Month: July 2018

Saturday I drove down to visit the Lava Beds National Monument (which I will have other posts about). Now while I am staying in Klamath Falls, Oregon for a few days, the Lava Beds are about 45 miles south, in northern California. Both on the way to and from the Lava Beds I passed through portions of the huge Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Here are some photos I was able to capture today using the digital camera:

I’m quite sure this is a Northern Harrier (a type of hawk). It was pretty far off the road but I could tell it was very big:

This red-eyed wonder is a Western Grebe. They are like loons and some waterfowl I saw while I was in Arcata (but haven’t posted about yet) in that they will dive underwater for a minute or more while searching for food. They really do have red eyes, although I think I was real lucky on this shot to get some great sun reflection (kind of “red eye” for birds!):

This is a Red-winged Blackbird:

And as I watching several of these to try and get these shots this one took flight towards where I was parked:

This is an American White Pelican. This Wildlife Preserve near Klamath Falls was the first place I ever saw a reference to these (I was here briefly last year after visiting nearby Crater Lake), although I never actually saw any until I was in Aurora, Colorado (near Denver) towards the end of my trip last year (Search for “Pelican Point” on the Home page, or use the calendar there to locate posts from 10/16/17).

Unlike brown pelicans who dive from the air for fish these pelicans sit on the water and dip them out. Then they lift their heads and swallow their catch.

Then, like bobbing for apples, they go back for more…

They release the water from their pouch (but not the fish)…

Then lift and swallow:

Finally, this is a Great Egret, perched on a nearby work platform, grooming itself while keeping an eye on the lake:

I may go back down to the Preserve on Sunday and try my luck getting more pictures.

I didn’t plan for this to happen but here goes….

Friday was a travel day as I drove from where I was staying in Quincy, California up to Klamath Falls, Oregon (which, by the way is pronounced CLAM-ith, not CLAY-mith as I have been saying for the past year).  My series of scenic roads took me around the western side of Mount Shasta, a 14,179 foot tall mountain in northeast California.  Little did I know that the Klamathon Fire had occurred near Mount Shasta beginning back on July 5th, and lingering smoke was still very evident in a widespread area north and west of the mountain.  Here is a series of photos I shot while traveling through the area Friday afternoon.

I took the first two pictures only to send to a friend of mine in Durham, showing her the snow on the mountain.  They were taken as I approached the mountain from the southeast.

115pm, from a Vista Point (scenic overlook) along Route 89, SE of the mountain:

130pm, from the little town of McCloud, SSE of the mountain.

151pm, from Interstate 5 (while stopped in one-lane highway construction traffic, Shawn), west of the mountain:

200pm, now on Route 97, northwest of the mountain, and starting to drive north and east away from it:

214pm:

217pm, from the vantage point where I took the photos in the previous post, Klamathon Fire:

220pm:

224pm:

And finally, 232pm, from another Vista Point specifically built for folks to stop and view the mountain – which you can now barely see:

Friday was a travel day, as I drove from where I was staying in Quincy, California north to the town of Klamath Falls, just across the state line in Oregon. To get there I took a series of scenic roads which would ultimately take me out to Interstate 5 (pardon me, “The 5”) near Mount Shasta, California. When I exited “The 5,” after only having been on it for 9 miles, I got on Route 97 which would take me northeast to Klamath Falls. As soon as I got away from the dreaded interstate and got to an elevation where I could see off to the left this is what I encountered:

Wildfire smoke. Big time. I knew about the Klamathon Fire and knew it was up this direction but didn’t know to what extent, if any, I would interact with it or exactly where it was. Now I do.

Off to the left of the highway from this vantage point is (or was) the little town of Holbrook, which is where the fire was located. The Klamathon Fire started July 5 and has damaged or destroyed 38,000 acres of land and 82 structures. A 72 year-old man was found dead in his home and his death is linked to the fire (I’m not sure if it was from fire itself or smoke).

Here is a panorama looking left from my vantage point parked along Route 97. There are lots of things (large and small mountains, etc) out there but you can barely see them:

Holbrook is not far from where I took these photos and is about 60 miles southwest of where I am now staying in Klamath Falls.

Ferndale (population 1,371) is a little town about 20 miles south of Eureka, California which is best known for it’s large number of Victorian homes and buildings.  I drove down to Ferndale Sunday morning of the weekend I was staying in Arcata.  Here are some of the houses I saw:

What I loved about this first house is that the gutters off the main roof, instead of feeding the rainwater through a drainpipe, dropped it through a series of little cups which would overflow and send the water to the next cup down the line.  The narrow drainpipe in the next photo removes water from the small roof over the front porch.

This next photo was taken shortly before 9am, while it was still overcast.  When I came back in to Ferndale from having driven out to The Lost Coast I revisited some of the houses to get better photos after the sun had come out.

Same house, shortly before 1pm:

Same thing with this next house, the “Gingerbread House,” which is right across the street from the white house shown above.

Morning photos:

And early afternoon photos:

Other houses in town:

 

Ferndale (population 1,371) is a little town about 20 miles south of Eureka, California which is best known for it’s large number of Victorian homes and buildings.  I drove down to Ferndale Sunday morning of the weekend I was staying in Arcata.  Here are some of the houses I saw:

Ferndale (population 1,371) is a little town about 20 miles south of Eureka, California which is best known for it’s large number of Victorian homes and buildings.  I drove down to Ferndale Sunday morning of the weekend I was staying in Arcata.  Here are some of the houses I saw:

Ferndale (population 1,371) is a little town about 20 miles south of Eureka, California which is best known for it’s large number of Victorian homes and buildings.  I drove down to Ferndale Sunday morning of the weekend I was staying in Arcata.  Here are some of the things I saw:

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While I was walking around Ferndale I noticed this variation of an artichoke (a globe artichoke), which has a huge purple flower on top.

I also noticed, about 3 blocks back from Main Street, what I thought were going to be terraced gardens going up a hillside.  Turns out it is a cemetery.

I then took a few steps right across the road to include the sign…

I guess they just couldn’t bring themselves to say “Dead End”

After visiting the little town of Ferndale I decided to give seeing The Lost Coast another try, this time approaching from the north (Ferndale is where the road starts/ends depending on your direction of travel).  Immediately after leaving Ferndale I started to climb what would turn out to be a relatively small mountain.  While it had been overcast the whole time I was taking photos in Ferndale, as I drove through the heavily wooded road winding up the mountain I realized the sky above me was now blue, and I assumed that I had actually driven up through the cloud deck.  That assumption was confirmed when I reached a clear plateau at the top of the mountain and could look out at the clouds over the ocean.

These were taken starting at 1029am and I was at an altitude of 1,884 feet according to the MyElevation app on my phone.

I resumed driving (while it still had some deteriorating-condition issues this road was much better than I was anticipating – believe me, after the fiasco trying to get here from the south on Friday I had REALLY lowered my expectations…).  I drove back down through the clouds (I was curious at what altitude the cloud tops were but by the time I had driven that far down the mountain I had lost what little cell phone signal I had on the Ferndale side of the hill so the app didn’t work) and finally reached the foggy coast.  It was now 1101am and I had traveled about 12 miles south from Ferndale.

(story continues in Post 2 of 2)

Well, they say timing is everything….   I was enjoying the serenity of sitting by the road, watching and listening to the ocean when the sun finally started to break through the fog – at least right in my little part of the world.  This sequence of photos started at 1114am.

I’ve posted several photos from my vantage point looking south and once again, over the course of just a few minutes you can see more and more blue sky in them as the fog either lifted or started moving out to sea.

I decided I had seen enough and didn’t try driving any further south on the road as I didn’t want to push my luck.  As I drove back north towards Ferndale I once again drove up through the, now diminishing cloud deck to the totally clear sky above.  When I got to the relatively high plateau I took a few pictures using the digital camera but am VERY disappointed how they came out.  I am learning that the Nikon camera isn’t quite as good zooming in on things as the Canon camera was.

Here are more photos of the Carter House Inn, located in downtown Eureka, California.