Los Angeles

Los Angeles, March 7-9

I drove from Carrizo Plain over to I-5, which brought me over the Tejon Pass to the Castaic Lake State Recreation Area, just north of the San Fernando Valley. The lake is one terminus of the California Aqueduct, which supplies much of the Los Angeles area with drinking water. The recreation area serves a lot of fishermen and day-trippers, but there is camping (with amenities, but still no shower, for those keeping score), and I stayed two nights.

May 8 I spent at the Getty Museum, which did not exist when I was last in Los Angeles in 1985. Any semi-avid museum-goer should come here; it is well worth the time. One interesting piece of outdoor art reminded me of another that is closer to home -- see adjacent pictures and their floating tips if you're confused.

Tne next day I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which is also a highly worthwhile place to visit. (I also looked in the La Brea Tar Pits on the grounds; there was no active digging going on.) That evening I checked into the Custom Hotel, a somewhat trendy-looking hotel not far from LAX, as I had an early flight the following morning. In the evening I went to Westwood, to revisit some of my old stomping ground; it had clearly changed significantly.

The hotel lobby featured an unusual type of, umm, seating? Play objects? You tell me...

The return flight was uneventful. Home again!

Carrizo Plain

Friday, March 6

The drive between Pinnacles and Carrizo Plain National Monument was a rural scenic drive, continuing up the San Benito River valley. After pausing in Paso Robles for supplies and lunch, I arrived at Carrizo Plain in early afternoon.

Carrizo Plain National Monument encompasses the largest surviving grassland in California. Much of its recent history includes ranching and farming, uses that have been significantly reduced due to California's long-running drought. The monument is administered by a partnership between a number of public and private agencies, led by the federal Bureau of Land Management and the Nature Conservancy. It has minimal services, consisting of a small visitors center. There is no publicly-available potable water anywhere within its bounds, something its official website does not emphasize strongly enough; the nearest town where you might acquire some is more than 20 miles away. There are also relatively few sources of non-potable water, due to the drought. Fortunately, I had enough water for my needs in the car; had I wanted to stay more than the roughly 24 hours I spent there, I would have needed more.

The infrastructure of the monument is minimal. One road, Soda Lake Road, runs the length of the park, and is generally passable by passenger vehicles, although it may not be so if it rains. I did drive the rental car on some of the side roads, and experienced occasional scraping on the underside of the car. Some notable portions of the park are only accessible if you have a high-clearance vehicle.

The main things that I saw at Carrizo Plain were a lot of grass, big sky, Soda Lake, and fleeting views of smaller wildlife. After an uneventful if unexpectedy chilly night, I headed south toward Los Angeles the next afternoon.

Pinnacles and condors

Thursday, March 5. It's still raining, but the forecast is looking up a bit. I head out of Monterey, aiming for the valley that represents the San Andreas Fault in this part of California. While I'm not actually looking to explore the fault, we'll get to that in the next post.

After passing through Salinas, I head northeast to pick up California Route 25, which goes south, up the San Benito River valley, toward the eastern entrance of Pinnacles National Monument. In addition to some fairly nice scenery, Pinnacles is one of the areas where California condors are released, and they are frequently seen there.

Arriving early in the afternoon, I chose a campsite in the otherwise-empty campground, and headed up into the pinnacle area. My way up was via Bear Gulch, so my traveling companion insisted on being photographed there.

When I reached the highest sections of the trail, I had some views to the wilder western side of the monument, and also apparently spooked some condors. They were apparently shy, and I was not able to get any good in-flight pictures.

Taking pictures was also affected by the weather, which turned intermittently rainy. This did not stop me from getting some really nice relatively-close-up pictures of one fellow who parked himself on a rock about 105 feet off the trail on the way down.

By the time I got back to the campground, another two spots (out of about 50) were occupied -- we were all well separated, and serenaded by a flock of wild turkey, who eluded effective photography.

The next morning I hiked out again, this time to explore an area known as The Balcony, so named because the discolored runoff trenches on the rockface sort of make it look like a giant balcony. Along the way I saw some Steller's jays. The trail took me through areas undergoing ecological restoration. It turns out that when the Civilian Conservation Corps worked on the park in the 1930s, some of their roadworks interfered with the floodplains of one stream, resulting in changes to the ecosystem that are now slowly being remedied.

That afternoon I headed off and drove south, still parallelling the San Andreas Fault.

Monterey Peninsula

Wednesday, March 4, turned out to be a somewhat nice day. Maybe I need to talk to the people who schedule the weather, so it can sync with my plans. However, it did still rain part of the day, and I was indoors for a good part of it, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Following a few fine hours spent there, I went for a drive around the Monterey Peninsula I eventually decided that I liked the beach along Pacific Grove the best, so I went back to catch the sunset there before heading back to the hotel.

Big Sur, in the rain

Tuesday, March 3 opened with some sunshine, but it was not to last. Some of the gear was stowed while wet, something I try to avoid.

The drive north from San Simeon to Carmel-by-the-Sea is largely a wild, population-free drive. The southern portions of the drive are through ranch lands, populated mostly by cattle (and the occasional ranch house). The landscape becomes more mountainous when you enter Monterey County, and the road becomes more winding, and the scenery more wild. It turns inland at the community of Big Sur, where, due to recent wildfires, and current rains, opportunities to see coast redwoods were unfortunately not available.

I did stop along the southern (San Simeon) portion of the trip to photograph some wildlife, including elephant seals resting on the beaches, and a crane (or is it an egret?)

When the road returned to the coast north of Big Sur, the rains actually stopped, and for about 1/2 hour I hiked around some trails on a spit of land, capturing the scenery and the weather, until it began closing in again.

I made may way north from there, bypassing Carmel-by-the-sea to reach Monterey, where I took refuge from the weather in a motel.

Hearst Castle has a view?

Monday, March 2 began as a somewhat gray, damp, and at times rainy day. This in a state that has been experiencing drought for the last two years. OK....

The day's activities started with the rental-car equivalent of repairs. Yesterday, the Vibe's windshield got dinged, and a small crack had formed. Having had previous experience with things like this, I knew that small windshield cracks get bigger, so I made my way to the Avis counter at the San Luis Obispo Airport, where I traded the Vibe in for a red Ford Focus. Note to self (and others): I've always had good service from Avis, even though they cost more than other rental companies.

The pleasantries over with, I made my way up Route 1 toward San Simeon. En route, I decided to stop at Moonstone Beach in Cambria, where I took a walk on (and off) the boardwalk, and photographed some wildlife.

From Moonstone, I continued north until I reached San Simeon and the visitor's center for the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Landmark, aka the Hearst Castle. I quickly booked two of the three available tours (discount for buying more than one!), and had barely time to wolf down a slice of pizza before the first one left.

It has been alleged that there is a view from the Hearst Castle; I wouldn't know it (see first picture). Given that it was either raining or in-cloud during both tours, I didn't get to experience the full effect the alleged view presumably offers. Due to the usual sorts of restrictions on photography (no flash, and so on), most of my attempted photos didn't work. But a few made it...

The first tour, recommendeded for first-timers at the castle, goes through one of the guest houses, and then through the main rooms in the castle itself, ending up in the somewhat spectacular pool house, complete with gold-inlaid mosaic floors.

The second tour goes through the upper levels of the castle, including Hearst's private quarters (where the lamp pictured is located).

Following the tours, I trundled on over to San Simeon State Park, where I actually experienced some sunshine. Fortunately, this coincided with setting up camp, and dining, although clouds did set in again. The tent got rained on again that night.