While Yosemite Valley is very famous and much-photographed, another area of the national park, the Tioga Pass, is rather less so. The Tioga Road runs for nearly fifty scenic miles surrounded by the high Sierra Nevada peaks and domes. The Tuolumne River flows across the sub-alpine meadows of the same name which offer wonderful views and some lovely walks.
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It is said that an early explorer in the region we now call Death Valley led his mule to a spring-fed pool to drink. The mule refused as the water was briny despite being miles from the sea. From this simple event Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, earned its name.
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Bodie is a former gold mining town, now a ghost town which, as the state park website says, has been ‘preserved in a state of arrested decay'. It looks largely as it did when the last residents left, its buildings still furnished and stocked with goods, offering a unique glimpse into the past.
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Planning our California itinerary was a bit like playing join the dots! There were plenty of places we knew we wanted to go to, sights we wanted to see. The great national parks, the giant redwood trees, the Pacific Coast and inland landscapes. Once those were plotted, we had to find the best routes between them. But what is best?
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In 1914 a volcano in north eastern California, Lassen Peak, blew its top. Its outbursts continued for three years but it now lies dormant, at the heart of the national park that bears its name. Much of the park is wilderness, but a road runs north to south through its western section, giving access to many trails and vista points.
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When we think of Chinatowns we think of big cities: San Francisco, New York, London. I was surprised then to read that the historic Gold Rush town of Weaverville in Northern California was once home to approximately 2,000 Chinese gold miners and had its own Chinatown. Many of the town’s buildings from that era remain, including California's oldest active Chinese temple. That sounded like somewhere worth exploring!
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However much you plan a trip there will be some moments and places you didn’t expect. Places that weren’t on your itinerary but catch your eye, or simply provide a convenient pitstop. Places that delight you all the more because you expected little of them. Such serendipity is one of the joys of travelling. On our recent California trip, Eureka was such a place.
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No, it isn’t possible to successfully photograph a redwood tree, nor to convey its impact; you have to experience it for yourself. Walking among these groves is unlike any other forest walk. More than by any other trees, we are dwarfed by them, and awed by a palpable sense of their great age. That age, that immense size, their sheer presence; only by being there can we feel those qualities.
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The arrival and consequent colonisation of America by the Spanish and English is well known of course. But the influence of Russia on these north-western coasts is less often mentioned, and was new to me until we visited Fort Ross. The skies were grey, but the sea fret lent an air of mystery to the scenes here that heightened the sense of a journey back in time.
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Growing up in 1960s London suburbia my imagination was fired by all I saw and heard about hippies. Their lifestyle, their messages of peace, their long flowing skirts and yes, flowers in their hair. So much more appealing than my bottle green school uniform with its regulation skirts just above the knee!
