| |
Central Californiaand the Sierra Nevada Mountains |
|
Travel videos - destinations available: California, coast and mountains Thailand 1 (Pranburi & Koh Samui) Florida Everglades
- Tamiami Trail
Additional pages My Surrey Border Films- Films I have made with other club members. misc and one off films Destinations where there is not enough film to have a page to itself, or individual events etc. |
We flew
into San Francisco airport in the
evening, slept over in an airport hotel, and set off early the next
morning for
the coast, and turned south towards our first stop, Monterey. We stayed
two
nights in the Best Western, pricey, but central and pleasant, a great
feature
being the free wine and nibbles get together for guests in the late
afternoon.
We walked around the old cannery area, now shops and restaurants, and
spent the
evenings in the 'fisherman's wharf area. During the one whole day there
we
drove around the peninsular, visiting Pebble Beach Golf Club. The next
day we continued down the Pacific
coast highway, great views, and the elephant seals were interesting, if
lazy at
this time of year. |
|
| Time to have an afternoon at Hearst Castle, amazing place. We've now done tour 1, an overview for first time visitors, but there are three others, more detailed. Next time out we would be happy to go again and see some more. | ||
|
We
turned inland, across to the mountains, a
journey that took much less time than we had anticipated. We stayed at
Three
Rivers just outside Sequoia National Park, and spent all the next day
soaking
up the amazing trees. Much to my delight, I had a close encounter with
a black
bear - who was far more interested in extracting something to eat from
a pine
cone than he was in me, so I was able to film him for several minutes.
|
||
|
Yosemite
National Park - we spent two days here, but when we got into the car,
in bright
sunshine, we heard a snow warning. By the time we got to the
mariposa
Grove of sequoia trees, it was overcast and chilly, luckily we had
fleeces in
the car, and at the 'tunnel view' entrance to Yosemite
itself, it was
snowing, and a lot of roads, including that to El Capitan, had
been closed
to cars without snow tyres.
|
||
|
We
drove out to our motel in Mariposa in mere rain, and the next
morning it
was bright and clear, so back we went. However the high roads were
still
snowbound, and we had to sit about in the main building until 2.00pm
before we
were told Tioga Pass was clear, we had accommodation prebooked on the
other
side, so had to cross. Glad we waited, the journey across pass was
worth well
worth the wait.
|
||
|
We
stayed overnight in Mammoth Lakes, our worst
motel by far, and not that thrilling a town, although to be fair, in
October,
it's neither ski time nor summer hiking. However, the journey up the
395 and
then Monitor Pass was fantastic, and warranted a video all to itself.
|
| Finally Lake Tahoe, where we stayed in Harrah's Casino, and at last had the chance to unpack. SPACE.....even his and hers bathrooms, each with their own TV. The Lake is truly picturesque. | ||
|
© 2004 Gillian Gatland |
||
