I have been in US for exactly one week now.
My husband and I reached San Francisco on Thursday evening, 6th July. The very next day we went to explore Napa Valley. Although both of us don’t drink, it was a great experience to visit different wineries and learning about the process of wine making. The day was perfect, blue skies, little breeze and Goldilocks temperature. We visited four wineries m - V. Sattui, Robert Mandavi, Dorioush and Domaine Carneros. Although all the wineries were spectacular, I like Dorioush the most.
We had lunch at V. Sattui winery and got our photos taken in front of the Napa Valley Wine Train.
The next day we went to see the giant redwood trees.
Took us three hours to get to the park due to an accident on the way.
We didn’t have any booking for the train that goes through the forest. But we were lucky to get one when they ran an extra train to accommodate the overbooking they had done. The train track was built to bring the logs downhill. Now it is mainly used as tourist attraction.
From the train commentary I learned a number of interesting facts about the redwood trees.
The redwood leaves absorb water from the fog which is quite prevalent in that region. But when the temperature goes really high during the day, they sweat, just like human beings, to keep themselves cool.
The cluster of redwood trees are called cathedral formation. It forms when a tree falls or get burned by lightning but it’s roots are still alive. New shoots spring up from the roots usually in a a circle or semi- circle.
Weather was great. On the way back we drove by the ocean on Highway One and had icecream in Santa Cruze.
On day three, we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, the most talked about landmark of San Francisco. But before heading for the bridge, we drove to Pt. Bonita Lighthose, Rodeo Beach, historic forts and Nike Missile site. The winding drive by the ocean was very impressive.
Then we walked to the Marin Headland, against the fierce wind. Marine Headland is slightly above the bridge height and provides a clear view of the bridge provided there are no clouds. Thankfully when we got there, there were no clouds.
Two things puzzled me though, about the Golden Gate Bridge:
Why the gates are red and not golden?
Why there were so many locks in the iron fence?
One of my LinkedIn friends, Karine, provided the answers:
"Golden Gate" does not refer to the color of the bridge, or to the Gold Rush, but to the Golden Gate Strait, which is the name for the space through which the water of the Bay pours into the ocean. The bridge was painted red because the original designer of the bridge got the idea that it would be more striking than the usual silver-gray color of suspension bridges.
The locks on the Golden Gate Bridge are called "love locks" - couples place them there to symbolize the bond of their love.
From Marin Headlands we went to Sausalito, a quite town now swamped with tourists. We had ice-cream from Lappert’s, and then drove by the sea all through to Tibiron and then back to San Rafael.
The next day we explored San Francisco CBD. We took a ferry from Larkspur to get to the CBD. The plan was to take the Big Bus to see the main landmarks but we started exploring the city on foot.
We walked down the Market city and reached the impressive City Hall precinct. Massive outside grounds had unique trees that I have never seen anywhere. They had twisted branches with leaves only at the top.
Inside of the City Hall was even more impressive. The carving in the doors and ceiling was spectacular. A number of newly weds were lined up to take photos on its spectacular staircase.
Closes to City Hall were Opera House and Symphony Orchestra. They were nice buildings but not as impressive as City Hall.
From there we walked to Pier 39. Spread over 5 acres, Pier 39 is the gathering place for locals and visitors. It is full of eateries, tourist merchandise and children’s attractions. We were hungry but couldn’t decide what to eat. We were drawn by the French Crepe shop. A man was making banana and strawberry crepes and the decision was made. We had our lives’ most delicious crepes.
That day we walked more than 21,000 steps. The weather was nice and we covered most of the landmarks the Big Bus was going to show us.
On Tuesday we started a four day tour of Yosemite National Park. Situated in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, Yosemite National Park is famous for its giant Sequoias, waterfalls and straight walls of granite mountains.
We left San Francisco around 8:30 and drove through San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, almond orchards and golden hills to get to Tuolumne Grove of Sequoias trees.
Sequoias trees are the largest living things in the world (even larger than whales) and also perhaps the oldest living things. Some trees are 3000 years old. We took photos with live Sequoias , fallen Sequoias, dead Sequoias and lightning struck Sequoias.
From there we drove to Yosemite Valley. Driving by the river, we made several stops to admire the granite mountains and several waterfalls that have sprung out due to unprecedented rain and heavy snowfall this year.
The ultimate stop was at the Tunnel View point where we witnessed rainbow at the Bridalveil waterfall.
We came to our lodge and had the well-needed shower. The park was sweltering hot while we were still in SF winterish gear.
We stayed the night at the Yosemite Bugs Rustic Mountain Resort just outside the Yosemite park. The hotel was exactly what the name suggested.
At morning, we left the hotel early to beat the traffic to enter the park. Today we spent the whole day in Yosemite Valley.
Our guide cum driver dropped us at the Curry Village, the closest spot to catch the bus to Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake was one mile hike from the there.
The lake was not a lake but but a creek. All the way through the hike creek was rapid and fierce. But at one area the water get still and you can see the reflection of the Half Dome. That’s why the name mirror lake.
I ‘tested the water’ by walking in it. It was freezing cold.
From there we went to Yosemite Visitor Centre and watched a movie about the Yosemite valley. I was particularly impressed by the story of John Muir, who was instrumental in getting the Yosemite area converted into a National park. In a way he was world’s first environmentalist.
In the afternoon we made our way to the biggest attraction of the park - Yosemite Falls. Instead of catching the shuttle, we walked through Cooks Meadow admiring the local flora.
Yosemite Fall has three levels - upper, middle and lower. Even the lower fall was one mile hike, but it was worth it. Gallons of water was coming down from all the snowfall this winter.
We climbed the rocks and got as close to water as we could to take photos and make time-lapsed videos.
Our last stop for the day was El Captain. We stopped near the granite wall of the half dome and listened to our guide (who is an experienced rock climber) explain how modern climbers climb the wall without piercing holes in it.
Yosemite park is the Mecca for the rock climbers. Each Spring and Fall, climbers from all over the world come here to climb the most challenging straight rocks (rather mountains).
We left Yosemite park in the evening and stayed in Sonora for the night. The next morning, we drove to Columbia town in Columbia State Historic Park only 10 minutes drive from Sonoma.
Columbia town is a well preserved town from the goldrush days. Gold was discovered here in March 1850, by the Hildreth Party, which had to stop due to heavy rain. One of the men started panning in the nearby creek just to pass time and found gold in the first try.
Word got out and within weeks hundreds of miners flicked the place.
We saw the replicas of tiny huts were as much as eight men would sleep in the sweltering heat.
But gold couldn’t be panned without water and it rains in Columbia only for two months in a year. On man came up with the idea of bringing water from Sierras and to sell it to the miners. He built 60 mile wooden channel passing through hills and valleys and made possible for mining to continue all year through.
Columbia got burned completely in 1852 and 1854. After that they started building brick buildings which survive even today.
Like other mining towns Columbia never became a ghost town. It has interesting history which I wouldn’t have learned had the highway to Mammoth Lake was not closed due to heavy snowfall.
We visited the museum, took a tour of the town and had lunch.
After lunch we drove to Lake Tahoe.
The evidence July 2021 fires were all around us in the Sierra Nevada mountains range. So was the snow from this year’s winter. Despite the sweltering heat there was still snow patches amongst the trees some more than a meter thick.
We spent Friday morning at the Emerald Beach on Lake Tahoe. It was half and hour drive and one mile hike to get to Emerald Beach. The Emerald Bay Area used to be a private property owned by Mrs Lora J Knight of Santa Barbara. Being of Scandinavian origin she commissioned to build a house there using elements found in Norwegian farmstead and wooden churches. The house (Vikingsholm) she got build still stands there and after her death was bought by California state. It is kept in its original state and is a tourist attraction now.
There was a little visitor centre there too which has a small museum about the history of Emerald Beach, its original inhabitants and Vikingsholm and its owner Mrs Knight.
From the visitor centre, we hiked about half a mile to see Eagles Fall. I enjoyed it even more than Yosemite Fall because it was less crowded and I could get much closer and watch the torrents of water fall on rocks.
We left Lake Tahoe around 2:00 pm and reached San Francisco around 6:30 pm. It has been an amazing week. We will be flying to Las Vegas on Sunday. I will have more travel stories to share next week.
Before leaving for the holidays, I was determined to publish Become A Productive Writer. I am so glad I was able to do it. It is available at Amazon.
You can get it here.
That’s all from me this week.
Neera Mahajan
Hi Neera,
I've been to the Redwoods many years ago. I plan to go again soon. Did you know the Sequoroas were named after a Cherokee Indian Cheif who developed an alphabet for his people many years ago (maybe mid 1800's. Yes, the big trees are spiritual in nature. They are amazing to say the least.
Im happy you are visiting the US. Where do you plan to go after Las Vegas?
If it were practical, I would like to meet you and your husband while your visiting. I think we would have lots to talk about.
I'll soon be traveling to Arizona (leaving Tues. July18) and if you are in the area maybe we could meet up.
Regardless, I hope you and your husband enjoy the journey. Talk soon.
Kindly,
Carol
All my exploring in this area and I never knew that redwoods sweat!