Johan,
If you truly are half way between SF and LA on the 5, you would
probably be little south of Coalinga? Coalinga is wired up like crazy, for
the next big earthquake there , which is somewhat overdue!
Yosemite and Kings Canyon are within striking distance, especially for two
seperate weekend trips. There are other nice forest areas accessible by roads
to pumped storage dams etc in the southern Sierras, but not quite as
spectacular.
A long drive from there, but really nice and photogenic is Joshua Tree, which
is inland from LA, but you would drive to Bakersfield and skirt around avoiding
LA. It is 8~9hr drive from the Bay Area, so maybe 6hrs from where you would be.
Two other places not too far distant are: Los padres forest in the coastal
range, specifically Arroyo Seco park (off HWY 101 near Greenfield) which is
very,very nice river hiking/swimming if you like the outdoors. The second is
pinnacles national monument, dry but very nice hiking and pleasant rock
climbing if you like that. To get to those 2 places, may take longer than it
looks on the map, because of the secondary roads needed, to get over from the
5.
Tim Hughes
--- On Wed, 9/30/09, Jeff Keller <om-list@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Jeff Keller <om-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] Trip to California
To: "'Olympus Camera Discussion'" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 6:08 PM
If you are traveling soon your timing probably isn't very good. Towards LA
there are some very nice springtime flower spots. I've seen fantastic
springtime photos from Gorman. (similar to
http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/ca.html )
The California Poppy Preserve is surely far from its peak and located
significantly east of 5 but ...
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=627
There are good migratory bird spots out in the central valley but you're too
early. Gray Lodge which is too far north is pretty unattractive most of the
year but when the geese are there it can be pretty amazing.
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lands/wa/region2/graylodge/index.html
I headed south a couple years ago to check out some of the wildlife areas
near Los Banos hoping they would be like Gray Lodge. My timing was off and
it was very disappointing. At the right time of the right year many of the
wildlife areas can be very worthwhile but otherwise about as attractive as
semi-abandoned farm land.
The DFG website at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lands/wa/index.html will give you
some names of places to look up.
Guessing from your comments you'll be in Kern County
http://www.parks.ca.gov/parkindex/results.asp?searchtype=4&county_id=15&sear
chtext=Kern
or Fresno County (which only has Millerton Lake listed under state parks so
maybe street photography?)
http://www.parks.ca.gov/parkindex/results.asp?searchtype=4&county_id=10&sear
chtext=Fresno
Your trip is probably too early for fall colors nor does California come to
mind when you think fall colors.
http://www.calphoto.com/fall.htm
In addition to Jim's mention of Yosemite, King's Canyon is good whenever you
can get into it. It doesn't take much hiking to get high into the Sierras.
But "not far or reasonable drive" by California standards often includes a
200 mile radius. ;-)
Jeff Keller
-----Original Message-----
From: Johan Malmström [mailto:jmalmstrom@xxxxxxx]
So I guess I'm back in the loop after standing aside for 8 months.
Seems like I'm going to California, half way between LA and SF along
the Interstate 5 is nothing and that is where I'm wanted.
Anybody in the region? Any thing to see? Birding spots maybe?
/ Johan
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