Northern California Drive Abouts

Not a whole lot to report. Been wandering about on the West Coast some more, resulting in a few more snapshots. These are from Northern & Central California.

It was a cold, hazy morning... I was driving south down from Oregon... The layers of silhouettes poking through the low-laying strata of smoke and haze.was simply breathtaking. These images really don't fit well into a camera. The aspect ratio is too wide and the range of shadow to highlight is too deep to fully capture. But, that doesn't seem to stop me from making the attempt. I think part of it might be that when one finds oneself at these moments of vast beauty-of-experience, one wishes to share it in some way with someone. Then again, maybe it is nothing more than fussing around with a camera gives me something to do as I spend time there taking it in.

Mount Shasta From the East

I like the look of volcanos. like sand at the bottom of an hourglass, only much more interesting. Their presence is often so abrupt to the surrounding land.. and the larger ones change the atmosphere around them. You can see a faint circle in the cloud cover above Shasta. This might be caused by atmospheric effects from the mountain or it mught just be the Lemurians fooling about.

What do you do with that extra three feet of culvert pipe? Paint them up like Minions! Extra tires laying around the place? Don't throw them in the burn pile, paint 'em up like snowmen!

Smoke Sihlouette

Not a wildfire. This was smoke from a scheduled, controlled burn. There was this dense, ground-hugging bank of smoke that was rolling into the valley I was crossing. When I entered it The blue skies above disappeared visibility fell to a few hundred yards... Slow down, turn on the headlights and smell what will hopefully prevent the next year's wildfire.

Sierra Buttes North

The rocky outcrops ofthe Sierra Buttes

Cedar Chalet Bakery Sign

The neon tubes have all broken away. There was a bakery here once.

Oak Lined Road

The frost had been on the pumpkins for a few nights and these oaks have begun their Autumn redressing.

Lonsomne Chimney

This is a chimney in need of a house.

I took this same picture about five weeks earlier. I used a different lens, different camera. This has a much nicer sky... Change o' the seasons.

Can You Dig It?

Look Ma, no hydraulics! This old Excavator waits patiently in a field for it's next job.

Wiggly Oak Branches

There is something about the wigglyness of the branches of some oak trees. Even after they have fallen they can be interesting.

This is looking Southeast into the San Joaquin Valley from one of the high crossings of the very southern bit of the Diablo Range, about 15 miles, as the crow flies, from Coalinga

Rock Making its Point

A big ol', lichen-covered rock sticking up out of the side of a hill.

I think ramshackle might be putting it politely.

Misty, overcast day by the ocean. A low-laying haze creeps between the hilltops.

This is not a very pretty picture, but it's sure interesting. This hillside is about 100 feet tall. In the middle you can see the ancient ocean floor has been twisted so that it is aligned to the center of the earth instead of flat and then it is pretty much just folded up. At the bottom it curls around 90 degrees and then heads up to the right at a 45 degree angle. You can see how, during the eons it took to make this impressive fold, some of the layers of sediment delaminated & made gaps. In other parts you can see intrusions between layers. It is tough to see in the picture, but at the upper left, the strata has made another 90-degree bend.

When I was young & would get a croissant with my coffee in the morning I would love to peel apart the puff pastry layer by layer. This hillside gives me the same urge.... But I don't think it would dunk well.

At the time of this picture, the Bee Rock Store was closed up and for sale. Can you resist a business opportunity named "Bee Rock Store?"

An overcast day above the grape vines in the Salinas Valley.

That divot on the right is where the road leads... and if you follow the road all of the way through, you drive through the Carmel Valley and end up in Carmel.

Colorful Cliff

The top layer of this hillside is filled with rounded river rock. and then there is the eroded away layers of colorful sedimentary stuff. At the bottom of the cliff you can see a human face.

The Face in the Cliff

The Face in the Cliff... What is it watching?

There is only a small, private road that goes to that little valley in the distance.

Newt Crossing

How often do you see a newt crossing sign? Here's one. What is missing is a sign warning you not to feed them... pretty rough critters, those newts. I'm pretty sure the next newt crossing sign I see will have it's picture taken too!

Salinas Valley Farmlands

This picture is looking west across the Salinas Valley... That is the northern end of the Big Sur range across the way.

Guardian Oaks

Something about these oaks trees makes one think they are going to reach out to grab you... or maybe something less sinister. Perhaps they are in the midst of a ballet that takes centuries to perform. the pirouettes happen so slowly that it takes a lifetime of careful observation to notice the slightest degree of spin....

But really... it is dark and gloomy under there... I'm pretty sure that on a foggy winters' night you're not going to want to hang out and have a picnic under them.

The Road to San Juan Bautista

This is one of the routes between Salinas and San Juan Bautista... The slow one. Looking west from the crest you see a little bit of Salinas, the alluvial hills just north... and all of the way out to the ocean at the horizon.

I like these double tankhouses outside of Hollister. You don't often see them conjoined like this.


Photography Posts
Running Down The Coast
Mar 19, 2020
So I decided to take Highway One South from Mendocino to San Francisco It turned out to be a lovely day...
  Northern California Drive Abouts
Oh My Ears and Whiskers!
Oct 18, 2019
Yikes, more pictures from the past few months. A little Random with no story line.
Mister Choo Choo
Sep 18, 2019
I stumbled into the Train Museum in Portola, Ca. Pictures ensued,
Random Phoughts
Sep 05, 2019
Some random shots from the past year. The Hayfield is a nice, tidy, decently maintained motel to look at.
Wildlands of San Francisco
May 26, 2016
It is all around us and it is relentless. Right now it is working at destroying our homes and cities. While we sleep at night it is tirelessly toiling away. Overcoming everything we know. Everything we have made. Everything we will ever do. There is no escape. We are in a symbiotic relationship with it. We love it deeply and without it we will die. Yet in the long run, our species will be gone and it will overrun this world until all life is gone and there is nothing left but a burnt ember orbiting the Sun.
Some Humble Abodes
May 23, 2016
There are uncounted scads of really nice Victorian houses in San Francisco and if I was to take pictures of the best of them I couldn't afford the film... er... hard drive space. Besides, San Francisco has many more syles of houses beyond Victorians. This a selection of a few that I have shot in the past month or so.
Fort Bragg on a Foggy Night
May 12, 2016
The fog rolls in.. It is late on a late spring night. Nothing on TV. There never is. Grab the camera & tripod... it's time to take a walk.
And a Few More Pictures of San Francisco
May 09, 2016
There are always a few left-over pictures that don't seem to fit in with any article.. I'll throw in a Batch of San Francisco images here. these are shot in all sections of the city, and are not displayed in any particular order.
California's Lost Coast
May 07, 2016
There is an area of California known as the Lost Coast. Somewhere north of Fort Bragg, south of Ferndale and west of highway 101. There are a few ways to get there but fewer people who will tell you how. Some places you can drive to, much of it is accessable only by foot if at all. It is one of the remaining places that Sasquatch can run free.
What are you going to do in San Francisco anyhow?
Dec 28, 2015
I like San Francisco. I always have. For my first job I was a driver for a water lab. Every morning I had to drive from Redwood City to Marin (through San Francisco, of course). I had all morning to do the drive plus my lunch hour. I would often spend my lunch hour picking a new route through the city. Way too much fun to be paid for, but i took the money anyway. Now I had the opportunity to spend all day every day in the city.
Recent Pictures
Jun 19, 2015
May & June get lumped together. Lots of packing. 56 years of house to deal with. Getting my replacements at Gryphon up and running.
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