Posted by Karen on 11-Jul-2009
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Tersha, Elana, Brianna and I went with the Northern California Photography Group Meetup Group on a trip to Alcatraz Island and had the best day! This was my first time visiting “The Rock” and while we didn’t see Sean, Nicolas or Ed, there were lots of other visitors to the island on this gorgeous day. We arrived at Pier 33 and boarded the ferry to the island, sitting up top to enjoy the view. At the island, we listened to the ranger give the welcome speech and then we started meandering our way up the winding path to the cell house. Along the way, we saw numerous baby and juvenile birds because the island is now a bird sanctuary too. There are lots of buildings in a state of arrested decay and beautiful flowers all over the place. At the cell house, they give you a headset so that you get a guided narrative as you go through the building. The narrators are real guards and inmates from the past and they share stories of what went on there. It’s all very interesting and there is so much to see, that there is still more for me to see next time. Back on the mainland, we enjoyed a nice seafood dinner on Pier 39 and then we watched the sunset from their dock.
Posted by Karen on 11-May-2009
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Our last day here in Yosemite this weekend, so I suggested we hike over to the Vernal Falls footbridge (according to the map, 3/4 of a mile one way) and check out Vernal Falls before heading home because it’s a beautiful waterfall, complete with tons of rainbows. We reach the bridge and ooh and ahh and then decide to climb the granite steps of the Mist Trail to the top of the waterfall. We don our ponchos and get soaked thoroughly on our way up; at this time of the year it should be called the Soaker Trail instead of Mist Trail.. LOL! At the top, we decide to cut over to the John Muir Trail instead of going down the wet granite stairs. While the path on the park map looked relatively short, it didn’t show that it was all uphill, but we made it, hot and tired and then took the JMT trail back down to the car. And that is how you accidentally climb a mountain and turn a 1.5 mile short hike into 5+ miles!
Posted by Karen on 23-Mar-2007
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Maria and I signed up for a photography workshop through the Learning Exchange for this weekend. The instructor was Gary Hart and he specializes in Photographing Yosemite. We learned a lot of the spots that he goes to for getting his photographs. Valley View for sunrise, Bridalveil Falls and Fern Spring for the shade to get out of the midday sun, Sentinel Bridge and Tunnel View for sunsets. To get really good photographs of the outdoors, a lot depends on the weather and what kinds of clouds it creates. This weekend was clear blue skies with nary a cloud at all, while gorgeous for touring, it doesn’t make for spectacular photographs. We had a good time exploring the valley and learning where all the postcard shots come from. 
Posted by Karen on 06-Oct-2006
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So, I’m taking a long four day weekend and heading over to the Eastern Sierra to explore and enjoy the fall colors. It’s a long drive over the mountains and one of the pitstops I decided to make was at Burnside Lake to grab a bite to eat and a geocache. It’s a really pretty lake, one I’d not paid attention to the last time I saw it. Two years ago I passed Burnside Lake while on a 17 mile dayhike up Hawkins Peak, which is nearby. This time I did the 4×4 thing to get to the lake, it’s a much easier way to see the lake.. LOL! Continuing on, Monitor Pass is the name of one of the stretches of highway that crosses you over the Sierra Mountains. It’s beautiful up there, you can normally see views for hundreds of miles. However, today as I hit the summit, I’m greeted by snow coming at me horizontally, so the views weren’t that great. But after the snow and rain stopped, a pretty little rainbow came out to greet me. Even though this area is still recovering from a severe wildfire a few years back, it’s still very pretty in my opinion.
