Finally Home

      I thought it might be a good time to post the final chapter of our western trip, particularly since it ended over two months ago.  Our last morning in San Fran consisted of heading over the Golden Gate Bridge for a few views of the bay and the city.  An amazing bank of fog produced an extremely interesting set of images.  Shooting into the sun was also problematic, but I think some of the shots turned out pretty well.

    According to the information contained in one of our guide books, the bridge was opened in 1937 and was the longest suspension bridge in the world a t 4,200 feet until 1964.

     On our way to the airport, we had time to drive into the downtown area and search for a fountain that was donated to the city by 19th century actress Lotta Crabtree.  Lotta is one of the actresses that Nan is researching.  She started her career in the gold fields of California and had a career that lasted almost half a century.  She was an early advocate of protecting animals and had the fountain pictured below built for horses to drink from.

     Of course, there aren't many horses still pulling carriages around the streets of San Francisco, but the fountain remains as a remembrance of an actress so popular that she was known by her first name.

A Day of Work and Play

     We only had two full days in San Francisco and one of them was spent in the Sutro Library at the UCSF.  The campus is actually south of the city and near the coast.  On our way to the library we passed a moving tribute to the victims of teen suicide.  Over 500 backpacks were place on the ground to represent the number of monthly teen suicides in this country.  To some were attached a picture and the story of a child who took their own life.  It was difficult - oh hell - it was impossible to keep your composure.  Very moving and thought provoking.  Below is a picture of the tribute from the library window and then down on the quad.

     After spending most of the day at the library, we had enough daylight left to stop off briefly at Golden Gate Park and take a short walk.

     We could have seen more of the park without walking by using the handy mobile contraptions pictured below. You get a personal guide as well. 

    
      We passed several of these tours and saw the park the old fashion way, using shank's mare (that's by foot for those of you unfamiliar with the phrase).
      From the park we continued on up the Great Highway to Lands End.  This famous point overlooks the Pacific Ocean, Seal Rocks, the Cliff House, and Golden Gate Strait.  The Cliff House was originally built in 1863, according to the NPS pamphlet.  It reached its peak as a Victorian era resort with a number of baths being the featured attraction.  That resort was owned by Mr. Sutro (the library we visited was named after him).  All that remains of his resort are the bath ruins.  The present Cliff House was built in 1909.

     Below are some views of Seal Rocks, the strait, and the Golden Gate Bridge.

    That night he went to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner.  It has changed quite a bit since my last visit some 25 years ago.  It has become pretty standardized, with many of the national chain stores and outlets blanketing the area.  Not much local character left - of course the bay is still there and that is beautiful - we decided we didn't have to go there again.

Completing the Circle

     The last leg of our journey would take us back to San Francisco for our library visits at UCSF, but not before a day of hiking in Mount Tamalpais State Park.  Just north of San Fran in Marin County, this 6,300 acre state park surrounds Muir Woods National Monument.  The park has over 50 miles of trails which connect with those in Muir Woods and trails within the Marin County Water District.  Of course, Muir Woods was not open because of the government shutdown, and we were advised to avoid using trails that passed through the national monument.
     The first hike we took cobbled together a 3 mile loop which took us close to the top of West Peak on Mount Tamalpais. We reached a point where the trail joined the toll road that goes to the summit of the mountain.  Since that would have required hiking along the road for several miles, we turned around.  There were some excellent views however from the site of a demolished lodge complex.

     The photo above looks back at the skyline of SF.  To the north is the view below toward Point Reyes.

    The trail also took us past the 3,750 seat Mountain Theater built by the CCC in the 1930s.  There is a Mountain Play Association that perform in the amphitheater.

     Our next hike took us on a 6 mile jaunt from the park ranger station down 1400 feet on the Dipsea Trail to Stinson Beach, then up 1400 feet on the Steep Ravine Trail through beautiful redwoods back to the ranger station. The first part of the Dipsea features wonderful views of San Fran Bay and the Pacific coastline.

     After dropping down an extremely steep section, the trail winds its way to Stinson Beach.

   What you come down, you must also go up.  The Steep Ravine Trail lives up to its name.  It  follows a stream through the coastal redwoods.  We were there in late afternoon and the shadows and sun slanting through the trees created a variety of  different lighting effects, none of which are truly captured by the photo below.

  
     We finished the day crossing the Golden Gate at rush hour(of course going into the city made the trip easier), and slept well,  ready to hit the libraries the next day.

Time Away From the Stacks

     During our stay in Sacramento we did get a chance to see other parts of the city.  The American River flows through Sacramento and actually caused some interesting architectural changes to the city in the middle of the 19th century.  Sacramento was prone to flooding and in December 1861 and January 1862 a great flood devastated the entire central valley area of the state.  It was reported that the flood covered 300 miles and was 20 miles across.  The state government was shut down and moved to San Francisco for a year and a half.  The answer to this flooding problem was not to move the city, but raise the cities' buildings.  According to our guide at the Stanford Mansion, this was done city-wide and thus the city was maintained at its present location.
     The Gold Rush history of the city is preserved in Old Sacramento on the banks of the American River a short walk from the Capitol Building.  In the area there are 53 historic buildings, most of which have been converted to commercial space.  You can take a tour called "Old Sacramento Underground" which explores the construction and building that was done to the city to protect it from further floods.

     There is a "Wild West" look about the buildings some of which actually date back to - well - the wild west.

     One of the things we found in the California State Library was a journal kept by an actor in San Francisco which has the dates of the arrivals of actors from the East and the opening and closing dates of their performances and in what shows.  It was an amazing document.  It turns out that one of the first theaters in California was in Sacramento and he had performed in the first show there.  The original theater was wood with canvas siding and a tin roof.  The present structure was built in 1970s when the Old Sacramento area was revitalized.

     
     In honor of Sacramento being the site of California's first permanent theater, we attended a performance of an adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" by the Sacramento Theatre Company at the Wells Fargo Theater.  The company is affiliated with Actors Equity and also has an education branch.  Some of the students filled the roles of the younger sisters.  The principals did a fine job and it was an enjoyable evening.  
     I would be remiss in not noting that the California Rail Museum is also located in Old Sacramento.  This amazing facility houses a number of vintage steam engines and rail cars and in the summer runs an excursion train along the river.  I was able to take a peek inside of the museum at and wish we had had more time to see it thoroughly.  My dad would have loved it.  I remember as a kid going on a family trip to Bellows Falls, Vermont, to see trains on display at Steamtown, USA , an outdoor collection of steam engines.

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Days in the Library

     We spent 4 days in Sacramento, most of them in the state library, which had some of the friendliest and most helpful librarians with whom we have ever dealt.  We stayed at a hotel just a few blocks from the library and, when we weren't reading manuscripts, explored downtown.  It was one of the few places we've ever been where Nan had no problem finding places that served vegan meals.
     The State Capitol is modeled after the US Capitol and is quiet imposing.  The day we arrived, there was a 5k scheduled in the Capitol Park in support of a charity sponsored by the Sacramento Kings.  They had set up a BB court on one of the streets and played an exhibition.  It was very festive.

     We arrived on a Sunday and of course the library wasn't open.  However, in addition to the celebration at the Capitol, we were able to visit Sutter's Fort State Historic Park.

     Construction on the fort was said to have begun in 1840.  Sutter has an interesting background.  According to the printed material we received at the fort, he was born in Germany, lived and worked in Switzerland before he fled Europe  "to escape mounting debt and a rocky marriage".  After coming to America he traveled west and arrived in California after stops along the was including side trips to Hawaii and Alaska.  He had a cozy relationship with the Mexican government and was granted an almost 49,000 acre grant of land.  Additionally, he was appointed "Captain" of troops in Sacramento.  His named is readily associated with the discovery of gold.  He was not however the person who discovered it; that was James Marshall who, while building a sawmill for Sutter 50 mile up the American River actually made the discovery.  The gold rush actually resulted in Sutter losing his "empire".
     The present fort was reconstructed in the 1890s and became part of the California park system in 1947.  The present structure is slightly smaller than the original, but is still quite a good historic site. There is one original building remaining.  It is pictured below.

    
      The fort had walls 2.5 feet thick and from 15 to 18 feet high.  Within the fort walls were sleeping quarters, shops for tradesmen, places for the production of blankets, a grist mill, and a distillery - All the comforts of home.  The present site is quite thorough in reproducing the commercial and social ambiance of the place.

     The other site we were able to visit before getting to the library was the Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park.

     This mansion which is still used by the State of California as an official reception site, was built by the businessman and governor of the state Leland Stanford.  He was born near Albany, NY, but worked as an attorney in the Midwest before moving to California in 1852.  He was a Republican and Unionist.  He supported Lincoln's election and worked to have California made a state.  He became governor in 1861 and the house became to Governor's Mansion. His wealth was responsible for the establishment of Stanford University, but it was his wife's management skills that guaranteed it's growth and fiscal stability.  In 1900 Mrs. Stanford gave the building to the Catholic Church and it was used as an orphanage until it was purchased by the state to become a state park.

 

And Now to Work

     Having spent a couple of days hiking and seeing the state parks around Santa Cruz, we started the work portion of our trip.  We made a quick stop at the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park.  This mission was the 12th of 21 missions founded by the Spanish in Old California.  The only original building remaining on the site is the old adobe building that housed up to 17 families of neophytes(native people brought to the mission to be converted and "civilized"). 

     The interior of the building offers a variety of exhibits which include a look at the lives of the native people of the area, the organization of the mission, the lives of the neophytes, and the industries of the mission.  Below is a representation of what neophyte housing looked like.  It was pointed out that beds, like the one pictured, were for the highest ranking neophytes.  The neophytes did all the work of the mission.

     Although technically not slaves they were not allowed to leave the mission.  If they did soldiers were sent out to find them and bring them back.  When the numbers of workers at the mission were insufficient to meet the work needs of the mission, soldiers were sent to California's central valley to look for new "converts". Sounds an awful lot like slavery to me - oh that's right they weren't "owned" by the mission.  This information was obtained from the pamphlets provided at the site.  The analysis is my own.

    From Santa Cruz we headed east through the central valley of California toward Sacramento.  Along the way we stopped off at San Juan Bautista State Historic Park.   This park consists of a number of buildings that attempt to show the life of a California town in the mid-to late 19th century.  The oldest structure is the park is the Mission founded in 1797.

      A number of other exhibits are contained in the Plaza Hotel, which was opened in 1859 by Angelo Zanetta. According to the information contained in the self-guiding tour brochure, Zanetta purchased an old adobe barracks, built a wooden second floor and opened an establishment that was noted for its good food and fine accommodations.

     Many of the exhibits inside the hotel have been set up to recreate the look and use of the particular room(as the Dining Room pictured below).

     Zanetta did well financially and was able to build Plaza Hall which he eventually used as his residence with the second floor serving as a meeting hall for public gatherings.  The rooms on the  first floor of this building have also been set up to show the way the Zanetta family lived in the 1800's.

      The site has several other interesting buildings and was valuable in giving us a feel for the life style of the people we are researching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monarchs and Natural Bridges

     As hopefully you've been able to tell from my other posts, the diversity of this section of the California coast is pretty amazing.  This was particularly true of Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz.  The park got its name from the mudstone arches that were found there. 

   When the park was first created there were three such arches.  The recurring erosion caused by wind and water caused one arch to fall into the sea in the early 20th century.  The inner arch was taken out by a storm in 1980, leaving only the one above.

    In addition to the arches and its thousands of birds, the park is also the winter home of Monarch Butterflies.  Each Fall the park welcomes home over 100,000 of the Monarchs who have migrated from the Rocky Mountains.  The butterflies nest together in a sheltered canyon full of eucalyptus trees.

     They cluster together in the tree tops and feast on the eucalyptus leaves.  The weekend we were there was the "Welcome Home Festival".  We took a short hike through the Monarch preserve to the beach.  But the butterflies are what made the park special for us.

From Sea to Tree

     We started our third day in California with a trip to Wilder Ranch State Park just above Santa Cruz.  This park was created from a working dairy farm which had been operated by the Wilder family for five generations.  When operation of the farm became no longer profitable in the 1970s, a large development was planed for the acreage.  The citizens of Santa Cruz County voted to protect the land and in 1974 it was acquired by the state.   It consists of 7,000 acres of protected marshland, beaches and coastline.
      As this was a working farm as late as the 1970s, the state has done a great job preserving that aspect of the site as well as the natural aspects of the land.  I'm sure the site is also used as an education center as gardens and livestock are well maintained. There is a self-guide walking tour of the ranch buildings which includes one of the original structures on the site a circa 1839 adobe structure.  This building is now a shed but was originally the home of  one of the original farmers of the property Jose Antonio Bokcoff.

     Also present on the site is the 1896 Victorian home of Melvin Wilder which featured electric closet lights that turned on automatically when the closet door was opened - an early smart house. I should add at this point that the information contained in my blogs about these parks was obtained from a series of excellent brochures prepared by the state for each site we visited.

     After touring the farm property and buildings, we hiked the 2.5 mile Old Cove Landing Trail.  This trail takes you first through protected wetlands to Wilder Beach.  This beach is closed to protect the Western Snowy Plover, and endangered shorebird.

     The trail continues along the ocean bluffs(actually called Marine Terrace) to Old Landing Cove and Fern Grotto Beach.

     Fern Grotto is a small sea cave which is adorned with hanging ferns(hence its name).  The ferns are sustained by fresh water that drips through the ceiling of the cave.

      We were fortunate enough to visit this area at low tide and thus were able to see Harbor Seals sunning themselves on "haul out rock" in Old Landing Cove.  According to the trail guide Harbor Seals don't bark like sea lions and are mostly quiet.

     From Wilder Ranch we moved up the road a bit to Big Basin Redwoods State Park which is California's oldest state park created in 1902.  The park is around 18,000 acres and covers terrain from sea level to almost 2,000 feet.  We started our exploration of the park with a loop hike of about 6 miles. Much of the trail we hiked was part of an ultra-marathon(50 miler) to be held the next day.  It was not all that easy as several times the trail was blocked by recent blow downs.  Of course with an ultra marathon finishing is probably more important than your time. The forest was cool and peaceful.

It took us along streams through redwood forests to a point 1689 feet called Ocean View Summit.  Much as with our hike in Henry Cowell SP, the vegetation changes as we gained elevation, moving from redwood forest to pine with scrub vegetation.  As it was late in the day, looking west we could just make out the Pacific.

     Most visitors experience the redwoods by way of the Redwood Trail, a .6 mile loop with a trail guide that helps you understand the redwood forest.  We took a leisurely stroll and got to see highlights of this redwood grove.

     The Chimney Tree - a living tree that is hollow from base to top, caused by fires over the years that burned out the trees "heartwood" to create a flue.

     The Animal or Zoo Tree - a living tree where burls, growths that are thought to be dormant buds, are said to resemble various animals.

     Mother-of-the-Forest - this tree is the tallest in the park at 329 feet (There is a Father-of-the-Forest as well which is the oldest, 2000 years, but I couldn't get a picture of it)

   It was a vigorous and rewarding day of hiking.

 

 

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Trees and Seas

     After our long travel day it seemed like a good idea to take things a little slower on our first full day on the left coast.  We had every intention of doing so until we got up but an urge to see and do something outside prevailed.
     First stop, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park just up the road from Santa Cruz. This 4,650 acre park features old and second growth redwoods flanking the San Lorenzo River. The park's 40 acre old growth stand of redwoods, named "Redwood Grove"(nothing like using obvious names), was saved from logging by the fact that in 1867 a man by the name of Joseph Welch built a vacation resort called "Big Trees Grove"(so much naming creativity).  A very gentle trail loops for almost a mile through these century old trees.

     One of the most famous trees in the grove is the Fremont Tree.  The story goes that in 1846 when General John C. Fremont's expedition to "survey" California was in the area, he spent a night in a burned-out hollow redwood tree.  When he returned to the area in 1888, he was asked if he slept inside the tree.  He responded saying, "It makes a great story, let it stand".  Many of the trees have been burned-out but continue to thrive as they grow out from each others trunks and share a common root system.  Thus even though the center may be burned-out but the tree is still able to survive.

     In addition to hiking the Redwood Loop Trail we combined a number of trails to hike a 3 mile loop to an observation point.  Unfortunately a low marine layer of morning fog prevented us from seeing the ocean.  We did however find a beautiful grove of trees know as Cathedral Redwoods. Here a circle of redwoods come together to leave only a small opening to the sky.  A great spot to just sit and meditate(or have your picture taken).

     Having sampled the redwoods in the morning, we went back to the ocean in the afternoon.  The marine layer had mostly burned off by the time we got to Ano Nuevo State Park(www.anonuevo.org).  The central attraction of this state park is the large colony of northern elephant seals that call the beaches their home.  The elephant seal population had been reduced to a mere 200 by 1892 by vigorous hunting.  There blubber produce oil. Interestingly enough the Mexican government was the first to protect the species.  They were introduced to Ano Nuevo in 1955 and have thrived there since.

      When we were there, the juvenile seals(ages 1 to 5) were in residence.  The adults show up in December to mate and give birth.  The elephant seals spend most of their lives at sea and come to land to molt, mate and give birth.  It was quite a sight.

      It was about a 5 mile round trip to the beach to see the seals through the dunes and along the shore cliffs.  It many ways it was our toughest hike in that it was mostly through loose sand.  There were some great views on the way to take your mind off aching legs.

     Off shore is an island which housed a fog whistle and a five story lighthouse.  An automatic light was installed in 1948 and the island was closed to the public.  In 1958 it was acquired by the state and is now a bird sanctuary.  In addition to the birds, a large population of harbor seals and sea otters have taken up residence.