California Travel 2021 (1) - An Overview

Current Path： Home / Travel / USA / West / CA2021-01

California Travel 2021 (1) - An Overview

Changde Wu 2021-12-31

Part One: Itinerary and Overview

The 2021 California travel was planned in 2020. It postponed to the fall of 2021 due to Covid pandemic. We planned this trip to cover all the ereas in California, and revisit some of the places (such as Zion) we visited 10 years ago. The itinerary was impacted by the California wild fires. While the Lassen Vocanic National Park was closely during our trip, we were lucky enough being visist he Sequoia National Park the same day before it was closed because of another wildfire. We were also fortunate that the evaculation order in Lake Tahoe area was stopped a few day before we started our trip. California was extremely dry, with many famous water falls totally disappeared. Wildfires are everywhere in California. We have had to watching the road conditions frequently during the travel. This is introduction of this travel series, highlighting the overall itinerary, the representative daily photos.

The table below is the actual logs of the daily activities for this travel.

Date and Weather	Itinerary	Place of Stay
09/09	AA Flight #1423 from Boston (6:00 PM) to Los Angels(9:20 PM)	Van Nuys, CA
09/10	Kings Canyon National Park	Three Rivers, CA
09/11	Sequoia National Park	Barstow, CA
09/12	Valley of Fire State Park, NV Zion National Park	Zion Lodge, UT
09/13	Zion National Park	Las Vegas, NV
09/14	Read Rock Canyon Death Valley - Zabriskie Point, Racetrack, Ubehebe Crater	Stovepipe Wells, CA
09/15	Death Valley - The Mesquite Sand Dunes, Deserts, Badwater, Artist's Palette Death Valley - Dantes View, Charcoal Kilins, Father Crowley Vista Point	Lee Vining, CA
09/16	Mono Lake Yosemite National Park - Tuelumne Meadows, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir	Yosemite, CA
09/17	Yosemite National Park - Glacier Point, Valley	Jamestown, CA
09/18	California State Capital Lake Tahoe - Ed Z'berg Sugar Pine Point SP, Emerald Bay State Park	Lake Tahoe, CA
09/19	Lake Tahoe East and North McAthur-Burney Falls	Mt. Shasta, CA
09/20	Mt. Shasta Shasta Dam, Sundial Bridge - Redding	McKinleyville, CA
09/21	Redwood National and State Parks- Northern Part	McKinleyville, CA
09/22	Redwood National and State Parks- Southern Part Drive-trough trees	America Canyon, CA
09/23	Napa Valley University of California, Berkeley Golden Gate Bridge, SF	America Canyon, CA
09/24	Point Reyes National Seashore	Santa Clara, CA
09/25	Stanford University CA Route 1	Gorda Springs,Big Sur
09/26	CA Route 1 continue Santa Barbara California Institue of Technology	Los Angels, CA
09/27	AA #1423 from LA to Boston

Part Two: Selected Photos for Daily Travel

P1 Road Side North of LA from Interstate I5

P2 Kings Canyon on Hume Lake

P3 Out of controlled wildfire southern of Sequoia National Park. The park was closed after we rushed out.

P4 Lake Kaweah, Three Rivers, CA

P5 Entrance to Valley of Fire State Park, NV

P6 Valley of Fire State Park, NV

P7 Road side on the way to Zion National Park

P8 Virgin river valley, Zion National Park

P9 Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, NV

P10 Devil's Golf Course, Death Valley National Park

P11 Morning at Mono Lake

P12 Sunrise in a smoky morning with Half dome at the foreground, Yosemite National Park

P13 California State House, Sacaramento, CA

P14 Fannette Island, Lake Tahoe

P15 Lake Tahoe North on Nevada Side

P16 Reno NV overview from high moutain road

P17 The trace of wildfire along the CA route 44

P18 Snow Peak(Lassen Peak?)

P19 Lassen Volcanic National Park closed for a long time due to wild fire. This is from the North Entrance.

P20 McAthur-Burney Falls

P21 Sunset at Mt Shasta

P22 Sundial Bridge - Redding CA

P23 Forest in Redwood National Park

P24 The wine tasting at a brewery in Napa Valley

P25 Inside the campus of Univerisity of California at Berkeley (UCB)

P26 Golden Gate Bridge, San Francsco, CA

P27 Point Reyes Shipwrecks, Inverness, CA

P28 Point Reyes Lighthouse, Point Reyes National Seashore

P29 Stanford Univerisity

P30 Iconic Bixby Creek Bridge on California Route 1

P31 Downtown Santa Barbara

P32 California Institue of Technology (CalTech)

Part Three: Drive through trees

California has world's largest trees and tallest trees. The giant trees in the SE of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains are sequoia tree, preserved by Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Park. The redwood forests are protected in the northern California coastal area by Redwood National and State Park. The sequoia tree is a type of redwood tree that is generally large in diameter and relative shorter.

Cutting a hole in the base of a lrage tree to let vehicles driving through was a good tourism idea. There are only 3 of the typical such drive-through trees exist in the northern coast of California. In this travel, we drove through all of them with our rental car, a mid-size SUV, Mazda CX-5.

P33 Tunnel Log in Sequoia National Park, not realy a drive-through tree.

P34 Drive-thru Tree, Klamath, CA.
The least visited among Threes, the youngest both in age and creation time among threes. Diameter at the base 17 ft, 167.54 ft tall; age 785 year; hole 7.33 x 9.50 ft; cutted in 1976.

P35 Shrine Drive Thru Tree, Myers Flat, CA.
The least healthy tree among Threes, Diameter at the base 17.25 ft, 96.8 ft tall, age less than 2342 year (posted on tree D 21 ft , H 175 ft, 3000 years old); hole 7 x 7 ft; cutted in 1922.

P36 Chanderlier Tree, Leggett, CA.
The tallest of the Threes, and also the most popular of the threes. Diameter at the base 16 ft, 276 ft tall(posted on tree D 21 ft , H 315 ft), hole 6x9 ft(Marked on tree; age 2400 year; cutted in 1937.

California Travel 2021 (2) - Photos from the Air