4, Sonoma, Yosemite, Death Valley and more.

After a night time tour of the Italian sector of San Francisco with our new Intrepid travelling companions, lead by very capable guide/driver extraordinaire Juli, we set off north over the Golden Gate to the Sonoma and Napa Valley region for a sample of the famed local wines.

We are generally glass half full folk, however the tastings didn't allow for that.
The Sonoma county is one of the USA's major wine producing regions with over 425 wineries in the area. 

The San Francisco Solano Mission
Some architecture just doesn't date. 

Jack London State Park featured the area where Jack London, the famed American author, of such books as White Fang and The Call of the Wild, lived and is buried.
The park features a beautiful rock house built after Jack died.  As their dream house burnt down just prior to moving in.
Some of Jack's quotes photographed in the house are truly inspirational.

The house that Jack's wife built and lived in after Jack died. 

Hence, expand your horizons!

Set a goal and go for it!

The first steps are the hardest.
Then persist!

Prickly Pear has never been the environmental disaster it has been in Australia due to strict containment policies. 

And now for something completely different, the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch exhibited so many excited folk gathering pumpkins for Halloween.  There was even a large undercover corn-pit, with about twenty children playing in; with corn rather than sand.

Tip toeing through the pumpkin patch.
Collecting by the wheel barrow full for Halloween. 

Assortment of pumpkin types and sizes.

A pumpkin for all budgets.
A corn maze is on the right of shot. 

Turban pumpkins to suit all nationalities.

Tuolumne Grove featured giant Sequoia trees, some of which Carrol saw back in 1980, in the days when a small tour bus could drive through the tunnel tree.  Now this type of behaviour is frowned upon and thought environmentally unfriendly.

Autumn was in full swing during our time. 

The tunnel tree, of which the mini-van drove through during Carrol's USA tour in 1980.
Nothing has aged since then, not even Carrol.

Now that is one tree to note in the log book. 

Yosemite National Park gave us one of our greatest physical workouts of all time, taking 8 hours and finishing after dark to climb up and back down with 3 others from our group.  Our climb 3,200 feet up from the floor of the Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point to view the massive climbing rock faces of Half Dome, and on the way up and down, El Capitan.
Many of the best climbers take several days to conquer these massive walls, sleeping in cocoons hanging from the vertical rock face.

Start of a big day.
El Capitan is the cliff face central on the photo.
We climbed the mount to the right. 

Zoomed in 65 times from the same location as above photo showing climbers who had bivouacked on the cliff face overnight.
An incredible zoom for a point and shoot camera.   

Our stats for the climb day were: 36,137 steps, 360 floors, 27.76kms, 5,352 calories, 412 minutes of fat burning exercise.  We even missed the last shuttle bus back and had to walk another 1.6kms to our pickup point.

The warm up, an easy walk along  the valley floor. 

A peaceful start to the day. 

El Capitan to the right standing at 7,569 feet with a face of 3,000 feet. 

Endless steps, slopes and switch backs. 

The trees on the valley floor continue to shrink to eventually become dots.

Changing orientation and Half Dome came into view. 

Local resident or rodent?
Blending in well!

This peak at first loomed overhead, however, within a few hours, we looked down on it. 

The valley opening up. 

On one of the many breaks. 

Towards the top, the track levelled out and the trees dwarfed us.
The sound of large pine cones occasionally dropping was quite disturbing. 

Finally to the top and looking down at our starting point. 

The impressive face of Half Dome in shade. 

After all that way to find tourists who had taken the bus to the top.
Then there are others who photo-bomb our panorama shots.

1 Cor 13:2

The Summiteers:
Jess (Canberra), Rahel (Switzerland), Graham (Perth), Carrol and Don.
Never give up!!

Pointing to Half Dome and the person on top. 

The person on top of Half Dome from our Glacier Point vantage point. 

It was a case of one foot after the other down the vertical drop of 3,200 feet, hopefully getting off the track before nightfall.

The shadows were getting longer and the knees feeling the consistent braking. 

Track weaving downhill. 

The sun sets earlier due to the depth of the valley. 

Back on flat ground.  Just a short stroll now. 

Our Fitbit summary for the day. 

Lake Tahoe presented idyllic conditions again, and an easier walk up to Eagle Lake, a mere 63 floors of climbing which helped stretch out the taught muscles from the day before.

Onward, ever onward.
The Summiteers, plus Joy (New Zealand on the left).

Eagle Lake.
Again running out of daylight.

Trees showing true determination to survive. 

Against all odds and boulders. 

As the sun sets on Emerald Bay opening into Lake Tahoe.

Mono Lake provided an extreme in visual delights from the previous few days of scrambling up mountains.  This once terminal lake, had its water stolen by Los Angeles, causing a drastic drop in water level, thus devastating its ecosystem, mainly for migratory birds that feed on the shrimp and alkali flies from the lake.  Los Angeles lost a legal battle, and now has to partially replenish the lake level.

Tufa originally formed at the bottom of the lake.  When lake levels fell, the Tufa towers came to rise above the water surface and stand as the majestic pillars seen today. 

Beautifully tranquil, with last year's snow on the peaks soon to be refreshed with this year's 

On to Lone Pine where so many Westerns and other classics have been filmed over the years. These include The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, Gunga Din, Bonanza and John Wayne movies.
It was first to the Museum of Lone Pine Film History to learn all about the area.

State of the art camera car for close ups of horse riding sequences.
The vehicle is black as black due to dating back to the days of black and white movies. 

Who was that man?

John and Don had a chat about the good old times back at  Madame Tussaud's in Hollywood, a previous post. 

Serious discussion as to why an Appaloosa wasn't chosen to star in a black and white TV series. 

We saw ourselves photographed through the natural bridge of Mobius Arch with the highest mountain in the lower 48 states, Mount Whitney at 14,505 feet in the distance, before driving a couple of hours to the lowest point in the USA; Death Valley.

Just like being at a wide screen drive-in picture theatre. 

Mobius Arch with the lower 48 states' highest peak, Mount Whitney in the distance.
We are also at our peak.

The Lone Ranger rides again!
He has his own canyon nearby.

Ideal spot for an ambush if on horseback.
Dust from the approaching posse can be seen in the distance.  

Bicyclists dream ride if heading downhill.

The mighty Sierra Nevada mountain range dwarfs the road to Nevada

Death Valley is the driest and lowest part of the USA.  The views were amazing.

Approaching Death Valley.

Colour harmony!

Our morning drive into Death Valley saw us drop 6,000 feet in only a few hours.  

Our friend Wynette would be impressed by this vehicle snapped driving through Furnace Springs in Death Valley.
Apologies about the incorrect spelling.

Coyote feeling down after not having caught the wily Road Runner.
Beep beep!

Wondrous mix of colours. 

The water and salt give justification to the place name of Badwater Springs.
. 

At 282 feet below sea level, this will no doubt be the low point of our USA trip. 

Salt pans and searing heat in summer.

Roughly half way up the cliff is a white sign signifying sea level height.
Due to global warming the sign will be moving up the hill in the near future.  

After having run out of daylight for playing on the sand dunes, the sand decided to come to us in our motel room that night in Stovepipe Wells.  Despite a towel being laid at the door sill, sand poured in around the side and through the air conditioner and from behind the TV.  .

A nice clean room till about 3am.  Then the sand started pouring in from the switched off air-conditioner.

Fall out!

There are sand dunes out there somewhere.

On the way out of Death Valley, the Badlands Loop of Zabriskie Point provided more incredible natural wonders.

So different to other parts of Death Valley.

Sense of scale is lost.
Walking tracks can be seen on the top of some ridges.

Area 51 gave us a chance to meet some other tourists. 

We had heard there are twenty million illegal aliens in the USA.
This appears to be the centre for them. 

The ramifications of eating too many greens as a kid. 

After our time with our fellow travellers; we leave Death Valley as shadows of our former selves.
Freddie, the modified Halloween pumpkin on the left was adopted by Jess on the right from the Pumpkin Patch mentioned earlier.
Freddie has retired to greener pastures in Las Vegas. 

We leave this post with words from Jack London as previously photographed in this post.
"There is only one way to make a beginning, and that is to begin: and begin with hard work and patience...

Cheers, God bless,
Don and Carrol.