Up in the mountains: part 2

Apparently Cold Spring Tavern has a number of springs on its land and I had a go at taking pictures of one of the small creeks. This wasn't as easy as I thought.

The light was a little tricky to work with, lots of dark and very bright spots as it was a sunny day but in the woods, but the worst part, as I found, was trying to hike over the rocks with my dodgy knee!

At one point I almost got stuck. The only way out was to go up but my knee wouldn't allow it, the other way called for a quick swim. Fortunately I found a way back but it was close for a minute or two!

Just a little further along the road is a nice spot for pictures - the Cold Spring Arches Bridge.

Up in the mountains: part 1

Towards the end of the California road trip we drove up State Route 154 or the San Marcos Pass north of Santa Barbara. I kept hearing a reference to Red Rock (I think) but am not actually sure if that's the name of the mountain we drove up or something else, but it's very beautiful nonetheless!

On the way towards the summit we even saw a view that reminded me of the Big Island, a very obvious extinct volcanic crater although the views were spoiled a little by the haze.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Cold Spring Tavern which I believe is very well known in the area. It's a fun place and certainly somewhere I'd love to visit again for a good night out but a designated driver is definitely required!

Although I don't have any pictures, there were a few memorials along the road to the tavern. It seems a lot of people drove off the road on their way to or from the tavern. There are some pretty steep drops of the road and it isn't a place to drive if you are even the slightest bit off form.

Lunch was nice and not too expensive for a change although as usual everywhere we visited in Central California likes to give you a meal that'll feed a large family for a week, but this place wasn't as bad as some I could mention!

More pictures to come of one of the springs in part 2 and click on the pictures for larger versions if you want.

Some calming sunrise pictures

I need to calm down a little. My PC has died and it serves me right for buying a complete piece of cheap crap from Walmart and HP, but it was an emergency at the time. As I've just discovered, the hard drive has failed and it would probably cost about the same as the useless pile of rubbish is worth to fix it, so I've just finished ordering a new computer. This would happen just a couple of days beyond the warranty of course...

It was always a machine I was looking forward to throwing off a cliff (of course I won't do that, what with the environment and all that kind of stuff). It replaced a PC I bought in 2002 which had ten times less memory and nowhere near the processing power, yet was hardly any faster. Good job, HP, you've lost a potential customer for life.

Anyway, I was planning to post a few sunrise pictures taken from a small beach just off Cannery Row in Monterey this evening, and guess what, I actually backed them up! So here they are courtesy of a laptop on which I've finally managed to install my mobile internet thingy. Hope you like them and as ever click on them for a better view.

Time for a beer or two...

Offline

I might be offline for a bit so please don't think I'm ignoring comments or have jumped off a cliff somewhere. My home PC appears to have died.

Time to go fishing

Dawn - my favourite time of the day. If I'm awake that is.

Another Pacific View: part 2

The next few photos are all in the Big Sur region where the coastline is simply spectacular. Although it was a beautiful sunny day it was surprisingly cold and very windy and the surf down below was tremendous.

A zoomed in view of Big Creek Bridge and the PCH running along the coastline.

Somewhere in the Big Sur region.

Somewhere else in the Big Sur region. We didn't stop here for long as I think we had a family dispute happening behind us and a possible jumper. There were enough people there not to feel bad about leaving.

I believe this is a view of the coastline around Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong. but on the next visit I intend to spend a little time here because the pictures I've seen of the place are stunning.

Bixby Bridge and coastline, Big Sur.

As we approached Monterey Bay it was time for another pit stop and a view of these structures:

Well, I know I was a few thousand miles closer to home than I usually am, but I didn't expect this! As ever, you can click on the pictures for larger versions.

Another Pacific View: part 1

For those of you that haven't driven California's Route 1, or the Pacific Coast Highway, I highly recommend taking a trip along it one day, especially in Central California and the area in and around the Big Sur. The scenery is simply breathtaking although I promise one day to return and take some pictures at sunset when the light is so much better for photography rather than the middle of the day, because I don't think my pictures do it justice. Still, I hope you enjoy them and remember to click on them to see larger versions.

Just a few miles north of Cambria where we set off after lunch.

Still not much further north and we were stopping a lot - I'd planned three or four hours for the trip to Santa Cruz but at this rate we wouldn't get there before midnight!

High up on the cliffs, the view to the south.

Pit stop!

Big Creek Bridge I think and the surrounding coastline.

Sunrise stroll on the beach

I had no idea Canada geese liked beaches let alone taking the opportunity to enjoy a relaxed stroll while watching the sunrise.

Early morning flight

The lone cypress tree

Apparently this is often used as the symbol of California, or at the very least it is used as the symbol of Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove. There are millions of pictures of it on the web but few in black and white so thought I'd be different!

I'm sure I'll be posting a colour version of it in the next few days along with other pictures from the beautiful 17-Mile Drive near Monterey.