That was post #400!! It took two years and several months to get there. But my blog made it among many other blogs which only lived for a couple months! And now it is back in good health: frequent posting and around 50 visits a day. Thank you to all of you who read me from time to time!! :)
400 POSTS!!
Yesterday, Sunday, I went to the Channel Islands NP, several islands just off the coast near Ventura/Santa Barbara, just one hour away from Pasadena. I mean one hour from Pasadena to the boat that takes you to the islands! I chose to go to the smallest one, Anacapa.
This is the view of the island when you approach it by ship. It has several natural arches coming out of the sea, and a lighthouse which makes the photo better! ;)
This is Anacapa! There we go!
The first thing you notice is the amount of birds everywhere. Actually the point of this island is it is a natural sanctuary for gulls breeding. There are literally thousands of sea gulls! There are also pelicans. 
This is a complete panorama of what the first part of the island looks like (click on it and open it in a different window to see it properly...):
Another amazing place in the island. There were sea lions in the cove by the sea... I will show them to you later or tomorrow.
A short hike of around half an hour brings you to the most amazing point in the Channel Islands: Inspiration point.
The view of the three islets that compose Anacapa is quite amazing. A really beautiful view.
On my way back, I really enjoyed the contrast in colors: red/green on the ground, and different kinds of blue in the horizon.
Another look onto the cliffs of the island. Anacapa is all cliffs... it does not have direct access to the sea!
And finally, the lighthouse. One of the landmarks of the island.
Later/tomorrow, I will talk about the wild life in Anacapa and on the way there.
I just came back from the Forum in Inglewood. I watched what was supposed to be the best punk rock show in a long time: Rancid + Rise Against. Instead, I came back completely disappointed... big deception...
1. The place is the wrongest possible place for a punk rock show. It is a huge place, so acoustics are wrong. Punk rock requires small places without echoes and good acoustics: it is very fast, so if you play in a big place, the sound is too bad.
2. Rise Against suck. They used to be good. I read in many places that the last albums were pop, not punk. I could not believe it. Now, I regret not having taken those complaints seriously. The people around were "normal" people. The atmosphere was wrong. The only songs worth listening to were the old ones. All the new ones really suck. From now on, I will consider this band stopped doing anything meaningful several years ago. Never coming back to any of their shows.
3. Rancid should be careful who they play with. They played before Rise Against!! What's that?!! Rancid has been/is/will be infinitely better than those poppers called RA. They played their set of songs, left, everybody told them to come back and somebody in the organization came to the stage to say they were not playing again. It was RA's turn... WTF?! I got really annoyed, angry, pissed off... And the people around me again... Some stupid girl said something like: Why do they want Rancid to continue playing... Who cares about Rancid... If they do not make smarter choices, they will have to retire prematurely.
4. I did not buy a T-shirt for this show and I am happy about that. It sucked. This tour sucks. If Rancid continue doing this they will lose many fans.
After all that, some photos:
- Me at the entrance of the Forum (where LA Lakers used to play):
- RANCID, a punk rock show legend:
- A band that used to be decent some years ago and sold out at some point. Their name... who cares...
I just picked up my copy of this month's IEEE's Spectrum magazine and found this ad in the back cover of the magazine. IEEE is the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers for those of you who do not know. The most famous professional association in the field.
My point is I was really surprised to see that the main catchy sentence was in Japanese... The translation is: "Do you speak MATLAB?" I doubt the average EE guy can understand it. Is it for Japanese people? But again, the magazine is published for all over the world and in English. Any way, it was nice to see that in Japanese!!
Lassen Volcanic turned out to be much more spectacular than expected. I did not really know what to expect from it. I had read I could see four different kinds of volcanoes in there and a place where sulfur and vapors come out of the ground... So, when I got there and started hiking to different places, I could start grasping the feeling that this National Park actually has everything you can ask for!
When you come into the park from the West, the first sight is Manzanita Lake. It is a nice lake in the forest, with ducks and other animals. Your standard view of a NP.
Lassen Volcanic NP houses one of the only two volcanoes which erupted in North America since colonization. Lassen Peak (a little bit more than 3000 m high) erupted around 1915. Just for the record, the other eruption was in Washington in the 1990s!! That volcano explosion expelled quite a lot of rocks and caused an avalanche that carried the rocks really far away. Witnesses said the rocks were burning and kept hot for days. Now, the area where rocks landed is called Devastated Area and it is pretty interesting. Not to say it has the youngest rocks in California! Less than 100 years old as a matter of fact! ;)
The snow capped peak at the bottom is the volcano. Next to it, another volcano. (Just two different volcanoes in the same image!). The large rocks are the rocks that came from up there. As you can see, that's pretty far...
Then, after some driving, we got to Summit Lake, the first lake of a hiking trail which takes up to 2-3 days to complete! There we went for a short hike (30-45 min) to warm up.
After the lake, the road starts going up, heading towards the dreadful volcano. At some point everything covers in snow. And it is July and sunny...
Then, we got to the head trail for the hike to the top of Lassen Peak. It takes at least 2 hours to go up there, but it had to be worth it. So up there we went. I wanted to take it easy... last time, in the Grand Canyon, I did some part running and I got to the rim pretty exhausted. This time, I wanted to keep some energies for later. The views over the rest of the park were amazing! And the trail itself was pretty rough and beautiful.
At some points we had to go passed some snow-covered slippery areas. One of them was particularly scary: if you fell, on your right, there was a slide of around 300-400 meters... I guess you could try to stop the fall but I really did not want to try it, so I was extra careful. That part is not the one in next photo though...
Then, I got to the summit. The hike is strenuous but if you are in good shape, it only takes a couple hours and it is well worth it. It is actually a short hike considering you are actually climbing a 3000m volcano!!
This is the view from the top:
Me and the crater:
Me at the very very top of the volcano. That's really Lassen PEAK ;)
Then, the way back... and after that, another hike. This time, to a place which was really interesting, maybe the highlight of the park... Bumpass Hell. In the trail going there, we could have a look back and see the volcano we had just climbed:
After a slippery hike, most of it covered in snow/slush, we got to Bumpass Hell. And sure it looked like hell! And smelled like it! It smell like sulfur... like fetid bombs... and fumes coming out of the ground and boiling water! What a place!! Pretty cool actually!
Here, me taking in the view... :)
After that hike, we were done. Back to my car and 11h drive to Pasadena... On the way out of the park we saw two nice places. A strange peak called Diamond Head Peak:
And another geologically active area, Sulfur Works:
After that, a really long drive home ---> 11h. We got to bed at around 5 am, but the feeling was it had been totally worth it!
A terribly long trip to Oregon. Information read in books and the internet. Hordes of mosquitoes around, trying to ruin your day. But when you get there, nothing gets you ready for the first sight. It is the sheer definition of breathtaking. You really feel you need a deeper breath after seeing it. It is Crater Lake. It is a lake Native American considered sacred and kept in secrecy until it was discovered in the late 19th century. It is also the deepest lake in North America. Its origin, a huge volcano which exploded in a huge eruption and collapsed, leaving behind a caldera. The caldera filled with snow and rain water and a lake created. The volcanic cone of the original volcano can still be seen in what today is known as Wizard's Island, the "island" in the middle of the "lake". The first sight again is impressive. You enter the park and head towards the rim. It is a volcano, a mountain, so you go uphill with your car in a steep and narrow road with many turns. Suddenly, you feel you are getting to the top of the mountain and without any notice, you turn and there it is, a majestic lake of unnatural blue water and incomparable beauty. No words for it. You really have to experience it. The place is really high and cold, so even in July, there is snow, which makes the contrast even more dramatic: white snow against the blue of the water and the warm color of the mountains under twilight. Superb.
This is the entrance to the park:
Now, please take your time and open these two pictures. They show you what Crater Lake looks like. These panoramas are amazing, but the real experience is much more than that.
Some detail on Wizard's island, the island that makes the lake look even more special:
The back-country looks beautiful too. Green scenery to heal the heat of summer. 
Around 5 miles from the lake, the ancient fumaroles of the original volcano have been brought to the surface by the action of time and erosion, two forces nothing can avoid. The result is what today is known as the Pinacles. 
On the way back, there were also some waterfalls.
Before leaving, a last glimpse at the lake and back on the road. The Moon would come along our drive that night.
Oregon Caves National Monument is located in South Oregon, near the border with California and it is short drive from Redwood National Park.
The caves were discovered in 1884 and are around 1.5km long, which is quite a lot! The visit is with a ranger, and he/she explains quite a lot of things about the history and formation of the caves. The cave is mostly composed of small galleries, although it also has some big areas.
This part was called the Niagara Falls and it was nice.
This was another large area which was quite beautiful with columns going from the ground to the ceiling.
And this is the most beautiful place in the caves. It is called Paradise Groove and it is really impressive. This banana-like structure is around 5-10 meters high.
Redwood National and State Parks are located in Northern California, at the coast, next to the border with Oregon. These parks have also been protected by UNESCO as World Heritage. The park is a huge forest and the largest concentration of giant red wood trees in the world. And the really nice thing is these trees are next to the sea! you can actually hike to the sea between giant trees!
The size of these trees is impressive. One type of red wood trees present in the park is the sequoia. The other main type is thinner but of the same height. The next photos try to show the real size of these giants.
Another peculiarity of this park, as opposed to Sequoia National Park, is that the ground is covered with many plants and trees are covered in moss and lichens. This makes the trees look mysterious...
The fauna is also quite varied. Many birds live in the park. However, the most interesting animal in my opinion is the elk:
This is a giant sequoia which is one of the largest trees in the park.
The park has many nice drives. One of the best is the Coastal Drive. When I did it, the sea was covered in fog, so it was very difficult to see it. It was a pity, because we missed some of the highlights of the park: the views from the coast. Anyway, the view was really cool and again mysterious.
In spite of the fog, I could still enjoy some nice views from some of the beaches. The rocks coming out of the sea in the mist, the wreckage trees on the beach, the forest getting to the sea... beautiful!
At night, I slept in a campground next to a lake connected to the sea. (Can I call that a lake??). Before dusk, the fog came from the sea and also covered the lake. It was quite impressive!!
This part of California is really superb! If you ever have the opportunity to go there, GO!!
Another crazy road trip and I think I am done with them... too hard...
On Friday at 12am (yes... without sleeping...) I started driving North. The destination was Redwood NP, a 12h drive from Pasadena!! I drove as much as I could and slept for a couple hours in a rest area in I-5. Then, I continued driving until I got there. I reached my destination in far North California at around 2pm. Then, all day visiting Redwood National Park. Next day, drive to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and visit to it and to Oregon Caves National Monument. I slept in Weed, CA, next to Mount Shasta, the highest mountain in California. Yesterday, I finished driving to Lassen Volcanic NP, visited it, hiked the highest volcano there, some other hikes and drove all the way back home. I got home at 5am with no more energy for any more driving or anything!! ;) But the places I visited were amazing!!
Me happily standing next to Crater Lake, Oregon.
And I have visited almost all the American West!
And I can say I have visited many places in California... (the pinned ones in the next map):
