A quick two nights in Truckee, CA had us taking one of the most unique hikes ever … through miles and miles of graffiti-covered, abandoned train tunnels. It was a mess … but a beautiful mess! It was slow going, due to a river-rock surface, standing water in sections, and the necessity to stop every few feet and gaze in wonder at the artwork.  Some was...

In two months, we’ve been in (or on) the Western Sierras, Central Sierras, Northern Sierras, and now on our merry way to the Eastern Sierras, so it was inevitable that we’d find ourselves in something called the Lost Sierras. It’s an under-appreciated, under-populated forest area splattered with lakes and trails, with a pristine, charming town...

Burney may be a small Northern California town, but it delivered some big delights! Burney Falls is a big waterfall, at 129 feet. To recognize how big, look for the tiny people in the lower left corner of the foreground below. It’s so dang pretty that Theodore Roosevelt once deemed it the Eighth Wonder of the World, though if still alive today, he would...

Besides being a tasty and economical soda pop, Shasta is also a county, a town, a national forest, and a super-huge mountain in California, and being almost to the Oregon border, is the northernmost point of our 11-week trip. In fact, though still in California, the over-the-air news broadcasts are from Oregon stations. Seeing it for the first time, environmentalist...

Here we are on California’s Lost Coast, a mostly undeveloped area, so named after experiencing depopulation in the 1930s, but also maybe because you’re blessedly lost from civilization here, only accessed from all directions by difficult, narrow, twisty/turny roads, and 90 minutes from the nearest large town. You’ve heard of Fort Bragg, perhaps, but...

Winchester Mystery House adds to our growing list of fabulous, weird properties we’ve visited around the country. Why is this place so weird?  Well, its construction was driven by a psychic medium advising a very, very wealthy woman, with nothing but time and money to blow on its strange, 40-year progression.  Sarah Winchester, wife of Winchester Rifle magnate...

Carmel, California: It has been called “heaven designed” and deemed “the greatest meeting of land and sea in the world.” And who are we to disagree? While much/all of the nation swelters under a heat dome or is washed away in flooding, Carmel CA temps are in the high 50’s, practically begging us to come out and explore. Exploring is best...