There Were Flowers Along the Way

This post showed some of the beautiful Central Coast along California Highway One. What was missing were photos of the flowers seen along the roadside... all taken on May 1st.

Wildflowers with a bee, just doing what a bee does.

This hillside, covered with creeping phlox and and California Poppy (the state flower of California) was beside a long drive up to someone's home - a home unseen from the road.

The sun was so bright, and the phlox was so bright, it seemed to be glowing.

On the other side of the highway were patches of more California Poppies. I don't think I had ever seen red ones before.

They were so fine and delicate looking.

I don't know what the pale purple flowers are that were growing on the fence row but they went for quite a long ways.

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Becky Wiseman, "There Were Flowers Along the Way," Kinexxions, posted June 1, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/06/there-were-flowers-along-way.html : accessed [access date])

One More Time :: The Piedras Blancas Elephant Seals

Wednesday, May 1st - - A drive along the central Coast of California is not complete without a stop to see the Elephant Seals at Piedras Blancas, a few miles north of San Simeon. It is just plain fun to watch them interacting, getting annoyed with each other, and playing. If it is a warm day and the breeze is coming in off the ocean you may not want to stay long (the smell can be a bit overwhelming at times) but it is definitely worth a visit.

Carol has some cute pictures of the seals that she took in April of this year.  And here are some photos from my visit in April 2010. There was far more activity and movement amongst the seals today than on past visits.

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Becky Wiseman, "One More Time :: The Piedras Blancas Elephant Seals," Kinexxions, posted May 31, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/05/one-more-time-piedras-blancas-elephant.html : accessed [access date])

Along The Central Coast of California

Wednesday, May 1st - - No matter how many times I take this route, it never ceases to amaze me. This stretch of highway has got to be one of the prettiest (and most challenging) drives in our beautiful country! It doesn't hurt that I had an absolutely gorgeous day for my drive north along the Coast Highway with lots of  sunshine and temperatures in the upper 60s.

I didn't take a lot of photos - my goal for today was simply to relax, enjoy myself and the scenery, and to get to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park (26 miles south of Carmel and about 90 miles north of Morro Bay) before nightfall. That 90 mile drive took me nearly five hours. Yes, I stopped. A lot. It was fantastic!

Along the southern section of the Central Coast, a "few" miles north of Morro Bay - the hills and mountains are still some distance from the coastline but there are still cliffs to navigate to get down to the water. This wasn't one of them but there were a few places where you could actually get to the beach.

Occasionally, the highway weaved inland through canyons and around hills. You can see a small stretch of the road in the upper right corner.

Guardrails along the highway are present only in some areas, particularly where there is a distinct drop-off or very sharp curve.

There were a few delays along the way for road construction, but no long waits. I would imagine there are longer waits on the weekends when there is more traffic.

Yeah, it was a gorgeous day!

You can just barely see it, but to the right of the "big rock" in the water is one of the many bridges, engineering marvels, really.

A close-up of the bridge in the previous photo.

I arrived safely at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in plenty of time to admire the big trees and take a walk around the campground.  My site was next to a little stream and the sound of the water flowing by was very relaxing. I didn't see the sunset over the ocean but the sky above the trees surrounding the campground was filled with many shades of pink and pale orange. It was a fitting end to a great day.

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Becky Wiseman, "Along The Central Coast of California," Kinexxions, posted May 30, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/05/along-central-coast-of-california.html : accessed [access date])

Montaña De Oro

Wednesday, May 29th - - I have been back in Indiana for two weeks and am staying with some friends. I've found an apartment but it won't be available until the end of July and I'm still waiting for the final approval.  However, it will be worth waiting for - it has a garage! And I'm looking forward to "settling down" again. Thankfully my friends are very good ones and are willing to put me up and put up with me for a while.

Tuesday, April 30th - - In early afternoon I left Yosemite National Park and continued on to the coast arriving at Montaña De Oro State Park, a few miles southwest of Morro Bay. I fell in love with that area when I was stationed at Point Mugu (near Oxnard) in the mid-1970s.

The website for the park states that Montaña De Oro is one of the largest state parks in California and features over 8,000 acres of rugged cliffs, secluded sandy beaches, coastal plains, streams, canyons, and hills. I've stayed here before and enjoyed it very much. As you can see in the photos, it was rather cloudy and overcast - it was rather chilly too!

One of many flowers in the Ice Plant that was growing alongside the road.

A close-up view of the inside of the flower.

Looking toward the south.

Details that were hidden in the dark original photograph show up a little better after it was converted to a pencil sketch.

Looking toward the north.

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Becky Wiseman, "Montaña De Oro," Kinexxions, posted May 29, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/05/montana-de-oro.html : accessed [access date])

Yosemite Falls

Monday, April 30th - -

The morning light contrasts sharply with that of late afternoon.  The row of trees on the far bank of the river are the same trees that were in yesterday's photo.

Upper Yosemite Falls.

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls.

Even though the campgrounds were full, there didn't seem to be many people out and about. Traffic was light and it was easy finding a place to park so that I could simply walk around the meadows in the valley and soak up the views.

On a previous visit in July 2010 I was able to visit Glacier Point (the road was still closed this time) and got soaked at Bridalveil Falls. This time I decided to walk to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls. The trail was nearly deserted, it was very quiet and peaceful - except for the roar of the water which got louder with every step along the path.

There was a hint of a rainbow at the bottom of the falls.

Out on the middle of the footbridge, the mist from the falls was the strongest as was the blowing wind. I got wet, but nothing like at Bridalveil Falls.

A dramatic view of both falls, which is somewhat deceiving as it looks as though the Upper fall is immediately above the Lower fall. But looking at the third photo above, you can see that there is a considerable offset between the two waterfalls. As always, double-click on the photos to view a larger version, then click again to get the full size.

In addition to the road to Glacier Point being closed, Tioga Road (Highway 120 through the park) was also closed so a visit to Tuolumne Meadows was out of the question.  As much as I would have liked to do the hike that takes you to the top of Yosemite Falls, I didn't think my legs could handle the rugged, wet trail. Instead, I simply walked around the valley, had a picnic lunch next to the river, and enjoyed a wonderful, leisurely day.

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Becky Wiseman, "Yosemite Falls," Kinexxions, posted May 14, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/05/yosemite-falls.html : accessed [access date])

Yosemite Valley

Monday, April 29th - - It was 24 miles from the Hodgdon Meadow campground to "The Valley" area, which took about an hour to get there - and it wasn't because of the traffic either! It was simply the nature of the route going up and down and over and around and even through the mountains. Luckily the road into the valley was wider than the road to Hetch-Hetchy!

The late afternoon light was incredible.

Upper Yosemite Falls.

Bridalveil Falls.

Bridalveil Falls from one of the pull-outs along the road back to Hodgdon Meadow. As always, double-click on the image to view a larger version...

Same view, zoomed in a lot. This really shows the "hanging valley" created when the glaciers receded many eons ago leaving Bridalveil creek with nowhere to go except down!

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Becky Wiseman, "Yosemite Valley," Kinexxions, posted May 12, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/05/yosemite-valley.html : accessed [access date])

Ketch-in-up at Hetch-Hetchy

I've been "on the move" for much of the last 12 days since leaving Salt Lake City and have been off the grid for most of that time. I'm happy to say that I did indeed make it to the Coast of California but first I made a little stop at Yosemite National Park before moving on. The campgrounds in the valley were all full but there was plenty of room in the campground at Hodgdon Meadow at the North entrance to the park and I had no trouble getting a site for two nights.

Having heard about Carol's adventures (on Facebook - she hasn't written about them on her blog yet) in going to the Hetch-Hetchy section of the park, and never having been in that area, I thought I'd see if the drive was as harrowing as she described. I'll have to admit that, even in the mini-van, it was rather exciting with the sharp drop-offs and narrow roads. But I do believe that her trip down those roads was probably more than a little exciting - down right frightening - in that big old truck of theirs!

I did come across one turn-out where I was able to stop and take a photo of the dam and reservoir, but you have to look really close to see them! They are there, in the center of the picture.

From the same spot, zoomed in a lot. The Tueeulala and Wapama falls (on the left and right, respectively) can now be seen.

The reservoir and the falls.

That "dark spot" on the other side of the dam is a tunnel which takes you to the trail-head for several trails leading to the falls and beyond. I did walk about a mile along the trail but it kept going up and up and my legs kept getting shakier and shakier!

The view of the valley beyond the dam.
All photos taken on April 29, 2013

The drive back up to the main road was far more intimidating than the drive down to the dam. Yes, I tended to creep a little closer to the inside walls and away from the outer edges that seemed imminently closer than they had been!

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Becky Wiseman, "Ketch-in-up at Hetch-Hetchy," Kinexxions, posted May 10, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/05/ketch-in-up-at-hetch-hetchy.html : accessed [access date])

My Genea-Mecca Sojourn is Coming to an End

After six weeks in Salt Lake City, I'll be leaving Sunday morning. It has been a satisfying and frustrating experience. Although no breakthroughs have been made, more documents have been gathered that add to the understanding of some of the ancestors. Of course, some of those documents have generated more questions - a few which will likely never be answered. But that is the nature of genealogy and family history research, which is a seemingly never-ending obsession.

In addition to research at the library, I've also been working on cleaning up my Legacy database. It is a slow and tedious process but I'm starting to have a good feeling about it. There is still a lot to be done with it but there is light at the end of the tunnel. One of the benefits of this process is that some of the "holes" in my research have been identified and I was able to obtain a few of those missing documents here in Salt Lake City.

One of the highlights of my visit here was being able to spend some time with Denise Levenick, The Family Curator. Denise was here for five days, coming a few days prior to the Utah Genealogical Association's Spring Conference where she was the keynote speaker and gave several presentations. It was a very nice change of pace to have someone to bounce ideas off of and just talk about stuff.

One evening, A.C. Ivory joined us for dinner at The Garden restaurant on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Building. Lots of laughing and talking - and we also enjoyed the sunset over the valley!

What's up next?

The coast of California will be my next stop, for about a week of "just relaxing" then I'll be meeting up with some of my Joslin cousins in Missouri in mid-May. After that, I'll be returning to Indiana to "settle down" into a somewhat "normal" life - whatever that is!

G.R.I.P. is on the agenda in July. I'll be attending "Your Immigrant Ancestors’ Stories: Writing a Quality Narrative" with John Philip Colletta and Michael Hait and in August I'll be going to the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne. I'm looking forward to seeing some of genea-peeps again and soaking in some knowledge that will, hopefully, help with the research process.

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Becky Wiseman, "My Genea-Mecca Sojourn is Coming to an End," Kinexxions, posted April 26, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-genea-mecca-sojourn-is-coming-to-end.html : accessed [access date])

Out of Texas... into New Mexico... and Beyond

After departing Big Bend National Park on March 3rd, I traveled about 100 miles northwest to Fort Davis, just as I had done three years ago. Once again I stayed at the Davis Mountains State Park for nearly a week. And, once again I did pretty much the same things as then but there were no hikes or even pretty sunsets.

Leaving Fort Davis on March 10th I made it into New Mexico, traveling west through El Paso and north to Alamogordo, stopping for the night at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. It was extremely cloudy in the north as I drove out of El Paso giving me hopes of seeing a nice sunset. There were several layers of clouds that blanketed the sky when I arrived but within an hour they were gone! It was amazing to me how quickly the clouds disappeared.

My Campsite, looking toward the east.

A fun and rather dramatic shot of Van Dora and the mountains in the background.

 The think layer of clouds that blanketed the area when I arrived gave way to puffy cumulus clouds and blue skies.

 By the time the sun was setting, the clouds in the west had blown away.

The mountains to the east caught the last golden rays of the setting sun.

In the intervening week, I ventured into the north and western parts of New Mexico, primarily because I had never been there before and actually ended up in Colorado briefly. I'll have more photos posted in the next few days.

When I left Indiana, I had planned on eventually spending some time in Salt Lake City again. That time has come... the last three days were primarily spent driving (and driving), and I have arrived in Salt Lake City. I've also registered for RootsTech and hope to see many of my genea-blogging friends this week.

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Becky Wiseman, "Out of Texas... into New Mexico... and Beyond," Kinexxions, posted March 17, 2013 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2013/03/out-of-texas-into-new-mexico-and-beyond.html : accessed [access date])