Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Page 2 of 3

On Walkabout at: Lady Bird Johnson Grove, California

Published on October 18, 2009 in American West Coast. 0 Comments

From the Trees of Mystery my wife and I then headed south on Highway 101 to spend the afternoon in the nearby Redwood National Park:

The drive south was quite scenic with the highway surrounded by the rolling green hills of redwood trees.  After less then an hour of driving we eventually drove into Redwood National Park:

The location my wife and I wanted to see in the Redwood National Park was the Lady Bird Johnson Grove.  As soon as we arrived in the parking lot we could see one lone redwood tree soaring over the much younger redwood trees that surrounded it:

This was just a preview of the many more large redwood trees to come located in the grove.  This grove is named after the wife of former US President Lyndon B. Johnson.  Lady Bird Johnson was a well known environmentalist in her day and in 1969 Richard Nixon dedicated this grove to her due to her environmental work:

From the parking lot we followed a trail into the dense forest to find more of these monsterous redwood trees:

The under growth in this grove of trees was about as thick as the other redwood groves I visited in the area:

At first we didn’t see any large redwood trees, but we did see a number of these blue birds that call this area of the forest home:

Eventually the trees did come into view and yes they were quite large:

All we needed was some Ewoks to show up to feel like we were on Endor:

Here is the tops of the trees pictured in the above photograph:

A number of the large redwoods had these hollows cut out of them by forest fires that sometimes occur in these forests:

These holes do not kill the trees because of how hardy the redwoods are, but they do provide shelter for the various animals and birds that call this forest home.  The trees in this grove are actually not quite as red as other redwoods since it is located at over 1,000 feet in altitude and away from the coast were the redwoods tend to me at its reddest color:

The hike through the grove takes only about an hour and is definitely worth checking out if visiting the park:

As nice as this walk through the woods is the Stout Memorial Grove to the north I found to be more scenic than the redwoods in this national park.

After visiting Redwood National Park my wife and I spent the night at nearby Eureka, California.  Eureka was located in a nice sea side location, but it was a bit of an odd town filled with loggers and hippies.  Not that bad of a place though and my wife and I had a nice time staying there.  However, the next morning we planned to drive east across the coastal range to reach I-5 to take us nearer to our next destination at Yosemite National Park.

Next Posting: East Across the California Coastal Range

On Walkabout On: Guadalupe Peak – Part 2

Published on October 18, 2009 in Southwest America. 0 Comments

Prior Posting: Guadalupe Peak – Part 1
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My hike was going really well as I continued to hike through this Ponderosa Pine forest on Texas’ Guadalupe Peak:

Besides taking in the pine tree scenery, I was also enjoying the incredible views of the various peaks that compose the Guadalupe Mountains:

Here is a view looking back towards the opening of the valley where I started the hike:

Here is the view up the valley towards even more peaks that compose this incredible mountain range:

As I continued to ascend up the mountain the trees slowly began to thin out:

And then I entered the top of a bowl like mesa that had another type of unusual tree I have never seen before growing on it:

As I got to the northern end of the bowl I then got a great view of the 8,749 feet (2,667 m) summit of Guadalupe Peak:

As can be seen in the picture above I had another thick Ponderosa Pine I would have to hike through before I could reach the summit of Guadalupe Peak.  However, before I entered this last forest I would have to cross over the only bridge on the entire length of the trail that hangs from a cliff side:

Here is the view from the bridge out across the remote West Texas desert:

When I crossed the bridge I got a better view of the bridge that spans across the cliff side chasm:

Just a short walk from the bridge, the trail then enters into the dense pine forest:

The temperature difference from walking out in the open and within the pine forests is easily noticeable as the forest really provided some nice cool shade to break up the long stretches of trail that is exposed to the hot West Texas sunshine.  As I ascended up and above the forest’s tree line I had a nice view of the bowl shaped plateau I crossed and if you look really closely at the below picture you can see the bridge I crossed earlier in the hike:

Here is a closer look at the bridge using my camera lens:


Here is a view looking towards the eastern portion of the Guadalupe Mountains:

After finishing my admiring of the view I then proceeded to hike the last remaining portion of the trail that was quite steep to reach the summit of the mountain;

Just below the summit there is actually an area to tie up horses, which was the first time I had realized that horses were allowed on the mountain:

From the horse tie up area it was a short hike to the pyramid shaped marker that sits on top of Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in all of Texas:

The marker on the mountain was constructed by American Airlines to honor the first stage coaches that crossed right by this peak as well as the trans-continental airplane flights that use this mountain as a navigational aid:

From the top I had great views on all directions to include once again to the East:

Here is also another view of the bowl shaped plateau:

Here is the view to the southwest where the salt flats were easily identifiable:

Directly to the west I could actually see the farm fields of Dell City that sits across from the salt flats:

Here is a view to the north of some really impressive rock cliffs that I would like to hike to some day:

However, the most impressive peak continued to be El Capitan that provides amazing views no matter which direction you look at it:

I spent about an hour on the summit of Guadalupe Peak before hiking back down the mountain.  It took me about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to the summit of the mountain and about another 2 hours to hike back down.  With the hour I spent at the summit my round trip time was around 5 hours. I got back to the parking lot around 3:45PM and was amazed that some people were just starting up the mountain despite the obvious thunder clouds coming in.  It is not wise to start hikes in the late afternoon on peaks such as this because of the frequent afternoon thunderstorms that are known to roll in. 

Anyway it was a great day out on the mountain that has some of the best desert scenery of any national park you can find in America. 

Australian Baby Survives Being Hit By Train

Published on October 16, 2009 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This is a pretty amazing story coming out of Melbourne:

Police in Australia say a 6-month-old baby has miraculously survived a train hitting his stroller that had rolled onto the tracks.

The train pushed the stroller about 130 feet (40 meters) along the tracks before it stopped.

Security video footage released Friday shows the mother looking away for a moment when the stroller suddenly rolls off the edge of a station platform and onto the tracks. The mother panics as she looks back and sees the oncoming train hit the stroller, but the baby boy survived with only minor injuries.

Victoria state Police Sergeant Michael Ferwerda called Thursday’s incident a “lucky escape” and said people should be cautious in train stations.  [Associated Press]

Thank goodness the baby was alright after all that happened.

On Walkabout In: Guadalupe Peak, Texas – Part 1

Published on October 14, 2009 in Southwest America. 0 Comments Tags: , .

A hiking trip I have been meaning to take for sometime and finally got around to doing recently is to hike up to Texas’ highest point in the Guadalupe Mountains.  Climbing every states highest point is something I have been slowly working towards as I live in different areas of the country and now I hoped to add Texas’ highest point to my list.  The Guadalupe Mountains are located about a two hour drive east of El Paso in far west Texas:

The drive from El Paso to reach the Guadalupe Mountains on Highway 180 crosses a very remote desert area that is actually quite scenic to include being able to see a few small dormant volcanoes that rise above the desert:

Since the Guadalupe Mountains rise so dramatically out of the desert they can be seen for a long way when driving across the desert from El Paso:

As my wife and I got closer to the mountains the highway crosses over a very large salt plain that has served as a source of salt for centuries by the Native Americans and later the Spanish colonists who arrived in the area:

These salt plains if you can believe it considering this is the middle of the desert, is the remnants of an ancient ocean that once covered this area.  Much like this large salt plain, the Guadalupe Mountains also have a connection to the ocean.  According to the National Park website, the Guadalupe Mountains is an example
of an ancient, marine fossil reef. About 250 million years ago, the vast tropical ocean that covered this area contained much sea life such as calcareous sponges, algae, and other lime-secreting marine organisms.  These organisms along with lime precipitated from the ocean water, build up and formed the reef that paralleled the shoreline for 400 miles. After the ocean evaporated, the reef was buried in thick blankets of sediments and mineral salts, and was entombed for millions of years until uplift exposed massive portions of it.  Look at the park today it is easy to imagine the ocean waves crashing into this exposed fossilized reef:

The impressive peak dubbed El Capitan is the first peak visitors driving from El Paso see when approaching the park:

Tucked into the base of the Guadalupe Mountains is the Guadalupe Mountains National Park visitor center that had an excellent park ranger who provided lots of information and great advice about visiting the park:

The park is actually quite large at 135 square miles with most people only visiting the southern region of the park:

The northern area of the park is only accessible by foot or by a two hundred mile drive around the mountains to north into New Mexico. I planned on hiking the trail from the south side of the park to the
8,749 feet (2,667 m) summit of Guadalupe peak which is the highest
mountain in all of Texas.  The valley floor on the south side of the park is nothing but desert scrub with a few small trees:

This is where the trail at the park begins and of course this is me with my usual hiking gear: Carolina hiking boots with gel soles, Columbia moisture wicking hiking pants, Nike moisture wicking shirt, Camelbak, and my ever trustworthy kangaroo leather stockman hat:

The mountain in the background is the first mountain that the trail to the top of Guadalupe Peak climbs up:

The trail was quite steep, but I was making some good progress up the side of the mountain and along the way I was amazed by these trees with bright red bark:

I don’t know what these trees are called but their bark was really unusual.  Anyway, since I was gaining altitude pretty rapidly on the trail I was quckly being rewarded with some nice views of the desert below to include the parking lot where the trail begins at:

You can see my wife’s blue Hyundai parked to the right in the picture:

She was waiting back at the parking lot for me while I climbed up the mountain since the mountain is too steep for her bad knee to handle plus she is pregnant and can’t hike anyway.  As I got higher up the mountain I began to notice some ponderosa pine trees growing among the rocks:

The Guadalupe Mountains is an example of a sky island in the desert southwest where the altitude of the ranges’ highest peaks gets enough water to support such large pine trees such as these ponderosa pines.  Besides pine trees the upper regions of the mountain also had a multitude of colorful flowers as well to see:

Also on this upper portion of the trail there is a section of the trail cut out from the side walls of the mountain:

Those afraid of heights best stay away from the edge on this portion of the trail:

As I rounded the corner one of the thick groves of ponderosa pines that are one of the key attractions of the park came into view:

As the trail descends into the forest it is amazing to think you are in the middle of the desert in far west Texas:

The best thing about these trees was that it got me out of the sun for a while because it was quite hot on the day I hiked up the mountain.  I wasn’t the only one enjoying this shad because I saw plenty of these lizards running around as well within the tree line:

Next Posting: Guadalupe Peak, Texas – Part 2

On Walkabout at: The Trees of Mystery, California – Part 2

Published on October 13, 2009 in American West Coast. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Prior Posting: Trees of Mystery, California – Part 1

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After walking around and checking out the amazing trees at the Trees of Mystery park along the northern California coastline we then walked over to catch a ride on the gondola that takes visitors to the top of a high hill that provides sweeping views across redwood country:

The ride up was actually a pretty cool experience and one of the better gondola rides I have been on.  However, it doesn’t top my all time favorite gondola ride in Queenstown, New Zealand though.  Anyway, after about a five minute ride we reached the top of the hill:

The views from the top of the hill were as good as advertised because we had sweeping views in all directions to include being able to see the distant ocean:

One of the park employees on top the hill told us that often times the summit of this hill is shrouded in fog, but we were lucky that today had relatively clear views in all directions of the surrounding redwood country:

In every direction the trees seemed endless, but the areas open to logging was quite obvious in some areas:

From the look out we also had the opportunity to see an osprey that made its home on top of a redwood tree:

If you look closely you can see the osprey in the picture above sitting on a branch on the right side of the tree.  These ospreys are common in the redwood trees and are exclusively fish eaters.  With all the rivers and creeks that run through these hills, these ospreys have plenty of fish to choose from.  After enjoying the views on top of the hill we then got back on the gondola for the ride down the hill.

Now we began to walk on the trail that would take us back to the park’s entrance.  Along the way we saw yet another example of how resilient these redwood trees are at sprouting new life even when the tree falls over:

The final portion of the walk was through an area that a local artist has displayed a number of wood carvings depicting Paul Bunyan’s story:

Of course there was a big wood carving of a bear as well that are supposed to frequent these woods:

The trail then exits into the visitor center and gift shop that surprisingly had a really nice Native-American display:

This display was a welcome bonus for someone like myself that is interested in Native-American history.  I spent about an hour in the visitor center reading all the displays about the local tribes as well as about Native-Americans in general in the United States.

Overall we spent about 4 hours in the park and had an absolute great time.  It was definitely worth the $14 admission fee to get in and is a great compliment to visiting Redwood National Park down the road.

Next Posting: Redwood National Park

Australian Emission Trading Scheme to Drop Both GDP and Wages

Published on October 13, 2009 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments Tags: , .

And the Democrats want to unleash this job killing monstrosity on America?:

Economic modelling on an emissions trading scheme (ETS), commissioned by the NSW government and conducted by the same firm used by the federal opposition, has found a four per cent drop in GDP and a likely eight per cent fall in real wages.

This modelling, according to the NSW government, generally received a tick from the Commonwealth Treasury.

The document was obtained by the Seven Network through a Freedom of Information application, with details broadcast on Monday night.

Citing secret Treasury economic modelling, the federal government has slammed the opposition’s modelling of the impact of the government’s carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) conducted by the firm Frontier Economics, pointing to a $3.2 billion black hole in the opposition scheme.  [7 News]

Andrew Bolt makes a great point in regards to why was the government trying to hide this from the public?  I think we all know the answer.

On Walkabout at: The Trees of Mystery, California

Published on October 12, 2009 in American West Coast. 0 Comments Tags: , .

After finishing up our drive along the northern California coast, my wife and I then pulled into the parking lot of the Trees of Mystery:

Locating the Trees of Mystery is easy because adjacent to the parking are two huge statues of Paul Bunyan and his ox babe that cannot be missed by anyone driving by on Highway 101:

The Paul Bunyan statue is 49 feet tall so it is quite huge.  The statue also had a moving head with someone with a speaker that would talk to people walking by.  Needless to say the kids had a blast with this larger than life statue.  I don’t know if the squirrels were enjoying the giant Paul Bunyan or not either, but it seems like there was as many squirrels running around as their were little kids:

Anyway the Trees of Mystery is a privately owned park located right between the Jedidiah Smith Redwood State Park to the north and the Redwoods National Park to the south.  For being privately owned land it has an incredible amount of some of the most unusual redwood trees you will ever see.  The first of these trees can be seen from the parking lot is the Family Tree, which is a unique tree that shows the redwoods ability of having other trees sprout out and up from its branches:

Here is a closer look at this phenomenon:

There is plenty more incredible trees to see within the park for only a $14.00 admission that is worth every dollar.  A trail that is little less then a mile takes visitors to each of the unusual trees located within the park’s boundaries.  However, the beginning of the trail takes visitors through this nicely manicured garden:

The park does have a bit of a religious feel to it, which is quite evident by this statue of Saint Francis of Assisi:

Readers of this site may remember where I have run into Saint Francis of Assisi before.  Saint Francis is actually the patron saint of animals, which apparently the park has a lot of.  Does anyone know if their is a patron saint of trees?  Anyway enough of talking about patron saints, lets take a look at these incredible trees.  The first huge tree that we came upon was this tree known as the Elephant Tree for obvious reasons:

Here is a tree known as the Upside-Down Tree that is an extremely long tree that grows across the trail:

If you look closely to the bottom left of the photo this tree actually grows horizontal out of the base of a large redwood tree that grows vertical.  So this one tree has two trunks with one growing horizontal and the other vertical.  Extremely weird tree, but they don’t call these the Trees of Mystery for nothing. The next tree is known as the Nature’s Underpass due to the fact that the trail goes under the tree:

It was actually a tight squeeze for a big guy like me to fit through the opening underneath the tree, but I was able to pull it off.  Besides trees there was also a lot of wild flowers to be seen in the park such as these beautiful blue flowers:

Next we came upon the hulk of a massive tree that had long collapsed to the forest floor:

This tree is appropriately named the Fallen Giant since the tree’s length is measured at 320 feet.  However, this tree is far from dead because if you look closely small tree are growing out of the fallen trunk of this tree.  This is because even if a redwood tree falls over, it doesn’t necessarily die as long as some of its roots remains in the ground like this tree:

Something else I just happened to notice while visiting this Fallen Giant is that these trees were at one time featured on Ripley’s Believe It or Not:

Believe me when I tell you that these trees are incredible.  Anyway, here is another example of one tree growing with two trunks, but this time they are both growing straight up right next to each other:

Besides the many unusual trees growing in the park there are many more typical redwoods of large size that grow in the park as well:

As amazing as all these trees are in this park, without a doubt the most incredible tree is the Cathedral Tree:

As I mentioned earlier these redwood trees can fall over but it doesn’t mean die and that is what happened with this tree.  Long ago a redwood fell over and these trees sprouted out of the log and grew straight up.  They may look like they are different trees, but they are all actually growing from the same tree:

Will the trees growing out of the Fallen Giant look like this one day as well?

Here is plaque located at the base of the Cathedral Tree:

The Cathedral Tree plays host to Easter Services every year and is also a very popular location for holding weddings.  Here is how the Cathedral Tree looks when standing at its base:

A short walk from the Cathedral Tree is the largest tree in the park, the Brotherhood Tree:

By the way, that is me standing in front of the tree.  This tree is 2,000 years old, 19 feet in diameter, and 297 feet tall.  The tree a few years back lost 74 feet of its height when a large wind storm blew the top of the tree off.  At 297 meters tall this tree is still one of the largest living things in the world.  Here is a view of the tree’s upper reaches:

Pretty impressive and I would love to climb one of these trees some day like these guys had a chance to do.

Anyway this was the last of the big and unusual trees to see thus we were off to take a ride on the gondola that takes visitor to the top of a high hill to get sweeping views of the redwood forest.

Next Posting: Trees of Mystery – Part 2

Australia Denies Paul Watson’s Visa Application

Published on October 12, 2009 in Environment. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I can’t stand Paul Watson for a variety of reasons and it appears he has worn out his welcome with the Australian government as well:

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s planned mission this winter against the Japanese whaling effort has hit a snag because Capt. Paul Watson and his first officer are experiencing visa issues and so far are not being allowed into Australia.

Outposts reported on this Monday. Australia is the strategic point of departure for Sea Shepherd, which annually hunts and harasses the Japanese harpoon and factory vessels as their crews seek to kill minke whales in the Antarctic region during its summer.

Watson claims politics are behind the stringent visa requirements he’s being asked to comply with and on Tuesday posted a letter on the Sea Shepherd website blasting Australia’s government for its stance on whaling and for trying to “sabotage” the Sea Shepherd campaign.  [LA Times]

Click the link to read all about Watson’s whinging.

Australia isn’t the only country that Watson has worn out his welcome at, even the French, (yes the French!) have grown tired of Watson’s act.

On Walkabout On: The Northern California Coast

Published on October 11, 2009 in American West Coast. 0 Comments Tags: , .

After visiting the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park my wife and I then proceeded to follow the four wheel drive road further into this dense redwood forest:

The trees that surrounded the road were no where near as big as the trees I had hiked around in Stout Grove, but they were still big enough to dwarf my Ford:

Looking into the dense forest it was pretty clear that most of the trees in this forest that surrounded the road had been logged before and that these trees were probably all under 50 years old:

Eventually the road exited the dense forest and my wife and I pulled into the small town of Crescent City.

There is not much to the town, but it was a nice enough location where a whole lot of people were having fun flying kites out on the beach:

My wife and I had dinner at a local diner which was pretty good before finding a hotel to stay at.  The next day we planned on driving along the northern California coast line to the Trees of Mystery, which our waitress at the diner highly recommended to us:

So after eating breakfast we began driving south on Highway 101 and in the early morning sunshine we could see the famous fog of northern California, which provides the moisture necessary for the large redwood trees to grow:

Eventually Highway 101 rises from the beach and into the hills that steeply plunge into the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean:

This coastline actually reminded me a bit of the Great Ocean Road in Australia’s southeast, but not quite as dramatic.  From a look out on the first hill, a great view of Crescent City was available:

What I found more interesting is an information marker that said that Crescent City lies in an identified tsunami zone due to frequent earthquakes that occur off shore:

I have never experienced a tsunami before and I have no plans of living in Crescent City to find out.  Here is a picture of my Ford from the look out safely above any possible tsunami:

Anyway we continued south down the highway and a fractured coastline began to come into view:

Something else that was also noticeable is that the trees along the coastline are relatively small compared to the trees in the interior which is probably because of the salt spray that the trees have to deal with every day.  The weakness of these trees is quite evident by how many trees we saw that were cut in half by the wind:

Fortunately on this day there was little wind and just mostly beautiful blue skies:

The highway began to drop in elevation and approach the sea shore again:

My wife and I parked at the beach which wasn’t much of beach and rather just a bunch of rocks:

The waves coming in were quite high this day, which probably means that a storm is coming somewhere out in the ocean:

We eventually came upon another beach had some sand with a few people out lounging about in:

People weren’t the only things lounging out in the sun as this seagull was enjoying the sunshine as well:

My wife and I then stopped to get something to eat at the Yurok Indian Reservation and this town had the nicest homes I have seen on any Indian reservation I have been on:

Quite a nice place with quite an ideal setting along the Klamath River.  The town was also right next to the Trees of Mystery park which we planned on visiting next.

Activists Protest Coal Plant In New South Wales

Published on October 11, 2009 in Environment. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I can’t stand these guys:

CLIMATE activists who chained themselves to a conveyor belt at a coal mine south of Sydney have been arrested.

Four members of the Climate Camp, a three day protest, locked themselves on the belt at the Dendrobium mine at Mount Kembla this morning.

Police said they arrested five people, four of whom allegedly had broken into the mine, and the fifth for helping them.

They were taken to Wollongong Police Station and will likely be charged with trespass, a police spokeswoman said.

It is believed the five were members of a three-day demonstration by a group calling themselves Climate Camp 09.

Climate Camp spokeswoman Jess Miller said the group was protesting over concerns about the mine’s impacts on the local river system.

“The expansion of polluting industries is being done recklessly and community members will not tolerate it,” Ms Miller said.

“We need less pollution and more renewable energy like solar and wind. It’s that simple.”  [AAP]

Since their protesting pollution I guess they got the memo that global warming isn’t going on any more.  What is ironic about this is that these protesters say Australia needs more wind energy yet these same type of people shut down Victoria’s wind energy project because it harmed people and the environment.

I would love to see where these activists receive power for their homes from?

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