Monday, April 7, 2008

I never think I have enough photos for a good blog post, but inevitably when I look, I have way too many and have to pick and choose.

Such is the case with my bridge photos today.

First are photos of a bridge under construction just in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park area. I took these shots of the bridge on February 9th when I headed south, and these on April 6th on the way north. I think you can see the progress they are making? There is another amazing bridge just around the corner, but the light totally prevented a decent shot of it.

And also today, I was impressed by some old bridges adjacent to the Highway 101 in this area. I took pictures of them from the new highway I was driving on, then went over and drove across both of them – which are still open on a secondary road. Both had lights and gates to close the bridges, but I am not sure under what conditions they would need to be closed? They are both pretty spectacular, especially considering that they were built in the early 30’s, and are still in use. Both cross very deep gorges, I estimated at 2-300 feet deep. I expect that they were key links in opening up this part of the California coast way back then. I found online that the Big Dann Ck bridge is 187.5 ft long, with 7 spans, but it did not list the height.

It was a fairly drab day when I stopped at Pigeon Point Lighthouse south of San Francisco near Half Moon Bay, but people were still stopping in droves to take pictures of it. In the morning the sun came out as I was leaving, so I took a couple from the road.

Driving through Willits, I thought I was looking at a building being demolished. Then I saw a car parked alongside, and realized it was an active drive-through at an open Taco Bell. I don’t know what the inside looked like, but I hope it was better than the outside!


(Click on any photo in this blog and you will get a larger version of it)

Harley also posed at a sign for the Pfeiffer Beach in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

I only spotted the road on Google Earth last time through as there is no sign on the highway – this sign is down around the first corner when you are already started on the road. I ignored the signs saying No RV’s and navigated the 2 miles of mostly one lane track through a few hillbilly type places, and promptly arrived at a Park Gate (!) where the guy wanted $5. for a look at the ocean there! I figured that at that rate, I must owe someone a couple billion for all the miles of ocean and beach I have been driving along and camping on!

South of Pigeon Point and north of Santa Cruz the winds were up, so the Kite Boarders were out in force.

Because of the winds, a R/C aircraft flying site was empty.



Still headed north. Slowly!

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