Pinnacles National Park

Last time we visited the Pinnacles National monument turned National park, was in 2013 and it was in May. We promised that if we ever return, it will be in cooler time of the year! 

Our hiking group has been planning this for a long time and given my new penchant for singing, the trip was interesting for me. I was in a live singing class (more on that later) from 4:30-6 AM and we left Cupertino at 6:30AM and came back at 4PM. The place is almost an hour and 45 minutes away. We climbed 2200 feet and walked for 3 hours with almost an hour for photo breaks and lunch! 

It was beautiful.. clear skies, cool weather and just before it got really hot we were on the way down. 

As a bonus, we got to see three California condors, one at close range.. wish I had lugged my camera bag to capture close ups of the Condor.. these days I am just going with the iPhone.. the conversation and the laughs on the hike are the star attractions as are the views from the top..

Got some artistic shots, thanks to a crappy work phone which has some lens defect!! Still, the laughs were the highlight!

We did get to see the sun rise through the fog as we drove to Pinnacles.. it was amazing.. it was like we were driving into a fire!

the rock formations here are amazing! 

beautiful views from the top..

and we kept going..

we saw three of the condors.. one came within 200 feet and sat on this tree.. Thinking of going to a personal iPhone 13 and have separation of work and home numbers.. if you use your phone for more than work, it makes sense to have one with a better camera!

The condors are amazing to watch in close range! Majestic birds! The way they take off effortlessly and cover distances is a treat to watch!

we were debating the logic of using pinnacles in plural.. maybe it is pinnacles because the top has four or five little humps?! that is still being debated within the group!

giving the finger to everyone in the park... this rock sticks out!

One thing that is not obvious on the zoomed out nature shots is that when you walk on the trail, every rock is very colorful.. it is like walking through fall colors on rocks.. 

The "we were here!" photo..

My cap was wet.. had to make a bandana out of my handkerchief to avoid sweat from going to my eyes! It was reasonably strenous at places because we were stop and go.. to make up for photo break times, we had to walk faster.

Once we get to the scout lookout, it is all downhill from there..

walked past more scenic points..

and to the reservoir trail.. we saw what was possibly the largest natural ganesha in rock on the way down.. pullaiyaar rock rocks!!

the place is popular for mountain climbing.. we watched folks climb.. you can see one in the right on the top in this photo..

after a brief break at the reservoir, we continued down through the bat caves.. 

it was nice and cool in the caves! no bats, but saw nicely camouflaged lizards.

We came out, had a nice lunch at a picnic table and drove back. It was a day well spent! 

A few panoramic views..

and a video of the trip..

Strongly recommend this park for a day trip in fall. If you start early enough, you can have a fun time and be back down by lunch time! Kids can make it too if you go at a steady pace!

Loved it!

Castle Rock state park

The most recent hike with my wife was to Castle Rock State park. It was a good half day spent in great weather! 

First off... we had fun on the trip, per these photos..

This park and trail was amazing. At one point we got a view to what must have been 10 layers of mountains all the way to the ocean. 

The rest of the time we were treated to visuals of green hills as far as the eye could see

The trails were beautiful as well.. 

This big tree was just amazing and picturesque..

The entire park was beautiful. It was good we went early in the morning. There was a beautiful burnt tree root that was converted to a sculpture. My plan was to take a photo of it on the way back.. but given COVID, a lot of the paths have been made one way.. so we ended up returning to an overflow parking lot and walked on the road back to the main parking. Another trip, another day! 

There was a lot of climbing up and down large rocks on the trail path. I did bruise my big toe by hitting it against the side of a rock. Turns out the shoes I recently bought were not the right ones.. working on getting better shoes this week! 

Definitely recommend this trail for a half day hike if you are in south bay! I for one am happy to be going on all these hikes to explore the local parks in rapid succession. 

Devils slide - an afternoon trip

Given the last 7 months, we decided to take another short ride to a place within an hour radius that has not been visited in the last 20 years.. San found just the place in Devils slide near Pacifica. 

The weather was pleasant and we drove almost an hour to the parking lot there. Then there was a hike that was 3 miles back and forth from one parking lot to the other and back. This is a beautiful bike and walkway that goes around the mountainside overlooking the pacific ocean. 

There were 6 whales there breaching, but we could not catch it. 

We had great visibiilty while we walked one way and it started raining on our way back. For some reason we were just happy to be there and didn't care. 

We met an interesting old man called "Uncle Ericson" who was an 84 year old retired plastic surgeon who walks this path every day. we got to chat with him in the drizzle on the way back and he told us some stories about the place. That made the return walk interesting! He told us about this Jeep that was rolled down the slope by theives and how it has been there since 1999 and now trees are growing through it!

Got to take some pictures with both the iPhone and the Canon this time. 

It is all mixed and matched here (some of the iPhone photos adjusted in snapseed as well)

 a slideshow of the rest of the pictures..

Loved the place and the walk.. we were both happy to walk together someplace after a long time!

Hope we find more local gems like this!

Split panel canvas

Over the years we have printed many of the photographs as canvases. Recently I have seen a lot of my friends have these "split panel" canvas. They look great and have a natural shadowning effect and your eye is drawn to it. 

Except for one friend who printed his own picture, most of them get stock photos printed. Then Facebook suggested (why I do not know) a split photograph of Ganesha and Buddha to be purchased from a nichecanvas company. Both me and San went through some of those designs and were amazed by the quality of the images. 

Then I told San "I like this, but would rather have one of my own photographs printed like this". She said "show it to me on how it will look before we order".

That is a challenge to put it in perspective because the image size and how big it is on the wall, the image color  and how it goes the paint on your wall and the effect of the fixed lighting (we are not going to repaint or redo lighting for this canvas!) are not easy to visualize for everyone.

Kept searching for split canvas prints and could not find anything for a few days where you could take your own photograph and do a 5 panel split. Costco does a 4 panel as do at least three other companies. Most folks do rectangular shapes split with the perfect rectangle. Some do a 4 panel stagger (two up and two down, but all four panels are the same size). 

Elephantstock gave me an option to customize it and clinch the deal with the family because I could show them how it would actually look on the wall. I could upload different photos and show which one would look great. Fortunately the background wall color on their default was close to our wall and they had it above a dining table too!

The trial photo as visualized on Elephantstock website..

and the real deal on our wall..

Everyone in the house has given it a two thumbs up as it adds a lot of vibrant color to the room. 

Someday we would be able to upload a picture of our own living room into a software, add the photograph and visualize it as a split panel with different sizes and then order it. That day will also come soon. At the end of the day there are many families where the photographer does not have the only or final say in the printing process.. especially when he lives with three women. so the burden is on the canvas printing company to "help" sell the idea!

ps. the original photograph was from Joshua National park visit during Labor day 2012. It was 3 photographs merged to create a HDR image.

Laurel Caverns - a day trip from Pittsburgh

Day 2 of Pittsburgh trip over summer, we started off with a visit to Laurel caverns (not to be confused with Luray caverns in Virginia, which I visited 21 years ago as a young hippie). This one was a family owned local deal. It did not have any stalagtites or stalagmites but was more of a natural cave with two distinct types of rock. One on the walls and one for the ceiling. 

We checked in and went out to have lunch at the picnic tables they had outside. The view from the tables was just amazing! 

Before going into the cave tour which was around 45 minutes, they had a little gem panning area for kids. 

Jr. and the little one had a lot of fun panning for gems.. (they were more like gem stones) and there was an eye chart given to the adults to find what the stone was. 

This was a good way for the adults to get involved, with identifying the stones and realizing "sapphire in the raw" is not what we are used to seeing, or quartzite looks more like a gem as a stone but is worthless, etc. etc.

Then we went through the caves, which was interesting but not exactly breathtaking. They had one amazing display in total darkness where lights come on inside the cave to a classical music piece. 

There are places where the lighting makes you realize how nature works quietly underground to create amazing landscapes!

 

If you want to experience total darkness with a large group, this is the place to go. 

Apparently there were 2000 plus bats in the cave and they got a virus which makes their nose go white, and now they have less than 70 bats. That was sad to hear. 

We had a lot of fun going through the narrow passageways and it was a good walk through steep slopes. A decent workout! 

The family group had a lot of fun. We had fun cracking jokes and walking back up after the guide had finished. Reminded me of trips around temples in India where we would go in large groups and the fun part was the group dynamics, except this was nature's temple! 

We were on the clock to go to our next destination, so the timing for the tour and lunch was perfectly planned. If you have more time, they do have a tour that takes you into the tunnel, but that one is 4 hours and you need gear (and you will get wet and muddy). 

Definitely recommended this place for a half day trip, if you happen to go that area, with kids!