Moss Beach to Yosemite – Day 1

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

This is one of our crazier trips, no doubt. We are going to the movies. But there’s an ocean in this photo you say? Well, the movie is not playing in the Phoenix area yet. Yesterday, we left Scottsdale at 2:15 p.m., and by 10:30, we were getting a room for the night in Bakersfield. By 7:00 a.m., we were on the road again, and now here we are at Pomponio State Beach, about 80 miles north of Monterey. Sadly, there won’t be time on this trip to stop at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

A little further up the road, we stop at Moss Beach as we can see that low tide is occurring, and going out to explore the tide pools is one of the things this stretch of coast is famous for.

While we love seeing sealife, and this anemone is certainly a great specimen, it is not the reason we’ve come up here; we didn’t even know when we left that we’d have the chance. The movie we are going to see is Spirited Away, and we are heading for San Francisco. I’m telling you this now because, for some reason, beyond my ability to explain it, I never took one photo in San Francisco to capture the moment.

Unlike this gastropod stuck in a place, we went from here at Moss Beach directly to the Castro Theatre, and following the screening, we bolted for the exit of San Francisco. We were the first in line at 3:30 for a showing that wasn’t scheduled until 6:30 p.m. The screening is being shown in Japanese with English subtitles and is the first time the movie is being seen in America, three months ahead of a wider release of a dubbed version.

This long-spined bullhead was trapped in a small pool and had nowhere to go, which allowed me to check out this peculiar-looking fish for a good long time. We’re only about 45 minutes from the Castro, so instead of wandering around the city for a bit, we’ve opted to take our time and leisurely hang out here at Moss Beach.

After finishing watching Spirited Away, we left San Francisco right away. The traffic in and out of the city is often horrendous, and we were intent on getting home Sunday night, so we needed to get as far south as we could. And in any case, we only took off on this 1,600-mile (2,600 km), 23 hours of driving trip to see this one particular movie. Yes, we love Hayao Miyazaki’s films that much!

So, try to understand our perspective. We get to be two of the first 1,400 people in the United States to see this movie. The Castro seats 1,400 for a sellout show. While there’s a Sunday screening, too, we snagged tickets for the first showing on Saturday – score! Either we were going to have a few hours in San Francisco to goof off, or as luck had it, we got to spend nearly three hours on the coast exploring sea life. The alternative would have been staying at home and conforming to our routine, which is far too simple and easy.

Matter of fact I happen to see most of my fellow citizens of Arizona as being like this lichen that is even more firmly attached to this rock than the snail I referenced as being stuck in place. While we may move slowly from time to time, we do get up and go. And who wouldn’t trade a few hours in front of a television to being blown away by the patterns and colors we are finding in the shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean here just south of San Francisco?

I already know the answer to my question and the answer is very few. We are creatures of habit, and when intellectual stagnation, habituation to the comforts of home, a tradition of passively watching others play some sport or other, combined with a generalized fear of what bad experience might be had when venturing outside of our norm and over and over we see a general lack of participation while we are out on the road. So, in light of that, we feel quite lucky and privileged that we have the wherewithal to go out and do such crazy things.

If I had to guess, I’d say this is a fragment of abalone shell, a well-worn old piece that has seen its fair share of tumbling through the ocean until it reached Caroline and me here on the shore, ready to be discovered.

And then there was this rock loaded with fossils of sea life locked into stone now. So this is going to be pure speculation, but I’m thinking that somewhere long ago, there was a mudslide that scooped up a bunch of mollusks, and as it rolled along with its river rocks (well, that’s what they look like to me) it all came to settle down for a very long time until the whole thing turned to a petrified chunk of stuff we are seeing here this afternoon.

I’m obviously not an expert or even an amateur paleontologist, but these look like shells to me.

I’d swear I saw more than one of those tentacles wave goodbye to us, thus prompting Caroline and me to return to our car so we’d not be late to see the movie we’d been traveling so far to see. As for our impressions of Spirited Away, we can let you know that in our book, it is another Miyazaki classic and was well worth our investment of time and effort to be some of the first people on Earth outside of Japan to see this beautiful heartfelt story.

California via Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon – Day 5

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

It was only 5:30 in the morning when we bolted out of Willows and just kept going and going down the road.

We race across the landscape in our attempt to cover 840 miles as fast as possible (1,361 km). No time for ice cream or celebrating the resurrection as we figured we needed about 14 hours to get home from the point we left this morning, but we did need a photo of the sign. We pulled into Phoenix just after 9:00 p.m., which is an hour later than California, so it took us 14.5 hours to get home. I wonder where we’ll go next.

California via Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon – Day 4

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Just as we went to sleep in Florence, we woke there too, except now we are in a heavy fog. Across the street from our motel is the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks lodge number 1858 and a very cool totem pole with a bird of prey emerging out of the middle of the sky to grab hold of an antler, allowing it to channel the energy of the totem as it prepares to enter the forest in its hunt for breakfast. We, on the other hand, just need to head for the drive-thru, if only we did that kind of crap. Okay, in an emergency, we would.

Just north of town, we stop to admire the dawn sky reflecting on Sutton Lake as the fog has been clearing. But hey, why are we going north when Arizona is to the south? Last night, on the way down, we saw a sign pointing our attention to the Sea Lion Caves right up here on the coast, a short drive from Florence, so we thought we’d go by in the morning.

Looking south on our way to the Sea Lion Caves at what we missed last night while driving in the dark.

Well, it turns out that the caves are not open at 6:30 in the morning, and neither is the Heceta Head Lighthouse. This is all mighty inconvenient as we are here ready to visit, but no one is at work yet.

Back down in the Florence area and crossing the Siuslaw River Bridge. We have reentered the fog, but it will be short-lived.

By the time we are passing Siltcoos Lake, the fog has once again dissipated, opening up the world to the warm colors of sunrise and calm waters undisturbed by so much as a fly’s wing.

We spot a turnout with the promise of a beach walk that we can’t pass up. Coastal seagrasses kind of look furry and cozy while performing the duty of helping dunes stay together and not just blow away. While that’s probably important to the coastal ecology, it is simply a sight we don’t often get to see, and so whatever its role, for us right now, it is here as a beauty enhancement for purely cosmetic reasons that are forcing us to love this coast of Oregon all the more.

Empty cold beaches that stretch for miles with the sound of pounding surf, shorebirds, the blowing wind, and the two of us walking along, astonished that we should be the only ones out there.

The mystery of how these Morse code dots and lines are made in the sand should remain outside of our knowledge, so they may always inspire us to wonder just how and why they look as intriguing as they do.

Fog is lingering over Tahkenitch Lake, and our road is just high enough to give us this birds-eye view of the top of fog, in case you too, wondered what it looked like from above.

These bridges are beautiful and we are enchanted that every one is different than the last one we crossed. Here we are passing into North Bend.

The Coquille River Light stands as a sentinel at the mouth of the river where it meets the ocean. It’s not very tall, and the Fresnel lens is long gone. Visitation is only available from May through September, so it goes. This light is at Bullards State Park, which also has yurts for rent, which sounds interesting.

The yellow flowers seemed very familiar to Caroline, but she couldn’t put her finger on just why. It turns out this is gorse, and she had indeed seen it many years ago on a visit to Scotland. Gorse is native to Western Europe and not the Oregon Coast, but the founder of Bandon, who was originally from Ireland, thought the plant would remind him of home. Then, in 1936, some sixty years after the town was put on the map, a fire spread quickly and destroyed about 485 of Bandon’s 500 buildings. Turns out that gorse has a high oil content that loves to burn explosively. Needless to say, gorse was not a favorite shrub after that; however, it was too late, and the plant was here to stay. Over the years, gorse has proved to be extremely invasive and hard to eradicate.

The aptly named Face Rock is just left of center, also here in Bandon.

Viewpoint at Spruce Creek in the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor, Oregon. We have now driven 2,230 miles on this road trip, or 3,612 km, which is about the same as driving from Dublin, Ireland, east to Moscow, Russia, or from Stockholm, Sweden, south to Athens, Greece.

We crossed back into California and drove until we reached the Redwoods.

One of our last chances to see the ocean on this trip as Highway 101 weaves back and forth inland so we take the opportunity to stretch our legs and take a deep breath of that beautiful ocean air.

Well, this is interesting and annoying all at the same time: welcome to the Trees Of Mystery. It’s interesting because there’s a gondola ride up through the treetops of the Redwoods and annoying because immediately we start intoning “Treeeeeeees of Mmmmmmisterrrreeeeeee” and will do so the rest of the trip. We don’t have time to visit this time, but we will certainly make an effort to return someday.

We couldn’t just stay in the car and drive through; we needed to get out and get a feel for the ancient forest. We randomly found the Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail, which gives travelers a great and easy view into the woods. Interestingly, there used to be a road here and signs are explaining the efforts employed to remove it and restore the original vegetation.

There should be a traffic jam of people gawking at the spectacle of these giant old trees just growing right next to the road. Instead, everyone else is over on the 101 while we cruise along like snails on a side road.

How many times do signs tell us about wildlife ahead and to slow down? We know better that there are no elk, donkeys, deer, or javelinas that we’re going to see, and then BAM, here is the Roosevelt elk herd. An entire murder of elk was just standing around munching grass. They weren’t fenced in; they were just wandering around looking for some good green grub.

On road 299 to Interstate 5 in Weaverville, California, we pass this cool-looking 49er Gold Country Inn and wish this were where we would be staying, but we need to get as far south as possible tonight so we can be back in Phoenix by the end of the day tomorrow. It was only 7:30 p.m. as we drove through, and it would be 10:00 p.m. when I was too exhausted to go on, and we checked into an Economy Inn in Willows, California.

California via Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon – Day 3

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

This is the kind of perfect day that cements a sense of what a place is like allowing us to easily fall in love with it. So many times, Caroline and I have been so fortunate to head into an experience uncertain of what we’d find, only to end up delighted with what we encountered. We crossed from Oregon into Washington for our first visit to this state today, crossing at Biggs Junction, Oregon. How can we be this lucky to see Mount Hood in the distance while looking down the Columbia River?

Our drive west keeps us snug up against the north bank of the Columbia. The reason we are over here (besides the fact that we like collecting visits to new places on the map): Interstate 84 on the Oregon side is a divided highway, meaning there will only be a few places we might be able to pull over for a photo while on this side we can stop anywhere there’s a shoulder. If traffic is light, we can even stop right in the middle of the street and jump out for a down-the-middle-of-the-road shot.

While between us, only Caroline can say she’s ever been to Bingen, Germany, which sits on the Rhine River downstream from Wiesbaden, we can now brag that we’ve been to Bingen, Washington, the sister city of its older sibling in Germany. The Loafers Old World Bakery here is instantly one of our favorite bakeries we’ve ever been to in America. We especially enjoyed their granola.

We crossed the Columbia to visit Hood River, Oregon, because there was a bridge there, but we wouldn’t stay long. I wish we’d had time to stop in at the International Museum of Carousel Art, though.

Back the way we came over the Columbia River to the slower Washington side.

And back to Oregon on Bridge of the Gods. Yes, that really is its name. We are heading over to the Bonneville Dam.

Wow, a salmon ladder and an actual salmon in the wild, another first for us. Of course, we’d prefer that their natural habitat was being maintained, but the damage of damming our waterways has been done, and while not perfect, at least there’s some level of effort being made to allow the fish to keep this stretch of the river alive and healthy.

Not as easy to see the salmon swimming up the ladder from out here, but you get to see what it looks like from above, which salmon never will. During the salmon season this place gets busy, we hear.

To reach Multnomah Falls, we have to remain on the Oregon side of the river as the next bridge isn’t found until we get to Portland on the Oregon side or Vancouver on the Washington side. While in the area, we visited Horsetail and Wahkeena Falls. Beauty overdoses were had by one and all.

Don’t forget to see the little details while gawking at the giant awe-inspiring waterfalls that might otherwise steal all of your attention.

This was the last view I saw before I went over the edge in a barrel; just kidding.

We had no idea how rare this view was at the time, and while it may be difficult to make out details in such a small version of the image (I have a much larger panorama on my hard drive), to the left is a little white bump called Mt. Rainier, towards the middle, is Mt. St. Helens, and on the far right is Mt. Hood.

Just north of Garibaldi, Oregon, and up the road a hair from Pirates Cove Restaurant, is this pullout looking out on Tillamook Bay.

We are heading south towards California as we have quite the drive home if we are to make it back to Phoenix, Arizona, by Monday night. Still, though, we take time to visit beaches that look promising for a romantic walk along the shore.

Looking north while we hike out to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

We probably couldn’t have timed this any better on arriving at the Cape Meares Lighthouse at sunset.

Looking south from the lighthouse and wishing we had a few more days out here on the coast.

Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge as seen from Oceanside beach near Maxwell Point. Moving south, we dawdled with stops everywhere we saw another small glint of sunset, but it turned out this was our best shot of the late day. It was after 10:00 p.m. when we finally got into Florence, Oregon, for an overnight stay at the Le Chateau Inn.

California via Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon – Day 2

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Outside Jackpot, Nevada

Sweet Jesus, who plans these trips? Up at 4:3o a.m., are you kidding me? Well, I guess we’ve got to do this while we’re young, as plenty of people have told us it will get harder as we get older. That’s Ruby Mountain in the distance under the pre-sunrise sky. Somehow, I feel lucky to be able to see this view and not only see it under full daylight, which is easy. Next stop, Idaho.

Twin Falls, Idaho

Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho, which I can only guess was a spectacular waterfall prior to dams. While it’s kind of interesting to look at in its own right, I’d still love to see it with a serious flow of water cascading into the Snake River below.

I guess this draws in the kids and us idiots because, seriously, Native Americans riding dinosaurs? And, of course, Native Americans have to be nearly naked because that’s how they rode their horses while battling John Wayne in the old Westerns.

We drove northeasterly on Highway 26 with the hopes of visiting Craters of the Moon National Monument, but there was too much snow for our visit, and so onto the list it goes. For a consolation prize, we are offered this spectacular view of the mountains on the south of Highway 20 while driving west near Picabo, Idaho.

One more photo on Highway 20 before turning north on the 75.

We just passed Ketchum, Idaho, and the turn-off to Sun Valley which are both famous for catering to the wealthy, which makes sense as Ketchum at least is reminiscent of Durango and Telluride over in Colorado.

The snow is pretty thick out this way and seems to be getting heavier. Sure enough, just a few miles past this and north of Galena, we reach the end of the road. Well, more road, but the snow is covering it, meaning we won’t be traveling in that direction. Time to turn around and head back to Highway 20.

That wasn’t so bad, as the view looks different when traveling south instead of driving north. This is near Fairfield, Idaho, and I should admit that I’m happy as a clam that the skies are blue because if there was a hint of snow, we would have been totally unprepared for such driving conditions.

This is Cat Creek Summit and what will have to be the last photo for a while as we are heading into Oregon to meet up with my sister Amanda Goff. The nearly three hours we lost on our drive up and back Highway 75 risk making us late for our dinner date.

We stopped in Baker City, Oregon, for a pit stop and to admire how beautiful the place is, but we’re just as quickly back on the road. We are in La Grande for this sunset and about 45 minutes away from Pendleton, Oregon. Our dinner with Amanda was a brief hour and forty-five minutes, but it was the first time we had seen her in at least a couple of years.

We found a motel in Arlington, Oregon, on the Columbia River, and as we were incredibly tired we took the first place we came across. Well, it’s the only overnight option in Arlington, a place that has a population of about 500 people. The historic room is perfect vintage 1971 decor with fresh wood paneling, green short shag carpet, and burnt orange curtains.

The crackle lacquer lamp and plastic glasses on the nightstand (paper-wrapped and sanitized for our protection) top off the experience, letting us know we’ve arrived in a real class joint that has bucked modernity for that kind of authentic flair not found everywhere. How much did we pay for our night in the ’70s? It wouldn’t matter, as this was priceless.

California via Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon – Day 1

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

This will be one of our crazy endurance road trips where no distance seems too far. For some reason or another, we didn’t leave the night before and shave two or three hours off the driving; instead, we left at 6:30 this morning and raced forward. North was our direction as we passed through Cordes Junction, Flagstaff, Page, and then Kanab in Utah. We breezed through Carmel Junction, looking west with a loving look in our eyes toward Zion National Park, just 15 minutes down the road. Another mile or so later, we pulled over for a roadside picnic in Long Valley, and before long, we were pulling over again, this time for a photo near Duck Lake.

We are driving kind of hard today to cover a lot of miles. This is just west of  Cedar Breaks National Monument.

This is the way into the Great Basin National Park; we are taking a peek at the peak.

Great Basin National Park near Baker, Nevada

Our visit to the Great Basin didn’t work out as it was too late for a quick tour of the Lehman Cave, and the scenic drive was closed due to snow. No big deal, as we’ll just put this one on the list of places to return to; we also learned that this park is home to the Bristlecone pine tree, which can live for thousands of years. We must come back.

There is a general excitement that occurs the first time we drive through a terrain that is new to our eyes.

It forces us to stop and grab a photo so we might better remember why this part of the journey was just as exciting as the other parts.

An amazing shooting star appeared, but obviously, that wasn’t going to be photographed by the time we stopped the car. We pass a sign for a turn-off directing us to the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and while we ignore it this time it is now on the list of places to come back to. By 8:45 p.m. local time or 9:45 Arizona time, we arrived in Jackpot, Nevada, after a grueling 865-mile drive. We’ll stay at the Covered Wagon Motel for only $19.93, including tax, because luxury is for those who need pampering; we need adventure.