Back to Table Mountain

I just couldn’t wait to get back to Table Mountain because I knew it must be getting pretty good by now and I was right.

Tuesday I headed over on my motorcycle again and then took the mile walk to get to the best spots and I was not disappointed.

The quantity of flowers had multiplied dramatically in the 5 days since I last was there.

It’s not yet near the spectacular bloom that we’ve some years and there is not a lot to see from the road but if your willing to walk a little you will be rewarded.

The forecast is for rain tomorrow and I would love to see that happen.

With some showers maybe we could still have a bumper crop of wild flowers this year.

Spring in the Bay Area

Connie and I spent the weekend in the bay area.  We spent Saturday and Saturday night at Dave and Jane’s in San Ramon.  Dave and I took a little ride up Mt Diablo to check for photo ops.  The greenery was spectacular and the color of the grass seem surreal  but we didn’t stay long.

Sunday we went to Heidi and Jay’s in Sausalito.  In the afternoon I had time to drive up to Mt Tamalpais.  What a beautiful day and the spring weather and scenery were great.  This is looking down from Ridgecrest Blvd. towards Stinson Beach.

This is the view looking back down Ridgecrest Blvd.

This is a view of San Francisco from Mt Tamalpais.

Spring Flowers on Table Mountain

I think maybe another week and we could have some serious wild flowers.

I went for another walk today and they have increased quite a bit in the last week.

Of course some years are better than others but I’m hoping that this year will be a good one.

Right now most of the best spots are a long way from the road.  I had to walk a couple of miles get these shots.

I would say the poppies have quadrupled in the last week and the lupines  have probably doubled.

I’m sure I will be making several more trips out there in the next few weeks.

It’s only about 10 miles from the house and in this beautiful weather I can take a motorcycle.  The hike actually kills 2 birds with one stone because I go for a walk everyday anyway.

Not Exactly Travel

Well folks, it’s been a while since we went on any big trips, but we have several coming up this year.  As always I expect to get lots of good pictures.  You will be able to decide for yourself whether I actually do or not.

In the mean time I can’t just sit around and not take pictures, especially with my new camera sitting around and burning a hole in my camera bag.  Yesterday it was sunny and I took a little ride and long hike and here is what I got.

I rode my motorcycle up to Table Mountain and then I hiked around on top of the mountain for several miles trying to find some good shots.

I was on my way to get some photos of a waterfall that I know about but was interested in finding whatever I could along the way.

This photo was made from the process of combing three photos together that are taken at different exposures.  The process is called HDR for high dynamic range.  Those are Poppies in the foreground.

This is the waterfall I was looking for and it’s called Phantom Falls because it only flows after the rain.  We have had a lot of rain lately. 

Here it is again.  Table Mountain can be incredibly beautiful in the spring when the wild flowers bloom but they are just getting started.  I think I might be a week or 2 early.

Honorable Mention!

This is the cover of Outdoor Photographer magazine for February 2010.  Why is it on my blog? Because I entered a photo contest in the magazine and out of several thousand contestants I managed an Honorable Mention making it one of 5 photos that got published.

My photo is labeled number 2.  It was taken on our trip to Yosemite in February of 2009.  I am very excited just to have it published in this very popular photo magazine.  There is more on our trip to Yosemite on this blog under March 2009.  It can also be viewed on this blog under October 2009, Calendar January and at TomWallis.com in the Yosemite Gallery.

Westport For A Few Days

Well we haven’t been doing much lately but some of recent trials were a little stressful.  We decided that a few days at the ocean would be a nice way to relax a bit.  So we headed to one of our favorite short trip locations, Westport, CA, near Fort Bragg.

We are already home but we had no Wi-Fi in our campground so you’ll have to settle for this after the fact account of our trip. The weather was gorgeous, mostly sunny with just one brief shower.  I almost wished for a few more clouds at sunset.

The sunsets weren’t spectacular but I did manage to glean a few nice shots with some nice color in them.

Thanks to Steve and Alice Hensley’s gift of a ride on the famous
Skunk Train, we took the 4 hour ride from Fort Bragg up into the redwoods and back on Tuesday.

We were treated to some great scenery as well as loads of history and stories about the train and redwood logging in this area.  Logging began here in the 1880s.

Here are the happy campers in front of their mode of transportation. You see, it really is called the Skunk Train.

On the way home I got to take a turn in the front seat.  That provides the opportunity for some photos right out the front window.

Evenings are all about the sunsets and seeing what we can come up with for photos.

I just happened to have a motorcycle with me and took a little ride up into the Lost Coast of California where there is no highway along the ocean.  There are some dirt roads however and it’s kind of fun to have the coast almost to yourself.

Here we are tucked into our campsite in an RV park on a creek and practically on the beach.

We love to be able to see and hear the ocean from right inside the trailer.  This will do.

And of course there are the walks on the beach.  This is very relaxing.  Just what the doctor ordered.

But then it was time to go home. So there you have it in a nut shell.  A mini travel log of our mini vacation.

Calendar Cover

The cover photo of Mt McKinley was taken along the Parks highway which runs from Anchorage to Denali and Fairbanks. We spent several days in Talkeetna and drove the hundred or so miles to Denali without the trailer on one of those days. We didn't actually take a tour of the park. The only way into the park is by bus tour and the shortest tour was about 4 hours. We didn't feel inclined to spend that much time on a bus that day so instead we drove up to Healy and turned down Stampede Road. That was the road that Chris McCandless took on is ill fated trip to the bus where he died. We drove to the end of the pavement before we turned around.

This is was just one of many places where you can admire Mt McKinley on the way up the Parks highway.

 

This is the view of Mt McKinley from along the river in Talkeetna. It was taken with a telephoto lens which helps it to appear so large from that distance.

This was the view from a hill just outside Talkeetna. The top of Mt McKinley is cover by clouds about 70% of the time. We were very lucky to get all of these nice pictures of it in the few short days that we spent there.