to enter its "17 Mile Drive," otherwise it would just be crawling with tourists but if you spend money at the restaurant they will credit your entry fee. If not, you can spend your $11 and enjoy the 17 Mile Drive at your own leisure. We had breakfast overlooking the 18th green, which is one of the iconic holes with a tree in the fairway and of course it runs along the ocean.
After breakfast I did a little shopping at the golf store for some trinkets and then Rebe asked the sales lady if we could walk along the course, I knew the answer was no but to my surprise the saleslady was like "Sure, you can walk all over the place." With that information I knew had I had to walk over to hole number 7 which is a super short 88 yard (80m) par 3 that faces directly into the ocean, it's a classic hole with a classic view. We put on our walking shoes, I grab the cameras and hit the course passing number 1 and then 18, 17, 4 and 5. While walking on 6, an amazing uphill par 5 a gentlemen on a cart pulls up alongside us and ask "are you with the golfers?" We of course say, 'no' cause it's super obvious we are not with anyone he explains the rules and offers us a ride back to the clubhouse. Then he says, "I bet you were on your way to number 7, tell you what, I'll drive you over there let you take a pic, see the seals/otters and then I'll take you back to the clubhouse." The guy has actually lived in Houston for a short time back in the 90s, was super nice AND we didn't have to walk all the way back. Shout out to George (not his real name).
18th Green
6th fairway
18th fairway and green
88yard 7th hole
With my dream complete, I guess we could see the rest of the 17 mile drive. Here's a few pics from the drive.
The "Lone Cypress"
"Lone Cypress" again
Coast of Pebble Beach
I wanted to catch better light along the Big Sur Coast, this required a delay aka a nap so of course that was added to the schedule.
We started our drive down CA-1 with a quick stop at Point Lobos State Park, seems this is a popular park as parking was spare but the number of people was large. There were a few otters, seals and sea lions on the shore here and some decent views.
Sea Lions
We continued on to Rocky Creek Bridge and its coastal views.
Then the famous Bixby Bridge, Rebe wasn't as moved as I was. I could have sat here all evening.
McWay Falls, the furtherest south we made on CA-1, this is just a few miles above the closure. Throughout its existence the PCH (CA-1) has been known to wash out in areas resulting in a closure. And recently there was a washout that closed the road that prevented us and all the other tourists from driving further south, though this led to very few people down at McWay Falls.
On the way back north we stopped off at Pfeiffer Beach.
Rock at Pfeiffer Beach
Stopping in the town of Big Sur for dinner at the Fernwood Tavern as dinner would have been at 930 if we tried to eat back to Carmel. Also stopped at Bixby again for some late night magic.
Bixby Bridge at night
Day 10 - June 24th
Our last day was a transfer day back up to San Jose before we would fly out the next day, but before we flew out we did a little last minute sighting in Carmel and Silicon Valley.
We drove in to Carmel to have breakfast at the Little Swiss Cafe, a small quaint cafe in the heart of downtown Carmel. After breakfast we did a short driving tour of the famous places in Carmel.
Building in downtown Carmel
After the driving tour we stopped at the Carmel Beach which points due west and has views of Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Carmel Beach (Pebble Beach Golf Links was to the right, not pictured)
We then drove to the touristy spots in Monterrey like the Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row, no pics but imagine the usual hordes of tourists. From there we drove around Scenic Road, an actual road name, before heading north to our San Jose hotel.
We dropped our stuff off at our room and found an audio tour that gives facts about the companies in Silicon Valley, it guided us by the headquarters and buildings of Facebook, Amazon and Google. A quick jaunt through Stanford's campus and during our detour we found a few joints to eat in Palo Alto. Finally decided on Local Union 271, if you're in Palo Alto be sure to SKIP this place.
We continued our tour to drive by the 'old' Apple campus and finished our night with some very interesting Indian flavored ice cream before heading to the hotel.
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