Places, Earth
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Places, Earth
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Day One, China Camp and Point Reyes I had been wanting to visit Angel Island for some time. My wife wasn't interested, so it was Francine , Douglas, and me, Douglas Adams doing the audiobook of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Francine is my car. I departed at 7 am, and within minutes, I was driving north on Interstate 5. The radio faded so I switched to the audiobook, "Life, the Universe, and Everything." I skipped the first rest area but stopped at Buttonwillow Rest Area. Elsa smiled at me from a "Frozen" theme tissue box on my dashboard. The farms passed by outside. I passed a truck carrying drywall, observing the pattern on the labels. On the other side of the highway, I noticed a truck from the trucking company negatively mentioned on "60 Minutes" last Sunday. I crossed the Kings County line. The miles flew by. I crossed the Fresno County line. I stopped at the Coalinga- Avenal Rest Area. I passed fields of what looked like Aloe or yucca or pineapple, not sure. There were numerous appeals for more water, much of the produce in this country comes from California. The Merced County line. I skipped the next rest area, which was closed anyway. More trucks featured on "60 Minutes." I passed the same drywall truck two or three more times. The miles flew by. At Santa Nella, I stopped for gas, a restroom, and to reload the four CDs that I somehow had loaded label side wrong. CDs loaded correctly, I listened to Sons of the San Joaquin as I continued north through the San Joaquin Valley. Stanislaus County line. More farms passed around me. San Joaquin County line, then I transitioned to the I-580 west. I crossed into Alameda County. Within a few minutes, I was driving west through Altamont Pass with one of the first wind farms in the United States. I noticed the east end of BART with all the trains parked at Noon waiting for the evening commuter period. I continued on I-580 West to Marin County. I arrived at China Camp State Park about 1:30 and it took a while to reach the fishing camp. I wandered this former Chinese fishing camp for about an hour and a half. There are several old buildings, a pier, a museum in one of the buildings, and a few small boats. As I walked to the end of the pier looking down at the planks with wide gaps between, I kept telling myself, "Don't drop anything." Minutes after leaving the Museum, I touched my prescription sunglasses, and a lens fell to the board walk below. Fortunately, these planks were closer together and I was able to repair the glasses with the repair kit that I keep in the glove compartment. There are several old pieces of equipment once used for drying the once abundant shrimp. There are many beaches and hiking trails in the park, but my interest with primarily the fishing village, so I moved on. I started out for my next destination, but noticed that I was driving past something that I was hoping to squeeze in somehow. I stopped just a few minutes to look at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Marin Civic Center. This blue roofed building includes several arches over streets and a decorative spire. There was a lot of traffic there and I wanted to find the lighthouse, so I moved on hoping to come back later. I wanted to see Point Reyes lighthouse on a piece of land extending into the Pacific Ocean. I was surprised how long it took to reach this far flung lighthouse. First, I drove along Lucas Valley Road between what looked like Coastal Redwood trees. It was a long enough drive before the map ap on my phone told me to make a U-turn, after which, it got lost. I turned around again and continued along in the original direction. The route zig-zagged through lovely small towns and beautiful scenery, but eventually I arrived. Well, almost arrived. It was a half mile uphill walk to the observation point. I remembered that when I called, I was told that if you have a handicap placard (which I do), you can open the chain and drive in a little further, where there are two parking spaces. It was still a short walk past the Visitor Center, which was closed, and to the observation platform looking down several hundred feet to the lighthouse. The 500 step trail down to the lighthouse was closed, but I wasn't expecting to be able to do that anyway. I photographed the lighthouse from a distance and turned around. There were several great photo opportunities looking along the cost in both directions from this peninsula. As I looked up the coast, I got a few nice photographs of a deer peacefully walking by. Earlier, a coyote crossed the road in front of me. I had to slow down for three wild turkeys in the road and another deer on the way back. Surprisingly, it was just as far back. Back in town, I tried the Civic Center again. I got some better photographs, but security was locking the doors as I approached. From here, I found my hotel, checked in, unloaded and unpacked, and started working with my photos and journal. Day Two, the Island I slept well and got up early as I always do and got ready for the day. I left for my adventure about 8:30 and reached it about 15 minutes later. My ticket to the Angel Island Ferry in Tiburon wasn't till 10:00, which gave me time to park and look around the dock area. Access to the ferry is a narrow alley and isn't open until 9:00. I had been wanting to see Angel Island for a long time, so the hour that I waited also seemed long, but eventually, they began boarding. The trip from Tiburon is only about ten minutes and was over quickly, but provided many photo opportunities. Once on the island, I wandered a little getting oriented. Then I set out on the 5.5 mile loop, at the top of a steep road. It was mostly level once up, but there were so any places to stop and take photographs, I started getting worried that I would miss the last ferry back. Along the way, there were so any great views of the East Bay, the bridges, San Francisco, ships, and Alcatraz. The first major stop was the Immigrant Barracks. While Ellis Island was the port of entry for the East Coast, Angel Island was the port of entry for the West Coast. There is a collection of building in various states of decay from "not too bad" to grass covered foundations. It is possible to enter some buildings with displays, others are unsafe. It was another uphill climb back to the Perimeter Road. The next stop was Fort McDowell (East Garrison), a collection of mostly unsafe buildings. It looked great and I took a lot of photographs. Actually, the building inside of the loop were in better condition, they were mostly officers' quarters. I was getting tired and starting to worry about time, so I skipped several batteries and the Nike site, and only observed Camp Reynolds from the Perimeter Road. I eventually made it back with an hour to spare and ate lunch and rested. At 3:20, the Ferry loaded and we were whisked back to Tiburon. I may return another day and see the third of the Perimeter Road and stops that I rushed past. It took 45 minutes to drive back to the hotel where I cooled off a few minutes before leaving for one last stop for the day. It took about a half hour to drive back to the Marin Civic Center that had closed as I arrive the day before. Unfortunately, it wasn't much easier to see the interior while it was open. I climbed several flights of stairs, but only found locked doors. Eventually I found an outside stair to an observation deck. I took a few photos from here and looked down to a long, skylight covered corridor, the type of corridor I was trying to find, but still couldn't get to it. Disappointed, I returned to my room and settled in for the evening. Day Three, Redwoods, Vistas, and Batteries: I slept well, got ready, and started my day's adventure. I had a 9:00 AM parking reservation at Muir Woods National Monument and arrived about 9:05. I mentioned to a ranger that I planned to visit the Nike Site that afternoon and she suggested that I talk to another ranger. It turns out that she is the only ranger at the Nike Site and she gave me the bad news that the web site was wrong and it wasn't open today. It was one of my two top priorities, so I was quite disappointed. My wife said that I couldn't stay three more weeks, I'll need to put it off a while. The ranger did suggest the Marine Mammal Center which is surrounded by the military batteries that I also wanted to see. So I began a long hike knowing that I now had extra time. I started up the Canopy View Trail, which I thought was a short loop, It was almost 3 miles, mostly up a steep and rugged trail. I paused a few minutes on a bridge over a creek and small waterfall. I was told it was once possible to see the ocean from this trail, but the trees have grown taller and cut off the view. As I returned on another trail, I was surprised to see a sign, "Entering Muir Woods National Monument." It turns out that most of this time, I was outside the park. Eventually I was back on the easy flat trail through these magnificent redwood trees, ferns, and other natural wonders. Upon leaving, the phone map ap wasn't working and I didn't know which way to go. I took the long way back to Highway 101. Eventually I arrived at Marine Mammal Center. I was a little disappointed that almost everything of interest was off limits. So I continued on. The woman there did suggest the Bay Model in Sausalito, but it closed at 3:00 and I drove through Sausalito at 3:15. Everything I wanted to see was in the same area, so it didn't take long to reach the Nike Site, which, as I mentioned above, wasn't open as I had originally expected. I took a few photographs through the fence and moved one, which was only about one thousand feet. I stopped at a road side sign/label that discussed both the Nike site below right and Battery Alexander, also below a little further left. A few hundred feet more was the entry to a parking area for three batteries. I started up the trail and came to a fork in the trail. As Yogi Berra would advise when you reach a fork in the road, I took it. I took the left fork and a few hundred feet later I came upon another fork and went left to Battery Smith-Guthrie. I can describe these ruins and then describe the next battery, but it applies to all of them. Today, these once strong steel and concrete structures are crumbling concrete, rusted steel, and unsafe structures. Most of the rusted steel doors are locked, or missing. Some stairs are in tact and some are broken or gone. Safety railing probably never existed because they would have interfered with the movement of guns and artillery. While these batteries are mostly open, extreme care should be taken when exploring them. Most consist of structures built into the hill, with round bases for large guns behind thick walls of concrete and earth. Usually there are two gun mounts per battery. I explored Battery Smith-Guthrie and walked back a short distance to the second fork and continued the other way. Next was Battery O'Rorke which was much like the previous. I started down a trail but realized it probably lead back to the parking lot so I turned around and returned to the first fork and went right to Battery Alexander. I explored this which was similar to the others, but I didn't see any gun mounts. I returned to my car and drove about a quarter mile to Battery Mendell. Again, it was crumbling structures which I explored a few minutes. From here, I could look back to a hillside with Battery Wallace, all that was visible were two structures built into the cliff. All together, I probably spent an hour and a half climbing over all these batteries. Fortunately, non of these strong powerful constructions ever fired a shot in anger. I had one last stop for Marin County. I followed the twisting route to Battery Spencer and the Battery Spencer Overlook. Along the way I stopped at another overlook. Battery Spencer was like the other with three exceptions. While the others were quiet and I saw only a few other people, this was crowded, mostly people for the overlook at the Golden Gate Bridge, the Golden Gate, San Francisco, and the Pacific Ocean. Because of its location, it looked both ways, and several of the gun emplacements were made of brick and not concrete. After exploring the battery, I did spend a few minutes at the overlook. Something hard to not notice, was a chain link fence. There is a bridge in Europe where "lovers" affix a lock as a symbol of their love. Eventually these locks need to be cut off because the weight of all those locks is damaging the bridge. Well, so far, this fence is standing despite hundreds of pounds of locks affixed. It was still a little early, but since the Nike Site was closed, I was ahead of schedule. It was too late to see the Bay Model so I returned to my hotel and settled in for the night. I started getting ready to drive home the following morning. Day Four: Pueblos, History, and a Mission I had a good night, got up early and got ready. I was on my way home a little after 7 AM. Back across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, but I didn't go back the way I came. I continued south along the east side of the bay to Jan Jose. I had recently become aware of a historical marker to the founding of San Jose that I wanted to see and photograph for my Missions web site. El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe Historic Site was a little harder to find than I had expected, even though it was right where it was suppose to be. It is in a half round area next to East Mission Street, but half the half-round, and the curved street behind, was enclosed behind an opaque fence around a temporary construction. The plain concrete back faced Mission Street. After going around the block looking for the curved road, I parked and found it by foot. I took as many photographs of the concrete block as I could justify, and continued on. My next stop was History Park. I parked, paid for parking at an automated machine, and discovered that I was in the wrong place. There is a large parking lot north of the zoo (which we visited a few years ago) so I assumed this large lot south of the zoo and north of the History Park was for the History Park. It's not. I'm not sure what it was for, but it was adjacent to the unused back gate to the History Park. There was no one to complain to or from whom to seek a refund. The actual parking is free, on the south side, and enter through what looks like the back gate. We had visited a few years earlier, but shortly before closing, so I wanted to go back and see the rest. I spent about an hour photographing the site and noted several new buildings, moved here, being installed. If I go back in a few years, there will be more to see. There is a trolley, but it starts at noon and many buildings open at noon, so next time, I will go in the afternoon, before 4 PM. I was finished with San Jose for this trip and headed south on Highway 101. I exited just south of the town of Soledad and within a few minutes, I arrived at Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, the 13th Mission founded in California. This was not one of the more successful Missions and today, only one side of the quadrangle and a small chapel have been restored. Two sides of the quadrangle are buried foundations and the remaining side is melted adobe walls. Since my earlier visits, a roof structure has been built over this last side to preserve what is left. While a restored Mission is nice to see, this is a real example of what most Missions looked like in the early 1900s, before they were restored. Almost all of the California Missions that you can see today are reconstructions. First I visited the small chapel, then walked through the museum which is most of the one restored side of the quadrangle. Then I wandered the area that was once the quadrangle. The east wing was a church and other spaces, now just a few floor tiles and three graves that were once under the floor of the church. The west wall is also just foundation stones and were once work spaces. The north wing is the melted adobe walls and was once other work spaces. There is an open space within with a fountain. Mission Soledad isn't as visited as the other Missions, but is an interesting site worth seeing. I got back on Highway 101 south, got gas at Paso Robles, and turned east on Highway 46. I started the audiobook "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish." After about 60 miles on Highway 46, I entered Interstate 5 and continued south. I played another CD by Sons of the San Joaquin as I continued south through the San Joaquin Valley. I stopped to use the Buttonwillow Rest Area. Just seconds before cresting Tejon Pass, the transaxel warning light came on in the car. I arrived home a little after 4:00 PM and was welcomed home by my wife and four-footed family. |
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| Note:This is not the official site for any of the places shown in Places Earth. Places Earth is not responsible for accuracy of the information. Hours of operations, prices, exhibits, and sometimes locations are subject to change without notice. |
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Support this Web Site I hope that you find this web site helpful. It started because of my love for Architecture and interest in History and a desire to share my photographs and tales of my adventures. I don't allow paid advertising. This web site is for your benefit and enjoyment and I make no profit on it. For twenty years it has been supported primarily from my regular paycheck as a Set Designer. If you are in the need of a designer, please see my Set Designer portfolio site Set Design Portfolio. |
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