tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58418600469581232872024-02-08T09:24:41.825-08:00Don Bain's Virtual Guidebooks BlogDon Bain has created a unique website - a collection of more than 8000 VR panoramas that will allow you to travel (virtually) throughout western North America. These amazing photographs show you exactly what it's like to be in a particular spot - you can look in any direction, all the way around. <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com">VirtualGuidebooks.com</a>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-86578020858093849832010-12-27T12:05:00.001-08:002010-12-27T12:12:59.301-08:00New for the iPad<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The iPad was first announced and demonstrated by Apple in January 2010. If you haven't seen it before, go to the <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/" target="_blank">iPad page</a> on the Apple website and click "Watch the iPad video". <div><p></p></div><div><a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/iPad_Apple_page.png" target="_blank" /></a> </div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I was immediately struck with how perfect the iPad would be as a platform for presenting VR panoramas. Big bright display, convenient to carry, ideal for sharing between two people (just tip it towards them), and so natural for a touch interface. VR panoramas could make a great addition to on-line magazines, as well as travel sites and guides. </div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Unfortunately, it was not such an easy thing to get started with. Unike most major types of computer graphics, VR panoramas have no deep-pockets big companies to pioneer the way. Not only was there no interactive panorama shown in the iPad product intro (there should have been), there was no ready-made technology to present them. </div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Although Apple invented the field of interactive rotating (VR) panoramas with QTVR in 1994, they quietly stopped supporting it sometime in 2009. As a result VR producers all moved to Flash, a migration that was already in progress. Luckily Flash 9 did a passsable job of rendering these images, and Flash 10 was even better. Aside from the basic job of presenting the graphics and allowing navigation, Flash provided a framework for adding extra features to VR's, a relatively stable and well supported development environment. But Flash is not supported on the iPad/iPhone/iPod. </div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The technology we needed was obviously not going to come from Adobe, or, so far as we could tell, from Apple. It became increasingly apparent to many of us that the next big step in evolution of the web was going to be html 5. Unfortunately a portion of the VR developer community chose to rant against Apple's lack of support for Flash instead of looking ahead to new technologies. </div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A number of small companies started work on iPad (or more commonly iPhone) VR panoramas, and examples began to appear within a few months of the introduction. At least one company, <a href="http://www.tourwrist.com/" target="_blank">TourWrist</a>, did a substantial amount of work to introduce an innovative new product based on "iDevice" interactive panoramas. </div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Virtual Guidebooks is basically a personal effort - I take all the photos, create all the VR's, design the site, and maintain the database. So I had to wait for someone to provide a ready-built solution for iDevices that would fit my needs. It had to be easy to use, batchable, and inexpensive. </div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Just as in the case of the QTVR-to-Flash transition, the answer came from my friends at <a href="http://gardengnomesoftware.com/index.php" target="_blank">Garden Gnome Software</a> in Vienna. I ran a few tests, using the beta version 3 of their program Pano2VR - and they worked! I customized the interface a bit (spreading out the buttons and moving the labels above them), and created a template that would work on my site. </div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I am not confident that the presentation I am currently using is optimal, and of course it is early days for both html 5 and the iPad. I decided not to try to customize the html5 VR's for the smaller screens of the iPhone, iPhone 4, and iPod Touch, which pose special problems of interface. But I did want to get some portion of my portfolio of VR panoramas out there for the world to enjoy on their iPads. </div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>My initial offering of iPad panoramas consists of everything that I took on my Alaska trip of August-September 2010. They are easy to spot - look for:</div><div><dd> <span style="font-size:130%;color:red;">NEW!</span> <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/LowerSkeenaRiver/ExchamsiksRiver_i.php">for the iPad</a> </dd></div><div></div><div>The iPad links will work on certain browsers (Safari) and the smaller iDevices, but are only recommended for the iPad.</div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div><dl></dl></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><dt>There are a few scattered panos set up for the iPad:</dt></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></div><div><dd>on Mount Baker in the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/WashingtonCascades.php" target="_blank">Washington Cascades</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></dd></div><div><dd>Steveston, Crescent Beach and White Rock in <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VancouverLowerMainBC/VancouverLowerMainBC.php" target="_blank">Vancouver and the Lower Mainland</a></dd></div><div><dd>the Gold Trail, Cottonwood House, and Barkerville in the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/InteriorRockiesBC/InteriorRockiesBC.php" target="_blank">Interior and Rocky Mountains of BC</a></dd></div><div><dd>and, from the journey home, Prince Rupert and the Inside Passage in the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/VictoriaIslandsBC.php" target="_blank">Coast and Islands of British Columbia</a>. </dd></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div>There are a lot from northern BC, the Yukon, and Alaska<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;">:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div><li><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/NorthernBC.php" target="_blank">Northern British Columbia</a> (almost all)</li></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></div><div><li><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/SouthYukon.php" target="_blank">Southern Yukon Territory</a> (almost all)</li></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><li><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/NorthYukon.php" target="_blank">Northern Yukon Territory</a> (complete)</li></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><li><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/AlaskaInterior.php" target="_blank">Northern and Interior Alaska</a> (complete)</li></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><li><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/SouthCentralAlaska.php" target="_blank">South-Central Alaska</a> (about half)</li></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><li><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SoutheasternAlaska/SoutheasternAlaska.php" target="_blank">Southeastern Alaska</a> (about half)</li></div><div></div><div><p></p></div><div><p></p></div><div>Expect more iPad versions in the future - the present offering is only 6% of the total number of panos on Virtual Guidebooks. I will probably wait a while to let the technology advance and stabilize, and to get feedback on this preliminary offering.</div><div><p></p></div>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-37522994236567281942010-12-16T21:12:00.001-08:002010-12-17T12:29:23.732-08:00Don's Trip to the Far North - Part Four<h1>South Through British Columbia</h1><br />It had been a memorable trip and I was ready to head home. I knew I had some great photographs and was anxious to get to work on producing the panoramas. But the weather was perfect and I was still a long, long way from California. <br /><br />As it turned out the best was yet to come.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>September 17, 2010</strong><br /><br />I turned off the Alcan onto the Cassiar Highway, heading south for the first time since Valdez. The fires that had prevented me from using this route northbound were still smoldering. When I first drove the Cassiar (BC Highway 37) almost twenty years ago, none of it was paved - now all of it is. <br /><br />There are a number of lakes along the northern half of the Cassiar Highway that have white clay beaches and shallows, producing startling shades of blues and greens.<br /><br /><em>On the floating dock at Boya Lake<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Boya_Lake_Dock.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Boya_Lake_Dock.jpg"></a><p><em>I saw a family of thin-horn sheep crossing the road to a clay-lick at Mud Lake.<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/sheep_on_Cassiar_Mud_Lake.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/sheep_on_Cassiar_Mud_Lake.jpg"></a><p><em>Amazing colors in Good Hope Lake<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Good_Hope_Lake.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Good_Hope_Lake.jpg"></a><p><em>The Cassiar Mountains rise high above the central part of the Cassiar Highway.<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Cassiar_Mtns.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Cassiar_Mtns.jpg"></a><p><br />Early afternoon I stopped at the Rabid Grizzly Rest Stop -- does that sound restful? As I walked along the beach on Dease Lake I realized that I was following some very large cloven hoof prints - moose.<br /><br /><em>Fall colors around huge Dease Lake<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Dease_Lake_aspens.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Dease_Lake_aspens.jpg"></a><br /><br />I faced a difficult decision at Dease Lake -- whether or not to make the 70 mile (one way) side trip down the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek. The weather seemed to be changing and eventually I decided that the side trip to Stewart/Hyder was more important photographically.<br /><br />Telegraph Creek is the epitome of a middle-of-nowhere village, miraculously preserved and partly restored. I first went there in 1996, stayed at the Riversong Inn, and met owner Dan Pakula and some of his family. I returned in 2000 with seven students (including Kat and Landis Bennett, well known in the VR photography community), and saw Dan again. We have kept in intermmitent contact via e-mail ever since. <br /><br />That evening the campground host at Kinaskan Lake gave me the tragic news that Dan Pakula had died a few weeks earlier in a freak accident. A huge loss to his community, and to his many far-flung friends.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/CassiarNorth/CassiarNorth.php" target="_blank">Panoramas on the Cassiar Highway North of Dease Lake</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/CassiarSouth/CassiarSouth.php" target="_blank">Panoramas on the Cassiar Highway South of Dease Lake</a></p><hr /><strong>September 18, 2010</strong><br /><br />A cold wonderfully clear morning for a beautiful drive south through near wilderness on the Cassiar Highway. At Meziadin Lake I turned west on the Glacier Highway, cutting across the Coast Mountains to the twin towns of Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska. This is a highly scenic route, with a dozen glaciers spilling off mountain tops high above the road. <br /><br /><em>The Bear Glacier from the Glacier Highway<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Bear_Glacier.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Bear_Glacier.jpg"></a><br /><br />At the summit the Bear Glacier comes right down to road level. It used to cross the valley and the original road was built 200 feet higher to get past it. But, like most glaciers, it is shrinking. There is a lake between the glacier and the highway, and the last time I was there it was calving icebergs into the lake. But now it doesn't even quite touch the water.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/GlacierHighway/GlacierHighway.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Glacier Highway</a></p><em>Welcome to Hyder<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Welcome_to_Hyder.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Welcome_to_Hyder.jpg"></a><br /><br />Stewart is a charming little town, determinedly normal. Hyder goes out of its way to be wild and wooly, frontier style. The international border is right at the first building on Hyder's main street, but there is no US border check. On the way back, there is a Canadian customs station and they make you stop and answer a few questions. The first of which is the standard "where are you coming from?", which is hilarious since the road into Alaska leads right back into BC then dead-ends.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/Stewart/Stewart.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Stewart</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SoutheasternAlaska/Hyder/Hyder.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Hyder</a></p><br />There are two big reasons to go to Stewart-Hyder, other than for the historic towns and their dramatic setting on a fiord between high peaks capped with glaciers. First, there is Fish Creek, a prime area for viewing bears catching spawning salmon. Unfortunately the salmon season was almost over and I saw no bears there. The other is the Salmon Glacier.<br /><br /><em>Fish Creek bear-watching platform - no bears<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Fish_Creek_no_bears.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Fish_Creek_no_bears.jpg"></a><br /><br />I headed up the Granduc Mine Road, which follows the Salmon River then climbs past both old and active mines. It climbs steadily up the canyon wall and soon the glacier comes into sight. I was first here in 1996, and I think the tip of the glacier has moved back as much as half a mile since then, referring to my old pictures.<br /><br /><em>The terminus of the Salmon Glacier<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Salmon_Glacier_terminus.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Salmon_Glacier_terminus.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/GranducMineRoad/GranducMineRoad.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Granduc Mine Road</a></p><br />This is a classic river of ice, flowing miles down the deep U-shaped valley. Eventually the road reaches a summit and you can see that the glacier comes down from an ice-field surrounded by high peaks then splits. <br /><br /><em>High above the Salmon Glacier south branch <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Salmon_Glacier_Vegetation.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Salmon_Glacier_Vegetation.jpg"></a><br /><em>The summit viewpoint above the Salmon Glacier <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/SalmonGlacierPeopleTwo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/SalmonGlacierPeopleTwo.jpg"></a><br /><br />The northern fork of the glacier runs a short distance then degenerates into a chaos of jumbled chunks of ice. This is where, early each year, water coming from snowfall and the melting glacier pools up to form Summit Lake. For the last few decades the lake has broken through the ice barrier each summer and emptied under the south branch of the glacier down into the Salmon River in an event known by the Icelandic term "junkaloup". This accounts for the flood-ravaged appearance of the riverbed downstream. The road continues a few miles past the summit to the actual Granduc mine and former town site.<br /><br /><em>The empty bed of Summit Lake <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Summit_Lake_empty.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Summit_Lake_empty.jpg"></a><br /><br />The Salmon Glacier in good weather is overwhelming in its beauty and scenic grandeur. On my first visit many years ago it was raining and I turned back too soon. The next time the road was blocked by snow and we were only able to get as far as the tip of the glacier. On my third try the clouds came down and I could see nothing beyond the road shoulder. So I was ecstatic to see and photograph it, finally, under optimal conditions.<br /><br /><em>The immense central part of the Salmon Glacier <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Salmon_Glacier_Head-on.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Salmon_Glacier_Head-on.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/SalmonGlacier/SalmonGlacier.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Salmon Glacier</a></p><br />But just when I was counting my experience complete and the trip an unqualified success, I had an unexpected adventure. I had been jumping out of the van and taking panoramas from the road shoulder periodically all the way up from Hyder. I was just about to stop and get out again when a grizzly bear appeared in the road ahead of me.<br /><br />I fumbled for my camera as the bear paused and looked at me. He reared up to get a better look over the willow bushes and I got a picture.<br /><br /><em>Grizzly bear rearing up to look at me <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Rearing_Bear.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Rearing_Bear.jpg"></a><br /><em>A closer look at my bear <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Rearing_Bear_cropped.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Rearing_Bear_cropped.jpg"></a><br /><br />He was over seven feet tall standing up like that. He was certainly bigger than me, but my van was bigger than him, and he decided to move away. He continued to move parallel to the road, and I got a great picture of him with the glacier behind.<br /><br /><em>My grizzly bear and the Salmon Glacier <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Bear_and_Glacier.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Bear_and_Glacier.jpg"></a><br /><br />Then the bear crossed the road and went uphill out of sight. Two motorcyclists came up behind me - I flagged them down and warned them. They went slowly around the corner, saw the bear, made rapid U-turns in a spray of gravel and roared off. I don't know if a grizzly would run down a motorcycle, but it might (they can catch a moose).<br /><br />I rolled slowly down the road and saw the grizzly again. He was back on the road and now he came up behind and circled around the van, checking me out again. Probably just curious, or maybe he was wondering how he could open it up and eat me. I got a photo of him in my rear-view mirror.<br /><br /><em>The bear checks me out more closely <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/bear_behind_van.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/bear_behind_van.jpg"></a><br /><br />The bear apparently decided I wasn't really of interest and climbed up above the road and disappeared.<br /><br /><em>The bear moves on <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/the_bear_moves_on.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/the_bear_moves_on.jpg"></a><br /><br />Back up at the summit viewpoint I took three panoramas and chatted with a Moldovian-Canadian traveler for a while before heading back to Hyder. I had dinner in Stewart then camped in their municipal campground at Rainey Creek. It had been a memorable day!<br /><br />I kept thinking about how perfect my encounter with the great bear had been - not dangerous or harmful to either of us. I got a good look at him and some great photos. <br /><br />But it could have been different. If I had been on foot instead of in my van I would have been well within the danger zone (less than one hundred feet). I would likely have been charged and maybe mauled. In Hyder a few years ago a man was killed and eaten by a grizzly. I kept thinking of the claws I had seen on a stuffed grizzly in the visitor center in Glenallen a few days before.<br /><br /><em>Grizzly claws <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/grizzly_claws.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/grizzly_claws.jpg"></a><p><hr /><strong>September 19, 2010</strong><br /><br />I took a few geographic documentation photos of Hyder and Stewart, then drove back over the pass to Meziadin Junction and south to the end of the Cassiar Highway. <br /><br />The weather had deteriorated and it was dark and gloomy by the time I got down to the Skeena River. I took a few panos of the famous totem poles in the villages of Gitanyow (formerly Kitwancool) and Gitwangak (Kitwanga).<br /><br /><em>Totem pole at Gitanyow <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Gitwangak_Totem.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Gitwangak_Totem.jpg"></a><p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/Kitwanga/Kitwanga.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Kitwanga Junction</a></p><br />I camped that night on Ferry island in the Skeena River in the town of Terrace. After so many weeks in the boreal forest, taiga, and tundra of the North the lush forest of tall cottonwoods felt almost tropical!<br /><br /><em>Ferry Island Campground in Terrace <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Ferry_Island_cottonwoods.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Ferry_Island_cottonwoods.jpg"></a><p><hr /><strong>September 20, 2010</strong><br /><br />Despite discouraging forecasts, the next day was brilliantly clear with a relatively warm wind from the interior. I followed the mighty Skeena River all the way down to tidewater.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/LowerSkeenaRiver/LowerSkeenaRiver.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Lower Skeena River</a></p><br />After a quick look at the fishing fleet at Port Edward I went up to the Northern Cannery, a National Historic Site of Canada. It consists not only of the cannery but the entire supporting town, all built on pilings over the water. I was upset to find that it was closed for the season.<br /><br /><em>North Pacific Cannery - closed <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/North_Pacific_Cannery_closed.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/North_Pacific_Cannery_closed.jpg"></a><br /><br />But I went through the gate anyway and took a series of panos of the outside. The caretaker, named "Spider", showed up and offered to give me a tour. So I had my third one-on-one tour of the trip (Gold Dredge Number 4 and the Kennecott mill) and got panos in the net loft, cannery building, and on the rotting main dock. <br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/PortEdward/PortEdward.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Port Edward</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/NorthPacificCannery/NorthPacificCannery.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the North Pacific Cannery</a></p><br />I finished the day with a few panos in Prince Rupert, sunny and warm, looking really good. On two previous visits in bad weather I had thought it a very drab town. I bought a ticket for the Inside Passage ferry southbound on Wednesday and camped that night on the edge of Prince Rupert.<br /><br /><em>Prince Rupert Harbor <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Prince_Rupert_harbor.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Prince_Rupert_harbor.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/PrinceRupert/PrinceRupert.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Prince Rupert</a></p><hr /><strong>September 21, 2010</strong><br /><br />On a long trip I need a down day once in a while, and I hadn't had one since Fairbanks. Despite the excellent weather I just couldn't motivate myself to go out and make strenuous photographic efforts. I checked into a motel, cleaned up, and started to catch up on my panos and blog.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>September 22, 2010</strong><br /><br />This was a very long day. I lined up for the ferry at 5:30 am and we pulled out of Prince Rupert just as the sun came up. Then we steamed steadily south for fifteen hours.<br /><br /><em>Ferries at Prince Rupert<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Prince_Rupert_ferries.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Prince_Rupert_ferries.jpg"></a><br /><br />I made this trip once before, northbound, on the ill-fated Queen of the North. The Queen ran into Gil Island just after midnight on March 22 of 2006, and sank in 1400 feet of very cold water. The new ferry, the Northern Expedition, is very modern, comfortable, and extremely safe. They made a point of that.<br /><br />I booked a cabin, which was very nice, and ate three meals, each in a different restaurant. I kept running up on deck every hour or so to take photographs. <br /><br />The scenery of the Inside Passage does't change very fast, and seems to go on forever. The Grenville Channel is dramatically narrow, long and straight, and takes four hours to steam through. <br /><br />There are a few lighthouses, the old cannery village of Butedale, now and then a fishing boat, a fleeting view of the town of Bella Bella on Campbell Island.<br /><br /><em>Glassy calm in the Grenville Channel <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Inside_Passage_reflection.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Inside_Passage_reflection.jpg"></a><p><br /><em>The old cannery village of Butedale <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Butedale_cannery.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Butedale_cannery.jpg"></a><p><br /><em>Boat Bluff light station <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Boat_Bluff_light.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Boat_Bluff_light.jpg"></a><p><br /><em>Dryad Pass Lighthouse near Bella Bella <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Bella_Bella_lighthouse.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Bella_Bella_lighthouse.jpg"></a><br /><br />I had dinner in their very nice (and expensive) restaurant just at sunset. We finally docked at Port Hardy at the northern tip of Vancouver Island at 10:30 pm. I drove half a mile to the first campground, parked, and went to bed. It rained all night.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/InsidePassageNorth/InsidePassageNorth.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Inside Passage - North Half</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/InsidePassageSouth/InsidePassageSouth.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Inside Passage - South Half</a></p><hr /><strong>September 23, 2010</strong><br /><br />I had a list of places on Vancouver Island that I wanted to visit, or revisit, and even considered a whale-watching excursion from Telegraph Cove. But the continuing rain discouraged me and I just kept driving, all the way down the island to Nanaimo, with only one stop.<br /><br /><em>Rain all the way from Port Hardy to Nanaimo <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Hwy_19_rain.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Hwy_19_rain.jpg"></a><br /><em>Race Point log sorting facility near Campbell River <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Race_Point_log_sorting.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Race_Point_log_sorting.jpg"></a><br /><br />At Nanaimo I caught another brand-new ferry back to the mainland, where I rolled in just in time to have dinner with my cousins and meet the newest member of the family, Georgia. I gave her a plush killer whale and tried to teach her to say "orca".<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VictoriaIslandsBC/CampbellRiver/CampbellRiver.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Campbell River</a></p><hr /><strong>September 24-25, 2010</strong><br /><br />It was still gray and rainy so I headed south and ended up driving all day, to Kelso Washington. <br /><br /><em>Still raining at the Peace Arch border crossing <br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Peace_Arch_backup.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Peace_Arch_backup.jpg"></a><br /><br />The next day was beautiful, clear right to the top of Mount Rainier, but it had been a long trip and I really wanted to get home, so I kept going.<br /><br />Finally, at 10 pm, I was home in El Cerrito and the trip was over - 46 days, 9125 miles (12,000 km), 525 panoramas.<br />Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-89762196718114060982010-12-16T14:54:00.001-08:002010-12-16T20:49:44.764-08:00Don's Trip to the Far North - Part Three<h1>Valdez and the McCarthy Road</h1><br />At the end of Part Two I had almost completed the 950-mile round trip from Fairbanks up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic coast of Alaska. Then my van broke down and I had to be towed the final 56 miles back to civilization. <br /><br />It could have been much worse - there is a stretch of 239 miles between Coldfoot and Deadhorse with no services whatsoever, no phones, nothing. Even where I ended up, south of Livengood on the Elliott Highway, there is no cell-phone coverage, and precious few places even to safely pull off the road. It was a minor miracle that I managed to roll into a side road with Alaska Pipeline Pump Station Number 7 less than a mile away.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>September 5-6-7, 2010</strong><br /><br />I was towed to the comfortable and convenient Super 8 Motel on Airport Way in Fairbanks. <br /><br /><em>The Northernmost Dennys<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Northernmost_Dennys.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Northernmost_Dennys.jpg"></a><br /><br />The day I broke down was a Sunday, followed by the Labor Day holiday, so it wasn't until Tuesday that I could get my van looked at. I had it towed from the motel to the big well-equipped Cadillac-Chevrolet dealership. I was a little embarrassed to see my mud-encrusted vehicle in their immaculate repair area, but they are used to that up there.<br /><br /><em>Chevrolet Cadillac of Fairbanks<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Fairbanks_Chevy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Fairbanks_Chevy.jpg"></a><br /><br />I was confident that they would be able to fix it and get me back on the road - but at what cost? My wife and I even discussed the worst-case scenario of buying a new vehicle in Fairbanks.<br /><br />Turns out it was very simple and easy to fix - a broken rotor arm, which had nothing to do with my demanding drive. It could just as easily have happened running errands at home.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>September 8-9, 2010</strong><br /><br />When I picked up my van I was given directions to the nearest pressure wash. Normally I never wash my van, but this was pretty extreme. As I drove out of the Chevy dealer's lot I noticed that I had left a rectangular ridge of mud behind.<br /><br /><em>Before washing<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/muddy_van.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/muddy_van.jpg"></a><br /><em>After washing<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/clean_van.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/clean_van.jpg"></a><br /><br />I was back on the road and in fine shape, but I had a big decision to make on where to go next. I could head straight south to Denali, or go east then south to Valdez. The weather had been cloudy and rainy all through my stay in Fairbanks and more of the same was forecast. Denali was only a half day away, so the weather was guaranteed to still be bad when I got there. My van is fine for sleeping in, but not much fun for long periods in the cold and rain.<br /><br />So I headed east through North Pole to Delta Junction, then south on the Richardson Highway. <br /><br /><em>North Pole, Alaska - did you know that Santa Clause runs an RV park in his off-season?<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Santaland_RV_Park.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Santaland_RV_Park.jpg"></a><br /><em>A reindeer at North Pole, Alaska<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/reindeer_at_North_Pole.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/reindeer_at_North_Pole.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/EasternFairbanks/EasternFairbanks.php" target="_blank">Panoramas east of Fairbanks</a></p><br />It rained steadily that day, all night, and the next morning. By the time I got to the Tok Cutoff at Glenallen I was ready to give up on Alaska and head for home. But luckily I didn't, because the bad weather was about to break, and some of the best days of the trip lay ahead.<br /><br /><em>Camping in the rain<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Donelly_Creek_camp.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Donelly_Creek_camp.jpg"></a><br /><br />The Richardson Highway passes through the Alaska Range, of which I saw nothing because of the weather, then just west of the Wrangell Mountains (also invisible), and finally through the Chugach Range and out to the coast on Prince William Sound. Despite the weather it was a beautiful drive, with fall colors reaching their peak and a lot of wildlife - a lynx crossed the road in front of me early in the morning.<br /><br /><em>Richardson Highway in the rain<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Richardson_Hwy_rain.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Richardson_Hwy_rain.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/GulkanaRiver/GulkanaRiver.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Gulkana River</a></p><br />The visitor center for Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park near Copper Center had a very encouraging weather report - clearing then sunny for the next week. Sure enough, the clouds had lifted high enough to give me some dramatic views as I passed over the Chugach Range.<br /><br /><em>Glaciers from the highway at Thompson Pass<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/glaciers_rain_Richardson.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/glaciers_rain_Richardson.jpg"></a><br /><br />Valdez is a major fishing port (and smells like it), but is famous mostly as the terminus for the Alaska Pipeline. I toured that facility in 2000, but it has been closed to the public since "911".<br /><br />The town was surprisingly busy and I had trouble getting a room so had to take a slightly more expensive cabin. It was well equipped and comfortable, and I had a great dinner at the Valdez Bistro. I decided to take the boat tour on Prince William Sound the next day no matter what the weather,<br /><br /><hr /><strong>September 10, 2010</strong><br /><br />This day I took the Stan Stephens Glacier Cruise around Prince William Sound. It started out densely foggy, but cleared just in time to give us a look at the Anderson Glacier waterfall. After that it was clear all day.<br /><br /><em>Prince William Sound waterfall<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Waterfall_Prince_William_Sound.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Waterfall_Prince_William_Sound.jpg"></a><br /><em>Tankers taking North Slope oil to California<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/tanker_Prince_William_Sound.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/tanker_Prince_William_Sound.jpg"></a><br /><br />Around another point or two we turned into the bay that heads in the Columbia Glacier, one of the larger and more active tidewater glaciers in Alaska. The terminus was miles away but we circled around in the floating ice for an hour. Some of the icebergs were an amazing shade of blue.<br /><br /><em>Floating ice from the Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound.<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/floating_ice_Prince_William_Sound.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/floating_ice_Prince_William_Sound.jpg"></a><br /><em>An exceptionally blue iceberg.<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/blue_iceberg.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/blue_iceberg.jpg"></a><br /><br />From the Columbia Glacier we steamed around to the south side of Glacier Island and followed a pod of orcas (killer whales). Though not really set up for wildlife photography I got some passable shots and some short movies.<br /><br /><em>An orca in Prince William Sound<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/orca_Prince_William_Sound.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/orca_Prince_William_Sound.jpg"></a><br /><em>Steller sea lions hauled out on a rocky shelf.<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Stellar_sea_lions_Prince_William.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Stellar_sea_lions_Prince_William.jpg"></a><br /><br />In addition to the glaciers, floating ice, and wildlife, the scenery in Prince William Sound is stunning. My main disappointment was that it was impossible to take 360-degree panoramas from the crowded bow of the boat. But that opened up the possibility of an entire day of simple single-shot photography - so much less demanding and more fun than panography.<br /><br /><em>Islet in Prince William Sound.<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/PrinceWilliamSoundIsletTwo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/PrinceWilliamSoundIsletTwo.jpg"></a><br /><em>Fishing boat near Valdez.<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/PrinceWilliamSoundFishingBoat.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/PrinceWilliamSoundFishingBoat.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/PrinceWilliamSound/PrinceWilliamSound.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Prince William Sound</a> (only the first two are from this trip)</p><hr /><strong>September 11, 2010</strong><br /><br />In the morning I explored around Valdez a bit, then headed north.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/Valdez/Valdez.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Valdez</a> (first four from this trip)</p><em>Pink and chum salmon spawning in Crooked Creek.<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Salmon_spawning_Valdez.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Salmon_spawning_Valdez.jpg"></a><br /><br />There isn't much left of Old Valdez. It was damaged in the earthquake and tidal wave of 1962, then the town was relocated to its present site. There is a good view across the bay to the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal. It was interesting to watch the tide coming in and rise an inch during the time it took me to shoot just one pano -- I started on dry gravel and ended in the water.<br /><br /><em>Remains of the waterfront boardwalk street in Old Valdez<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Old_Valdez_pilings.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Old_Valdez_pilings.jpg"></a><br /><br />A little further out of town a road leads to the small lake at the terminus of the Valdez Glacier. Of all the desperately dangerous routes to the Klondike gold fields this had to be the worst - right up the glacier to the divide, then many miles more to the Copper River. In the winter it was rigorous, but in summer it was deadly as the snow melted and crevasses opened up. An alternate route through Keystone Pass and over Thompson Pass was soon pioneered, and eventually followed by the Richardson Highway, Alaska's first permanent road from the coast to the interior.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/ValdezEast/ValdezEast.php" target="_blank">Panoramas East of Valdez</a></p><br />The drive northwards through Thompson Pass was spectacular, perfect weather. Local people were out picking berries and just lying around in the sun. I stopped (again) at the Worthington Glacier. It used to extend past the viewing area and there was a trail along its lateral moraine, but it has retreated so far that now the ice terminus is beyond a small lake.<br /><br /><em>Berry pickers near Thompson Pass<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/ChugachRangeBerryPicking.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/ChugachRangeBerryPicking.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/ThompsonPass/ThompsonPass.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Thompson Pass</a></p><br />All through the trip I had been frustrated by the difficulty of finding viewpoints that were not blocked by trees and taking panoramas are not mostly highway. On the north side of the Chugach Mountains I found a unique solution -- I waded across a beaver-created marsh, and stood on their dam to take my pano.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/ChugachRichardson/ChugachRichardson.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Chugach Range on the Richardson Highway</a></p><br />At the end of the day I headed east to the tiny historic town of Chitina and camped next to the mighty Copper River.<br /><br /><em>Welcome to Chitina<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Welcome_to_Chitina.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Welcome_to_Chitina.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/Chitina/Chitina.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Chitina</a></p><hr /><strong>September 12, 2010</strong><br /><br />Chitina is where the gravel McCarthy Road starts and runs 60 miles east through Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park. It was a beautiful morning's drive, though the thick forest blocked distant views much of the time.<br /><br /><em>Early morning fog over the Chitina River<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Chitina_River_misty.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Chitina_River_misty.jpg"></a><br /><em>The McCarthy Road, another 120 miles of gravel<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/McCarthy_Road_pickup.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/McCarthy_Road_pickup.jpg"></a><br /><br />I have a problem with heights and exposed places such as swinging bridges and cliff-tops. I am able to overcome it - I have climbed some serious mountains and stood on the brink of Half Dome. But I knew there was a famously scary bridge over the Kuskulana River on the McCarthy Road, and I had been dreading it for precisely 6094 miles. <br /><br />The Kuskulana Bridge was built in 1910 for the Copper River Railway and abandoned when the mine shut down, but local people continued to use it. It was narrow, barely wide enough for a pickup truck, and had no guardrails. It is 525 feet long and 238 feet above the river. A few years ago The Milepost noted that half the deck boards were rotted away and missing.<br /><br />I know I could not have crossed it back then, I would have been frozen at the wheel. The current edition of The Milepost notes that it has been rebuilt and guardrails added, but that many people still find it scary. <br /><br />Then suddenly, there it was. I held my breath and drove across without hesitation, 5 mph, eyes glued to the far end. Once done it was no longer intimidating and I walked back to the middle and took a pano. On the way back the next day I even shot a handheld movie as I drove.<br /><br /><em>Kuskulana River Canyon and Bridge<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kuskulana_River_Bridge.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kuskulana_River_Bridge.jpg"></a><br /><em>The greatly improved Kuskulana Bridge<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kuskulana_Bridge_begin.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kuskulana_Bridge_begin.jpg"></a><br /><em>Another high timber trestle, over the Gilahina Rover<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Gilahina_trestle.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Gilahina_trestle.jpg"></a><br /><em>Fall color on the McCarthy Road<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/fall_color_McCarthy_road.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/fall_color_McCarthy_road.jpg"></a><br /><em>Mount Blackburn from the McCarthy Road<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Mt_Blackburn_from_McCarthy_Rd.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Mt_Blackburn_from_McCarthy_Rd.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/McCarthyRoad/McCarthyRoad.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the McCarthy Road</a></p><br />The McCarthy Road ends at the Kennecott River, just short of McCarthy, so you have to walk across (just a few years ago you had to use a self-propelled cable tram).<br /><br /><em>The new footbridge over the Kennecott River<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kennicott_River_Bridge.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kennicott_River_Bridge.jpg"></a><br /><br />McCarthy is a picturesque little town, a mere shadow of its prime when miners came down from Kennecott to raise hell on Saturday nights. Now it provides services for the huge national park, and is the setting for several of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak murder mysteries.<br /><br /><em>Ma Johnson's Hotel in McCarthy<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Ma_Johnsons_McCarthy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Ma_Johnsons_McCarthy.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/McCarthy/McCarthy.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of McCarthy</a></p><br />I rode the shuttle bus up alongside the moraine-covered glacier to the company town, mill, and mines at Kennicott. <br /><br /><em>The Kennecott Cooper Mine MIll rises up the mountainside above town<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kennecott_Copper_Mill.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kennecott_Copper_Mill.jpg"></a><br /><br />It was the last day for tours, and I was the only one to sign up, so I got a one-on-one tour (again!). My guide, Nealy, was able to accommodate my special needs so I got a few intriguing panoramas inside the huge mill building.<br /><br /><em>There is a great view from the top of the mill building<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Mt_Blackburn_from_Kennecott_Mill.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Mt_Blackburn_from_Kennecott_Mill.jpg"></a><br /><em>Don and Nealy in "the brewery" at the Kennecott Mill<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Don_and_Nealy_Brewery.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Don_and_Nealy_Brewery.jpg"></a><br /><em>Looking back at at the Kennecott Mill from the north end of town<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kennecott_mill.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kennecott_mill.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/Kennecott/Kennecott.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Kennicott</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/KennecottMill/KennecottMill.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Kennecott Mine Mill</a></p><br />Back at the end of the road I drove into a private campground and found that the owner and his buddies were closing it for the season by eating and drinking everything that was left in the store. They had just finished the beer, after six hours of steady effort. <br /><br />So I was the last camper of the year. It was immediately cold when the sun went behind the mountain, a clear night with brilliant stars, and I heard wolves howling.<br /><br /><em>Don in camp at McCarthy<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/last_camper_in_McCarthy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/last_camper_in_McCarthy.jpg"></a><hr /><strong>September 13, 2010</strong><br /><br />The next day, returning along the McCarthy Road the fall colors were even more spectacular. The air was still and the lakes reflected like giant mirrors.<br /><br /><em>Long Lake on the McCarthy Road<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/LongLakeReflectionFour.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/LongLakeReflectionFour.jpg"></a><br /><br />I stopped to look at the fish wheels on the Copper River. Powered by the current they scoop unsuspecting salmon right out of the silty river. Not very sporting, it is only for natives with traditional rights. The smell of rotting fish was truly amazing.<br /><br /><em>Fish wheels on the Copper River at Chitina<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Copper_River_fishwheel.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Copper_River_fishwheel.jpg"></a><br /><br />The fine weather allowed me to re-shoot some views of the Wrangell Range from viewpoints south and north of the historic settlement of Copper Center. These are volcanoes, eroded, dormant, and active, up to 16,000 feet high. I spent the rest of the day circling around their west and north sides.<br /><br /><em>Quaking aspen near Copper Center</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/aspens_Glenallen.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/aspens_Glenallen.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SouthCentralAlaska/CopperCenter/CopperCenter.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Copper Center</a></p><hr /><strong>September 14, 2010</strong><br /><br />This was a very long day of driving, along the Tok Cutoff and then back on the Alaska Highway, enlivened by spectacular foliage colors and clear views of the glacier-covered Wrangell Mountains to the south.<br /><br /><em>Mount Sanford from near Slana on the Tok Cutoff<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Mount_Sanford_Lakes.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Mount_Sanford_Lakes.jpg"></a><br /><em>Trumpeter swans in the Tetlin Refuge</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/trumpeter_swans.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/trumpeter_swans.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/TokCutoff/TokCutoff.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Tok Cutoff</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/TetlinNWR/TetlinNWR.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge</a></p><br />I crossed back into the Yukon at Port Alcan, and camped a few miles later near Snag Lake.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>September 15, 2010</strong><br /><br />Another long drive that began with many miles of severe frost heaves. The colors of the cottonwoods, aspen, and birch were outstanding and there was a series of beautiful lakes - Moose Lake, Pickhandle Lake, and huge Kluane Lake.<br /><br /><em>Reflection in Pickhandle Lake</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/PickhandleLakeReflection.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/PickhandleLakeReflection.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/AlcanWestYukon/AlcanWestYukon.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Alaska Highway in the Western Yukon</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/Kluane/Kluane.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Kluane</a></p><br />The official viewpoints of the spectacular Icefield Ranges in Kluane National Park failed to provide me with a good unobstructed view - they had let trees grow up thirty feet tall right in the way. <br /><br />On a hunch, I pulled into an unpaved side road, many of which lead to gravel pits. It was narrow and a bit muddy, so I walked it instead of driving, and in a quarter mile it did indeed end at a small gravel quarry on a glacial moraine running along the side of a broad valley, with a staggering range of peaks on the far side. <br /><br />Score! The weather was perfect - on the 36th day of the trip, I had to rate it as the best view yet.<br /><br /><em>The Icefields Ranges from the north<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kluane_moraine_west.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kluane_moraine_west.jpg"></a><br /><em>Willow-covered flats north of the Icefields Ranges<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kluane_moraine_flats.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kluane_moraine_flats.jpg"></a><br /><br />I had planned to spend the night in a motel in Whitehorse, but there was some sort of First Nations conclave going on and the town was full. So I camped a few miles further on, cold but peaceful.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>September 16, 2010</strong><br /><br />Another full day on the Alaska Highway. I stopped at the impressive Teslin Tlingit Heritage Center on long Teslin Lake and bought a few distinctive Indian handicrafts as presents.<br /><br /><em>Clan totems at the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Center<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/totem_pole_Teslin.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/totem_pole_Teslin.jpg"></a><br /><em>Tanker truck in Teslin equipped with a "moose-catcher"<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/moose-catcher.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/moose-catcher.jpg"></a><br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/Teslin/Teslin.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Teslin</a></p><br />That night I stayed in a motel in Watson Lake. Strange to tell, there was a very noisy honky-tonk bar next door, most of the patrons of which appeared to be First Nations/Native Americans/Indians. Also, although the town did not have cell-phone service, the high-speed internet was excellent.<br /><br /><hr /><br />The story concludes with <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.blogspot.com/2010/12/don-trip-to-far-north-part-four.html">Don's Trip to the Far North - Part Four</a>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-37136232967044975922010-12-16T06:47:00.001-08:002010-12-16T20:37:06.999-08:00Don's Trip to the Far North - Part Two<h1>Northern Alaska</h1><strong>August 30, 2010</strong><br />I had been hearing since 'way back in BC that the road going west from Dawson was washed out. Then I heard that it was open again, but only for escorted convoys. Rather than go back to Whitehorse I decided to try it.<br /><br />The weather on the aptly named Top of the World Highway was dicey, rain and fog, but still magnificent. I crossed the border into the US at Boundary, Alaska, an incredibly remote location. I imagine this is where an INS agent might get posted if he really annoyed his boss.<br /><br /><em>Fog on the Top of the World Highway</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Top_World_Hwy_fog.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Top_World_Hwy_fog.jpg"></a><br /><em>The lonely border station on the Top of the World Highway</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/lonely_border_station.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/lonely_border_station.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/TopOfTheWorldHwy/TopOfTheWorldHwy.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Top of the World Highway</a></p><br />I managed to miss the noon convoy and had to sit there in the middle of nowhere and wait four hours for the next one. It was caribou hunting season in this area and I saw lots of ATV's bristling with guns and caribou antlers.<br /><br /><em>Waiting for the convoy at Boundary, Alaska</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/waiting_for_the_convoy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/waiting_for_the_convoy.jpg"></a><br /><em>Caribou hunter in the Subsistence Hunting Area near Boundary</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/caribou_hunter.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/caribou_hunter.jpg"></a><br /><br />Then it was two hours at 15-20 mph in a train of vehicles. Just like a wagon train they had two escorts ahead of us (scout and lead) and perhaps two more behind (trail and sweep). Rain, mud, and fog the entire way.<br /><br /><em>Following the pilot car for 27 miles of muddy road</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/convoy_mud_fall_colors.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/convoy_mud_fall_colors.jpg"></a><br /><em>Looking in my rear-view mirror at the convoy</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/convoy_behind_me.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/convoy_behind_me.jpg"></a><br /><br />I camped in Chicken, Alaska, truly a bit of the old frontier, and the beginning of paved road again.<br /><br /><em>The log cabin post office in Chicken</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Chicken_Post_Office.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Chicken_Post_Office.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/Chicken/Chicken.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Chicken, Alaska</a></p><hr /><strong>August 31, 2010</strong><br /><br />I had a truly strange experience a few miles west of Chicken. I stopped at a viewpoint and a man came hustling up to me with an anxious look on his face, taking money out of his wallet. <br /><br />He was quite obviously drunk (at 9 am), and explained that he was celebrating his brother's birthday and I would be "saving his life" if I would sell him a beer. He said he could not drive on to the next pub (pub sounds wrong for Alaska) because he might get stopped and loose his license, which would ruin his life. He assured me he was not going to drive, so I gave him my last beer, a Sierra Nevada that had been rattling around in the van ever since California. <br /><br />We talked for a while. He was from Germany, very pleasant and intelligent. We took pictures, and he thanked me again for saving his life!<br /><br /><em>Saved his life with a beer</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/saved_his_life_with_a_beer.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/saved_his_life_with_a_beer.jpg"></a><br /><br />Soon after that I reached the Alaska Highway near Tok, wide and smooth and fast through Delta Junction, then on to Fairbanks, the main city of the interior.<br /><br /><em>Alaskan highway numbering is simple -- there are only eleven of them</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Alaska_highway_numbers.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Alaska_highway_numbers.jpg"></a><br /><em>After all those miles of back roads in prime moose habitat, I got my first good photo of one just outside Delta, walking alongside the highway<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Mrs_Moose.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Mrs_Moose.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/DeltaJunction/DeltaJunction.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Delta Junction</a></p><hr /><strong>September 1, 2010</strong><br /><br />Fairbanks seems like a city of a million people, but in reality its population is only 30,000. But it has all the necessary services, which was to come in handy for me later in the trip! I spent a day cleaning up and shot a few panos around town. I also phoned ahead for my tour of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields, which requires 24 hours notice for security check.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/FairbanksRiverfront/FairbanksRiverfront.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Chena River Parks in Fairbanks</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/FairbanksDowntown/FairbanksDowntown.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Downtown Fairbanks</a></p><hr /><strong>September 2, 2010</strong><br /><br />I hadn't really planned on driving the Dalton Highway, but once I got to Fairbanks I just couldn't resist -- it is the northernmost public road in the world, going well past the Arctic Circle. I have driven the Dempster Highway to the Arctic in Canada, twice in fact, so the Dalton seemed the logical next challenge.<br /><br />The Dalton, also known as the Haul Road, was built in a single summer to support construction of the Alaska Pipeline. It was designed for heavy truck traffic and is laid out like a race course - no sharp corners or windy stretches. I was surprised to find that nearly half of this road has now been paved, including a brand-new section (still hot) north of Coldfoot. But it remains a challenging drive, narrow with no shoulders and a lot of big trucks going very fast. The pipeline parallels the highway, seldom out of sight, much of it elevated but other segments buried.<br /><br /><em>A typical stretch of the Dalton Highway with the Alaska Pipeline alongside, in an area of burned spruce forest.</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/typical_Dalton.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/typical_Dalton.jpg"></a><br /><em>Birch trees in full glory<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/DaltonHighwayBirch.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/DaltonHighwayBirch.jpg"></a><br /><br />The weather was changeable as I started, but improved and it turned out to be a beautiful drive. Fall colors increased as I went north, with the deciduous trees in shades of yellow and gold, the tundra purple and red. The first landmark was the Yukon Crossing bridge. <br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/ElliottHighway/ElliottHighway.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Elliott Highway</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/DaltonHwySouth/DaltonHwySouth.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Dalton Highway South of Yukon Crossing</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/YukonCrossing/YukonCrossing.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Yukon Crossing on the Dalton Highway</a></p><br />Just north of Yukon Crossing was one of my favorite stretches, Finger Mountain and the Kanuti River headwaters, with wonderful fall colors. I crossed the Arctic Circle at midday, weak sunshine and 62°. <br /><br /><em>Fall colors at the headwaters of the Kanuti River<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kanuti_River_Fall_Colors.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kanuti_River_Fall_Colors.jpg"></a><br /><em>The Arctic Circle sign on the Dalton Highway<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Don_at_Arctic_Circle.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Don_at_Arctic_Circle.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/FingerMountain/FingerMountain.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Finger Mountain</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/DaltonArcticCircle/DaltonArcticCircle.php" target="_blank">Panoramas Near the Arctic Circle on the Dalton Highway</a></p><br />I filled up my gas tank in Coldfoot at milepost 175 (248 miles from Fairbanks). It is the only supply point between the Yukon River and Deadhorse, and not much to look at. A few miles north is the picturesque hamlet of Wiseman, where a few old sourdoughs still mine for gold and tough it out through the long winter.<br /><br /><em>Log cabins at Wiseman</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/WisemanCabinsBrooksRange.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/WisemanCabinsBrooksRange.jpg"></a><br /><br />I camped at Marion Creek nearby. A bit cold, but very pretty. It seemed the perfect opportunity to see the Aurora Borealis, but no show.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/Coldfoot/Coldfoot.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Wiseman and Coldfoot</a></p><hr /><strong>September 3, 2010</strong><br /><br />The adventure continued - I was already well past the Arctic Circle but still had 225 miles to go. The scenery got wilder and the colors more intense as I drove deeper into the Brooks Range, along the Koyukuk and Dietrich Rivers, past the northernmost tree, and over Atigun Pass at 4739 feet.<br /><br /><em>Chandalar Shelf at the south base of Atigun Pass<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/approach_Atigun_Pass.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/approach_Atigun_Pass.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/KoyukukRiver/KoyukukRiver.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Koyukuk River</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/AtigunPass/AtigunPass.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Atigun Pass</a></p><br />From there it was a long downhill through the Atigun Valley and onto the rolling tundra of the North Slope, beautiful and serene. <br /><br /><em>North slope tundra near Slope Mountain</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/NorthSlopeRollingTundra.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/NorthSlopeRollingTundra.jpg"></a><br /><br />But I was certainly not alone. In addition to the truck traffic (a hundred trucks a day) there were hundreds of hunters, many with bow and arrow, stalking the caribou (with considerable success).<br /><br />The weather continued clear and warm and it was one of the best driving days I have ever had. Perhaps the high point was when I saw two musk oxen butting heads in the middle of the road half a mile ahead. When they saw me they ran away, but stopped soon enough that I could get a good view of them, and also include them in a pano of the tundra.<br /><br /><em>One of the pair of musk ox I spotted in the tundra</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/musk_ox_in_tundra.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/musk_ox_in_tundra.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/DaltonNorthSlope/DaltonNorthSlope.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the North Slope of the Brooks Range</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/ArcticCoastalPlain/ArcticCoastalPlain.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Arctic Coastal Plain</a></p><br />About this time I noticed a gray ridgeline ahead, like a mountain range where I knew there was not one. It was the semi-permanent fog bank along the coast of the Arctic Ocean. When I eventually drove into it the temperature dropped from the high 50's into the mid-40's. By this time the terrain was dead flat and dotted with lakes, great for waterfowl and other wildlife.<br /><br />Then there came Deadhorse - what a weird town. It is built on gravel pads in the tundra, nothing directly on the ground to avoid melting into the permafrost. It is more of an industrial park than a town, and is full of huge pieces of oil field equipment and specialized vehicles. There are no trees, no flower boxes or potted plants, no business district, and no real houses -- everyone lives in hotels or dormitories at their employer's expense.<br /><br />I had dinner at the Arctic Caribou Inn, hearty fare cafeteria style, then camped in my van in their parking lot. There was good cell phone reception and excellent high speed internet, so I phoned and e-mailed my friends to say "guess where I am?"<br /><br /><em>My van at the Arctic Caribou Inn in Deadhorse on Prudhoe Bay\</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/van_at_Arctic_Caribou_Inn.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/van_at_Arctic_Caribou_Inn.jpg"></a><br /><em>The gps says it all - 70 degrees 12 minutes North latitude</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/GPS_at_Deadhorse.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/GPS_at_Deadhorse.jpg"></a><hr /><strong>September 4, 2010</strong><br /><br />First thing in the morning I took the oilfields tour, interesting enough, but not possible to take panoramas (or even regular photos) from the moving bus. The high point for most people was when they were allowed to get out and wade into the Arctic Ocean (35°F). I stayed dry and took pictures.<br /><br /><em>Wading in the Beaufort Sea at Prudhoe Bay</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Arctic_Ocean_wading.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Arctic_Ocean_wading.jpg"></a><br /><br />I drove around Deadhorse and took a few panos. Then I started the long drive home. This was truly the turning point of the trip - I had nowhere to go but back south the way I had come.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/Deadhorse/Deadhorse.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Deadhorse on Prudhoe Bay</a></p><em>Typical north slope scene, the endless road and the pipeline crossing the treeless tundra.</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/road-pipeline_tundra.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/road-pipeline_tundra.jpg"></a><br /><br />The weather improved slightly as the land rose up from the coastal plain, but I could see big clouds over the Brooks Range ahead and sure enough it was raining when I got to Atigun Pass - and snowing just a thousand feet higher. <br /><br />The fall colors were wonderful south of the pass, but stopping for panos became increasingly difficult as the rain increased and driving took all my attention. I camped in a brilliant yellow aspen grove right on the Arctic Circle.<br /><br /><em>Rain in the Brooks Range, north base of Atigun Pass</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/rain_in_Brooks_Range.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/rain_in_Brooks_Range.jpg"></a><br /><em>The Dalton Highway in the rain</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Dalton_rain_north_Grayling.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Dalton_rain_north_Grayling.jpg"></a><br /><em>Fall colors in the rain at Grayling Lake</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Grayling_Lake_colors.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Grayling_Lake_colors.jpg"></a><br /><em>Camping on the Arctic Circle</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/camp_at_Arctic_Circle.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/camp_at_Arctic_Circle.jpg"></a><hr /><strong>September 5, 2010</strong><br /><br />The rain continued through the night and the next day, so I just drove steadily, relieved in a way to be almost done with this adventure. Little did I know what lay ahead for me.<br /> <br /><em>Fall colors south of Yukon Crossing</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/colors_near_Yukon_Crossing.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/colors_near_Yukon_Crossing.jpg"></a><br /><em>Passing a 32-wheel truck in mist and rain</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/32-wheeltanker_in_fog.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/32-wheeltanker_in_fog.jpg"></a><br /><br />I got to the end of the Dalton Highway, mile 0, and paused to consider which way to go on the Elliott Highway - turn right for 76 miles of unpaved road to Manley Hot Springs, or turn left for Fairbanks. It was the rain that decided me on the latter.<br /><br />The Elliott Highway from that point south to Fairbanks is wide, fast, and paved, but still very remote from civilization. So it worried me when the van started making strange noises, losing power, and the CHECK ENGINE SOON light came on, then started blinking urgently.<br /><br />I hoped to make it at least to the edge of cell phone range, but no, it was not possible. It was several miles before I found a safe place to pull off the highway, into a gravel road leading up to Pump Station Number 7 on the Alaska Pipeline. Just in time, too - once stopped I couldn't make the van move at all. <br /><br />I flagged down a contractor's pickup and they advised me to walk up the road to the pump station and use their phone. The security guard there allowed me to do this, and I called AAA for a tow. The tow truck arrived in just over an hour, and carried me and my muddy van back the final 56 miles to Fairbanks.<br /><br /><em>Rescued by Ron's Towing</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/van_rescued.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/van_rescued.jpg"></a><hr /><br />The story continues with <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.blogspot.com/2010/12/don-trip-to-far-north-part-three.html">Don's Trip to the Far North - Part Three</a>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-88164329706845148372010-12-15T16:03:00.001-08:002010-12-16T20:25:34.073-08:00Don's Trip to the Far North - Part One<h1>North to the Yukon</h1><br />[A preliminary version of this blog was posted halfway through the trip, before any of the panos were ready. Now I have added links to the relevant localities, and broken the long post into four parts.]<br /><br />In June I made two photography trips, one early in the month to Santa Barbara and San Diego, then another two weeks later to the redwoods. I kept telling my friends I would leave on my BIG trip July 5. But all through July I had to deal with frustrating delays, so it was well into August before I finally broke free and headed north. <br /><br />The main purpose of this trip was to update and extend my panoramic coverage of northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alaska. Many of my panoramas from that area were taken (on film) before 2000 and have been removed from my website. <br /><br /><hr /><strong>August 10-11, 2010</strong><br /><br />A day and a half of driving straight up I-5 got me almost to the Canadian border. I always enjoy watching the landscape steadily scrolling by, seeing the gradual transition from dry California to green Northwest. I drive this thousand-mile stretch every year and I never tire of it.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>August 12-13, 2010</strong><br /><br />When I got to Bellingham the weather was beautiful so I took a side trip east on the Mount Baker Highway into the North Casades. It was an amazing clear evening when I got there, too dark for 360° panos, but I took a couple of snapshots with my "little" camera (Olympus E-P2) and some high-res composites with my Canon 5dMkII.<br /><br /><em>Picture Lake, a familiar postcard view, but still amazing<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Picture_Lake.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Picture_Lake.jpg"></a><br /><br />The next day I shot some panos on Ptarmigan Ridge, with Mount Shuksan in one direction, Mount Baker in the other.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/MtBakerHighway/MtBakerHighway.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Mount Baker Highway</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/HeatherMeadows/HeatherMeadows.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Heather Meadows on Mount Baker</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/PtarmiganRidge/PtarmiganRidge.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Artist Point and Ptarmigan Ridge</a></p><hr /><strong>August 14-15, 2010</strong><br /><br />From Mount Baker I crossed into Canada and spent a couple of days with my cousins Anne and Clive.<br /><br />Hundreds of wildfires were burning in the interior (the Cariboo) and the smoke was reaching the lower mainland. We took an evening walk at Blackies Point near their home in Crescent Beach and enjoyed the sunset and long colorful twilight.<br /><br /><em>Mud Bay from Blackies Point</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/sunset_at_Mud_Bay_Vancouver.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/sunset_at_Mud_Bay_Vancouver.jpg"></a><br /><br />The next day I shot a few panos around White Rock, plus the fishing port of Steveston at the mouth of the Fraser River, followed by dinner with my niece Sarah and her husband Chris.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VancouverLowerMainBC/Steveston/Steveston.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Steveston on the Fraser River</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/VancouverLowerMainBC/WhiteRock/WhiteRock.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Crescent Beach and White Rock</a></p><hr /><strong>August 16, 2010</strong><br /><br />By the next day the smoke had produced Los Angeles-style orange skies and thick haze, but I headed north anyway. It wasn't too bad in the Fraser River Canyon, where I revisited the Alexandra Bridges, but by the time I got to Quesnel it was intolerable. In desperation I stayed in a motel, just for the air conditioner's smoke filtering.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/InteriorRockiesBC/FraserCanyon/FraserCanyon.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Grand Canyon of the Fraser River</a> (only the last two are new)</p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/InteriorRockiesBC/GoldrushTrail/GoldrushTrail.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Gold Rush Trail</a></p><hr /><strong>August 17, 2010</strong><br /><br />Barkerville Historic Town features 120 authentically restored buildings from the 1863 Cariboo Gold Rush. It includes costumed interpreters and small businesses in the historic buildings. I shot panos there many years ago, on film, but never scanned and produced them, so I made the side-trip from Quesnel again. It is an interesting and photogenic place. <br /><br />On the way back I stopped at Cottonwood House, a restored roadhouse from the gold rush era on the Cariboo Wagon Road. I was shown around by the lovely young women there, looking demure in their long dresses and aprons. <br /><br /><em>Thanks to Kayla and Alexa for posing at Cottonwood.</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/CottonwoodHouseGirls.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/CottonwoodHouseGirls.jpg"></a><br /><em>A sepia-toned picture of Barkerville</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Main_Street_Barkerville_in_sepia.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Main_Street_Barkerville_in_sepia.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/InteriorRockiesBC/CottonwoodHouse/CottonwoodHouse.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Cottonwood House</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/InteriorRockiesBC/BarkervilleOne/BarkervilleOne.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Barkerville, the Main Street</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/InteriorRockiesBC/BarkervilleTwo/BarkervilleTwo.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Barkerville, the Back Streets</a></p><br />At Prince George I was thwarted in my original plan to go west along the Skeena River then north to Stewart-Hyder and Telegraph Creek because the Cassiar Highway was closed due to the fires. So I headed northeast to the Alaska Highway.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>August 18, 2010</strong><br /><br />North of Prince George and Pine Pass I left the main route and went southeast to the (once and future) coal-mining town of Tumbler Ridge and Monkman Provincial Park, featuring awesome Kinuseo Falls. <br /><br />It was smoky when I got there and rained a bit that night, but I had just enough sun in the morning for a great shot of the waterfall. This was my first lengthy stretch of unpaved road - much more was to come later in the trip.<br /><em><br />Kinuseo Falls in Monkman Provincial Park</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Kinuseo_Falls.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Kinuseo_Falls.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/PinePass/PinePass.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Pine Pass</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/TumblerRidge/TumblerRidge.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Tumbler Ridge</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/MonkmanPark/MonkmanPark.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Monkman Provincial Park</a></p><hr /><strong>August 19, 2010</strong><br /><br />From Tumbler Ridge I went over a few mountains and out onto the prairies, to Dawson Creek and Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway.<br /><br />From Dawson Creek the famous road runs 613 miles across northern BC, then 577 miles across the southern Yukon, then 200 miles in Alaska to its official end at Delta Junction. Another 96 miles takes it to Fairbanks, for a total of 1488 miles. In the course of this trip I would drive all of it.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/DawsonCreek/DawsonCreek.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Dawson Creek</a></p><hr /><strong>August 20, 2010</strong><br /><br />It poured rain all the next day, but luckily this stretch of the Alcan (Alaska Highway) is the least interesting of the entire route. <br /><em><br />The Alaska Highway in the rain, near Prophet River</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Alaska_Hwy_Prophet_River.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Alaska_Hwy_Prophet_River.jpg"></a><br /><br />I very much enjoyed the funky little museum in Fort Nelson, an amazing hodge podge of donated old stuff, including a moose-hide bikini.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/FortNelson/FortNelson.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Fort Nelson</a></p><hr /><strong>August 21, 2010</strong><br /><br />At Fort Nelson the Alcan turns west and enters the mountains. I saw a moose and a bear almost right away. The Alaska Highway crosses the Northern Rocky Mountains at Summit Lake, a dramatic stretch of road near timberline. I saw just a single young caribou here -- often there is a whole herd of sheep licking salt off the road shoulder along here.<br /><em><br />Barren ground caribou at Summit Lake</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/caribou_Alaska_Highway.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/caribou_Alaska_Highway.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/SummitLake/SummitLake.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Summit Lake</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/RacingRiver/RacingRiver.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Racing River and Toad River</a></p><br />That night I camped at Muncho Lake, famous for its silty green colors. It was a beautiful evening followed by a night of torrential rain.<br /><em><br />Muncho Lake right next to my campsite</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Muncho_Lake_evening.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Muncho_Lake_evening.jpg"></a><em><br />Storm approaching from the east</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Muncho_Lake_storm_coming.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Muncho_Lake_storm_coming.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/MunchoLake/MunchoLake.php">Panoramas of Muncho Lake</a></p><hr /><strong>August 22, 2010</strong><br /><br />More wildlife the next day. Most of the Alaska Highway has been widened and straightened, with a very generous grassy strip on either side. This has been a boon to the Nordquist herd of wood bison that live along this stretch of the Liard River. I saw this small group just before the Liard River bridge.<br /><em><br />Wood bison alongside the Alaska Highway</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Alaska_Highway_wood_bison.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Alaska_Highway_wood_bison.jpg"></a><em><br />A baby bison grazing along the highway</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/baby_buffalo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/baby_buffalo.jpg"></a><br /><br />Liard River Hot Springs is an oasis of warm water in the boreal forest, an amazing place with vegetation typical of hundreds of miles further south. The bathing pools were first developed during construction of the Alcan. This is now one of the most popular of the BC provincial parks, a favorite stop along the highway.<br /><em><br />The Alpha Pool at Liard River Hot Springs</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Liard_Hot_Springs_Alpha_Pool.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Liard_Hot_Springs_Alpha_Pool.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/LiardRiver/LiardRiver.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Liard River</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/LiardHotSprings/LiardHotSprings.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Liard River Hot Springs</a></p><br />West from here the highway crosses back and forth between BC and the Yukon. During construction of the Alaska Highway an American serviceman working at Watson Lake put up a signpost to his home town of Danville, Illinois. Other signs were added, and now it is known as the Signpost Forest, currently with 65,000 signs.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/WatsonLake/WatsonLake.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Watson Lake</a></p><br />Late in the day the clouds built up again, but I camped comfortably at Continental Divide. This undramatic watershed line separates waters flowing to the Yukon River and the Bering Sea (Pacific Ocean) from those flowing to the Mackenzie River and the Beaufort Sea (Arctic Ocean).<br /><br /><em>Stormy weather along the Alaska Highway near Continental Divide.</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Yukon_weather.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Yukon_weather.jpg"></a><em>Typical GPS map along the Alaska Highway</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/typical_ALCAN_gps.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/typical_ALCAN_gps.jpg"></a><br /><br />This is typical of the minimal and cryptic gps maps displayed on these remote roads - a single line for the highway, nothing else for miles. I use my gps to determine latitude/longitude for each of my panos as I shoot them.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>August 23, 2010</strong><br /><br />Near Squanga Lake the next morning I met Penny and Bill, from Nottinghamshire (in England), whose travels make mine look provincial. They had just been up to the Arctic and were heading south to California.<br /><br /><em>A camper van that has been everywhere</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Bill_and_Pennies_van.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Bill_and_Pennies_van.jpg"></a><br /><br />Next I took the first of my planned side trips, to Atlin in the remote almost cut-off corner of BC. <br /><br />The clouds lowered and it set in to rain steadily, so I took a few panos of the historic town then turned back. There are hints of the American military who built the Alaska Highway in placenames like Snafu Lake (Situation Normal - All Fouled Up). I camped at Tarfu Lake (Things Are Really Fouled Up) in a gentle rain and enjoyed my first campfire of the trip.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/AtlinRoadYukon/AtlinRoadYukon.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Atlin Road in the Yukon</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/Atlin/Atlin.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Atlin</a></p><hr /><strong>August 24-25, 2010</strong><br /><br />Finally the Yukon River! Soon I rolled into Whitehorse, nexus of the Stampede of 1898 to the Klondike gold fields. An interesting town, with lots of history, three excellent museums, and a much needed resupply point. I bought a terabyte drive at Walmart to back up my imagery - 170 panos so far, and I was not even to Alaska yet.<br /><br />This DC-3 outside the Yukon Transportation Museum is mounted on a bearing so it turns into the wind.<br /><br /><em>The world's largest weathervane.</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/DC3_weathervane_redux.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/DC3_weathervane_redux.jpg"></a><em>I met a giant beaver in the woods near the Yukon-Beringia Museum.</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Don_and_the_Beaver.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Don_and_the_Beaver.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/CityOfWhitehorse/CityOfWhitehorse.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Whitehorse</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/WhitehorseRapids/WhitehorseRapids.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Whitehorse Rapids of the Yukon River</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/MacBrideMuseumYukon/MacBrideMuseumYukon.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the MacBride Museum</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/YukonTransportMuseum/YukonTransportMuseum.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Yukon Transportation Museum</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/YukonBeringiaMuseum/YukonBeringiaMuseum.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Yukon-Beringia Interpretive Center</a></p><hr /><strong>August 26, 2010</strong><br /><br />Refreshed from my civilized stop in Whitehorse, I headed across the mountains to Skagway, Alaska. This was the perilous route taken by the Stampeders of 1898, who backpacked their supplies through the snows of White Pass and Chilkoot Pass. The next spring they built rafts and scows and floated down a series of lakes and the Yukon River all the way to the Klondike.<br /><br />Princess and Holland America cruise lines offer bus tours over the pass to Whitehorse, and on as far as Dawson and Eagle. I even saw them in Deadhorse a week later!<br /><br /><em>Princess Cruise Line buses on the White Pass route</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Princess_buses.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Princess_buses.jpg"></a><em>Uncharacteristically calm weather at Windy Arm of Tagish Lake</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Reflection_Windy_Arm.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Reflection_Windy_Arm.jpg"></a><br /><br />Skagway is an interesting place with lots of history - much of the town is preserved as Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. <br /><br />But Skagway is totally dominated by mass tourism. There were four cruise ships there that day (sometimes there may be up to eight), each putting as many as a thousand people ashore. Most of the businesses along the historic main street are selling jewelry and trinkets to people from the cruise ships. In fact, they are the same businesses and salespeople that one will meet in the Caribbean in the opposite season. Weird.<br /><br />My special thanks to "Madame Ophelia Johnson" at the Red Onion Saloon in Skagway. She was very particular that I get her stage name right - I was half a block away before I realized the double entendre.<br /><br /><em>Red Onion Saloon on Broadway in Skagway<br /></em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Red_Onion_Saloon_Skagway.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Red_Onion_Saloon_Skagway.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SoutheasternAlaska/Skagway/Skagway.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Skagway</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SoutheasternAlaska/SkagwayPort/SkagwayPort.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Port of Skagway</a></p><br />After Skagway I had a quick look at Dyea (on the Chilkoot Trail), a once busy town of which almost nothing remains.<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Alaska/SoutheasternAlaska/DyeaChilkoot/DyeaChilkoot.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Dyea and Chilkoot Pass</a></p><br />I ended the day with an amazing evening drive back across the White Pass. The light was incredible, not good for panoramas (no time to get off the road) but I got some wonderful single shots.<br /><br /><em>Stormy weather just north of White Pass</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/White_Pass_stormy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/White_Pass_stormy.jpg"></a><em>Fireweed and amazing light on Tutshi Lake</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Windy_Arm_fireweed.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Windy_Arm_fireweed.jpg"></a><br /><em>Sunset at Bove Island on Tagish Lake</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Bove_Island_sunset.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Bove_Island_sunset.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BC/NorthernBC/KlondikeHwyBC/KlondikeHwyBC.php" target="_blank">Panoramas North of White Pass in BC</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/KlondikeHwySouth/KlondikeHwySouth.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Klondike Highway South of Whitehorse</a></p><br />Carcross is an interesting historic town on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad. One of the sights there used to be the lake steamer SS Tutshi, which burned in 1990. Construction was under way to preserve and interpret the few small remnants of the historic boat.<br /><br />Camping that night near Carcross it dropped below freezing for the first time on the trip, and I really appreciated my campfire.<br /><br /><hr /><strong>August 27, 2010</strong><br /><br />Back through Whitehorse again but I didn't continue west on the Alaska Highway - I turned north on the Klondike Highway, following the trail of '98 towards Dawson City. It passes near Lake Laberge, famous as the setting for Robert Service's poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee".<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/KlondikeHwyNorthTwo/KlondikeHwyNorthTwo.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of the Klondike Highway South of Pelly Crossing</a></p><br />The highlight of this stretch of road is Five Finger Rapids on the Yukon River, a major hazard to navigation in the early years. The sun faded the instant I arrived, and by the time I got down to the cliff edge (223 steps, then a trail) it was starting to rain.<br /><br /><em>Viewpoint above Five Finger Rapids on the Yukon River.</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/Five_Finger_before_rain.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/Five_Finger_before_rain.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/Carmacks/Carmacks.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Carmacks and Five Finger Rapids</a></p><hr /><strong>August 28, 2010</strong><br /><br />At Stewart Crossing I made an impulsive decision to take another side trip, to the Keno Mining area. Known as the Silver Trail, it is mostly gravel and leads through some seriously remote country. First the riverboat town of Mayo, then the recently abandoned mining town of Elsa, and finally Keno. <br /><br />I enjoyed the excellent Keno Mining Museum, then took the road to the top of Keno Hill (it's really a mountain) with interesting geology and beautiful tundra.<br /><br /><em>Don on the Butterfly Trail, tundra at the top of Keno Hill</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/tundra_Don.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/tundra_Don.jpg"></a><em>Arctic barberry adds a vivid red to the tundra in fall.</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/tundra_berries.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/tundra_berries.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/MayoElsa/MayoElsa.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Mayo and Elsa</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/Keno/Keno.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Keno City</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/KenoHill/KenoHill.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Keno Hill</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/KlondikeHwyNorthOne/KlondikeHwyNorthOne.php" target="_blank">Panoramas on the Klondike Highway North of Pelly Crossing</a></p><hr /><strong>August 29, 2010</strong><br /><br />Dawson City and the Klondike gold fields at last! It seems quite a journey even today (about 3000 miles by my route), unimaginable the challenge and hardship it must have been in 1898.<br /><br />Dawson is an amazing historical town, largely restored using income from the casino. All new buildings must generally resemble the old ones. I stayed in a log cabin at Klondike Kate's - excellent food!<br /><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/DawsonCityOne/DawsonCityOne.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Dawson City -the Waterfront</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/DawsonCityTwo/DawsonCityTwo.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Dawson City - Center of Town</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/DawsonCityThree/DawsonCityThree.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Dawson City - Edge of Town</a></p><br />The highlight of my time in Dawson was a tour of Gold Dredge Number Four, a National Historic Site of Canada. Since I was the only one to show up at 1 pm, I got a custom look around - many thanks to Sue Taylor for the excellent tour. The dredge is on Bonanza Creek, site of the original discovery and still being mined today.<br /><br /><em>Gold Dredge Number 4 and the Parks Canada Interpreters</em><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaL/GoldDredgeGirls.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/BlogSupport/AlaskaS/GoldDredgeGirls.jpg"></a><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/GoldDredgeNoFour/GoldDredgeNoFour.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Gold Dredge Number Four National Historic Site of Canada</a></p><p><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/NorthYukon/BonanzaCreek/BonanzaCreek.php" target="_blank">Panoramas of Bonanza Creek</a></p><hr /><br /><br />The story continues with <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.blogspot.com/2010/12/don-trip-to-far-north-part-two.html">Don's Trip to the Far North - Part Two</a><br />Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-3906564467166435042010-02-26T22:04:00.000-08:002010-02-26T22:07:10.176-08:00Nebraska!<dl><p>One of my longest trips was in July 2008 when I followed the Oregon Trail (backwards) from Salt Lake City to Independence, Missouri. The largest chunk of new territory for me on that trip was Nebraska. My only previous visit there was a truly dismal conference of summer school administrators (which is what I was at the time) held there in midwinter - very grim.</p>My welcome to the state came immediately, when I stopped at a small town cafe a few miles in from the Wyoming border. The chatty young waitress, the same age as my students at Berkeley but with two kids already, asked me "So if you are from California, what the heck are you doing in Nebraaaska?" drawing out the A with satiric emphasis.<br /><br /></dl><dl>People had told me Nebraska was nothing but a long day's drive through cornfields, dead flat with nothing of interest. Of course I never believe this sort of stereotype, I find interest in every landscape and see what most others miss. But I did not have high expectations, so the reality of Nebraska blew me away.</dl><dl><dt>The Sand Hills<br /> </dt><dt><br /></dt><dd>My first stop was <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/AgateFossilBeds/AgateFossilBeds.php" target="_blank">Agate Fossil Beds National Monument</a> in the northwest corner of the state, a fabulous fossil site miles from anywhere out in the Sandhills. Gus Yellowhair and his two nieces sang Native American songs at the visitor center, reminding me this was the area of the last stand of the plains Indians. Nearby <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/FortRobinson/FortRobinson.php" target="_blank">Fort Robinson</a> played a sinister role in that, but now is a huge state park with one of the largest buffalo herds on the prairies.<p>At the end of my swing through Nebraska a week later I almost closed the loop, coming up northwest through the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/SandHillsNebraska/SandHillsNebraska.php" target="_blank">Sandhills</a> along the Cowboy Trail, a railroad route converted to a trail. These are the "empty counties" where the towns stand half-empty and there are suggestions of turning it all back into a vast buffalo range.<br /> </p></dd><p>The Oregon Trail in Western Nebraska</p><dd>Returning to the main east-west corridor along the North Platte River the first stop was <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/ScottsBluff/ScottsBluff.php" target="_blank">Scotts Bluff National Monument</a>. The bluff's height isn't great compared to almost anything further west, but it impresssed the pioneers lumbering westward in their prairie schooners from the midwest. It actually had the authentic feel of a national park, with great views, CCC-built roads and trails, and an excellent visitor center. Another landmark was close by - <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/ChimneyRock/ChimneyRock.php" target="_blank">Chimney Rock</a>, which I remember from childrens books about the wagon trains. The Oregon Trail along this stretch follows the south bank of the North Platte River (the Mormon Trail was on the other side), with an important stopping point at verdant <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/AshHollow/AshHollow.php" target="_blank">Ash Hollow</a>.<p>A shortcut across the uplands towards the South Platte River brought me to <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/CaliforniaHill/CaliforniaHill.php" target="_blank">California Hill</a> where the best preserved wagon train ruts can be found on a grassy hillside that has somehow escaped the plow. Did I mention that tourists following the Oregon trail are sometimes referred to as "rut nuts"? Yes, I saw lots of ruts on this trip, but there were only two places where I could at all imagine it as it was in the 1840's. Many of the "ruts" are actually vague swales where the wagons wore a trench in the soft ground, and some are in agricultural or even urban areas. But here at California Hill, and earlier at South Pass, the country was still fairly empty and quiet, and the trail marked by a pair of wheel tracks though the grass (within the wider swale). It is one of the stranger sorts of historical artifact, and a distinctively American one.</p></dd><dd><br /> <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/NorthPlatte/NorthPlatte.php" target="_blank">North Platte</a>, Nebraska, is centered in the western half of the state on the river of the same name. It is home to the Union Pacific Railroad's Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world - 10,000 cars a day on 315 miles of track. They had just opened the Golden Spike Tower with an overview of the yard, built with a notable lack of cooperation from the railroad, which had also torn down the historic depot. I guess it was just conforming to its historic stereotype as a ruthless, heartless corporation. Buffalo Bill's Scout's Rest Ranch outside of town was very interesting.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/RailroadsCodyPark/RailroadsCodyPark.php" target="_blank">Cody Park in North Platte</a> has a superb collection of railroad rolling stock and an entire small town depot, transported intact from nearby Hershey. I passed the invisible line from west to east, the Hundredth Meridian, between <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/WesternNebraska/GothenburgCozad/GothenburgCozad.php" target="_blank">Gothenburg and Cozad</a>. The landscape by that point had changed to the midwestern pattern of small towns with huge grain elevators and endless cornfields. I wasn't the only one aware of this dividing line, there were no less than four signs and plaques marking its passage through Cozad.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Southeastern Nebraska<br /> </dt><br /> <dd>Following Interstate 80 for a distance here I began to understand the stereotype of flat and corny. But the site of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/Kearney/Kearney.php" target="_blank">Fort Kearney</a>, and the Archway Monument grandiosely spanning the highway hint at an interesting past. From there I veered southeast, to <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/RockCreekStation/RockCreekStation.php" target="_blank">Rock Creek Station</a>, site of a small toll bridge and important supply point on the Oregon Trail and the best preserved Pony Express station. It was here that a stable hand later known as "Wild BIll" Hickok shot David McCanles - one shot through the heart with a pistol at 75 yards. I met up with Bill again a few weeks later in Deadwood, South Dakota.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> Willa Cather is acclaimed as one of the greatest American writers, famous equally for her stories of the frontier she grew up on, and the Southwest she moved to as an established writer. Her home town of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/RedCloud/RedCloud.php" target="_blank">Red Cloud</a>, down near the Kansas border, has lovely red brick streets, stately old buildings, and even a recently restored and protected hilltop prairie. I bought two of her books here and read them for the rest of the trip. </dd><dd><br />Beyond Red Cloud the country became lusher, with prosperous looking old towns such as <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/Fairbury/Fairbury.php" target="_blank">Fairbury</a> and Beatrice. Failing to find a decent motel for the night I found out why people who camp in the Midwest in summer stay inside their motorhomes - the bugs, heat and humidity were almost unbearable. But I was entranced by the abundant fireflies, the first I had ever seen. My final stop on the long traverse of Nebraska was little-visited <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/Homestead/Homestead.php" target="_blank">Homestead National Monument</a> (or National Memorial, according to some sources). This was where the very first homestead claim was made and preserves a fine woodland and lush meadows, as well as a historic cabin and collection of 19th century farm equipment.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Omaha and Florence<br /> </dt><dd><br /> After a few days spent in Kansas and Missouri I found myself in Omaha on a Sunday morning. After my dismal experience here years before I didn't expect much, but was surprised at what I found. I started with the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/RiverfrontOldMarket/RiverfrontOldMarket.php" target="_blank">Riverfront and Old Market</a> district, recently reclaimed from the railroad, rusty industry and obsolete commerce. This was the supply center for a huge westwards swathe of frontier and later rich farmland. The old buildings were interesting and the neighborhood quickly became very lively. The only sour note was when I sought out the "Jobbers Canyon" Historic District, only to find that it had been demolished and replaced with the corporate headquarters of Con Agra Foods. Shame!</dd><dd><br /><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/DowntownOmaha/DowntownOmaha.php" target="_blank">Downtown Omaha</a> was an unexpected delight, buildings old and new surrounding a green park with pools and waterfalls, wildlife and pioneer history sculptures adding interest. I had the definite feeling of a city on the rebound, recovering from the closing of the stockyards and a troubled past of ethnic strife. On the north edge of town I visited <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/FlorenceNebraska/FlorenceNebraska.php" target="_blank">Florence</a>, originally known as Winter Quarters, where the first big group of Mormon emigrants waited out the winter of 1846-47.</dd></dl><dl><dt> The Cowboy Trail and Niobara</dt> <dd><br /> From Omaha I wandered through pleasant small towns and lush agricultural land, roughly paralleling the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/ElkhornRiver/ElkhornRiver.php" target="_blank">Elkhorn River</a>. Then I continued along the former route of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, now converted into the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/CowboyTrail/CowboyTrail.php" target="_blank">Cowboy Trail</a>, a 320 mile hiking, biking, and horseback rail-to-trail conversion through the area known as the Nebraska Outback.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> My final stop in Nebraska was a very pleasant one, an amazing biologic crossroads - the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nebraska/EasternNebraska/NiobraraRiver/NiobraraRiver.php" target="_blank">Niobrara River national Preserve</a>. The uplands above the river include some remnant prairie courtesy of the benign neglect of the cavalry at Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, complete with elk and a sizeable herd of buffalo. The river canyon has steep limsetone walls with a few small waterfalls and a lovely clear river. The east-west orientation results in vegetation from further north on the south wall (facing north) and from further south on the north wall. Plus it is right on the 100th meridian and has species from both east and west, including excellent opportunities for birdwatching. Truly one of the hidden gems of Nebraska.</dd></dl>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-89938432397375207332010-02-14T16:58:00.000-08:002010-02-14T17:08:50.484-08:00Trip to Albuquerque<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In October 2009 I attended the joint meeting of the IAPP and the IVRPA (International Association of Panoramic Photographers and International VR Photography Association) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was great fun and I enjoyed meeting people with obsessions similar to my own. I gave a talk entitled "Why 360-degree VR?"</span></span></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Since Albuquerque is only a thousand or so miles from home, I decided to drive both ways and do a little photography on the way. I plotted a zig-zag course connecting up places I felt I needed panos of, either to fill in gaps in my coverage, or to replace ones that were old and/or not so good. I ended up taking 259 panoramas on the trip, and all but the last 50 or so are now finished and published on my website.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><dl><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Southern Deserts and Cactus Country</span></span></span></span></p><dt> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My first day took me to Needles, where I frequently camp at </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/SouthernDeserts/Needles/Needles.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Moapa Regional Park</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> on the Colorado River. From there I crossed into Arizona and followed the river down through </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CactusCountry/LakeHavasu/LakeHavasu.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Lake Havasu City</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (home of London Bridge), the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CactusCountry/ParkerStrip/ParkerStrip.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Parker Strip</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CactusCountry/ColoradoRiverRes/ColoradoRiverRes.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Colorado River Indian Reservation</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> where I added another of the WWII Japanese Relocation camps to my list. I spent the night in another of my favorite camp areas, the "long term visitor area" for snowbirds at </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CactusCountry/Quartzsite/Quartzsite.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Quartzsite</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. I intended to laze around there for a day or two, but the wind picked up and made it impossible - everything from my hat to my flip-flops started blowing away!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></p></dt></dl><dl><dt><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Central Arizona</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I relocated to a motel in Verde Valley, which has grown remarkably since I was last there, and the next day shot panos around the historic town of </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CentralArizona/Prescott/Prescott.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Prescott</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, formerly the territorial capital, and home to the excellent Smoki Museum. From there it was over the mountains to the old mining town of </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CentralArizona/Jerome/Jerome.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Jerome</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. The </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CentralArizona/JeromeHighSchool/JeromeHighSchool.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">old Jerome High School</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> has been converted to artists studios and galleries, a excellent idea and a most pleasant place. The picture I took of artist Mark Hemleben in his studio was the one I ended up using for my </span></span><a href="http://worldwidepanorama.org/worldwidepanorama/wwp1209/html/GDonaldBain.html" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Best of 2009</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> on the World Wide Panorama site. Also in the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CentralArizona/VerdeValley/VerdeValley.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Verde Valley</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> I re-shot Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle National Monuments.</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Northern Arizona</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After a surprisingly cold night camping near Flagstaff (down to 17 degrees), I revisited </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/SunsetCrater/SunsetCrater.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sunset Crater</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> National Monument, with its colorful volcanic cones and black lava flows. Heading east on Route 66 (now Interstate 40) I documented a stretch of the old road at </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/Flagstaff/Flagstaff.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Winona</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (scroll to the bottom of the Flagstaff page). Remember that line in the song - "Flagstaff Arizona, don't forget Winona"? It must have been for the rhyme, there has never been anything very memorable there. My last stop before the state line was </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/MeteorCrater/MeteorCrater.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Barringer Meteor Crater</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, truly one of the wonders of the world. It deserves to be a national monument, but remains in private hands, and I must say they do an excellent job of both preserving and protecting it. The next day was a straight shot into Albuquerque for the conference.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pueblo Country</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The conference was held during the Albuquerque International </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/BalloonFestival/BalloonFestival.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Balloon Festival</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. We had prime seats at the Gondola Club to view the sunset spectacle of the special shapes balloons, followed by the "Glowdeo" of balloons illuminated by the propane flames that provide their hot air. Unfortunately a traffic accident trapped me on the freeway the next morning and I missed the mass ascencion. Another activity at the conference was a trip on the aerial tram to the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/SandiaCrest/SandiaCrest.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sandia Crest</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></dt></dl><dl><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I came down with a cold, or maybe flu, the last day of the conference, and spent most of the next four days in a cheap motel in Belen, New Mexico, staring at the ceiling. When I recovered I headed southeast to rephotograph the Salinas Pueblos National Monument, also known as "the cities that died of fear". First was </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/Abo/Abo.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Abo</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, thick walls of a ruined church with a pueblo around it and a kiva inside the cloister walls. Then </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/Quarai/Quarai.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Quarai</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, massive red sandstone ruins on a verdant hillside. Finally, a long drive east onto the plains, where </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/GranQuivira/GranQuivira.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gran Quivira</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (also known as Las Humanas, crowns a low ridge with ash grey stone ruins, a Spanish pueblo village built on top of a radial prehistoric structure.</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Southern New Mexico</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Next I spent a day exploring east of the Rio Grande Valley to the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/SouthNewMexico/VLASanAgustin/VLASanAgustin.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Very Large Array</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> radio-telescope complex on the Plains of San Augustin, then the old mining town of </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/SouthNewMexico/Magdalena/Magdalena.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Magdalena</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. The railroad was built to here because of mines such as the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/SouthNewMexico/KellyMine/KellyMine.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kelly Mine</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, and was the destination for massive cattle drives from the interior plains of New Mexico as recently as 1948. I explored historic </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/SouthNewMexico/Socorro/Socorro.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Socorro</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, which was founded in 1598 by Don Juan de Onate, and that night I camped at </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/SouthNewMexico/WaterCanyon/WaterCanyon.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Water Canyon</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> in the Socorro Mountains, The next day I drove around </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/SouthNewMexico/BosqueDelApache/BosqueDelApache.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> then headed back to Albuquerque<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pueblo Country Again</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There is a genuinely historic and interesting district known simply as </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/OldTownAlbuquerque/OldTownAlbuquerque.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Old Town</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> surrounding the plaza in Albuquerque. My attempt to panograph other parts of the town was frustrated by a Sunday morning charity run event that had all the streets blocked. Instead I took a hike in the Rinconada Canyon section of </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/Petroglyph/Petroglyph.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Petroglyph National Monument</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, notable mostly for the extreme proximity of new development and a lot more joggers and dog walkers than petroglyphs. Next time I will go to the Boca Negra section, apparently much more impressive.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The rest of the day was spent at </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/Bandelier/Bandelier.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bandelier National Monument</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, an amazing prehistoric site with traditional pueblos on the floor of Frijoles Cayon plus unique dwellings built into the soft volcanic rock of the canyon wall. The weather was perfect and it was swarming with people hiking the short trail and climbing up and down the ladders and in and out of the caves. On the way back I stopped at the Rio Grande viewpoint in White Rock near </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/LosAlamos/LosAlamos.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Los Alamos </span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Starting home the next day I spent most of the day at </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/ElMalpais/ElMalpais.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">El Malpais National Monument</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, where pale sandstone ciffs edge a huge black lava field. That night I enjoyed a bit of history by staying at the El Rancho Hotel in </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NewMexico/PuebloCountry/Gallup/Gallup.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gallup</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> on old Route 66.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Northern Arizona Again</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Just at the New Mexico-Arizona state line I headed north to </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/WindowRock/WindowRock.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Window Rock</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, the Navajo nation capital. Nearby is </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/HubbellTradingPost/HubbellTradingPost.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hubbell Trading Post National Monument</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, managed by the National Park Service as a combination historic site and active trading post. From Hubbell I drove north to Chinle and shot a quick series of panos along the south rim of </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/CanyonDeChellySouth/CanyonDeChellySouth.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Canyon de Chelly</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, then spent the night in the lovely (free) campground located in a stand of cottonwood trees.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></dl><dl><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">From Williams I went north to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have never been fond of the South Rim, too much development and too many people. It wasn't as bad as in mid-summer, but was still not, in my opinion, the optimal way to enjoy this wonder of the word (I recommend </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/Toroweap/Toroweap.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Toroweap</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> if you want to really experience the Grand Canyon.)</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I worked my way along the busiest stretch of the canyon rim, from </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/MatherPoint/MatherPoint.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mather Point</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/YavapaiPoint/YavapaiPoint.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yavapai Point,</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/CanyonRimLodges/CanyonRimLodges.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">canyon rim lodges</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/LookoutAndKolb/LookoutAndKolb.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Lookout House and Kolb's Studio</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, and </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/GrandCanyonVillage/GrandCanyonVillage.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Grand Canyon Village</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Despite the grandeur and beauty of the views, it felt more like work than pleasure to me.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Southern Deserts Again</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Back in California I headed northwest to the mining town of </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/SouthernDeserts/SearlesLake/SearlesLake.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Trona</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> on Searles Lake, then north up Owens Valley and home over Sonora Pass. There were some good fall colors along the east side of the Sierra, but I have not put them up yet.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></dl>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-90166709231171227092010-02-14T16:51:00.001-08:002010-02-14T16:57:58.578-08:00Omnibus Update<p><br /> When I made a careful survey of my site last December I discovered that I was about 1900 panoramas behind - panoramas taken and stitched but not finished and not yet put up on the site. So as soon as I completed the big QTVR to Flash conversion I started trying to catch up. As a result almost 400 new panoramas were added to this website the last week of January 2010.</p><p> First, some very old pictures, cubic panoramas that I shot in 2003-2004, before I had good software to stitch cubics. Some are of Yosemite and forests (where more of a view upwards is needed), others are of wildflowers (straight down needed). In all just over a hundred were finally finished as cubics. Most of these panos were already on the site in cylindrical form. If you look carefully you may discover you can now see to the tops of the cliffs and look down at the flowers in many places where before you couldn't.</p><p> The other new additions are scattered all around the site. I have been trying to finish off guidebooks or states where there were just a few pending images. Next I will start work on the really big blocks of panos that remain.</p><dl><dt> Oregon Coast</dt><dd> The northernmost redwoods, on the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/BrookingsChetcoRiver/BrookingsChetcoRiver.php" target="_blank">Chetco River</a> near Brookings.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Black Hills and Badlands National Park</dt><dd> Everything I have for <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthDakota/SouthDakota.php" target="_blank">South Dakota</a> is now on-line, a total of 77 images. These were added in late 2009, but never announced. It is a major geographic addition, including Mount Rushmore, Deadwood, herds of bison, Badlands National Park, and Wounded Knee.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Mount Shasta</dt><dd> Low water in <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/ShastaLake/ShastaLake.php" target="_blank">Shasta Lake</a> in 2008, a great contrast with two years earlier when the lake was full.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Mount Lassen</dt><dd> <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen/BurneyFalls/BurneyFalls.php" target="_blank">Burney Falls and Lake Britton</a> on the Pit River.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Sacramento Valley</dt><dd> A reshoot of the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/SacramentoValley/SundialBridge/SundialBridge.php" target="_blank">Sundial Bridge</a> in Redding, this time using spherical images.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> Also riparian forest on the Sacramento River at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/SacramentoValley/Corning/Corning.php" target="_blank">Woodson Bridge</a> near Corning.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Lake Tahoe and the Northern Sierra</dt><dd> <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/TahoeNorthernSierra/MarshallGold/MarshallGold.php" target="_blank">Sutters Mill at Coloma</a>, the original gold discovery site.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Marin County</dt><dd> Three hikes at Point Reyes National Seashore: <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MarinNorthBay/BearValleyTrail/BearValleyTrail.php" target="_blank">Bear Valley</a>, the Coast Trail at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MarinNorthBay/CoastTrail/CoastTrail.php" target="_blank">Miller Point</a>, and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MarinNorthBay/TomalesPoint/TomalesPoint.php" target="_blank">Tomales Point</a>.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> Plus the hike and beach at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MarinNorthBay/TennesseeValley/TennesseeValley.php" target="_blank">Tennessee Valley</a> in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.</dd></dl><dl><dt> San Francisco</dt><dd> New spherical images of the San Francisco <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SanFrancisco/CivicCenter/CivicCenter.php" target="_blank">Civic Center</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> San Francisco Bay Area</dt><dd> Winter hikes on <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SFBayArea/MountDiablo/MountDiablo.php" target="_blank">Mount Diablo</a>, and a few miles southeast of there at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SFBayArea/EastOfDiablo/EastOfDiablo.php" target="_blank">Morgan Territory</a> Regional Park.</dd></dl><dl><dt> El Camino Real</dt><dd> Springtime pictures on the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/ElCaminoReal/ParkfieldGrade/ParkfieldGrade.php" target="_blank">Parkfield Grade Road</a>, at the town of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/ElCaminoReal/Parkfield/Parkfield.php" target="_blank">Parkfield</a> on the San Andreas Fault, and south along the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/ElCaminoReal/SanAndreasRiftSLO/SanAndreasRiftSLO.php" target="_blank">San Andreas Rift Zone</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Yosemite</dt><dd> The Roosevelt Grove of giant sugar pines near <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/CraneFlatArea/CraneFlatArea.php" target="_blank">Crane Flat</a>.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> A February snowstorm in Yosemite Valley: <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/WawonaTunnel/WawonaTunnel.php" target="_blank">Discovery View</a>, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/ElCapitanMdw/ElCapitanMdw.php" target="_blank">El Capitan Meadow</a>, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/LeidigMdw/LeidigMdw.php" target="_blank">Leidig Meadow</a>, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/ChapelMeadow/ChapelMeadow.php" target="_blank">Chapel Meadow</a>, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/CooksMeadow/CooksMeadow.php" target="_blank">Cooks Meadow</a>, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/AhwahneeMdw/AhwahneeMdw.php" target="_blank">Ahwahnee Meadow</a>, and the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/AhwahneeHotel/AhwahneeHotel.php" target="_blank">Ahwahnee Hotel</a>.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> In August we took an overnight hike to the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/Vogelsang/Vogelsang.php" target="_blank">Vogelsang High Sierra Camp</a> near Tuolumne Meadows.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Sequoia</dt><dd> More panoramas on snowshoes in Sequoia National Park: <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SequoiaKings/WuksachiLodgepole/WuksachiLodgepole.php" target="_blank">Wuksachi Lodge</a>, the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SequoiaKings/ShermanTree/ShermanTree.php" target="_blank">General Sherman Tree</a>, the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SequoiaKings/CongressTrail/CongressTrail.php" target="_blank">Congress Trail</a>, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SequoiaKings/RoundMeadow/RoundMeadow.php" target="_blank">Round Meadow</a> and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SequoiaKings/GiantForest/GiantForest.php" target="_blank">Giant Forest</a><br /> </dd><dd><br /> On the same trip, but no snow (lower elevations) at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SequoiaKings/AshMountain/AshMountain.php" target="_blank">Ash Mountain</a> and Three Rivers.</dd></dl><dl><dt> East of the Sierra</dt><dd> Returning from the southwest in October 2009 I updated my coverage of the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/EastOfTheSierra/Bridgeport/Bridgeport.php" target="_blank">Bridgeport</a> area , and saw some great fall color at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/EastOfTheSierra/TwinLakes/TwinLakes.php" target="_blank">Twin Lakes</a>.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> In October of 2008 I spent a wonderful day with the ancient bristlecone pines of the White Mountains. I started with the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/EastOfTheSierra/PatriarchGroveUpper/PatriarchGroveUpper.php" target="_blank">highest part of the Partriach Grove</a> at around 11,000 feet, then the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/EastOfTheSierra/PatriarchGroveLower/PatriarchGroveLower.php" target="_blank">main Patriarch Grove</a> on the flats below.<br /> </dd><br /> <dd>Also new panoramas along the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/EastOfTheSierra/NorthWhiteMtnRoad/NorthWhiteMtnRoad.php" target="_blank">White Mountain Road</a> between the Patriarch and Schulman Groves, and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/EastOfTheSierra/SouthWhiteMtnRoad/SouthWhiteMtnRoad.php" target="_blank">south down to Westgard Pass</a>.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> In March 2009, on my way to Death Valley, I stopped <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/EastOfTheSierra/OwensLakeNorth/OwensLakeNorth.php" target="_blank">north of Owens Lake</a> to photograph a series of dust storms. But before I could get back to the car the wind shifted and I was completely engulfed in the swirling dust cloud.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> I have also added a few additional panoramas of the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/EastOfTheSierra/Manzanar/Manzanar.php" target="_blank">Manzanar Japanese Relocation Camp</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Death Valley</dt><dd> In 2008 I shot a major series of panoramas covering Saline Valley, the most remote part of Death Valley National Park. There are 34 panoramas presented in six sections: the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/DeathValley/SalineNorthPass/SalineNorthPass.php" target="_blank">North Pass Road</a> coming in from Big Pine; the lower main springs officially known as <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/DeathValley/SalineWarmSprings/SalineWarmSprings.php" target="_blank">Saline Valley Warm Springs</a>; the middle developed spring known as <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/DeathValley/SalinePalmSpring/SalinePalmSpring.php" target="_blank">Palm Spring</a>; the small and natural <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/DeathValley/SalineUpperSpring/SalineUpperSpring.php" target="_blank">Upper Spring</a>; the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/DeathValley/SalineValleyFloor/SalineValleyFloor.php" target="_blank">floor of Saline Valley</a> with sand dunes and the salt playa; and the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/DeathValley/SalineSouthPass/SalineSouthPass.php" target="_blank">South Pass Road</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Santa Barbara</dt><dd> In March 2007 I took a few new panoramas of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/SantaBarbara/Carpinteria/Carpinteria.php" target="_blank">Carpinteria</a>, and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/SantaBarbara/Ventura/Ventura.php" target="_blank">Ventura</a>, including Mission San Buenaventura.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Los Angeles</dt> <dd>Among the really old cubics that I finally finished - a tricky stitching problem finally overcome, and worth it - the Bonaventure Hotel on <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/LosAngeles/BunkerHill/BunkerHill.php" target="_blank">Bunker Hill</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Southern Deserts</dt><dd> I spent a pleasant morning at Zzyzx in the East Mojave National Preserve, shooting the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/SouthernDeserts/SodaSpringsCenter/SodaSpringsCenter.php" target="_blank">Soda Springs Desert Studies Center</a>.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> On my way back from the conference in Albuquerque I photographed <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCalif/SouthernDeserts/SearlesLake/SearlesLake.php" target="_blank">Trona</a>, a vast chemical extraction site and company town located on the shore of Searles Dry Lake.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Northern Nevada</dt><dd> In late fall of 2008 I enjoyed a brief stay at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nevada/NorthAndCentralNevada/GreatBasinPark/GreatBasinPark.php" target="_blank">Great Basin National Park</a>, the least visited national park in the 48 states. A cross-section of Prometheus, the world's oldest tree until it was cut down, has been rescued from the casino in Ely, and can now be seen in the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nevada/NorthAndCentralNevada/BakerNevada/BakerNevada.php">Great Basin Visitor Center in Baker</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Southern Nevada</dt><dd> For the World Wide Panorama event "Diversity" I paid a visit to <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nevada/LasVegasSouthernNevada/AshMeadows/AshMeadows.php" target="_blank">Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge</a>, home to the world's rarest fish, the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nevada/LasVegasSouthernNevada/DevilsHole/DevilsHole.php" target="_blank">Devils Hole</a> pupfish.<br /> </dd><dd><br /> The next day I photographed at popular <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nevada/LasVegasSouthernNevada/SpringMtnRanch/SpringMtnRanch.php" target="_blank">Spring Mountain Ranch</a> and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Nevada/LasVegasSouthernNevada/RedRockCanyonNevada/RedRockCanyonNevada.php" target="_blank">Red Rock Canyon</a>, west of Las Vegas</dd></dl><dl><dt> Canyonlands of Utah</dt><dd> I shot a long series of the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, Natural Bridges, and Captol Reef in early summer of 2008, and managed to get most of them up on the website by October. But another series shot on the same trip in the Canyon Rims Recreation Area, got overlooked until now. It consists of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Utah/Canyonlands/AnticlineOverlook/AnticlineOverlook.php" target="_blank">Anticline Overlook</a>, the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Utah/Canyonlands/HatchPointRoad/HatchPointRoad.php" target="_blank">Hatch Point Road</a>, and the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Utah/Canyonlands/NeedlesOverlook/NeedlesOverlook.php" target="_blank">Needles Overlook</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Northern Arizona</dt><dd> In October 2008 I revisited the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/KaibabPlateau/KaibabPlateau.php" target="_blank">Kaibab Plateau</a> specifically for the fall colors, and also added some spherical views at the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/NorthernArizona/NorthRim/NorthRim.php" target="_blank">North Rim and Bright Angel Point</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Cactus Country, Southern Arizona</dt><dd> In December 2009 I spent a week in Tucson scouting for the <a href="http://Tucson2010.com/" target="_blank">International Panoramic Photography Conference</a>. My business there was hotels, so I shot a series of panos of the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CactusCountry/TucsonHiltonEast/TucsonHiltonEast.php" target="_blank">Hilton Tucson East Hotel</a> (where the conference will be held).</dd><br /> <dd>But I also managed to grab a few panos of the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CactusCountry/MountLemmon/MountLemmon.php" target="_blank">Mount Lemmon Highway</a>, the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CactusCountry/PimaAirSpaceMuseum/PimaAirSpaceMuseum.php" target="_blank">Pima Air and Space Museum</a>, and just a few from the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Arizona/CactusCountry/SaguaroEast/SaguaroEast.php" target="_blank">Rincon Mountain unit of Saguaro National Park</a> before a sand storm blew up.</dd></dl><p> I managed to add two entire new states to the website, Kansas and Missouri, photographed on my epic Oregon Trail trip of July 2008. I could (and should) have added a third, Iowa, but my time in Council Bluffs was too short and the weather too rainy.</p><dl><dt> Kansas</dt> <dd>In Kansas I took just a few along the Oregon Trail and Pony Express route in the northeast corner: <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Kansas/EasternKansas/HollenbergStation/HollenbergStation.php" target="_blank">Hollenberg Station and Marysville</a>; and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Kansas/EasternKansas/AlcoveSpring/AlcoveSpring.php" target="_blank">Alcove Spring</a> on the Big Blue River. Further south I enjoyed a brief stop at the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Kansas/EasternKansas/TallgrassPrairie/TallgrassPrairie.php" target="_blank">Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve</a>.</dd></dl><dl><dt> Missouri</dt><dd> Missouri was my turn-around point on the Oregon Trail trip, as I only wanted to document the starting points for the emigrant trails along the east bank of the Missouri River at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Missouri/MissouriRiver/StJoseph/StJoseph.php" target="_blank">Saint Joseph</a> and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Missouri/MissouriRiver/IndependenceMo/IndependenceMo.php" target="_blank">Independence</a>.</dd></dl><p>Now that these bits and pieces are cleared away I can start in on some of the huge remaining blocks of panos that have been taken and stitched, but not finally prepared and added to the site. About 1100 panoramas to go!</p><ul><li>Two springtime trips in 2008 to the San Luis Obispo coast and El Camino Real in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties. (about 120)</li><li>My long Oregon Trail trip through Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska. (about 280)</li><li>A summer trip to Portland, Salem and the Oregon coast. (80)</li><li>Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, and central Nevada on a cold autumn trip in 2008. (60)</li><li>Two long series completing my coverage of Owens Valley. (about 100)</li><li>Saratoga Spring at the south end of Death Valley and China Gardens on the Amargosa River. (70)</li><li>A long backwoods driving and hiking trip in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains of northern California. (about 70)</li><li>Twice across Nevada: Carson City, Virginia City, Fort Churchill, Berlin-Icthyosaur, Angel Lake, and the California Trail. (70)</li><li>Across central and northern Arizona on my way to and from a conference in Albuquerque, including the Grand Canyon. (about 80)</li><li>Some major additions (including replacement of early work) for the Pueblo Country of northern New Mexico, and a few days in southern New Mexico. (100)</li></ul>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-19194373478243020352010-02-14T16:50:00.001-08:002010-02-14T16:50:56.242-08:00Conversion from QuickTime to Flash[Not available yet]Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-69691196494041876672010-02-14T16:45:00.000-08:002010-02-14T16:49:57.367-08:00Kauai - the Garden Isle<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In May this year I was given a wonderful opportunity. My friends Bob and Evelyn Apte invited me to stay with them in their house at Princeville on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i. Bob is an accomplished photographer and world traveler: you can enjoy the amazing collection of photographs on his site: </span></span><a href="http://eyevuetheworld.org/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Robert Apte's Eye Vue the World</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Bob has been encouraging me in my photographic projects for several years now, and inspiring me by his example, both as a photographic artist, and as a person who knows how to live well. Bob is a bit camera-shy, but can be seen in the first of the panoramas at </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Hawaii/Kauai/QueensBath/QueensBath.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Queen's Bath</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I would like to dedicate the updated guidebook </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Hawaii/Kauai/Kauai.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kaua'i - the Garden Isle</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Robert and Evelyn Apte</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, in gratitude for their friendship and support, and especially their generous hospitality at Princeville, which made this new edition possible. I spent an idyllic two weeks with them, shooting the glorious landscapes of Kaua'i each day, returning "home" each night to their companionhip (and Evelyn's home cooking).</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By the way, if you are interested in visiting Kauai, the Apte's house is available for rent. It is located on the clifftops at Ali'i Kai in Princeville, on the beautiful north coast, and can be seen in three of my panoramas on the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Hawaii/Kauai/Princeville/Princeville.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Princeville</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> page. It is a very private single-story two bedroom unit, right on the clifftop, at the end of the road so there is no traffic. It has high speed internet, there is a swimming pool adjacent, and Princeville has everything you might need - library, post office, groceries, shopping and restaurants. Full details about renting are on </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5841860046958123287" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">this website</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I first visited Kauai in 1988, a ten day trip spent camping and hiking, including three memorable days on the Na Pali coast trail to Kalalau. I was shooting Kodachrome slides then (VR panoramas had not been invented) and got some great shots - I should digitize some and get them on the web. I returned to Kauai in March 1999 with my wife Nora and shot about 70 panoramas on negative film. Unfortunately, the time needed to scan all those negatives was more than I could manage, and only a dozen ever made it to my site.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This second edition of the </span></span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Hawaii/Kauai/Kauai.php" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Virtual Guidebook to Kauai - the Garden Isle</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> consists entirely of new work, shot the first two weeks of May, 2009. I have replicated almost all the panos from my earlier trip and filled in most of the gaps in my geographic coverage. The weather was not ideal, many days were hazy or cloudy, but Hawaii is stunning in any light and I am very pleased with the 210 panoramas I obtained.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I have organized the panos in a clockwise series, starting at the end of the road at Ke'e on the north coast and wrapping around the east coast, south coast, west coast, and ending in the Alaka'i Swamp near the center of the island. There is a gap between the ends - the roadless Na Pali coast, which I did not have time to hike.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A few locations and subjects eluded me - I'll get them next time. The big one of course is the spectacular Kalalau Trail along the Na Pali coast cliffs, including the valleys at Hankapi'ai, Hanakoa, and Kalalau. I had planned to hike out onto the knife-edge ridges above the dry end of Na Pali, at Miloli'i and Awa'awapuhi, but after my nine-mile hike in Alaka'i Swamp the day before I just didn't have the energy. I also hoped to hike the east side and bottom of Waimea Canyon, but didn't have the time (or 4-wheel drive). If I could be reasonably sure of a clear day I would like to hike all the way across the Alaka'i Swamp to Kilohana, which overlooks the northeast coast.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kapa'a has some nice narrow beaches and fine hotels I would like to document. I never got around to shooting the Kilohana Plantation house (Gaylord's Restaurant) or the Grove Farm Homestead historic site (which requires special permission). The St Regis Hotel in Princeville was closed during remodeling.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There are more beautiful beaches, coves, and coastal cliffs than I could cover on one trip, but I tried to get a reasonable selection. The ones I would like to add are Tunnels Beach (the premier snorkeling spot on the north coast), Secret Beach and Larsen's Beach in the north, the rest of the Maha'alepu beaches near Poipu, and Barking Sands between Kekaha and Polihale (which now requires security clearance because you must cross military land).</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There are a few subjects I feel I did not do justice to. Wailua Falls is hard to see from behind the wall, so I should have hiked to the bottom (despite all the warning signs). I took a few panos in shallow water on various beaches, but next time I would like to get further out, perhaps in a kayak, and also try some underwater panos. There was almost no rain during this trip (very unusual for Kaua'i) so I missed the dramatic clouds, mist, and rainbows that are so much a part of the Hawai'ian scene.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Next - the Big Island. I don't know when, or how I can afford it, but I would love to re-photograph the Big Island of Hawai'i. My wife and I spent two full weeks there in January, 2000, making a strenuous effort to obtain comprehensive coverage - 164 panoramas. It was the last big project I shot on film, and very little of it ever got scanned (just 32 panos). I would go a little slower now, probably take three weeks, and replicate every single pano - but this time digital and spherical.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-45507155540385919652009-04-26T16:54:00.000-07:002009-04-26T17:02:27.019-07:00The "New" Virtual Guidebooks Site<div>Regular visitors to this site, if they have been watching carefully, might have detected some differences starting about the middle of February. In particular, all the state pages have new maps and the advertising has been redone.</div><div><br /></div><div>In actuality, this is a completely new site, rebuilt from the ground up. It is intended to closely resemble the old site, retaining the look and feel, navigation, and of course content (the VR panoramas). But under the surface it is completely new.</div><div><p></p></div><div>The old site was begun in 1999 and coded in plain old html, using just a text editor (BBEdit). It grew steadily and I added features as well as content, and the look and feel evolved. But it was still being built with hand-crafted static html (mostly using Adobe GoLive). Making universal changes got increasingly difficult as the page count rose into the tens of thousands. It was also very arduous to add new content and ferret out errors.</div><div><br /></div><div>So when I finished my last trip of the year in mid-October 2008 I decided it was time to start over and rebuild the site using up-to-date software. Primarily, this meant coding the pages in php, formatting them with CSS, and pulling the variable data from a MySQL database.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Since I had little experience with CSS and none at all with php/MySQL this involved a lot of learning and experimentation, not to mention a whole shelf of books. I am also very grateful to Markus Altendorff (of the WWP team) for his invaluable advice. It was fun making succesive breakthroughs - my first functional php page, my first successful database access, my first floating page design, and adding details that made for a more interactive interface.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Ironically, the new site has been coded almost entirely using BBEdit, back to the reliable tools that I started with.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I was tempted to go much further with the new opportunities presented by the dynamic page approach, but decided that getting the content back on line was most important. So I settled on a "brute force" method of accessing database info, where some variables are typed into the page, rather than extracted logically. This allowed me to start entering content and actually see some functional pages. By Christmas I had working versions of pages at all levels. The code behind them was horribly crude, but that can be fixed later.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The largest part of the job, though, has not been design or programming, but managing the data. First I had to do a thorough housecleaning of the site contents, organizing 7000 panoramas (each in two sizes) into folders within folders within folders, and regularizing the file names. This allowed me to implement a careful geographic restructuring, with provision for future expansion. At this time I also did triage to separate finished panos ready for publication from old not-so-good panos to be withdrawn, and new panos not yet ready. Generic pages were copied into the folders, ready to recieve their contents from the database, and the whole opus uploaded to the server (about 39,000 pages).<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The descriptive data, which had previously been typed into multiple locations with minor variations (metadata, various lists, pano page captions) had to be captured from the old pages and massaged into the new database fields. At each level this got more arduous - 26 state pages (no big deal), 72 guidebook pages (a couple of days), 1915 locality pages (yikes!) and finally the agonizing drudgery of 7398 panorama pages. The pano page data is still not final - tweaking the fields for optimal results when used variously as metadata, captions, and on lists will be an ongoing project.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Several times I had to take a break from this huge task, for mental health and because I have other responsibilites. So during this time I also redrew the state page maps, set up the WWP Foundation, helped run the WWP's Best of 2008 event, gave a couple of public lectures ("A Virtual Tour of the National Parks" is my latest show), supervised a home repair project (that turned out to be much larger than expected), played around with Flash panoramas, and took time off for family Thanksgiving and Christmas. What I didn't do was travel, take new VR panoramas, or process any old ones. (One exception, a weekend trip to Yosemite during a snowstorm in February, too tempting to pass up!)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The final two stages of the site remake were tough. A high priority was to re-think my advertising strategy. First I had to get rid of the banners for defunct TravelPackets and the ancient Amazon banners. The navbars at all levels point to sections on Books, Prints and Posters, so I had to do a quick makeover of my books and posters sections. The third category, Prints, refers to art-quality prints of my own work, a project that I am very anxious to get started on (re-started, actually, see my earlier <a href="http://www.blogger.com/Blog/Blog_RedwoodsFogPrint.php">Blog article on prints</a>). The banners across the top are now dedicated to Google AdSense, while the small square ads along the right side currently feature my own bookstores and lists. But in the future I may choose to sell this advertising space.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The second part of the final stage is problematic - writing introductory text for every state, guidebook and locality page. I think this is important, it makes the site more truly a series of guidebooks, telling you a bit about each area as well as showing you selected views. But the creative challenge of writing these short intros, one after another, has proved daunting. I did manage to provide something (not necessarily the final version) for each of the states and guidebooks by the time the site was released. But the locality text (arguably the most important, explaining each little cluster of images) has got me temporarily down for the count. To see what it will look like when finished (eventually), browse through Nevada, the only state with complete intro text at all levels (state, guidebook, locality).<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>On a humorous note, during the creation of the new site I used placeholder text, the standard "Lorem ipsum", so I could see how the text blocks would fit into the page design. My wife had never encountered this before and was really mystified to see all that Latin on my site! The dummy text has now all been removed, I think, but if you see some fragment of Latin remaining, now you know why.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent commodo libero sed pede. Duis adipiscing libero consectetur neque. Nam eget lacus. Integer volutpat egestas lorem. Cras porttitor. Mauris pharetra turpis aliquam magna. See the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum" target="_blank">Wikipedia article</a> for more information on <em>Lorem ipsum</em>.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">So what, specifically, is better about the new site?</span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><br /></div><div><li>error-free navigation - links and navbars are now created from the database<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>cleaner navigation, no separate fullscreen and standard locality pages<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>all panos are available in both standard and fullscreen sizes which open in new window<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>older and not-so-good panos no longer appear on the site<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>new introductory text on all state and guidebook pages - more like a real guidebook :-)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>new introductory text on locality pages, appearing steadily as I write<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>new improved state page maps<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>tool-tips on all navbars and clickable maps<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>thumbnail maps on the navigation bars are clickable! - go to any state on the map with one click<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>almost all the top level pages (Help, About, How, etc.) have been rewritten and new ones have been added<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>there are context-sensitive ads (provided by Google) at the top of every non-pano page (please click them!)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>a Google custom search box on every non-pano page</li></div><div><li>ads for my book lists and (potentially) other relevant items down the right side (non-pano pages)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>an Amazon search box at the bottom of each column of book ads</li></div><div><li>updated and expanded book pages for every state<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>new and updated special book lists (waterfalls, California literature, notable authors)</li></div><div><li>updated poster pages (?)</li></div><div><li>new never-before-published panoramas of San Francisco, East Mojave, Canyonlands, and others<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></li></div><div><li>new panoramas (from summer 2008) will start appearing soon, the pages and database are all set up for them<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><br /></li></div><div><li>future panoramas will appear on the site sooner after they are taken (once I catch up!)<br /></li></div><div><p class="small_sans"></p></div><div>Hopefully my next blog will be to introduce some major new sets of panoramas.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-90843838758367874702009-04-26T16:51:00.000-07:002009-04-26T16:54:08.598-07:00New and Old Panoramas - Missing in Action<p>In the year 2008 I set a new personal record for VR photography - I took 1377 panoramas in thirteen states. This expanded the scope of my site to include four new states (South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri) and filled in many gaps.</p><p> Usually I spend the fall and winter catching up on the photography that I did during the summer. But this year I kept traveling until mid-October, then started immediately on other projects (the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/Blog/Blog_Databased_Site.php">new database-driven site</a> and the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/WorldWidePanorama.org" target="_blank">WWP Foundation</a>). So the new databased version of the site (launched mid-February) was missing about 900 panoramas taken in 2008.</p><p> Additionally, my new site policy is not to publish any panoramas for which I cannot present both standard and fullscreen versions. This immediately eliminates almost everything done on film, mostly taken before 2000. But also there were a few instances (as in Alaska) where I rushed to get standard size versions on the site, and never went back to make fullscreens. The bottom line is that I have removed almost a thousand older panoramas from the site, including most of Alaska and the northern parts of Canada.</p><p> My oldest panoramas, done on film, often now have historic value, and I would like to bring them back. Re-scanning the original negative film is a big task, though, so it may not get done completely, or soon. But many panos that I took toward the end of the film era have good scans and it will be fairly easy to re-make them and get them back on the site - all the code is already there in the pages, it is just commented out.</p><p> If I bring back a whole batch of old VR's I will mention it in this blog, especially if it restores or completes an entire section. First and easiest to do will be Northern British Columbia, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, then Alaska. After that it gets problematic, with panos scattered throughout the site, and some of them not worth the effort to reprocess (many of them have subsequently been re-photographed).</p><p> Similarly, each time I finish up with a group of new panos I will announce it here. I look forward to posting some great new views of Utah, Nebraska and South Dakota from my Oregon Trail trip (taken in July 2008); the redwoods, Oregon coast and Portland from my Oregon Coast trip (August); and Bryce Canyon, Great Basin National Park, the White Mountains, and Owens Valley from my Fall Color trip (October).</p><p> My immediate priority, though, is not to rebuild the older parts of the site, but to get back out on the road and take more pictures!</p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-33161684413065932672008-10-29T15:16:00.000-07:002008-11-01T12:28:21.367-07:00Big Changes Ahead for Virtual GuidebooksI haven't posted to this blog in six months and people have asked whether I am still actively developing the site. The answer is yes, emphatically YES, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com">Don Bain's Virtual Guidebooks</a> will be growing and evolving faster than ever in the next year! Let me catch up now with news and plans for the future.<br /> <br />First, a very major change in my life. After a year of increasing dissatisfation I left my job at the University of California (after 22 years), effective July 1. The new Geography department chairman's idea of what my job should be was completely different than mine, and was unacceptable to me. So I quit. Technically, I retired, so I have a guaranteed income and benefits - but the wonderful thing is that now I have full time to devote to my other projects.<br /><br />Of course the first thing I did with my new freedom was to hit the road. Since April (when I made the decision and started using up vacation time) I have taken six long photography trips, which I will describe below. I plan to stay at home during November and December (just a few short trips) to catch up on the pictures I have taken, develop the web site, and reinvigorate the World Wide Panorama.<br /><br />Soon after I left the university the department chair broke his promise to continue to sponsor the <a href="http://WorldWidePanorama.com">World Wide Panorama</a> by providing a free server. It was not too much of a surprise -- he hadn't kept his other promises either, and we were prepared. Landis Bennett and I (co-founders of the WWP) had already set up a non-profit corporation, the World Wide Panorama Foundation, to take over responsibility for the project. There is a lot of work to be done, but I see a bright future for this international collaboration and showcase for VR photography. The first appearance of the new WWP will be the "Best of 2008" event, appearing January 1, 2009.<br /><br />The trips I have been taking will add almost a thousand new VR panoramas to the Virtual Guidebooks site. But before I sketch out where I went and what I saw, let me mention the behind-the-scenes changes being made to the site.<br /><br />When I initiated Virtual Guidebooks in late 1999 all I knew was html, so the site was built that way. It got less and less reasonable to maintain in this form (handcrafted static html pages) as it grew to a thousand panoramas, then two thousand, then I added fullscreen versions, and growth continued to its present 6000. The result has been increasing lag time in getting new panoramas up on the site, a lack of flexibilty in page design and contents, and an awful lot of work to make changes or additions.<br /><br />The modern solution of course is to convert to a database-driven model. So I am currently creating a whole new version of the site with PHP and MySQL, learning as I go. It is slow and at times tedious, but also interesting -- and every bit of progress is exciting. I dare not predict when the project will be complete, or even whether the conversion will be in stages or all at once. But I will discuss it in some future blog post.<br /><br />Spring Break in March, when I was still acting like an employee, was spent mostly in the Mojave Desert. No special wildflower displays this year, but it gave me a very welcome chance to think about my future, and escape from the unpleasant situation developing at work. Expect over a hundred new panos of East Mojave National Preserve, Laughlin and Oatman on the Colorado River, and Valley of Fire State Park near Las Vegas.<br /><br />I managed another week-long trip in late April, catching the end of wildflower season in the South Coast Ranges and revisiting areas along the central coast and El Camino Real in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties. An easy, pleasant trip, with time to work on some new techniques. Another hundred new panos.<br /><br />I took off half of May for a long trip through the spectacular parklands of the Colorado Plateau in Utah - Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, and the Kolob Canyons of Zion. I took about 150 panoramas, most of which are finished but will probably not be posted to the site until the big database project is further along.<br /><br />My most ambitous trip, one I have been planning for a long time, took most of the month of July. I followed the Oregon Trail eastwards (i.e. backwards) from Salt Lake City all the way to Independence, Missouri, focusing on history and rural landscapes. This was mostly new country for me, including nearly two weeks in Nebraska. I liked it a lot, but let me warn you that camping there in the summer requires an air-conditioned motorhome with screened windows!<br /><br />Actually, I was following the intertwined routes of the Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, California Trail, the original transcontinental railroad, and the Pony Express. I saw a lot of old wagon ruts, many modest frontier buildings, scenery that was less spectacular than further west, very nice small towns and just two cities (Omaha and Salt Lake). On the way back I toured the Black Hills of South Dakota, another state new to me. In all I shot almost 400 panoramas!<br /><br />I took barely a week to recover then headed north for the last trip of the summer. First a few days in Redwood National Park (one of my very favorite places), then up the Oregon Coast and inland to Portland. Another 150 panos.<br /><br />Most of September slipped by while I was distracted with health issues, a major home repair project and similar mundane concerns. But I managed one more trip, a mid-October quest for fall color.<br /><br />I have been to Zion Canyon when it was just unbelievable - in addition to the always-colorful sandstone, there were brilliant yellow cottonwoods and aspen, orange Gambel oaks and red canyon maples. So I headed for Utah. But I found everything still green in Zion, too early by almost a month, and the aspens at Cedar Breaks already bare, a week too late.<br /><br />It was a great trip nevertheless. In addition to Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks I spent a day at Great Basin National Park in Nevada, hiking in the bristlecone pine forest at 10,000 feet, then drove diagonally across the sparsely inhabited heart of Nevada from Ely to Tonopah. Finally three days in Owens Valley (with some fall color) and a day in the White Mountains shooting still more ancient bristlecone pines.<br /><br />So keep checking this blog and this site for major changes. My goal is to have the databased version of Virtual Guidebooks launched and all this summer's panos up by the end of 2008.Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-49569491466477507812008-05-07T14:10:00.000-07:002008-05-07T14:15:44.246-07:00Updates to the Northern California Coast<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">The <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast_TOC.html" target="_blank">Virtual Guidebook to the Northern California Coast and North Coast Ranges</a> covers everything between the Sacramento Valley and the coast, from Arcata south to the northern edge of the Bay Area. Its unifying features are the redwood forests and the dramatic coastline.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">When I first started arranging my VR panoramas into "guidebooks" (regions) back in 1999, the area covered by each one was much smaller than now. Through a process of gradual amalgamation, this guidebook evolved from earlier separate guidebooks for Eureka, the Redwood Highway, the Lost Coast, the Mendocino Coast, the Sonoma Coast, and the North Coast Ranges. Maybe I have overdone it - there are now 47 localities with 251 panoramas .</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">In November I made a trip to update the sections on Fort Bragg and Mendocino, and in January/February did the same for Eureka, Shelter Cove, and Sinkyone. There are still some areas up there that I want to fill in or update (notably Arcata), and the stretch of coast from Mendocino to Salt Point needs a lot of new panos. I want to hike the Lost Coast again, both the northern (Mattole River to Shelter Cove) and southern (Sinkyone Wilderness) stretches, and climb King Peak.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The Redwood Highway section needs to be completely redone, and supplemented with Headwaters Forest and Grizzly Creek. I currently have nothing at all from the higher coast ranges (Yolla Bolly, Snow Mountain) or the Clear Lake area, nor from the beautiful vineyard valleys of the upper Russian River. So this guidebook is far from complete.</span></p> <p>Here's a review of the new additions to this guidebook.</p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/Samoa/Samoa_TOC.html" target="_blank">Samoa</a> is an old company town, formerly the property of the Hammond Lumber Company. Now it is famous mostly for the Samoa Cookhouse (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/Samoa/SamoaCookhouse_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/Samoa/SamoaCookhouse_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), but most of the old buildings are still in good shape and there are plans for redevelopment. It is located on <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NorthSpit/NorthSpit_TOC.html" target="_blank">North Spit</a>, site of some big industrial properties and a long stretch of dunes and beach.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Eureka is one of the under-appreciated small cities of California. There is the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/PortOfEureka/PortOfEureka_TOC.html" target="_blank">commercial port</a> and a newly developed <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/OldTownWaterfront/OldTownWaterfront_TOC.html" target="_blank">waterfront</a>. The impressive historic section known as <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/OldTownEureka/OldTownEureka_TOC.html" target="_blank">Old Town</a> is rivalled only by Port Angeles in Washington and Old Sacramento. <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/Eureka/Eureka_TOC.html" target="_blank">Downtown Eureka</a> boasts some fine old buildings and a vibrant arts scene.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/Ferndale/Ferndale_TOC.html" target="_blank">Ferndale</a> is a true gem of a small town, a Hollywood favorite (Outbreak, The Majestic). I managed to reshoot it in the last hour of winter daylight.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/LostCoastHeadlands/LostCoastHeadlands_TOC.html" target="_blank">Lost Coast Headlands</a> are something new, recently acquired by the BLM and opened to the public. This is a notoriously unstable bit of coast and one stretch of road dropped down 400 feet a few years ago. It could be a new and vital link in the California Coastal Trail, which now goes far inland here.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/ShelterCove/ShelterCove_TOC.html" target="_blank">Shelter Cove</a> is an isolated development in the middle of the Lost Coast. Laid out by real estate developers in the 1960's, it features an airstrip, golf course and campground, a few motels and small stores, and a scattering of houses with more under construction. Its wild and lonely location makes it worth the long winding drive over the coast ridges from Highway 101 at Garberville.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I photographed the old <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/CapeMendocino/CapeMendocinoLighthouse_S.html" target="_blank">Cape Mendocino Lighthouse</a> ten years ago in its original location by trespassing, so it was nice to see it restored and relocated to the park in Shelter Cove (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/ShelterCove/MalCoombesParkReRedux_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/ShelterCove/MalCoombesParkReRedux_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). Also of note is the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/BlackSandsBeach/BlackSandBeach_TOC.html" target="_blank">Black Sands Beach</a> just north of town.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Sinkyone Wilderness State Park is one of my personal favorites. I made a special trip there in February and was blessed with a sunny day followed by a foggy day, both with 15-20 foot waves. The northern section, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/WhaleGulch/WhaleGulch_TOC.html" target="_blank">Whale Gulch</a>, is pictured here in the fog, a very common condition.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The center section of the park features the old <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/NeedleRock_TOC.html" target="_blank">Needle Rock Ranch</a>. I was fortunate to be able to walk right through the herd of Roosevelt elk that lives there (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/NeedleRockElkTwo_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/NeedleRockElkTwo_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) on my hike back from Whale Gulch. I camped at Barn Camp (that's my van parked by the barn, my tent in the trees <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/BarnCampSinkyone_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/BarnCampSinkyone_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and spent an hour shooting the sunset from the clifftops (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/NeedleRockSunsetThree_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/NeedleRockSunsetThree_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/NeedleRockSunsetSeven_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/NeedleRock/NeedleRockSunsetSeven_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">From Needle Rock a dirt road leads south to <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/BearHarbor/BearHarbor_TOC.html" target="_blank">Bear Harbor</a>. My favorite shot here was taken on a dangerously unstable cliff edge above the roaring surf (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/BearHarbor/BearHarborEdge_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/BearHarbor/BearHarborEdge_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The last day of that February trip I started to work my south along the Mendocino coast starting at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/Westport/Westport_TOC.html" target="_blank">Westport</a>, but the bone-chilling fog quickly discouraged me. I will pick it up again at Cleone and McKerricher, maybe next fall.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The famous and very interesting central Mendocino coast has already been covered in this blog (see <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/blog_archive.html#Blog_WeekendMendocino" target="_blank">Weekend Trip to the Mendocino Coast</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/FortBragg/FortBragg_TOC.html" target="_blank">Fort Bragg</a> and its port, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/Noyo/Noyo_TOC.html" target="_blank">Noyo</a>, get better all the time, making a long transition from the old economy of timber and fisheries to a new one of tourism and art. <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/MendocinoMainStreet/MendocinoMainStreet_TOC.html" target="_blank">Mendocino</a> itself (properly Mendocino City, but nobody calls it that) is widely recognized from movies and television and well established as a venue for art. Actually, most of the artists now live elsewhere, notably in Fort Bragg.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Back in November I also managed to photograph a few places in the coast ranges inland from Mendocino, the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/BigRiverAlbionRiver/BigRiverAlbionRiver_TOC.html" target="_blank">pygmy forest and Albion River</a>, and one of my favorite redwood groves, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/MontgomeryWoods/MontgomeryWoods_TOC.html" target="_blank">Montgomery Woods</a>. I used one of the redwood pictures as my entry in <a href="http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp1207/html/GDonaldBain.html" target="_blank">Best of 2007</a> on the <a href="http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp/index.html" target="_blank">World Wide Panorama</a> site.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Though I took them over a year ago, some panos of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/SonomaCoastPark/SonomaCoastPark_TOC.html" target="_blank">Sonoma Coast State Park</a> and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/BodegaBay/BodegaBay_TOC.html" target="_blank">Bodega Bay</a> have only just been added to the site. And finally, a token few shots of the wine valleys, specifically Boonville and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast/AndersonValley/AndersonValley_TOC.html" target="_blank">Anderson Valley</a>.</span></p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-2644707608447731942008-05-05T14:10:00.000-07:002008-05-05T14:26:32.880-07:00Redwoods in the Fog - the Print<p>For over two years now I have been making slow deliberate progress towards selling panoramic prints of the images on my Virtual Guidebooks site. My wife has had several of them framed and hung them at home, and I have shown a number at lectures and art fairs. A later blog post will announce availability and give details when my fine art panoramic prints are ready for sale.</p> <p>Most of the prints I have made so far are straighforward wide-format panoramas, usually the complete 360°. They have an interesting distortion, a unique form factor, and people seem to like them. Since I draw them directly from the 6000+ archive of Virtual Guidebooks images the range of subjects and locations is enormous - something for everyone.</p> <p>But some of my most dramatic VR panoramas are cubics, which pose special problems for printing as flat media. Here is the story of how I dealt with this challenge for one of these (from the Virtual Guidebook to Redwood National Park) - be sure to look straight up:</p><dl> <dt>Huge trees and chest-high ferns in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove.<span style="font-size:85%;"> (6-19-04)</span></dt> <dd><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/LBJGrove/LBJGroveFerns_S.html" target="blank">Standard Size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/LBJGrove/LBJGroveFerns_F.html" target="_blank">Fullscreen Size</a></span></dd></dl> <p>The original photos were taken near the dedication site in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, Redwood National Park, California. A foggy day was chosen both for the soft even lighting and because of the close ecological relationship between the coastal fog zone of northern California and the geographic range of the redwoods.</p> <p>Some of the trees here are over 300 feet tall (100 meters) and 10 feet diameter (3 meters). Visitors to old growth redwood groves are struck by the cathedral-like quality of the forest and the majesty of the amazingly tall straight trees. Although over 90% of the original redwood forest has been logged, many of the finest groves are preserved in national and state parks.</p> <p>Below the massive redwoods (<i>Sequoia sempervirens</i>) grow tanbark oaks (<i>Lithocarpus densiflorus</i>), California rose bay (<i>Rhododendron macrophyllum</i>), salal (<i>Gaultheria shallon</i>), and sword fern (<i>Polystichum californicum</i>).</p> <p>In its print form I call it simply "Redwoods in the Fog". After printing it a few times at home I made a larger print (60 by 30 inches) on the big Epson 9800 at my computer lab. Here I am posing with the final mounted print on the balcony at the Geography department, UC Berkeley.</p> <p><img src="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BlogSupport/DonWithRedwoodsFog_small.jpg" alt="" height="450" width="313" border="0" /></p> <p>This striking image began with a series of 37 separate photographs. They were taken with carefully controlled geometry using a tall tripod and a special camera mount. Because of the shoulder-high sword ferns the camera, a Nikon d100 digital SLR, was held about seven feet (2.1 meters) above the ground.</p> <p>Here the original photos are shown arranged in three tiers, plus a zenith (straight up) shot. There is no nadir shot (straight down) because the dense vegetation made it impossible for me to step out of the way.</p> <p><img src="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BlogSupport/LBJGroveFerns_matrix_small.jpg" alt="" height="300" width="674" border="0" /></p> <p>Using a special computer program (PTGui) the individual frames were warped and overlapped, then blended, to form a continuous image that covers an entire spherical view. Image procesing programs such as Photoshop can only deal with a rectangular matrix of pixels, so the spherical image was reprojected and saved as an equirectangular image – twice as wide as high, equivalent to an unprojected world map (known as plate carée).</p> <p><img src="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BlogSupport/LBJGroveFerns_equirect_small.jpg" alt="" height="300" width="600" border="0" /></p> <p>This equirectangular image was then processed into a digital movie file. This uses a cubic imaging model, so the equirectangular image is reprojected to six cube faces.</p> <p><img src="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BlogSupport/LBJGroveFerns_faces-small.jpg" alt="" height="300" width="400" border="0" /></p> <p>Viewing software allows the user to direct the view in any direction, unwarping the image in real time for a realistic geometry. This is what you see on the web site.</p> <p>Note how the equirectangular image completely fails to convey the impression of great height that is so striking in the interactive version, and also when you are there in the redwood forest itself. To approach this ideal on a flat surface a distortion of the spherical image is needed, a problem similar to that of map projections.</p> <p>First I explored traditional map projections. The Mercator projection results in straight and parallel tree trunks, but it is unable to show the zenith – just as a Mercator world map cannot show the poles.</p> <p>Other map projections gave interesting results, but my final choice was a filter designed to make fisheye lens images rectilinear. The “de-fished” panorama shows all the way from the photographer’s toes to the zenith high above in the fog, with an interesting outwards bowing of the straight tree trunks.</p> <p><img src="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BlogSupport/Redwoods_Fog_small.jpg" alt="" height="1024" width="512" border="0" /></p> <p>Another way to display a spherical image is to project it to a series of facets which can then be cut out, folded, and assembled into a three dimensional display. It is shown below as a “philosphere”, with square and triangular faces.</p> <p><img src="http://virtualguidebooks.com/BlogSupport/LBJGroveFerns_philo_small.jpg" alt="" height="300" width="468" border="0" /></p> <p>I would like to do this on a large scale so it could be viewed from inside. A philosphere would be simple, but the more facets the closer it would be to reality. The hole at the bottom is where I was standing when taking the pictures (the missing nadir shot).</p> <p>If this polyhedron were large enough, and lit translucently from outside, the viewer could stand up through the hole and receive a realistic impression of being in the redwood forest.</p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-3421129913755965382008-05-05T14:06:00.000-07:002008-05-05T14:10:44.837-07:00Updates to Redwood National Park<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">The <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark_TOC.html" target="_blank">Virtual Guidebook to Redwood National Park</a> covers that magical far corner of California from Trinidad north to the Oregon border. It isn't just the national park (which is actually a composite of national and state park lands) as it includes Crescent City, several small towns, a number of state parks and some national forest.</span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">This was one of the first areas that I set out to cover methodically, and hence has a large proportion of older panoramas (before 2000). These were shot on negative film and although the photographic quality is high, the scanning process did not produce true colors and sharp images. Maybe someday I will take the time to re-scan so I can produce first-rate panos, but my immediate plan is to re-photograph these areas whenever I have the opportunity. This is no real hardship, as I love visiting this area.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Starting at the northwest end (my usual way of ordering geographic contents) we come first to <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/CrescentCity/CrescentCity_TOC.html" target="_blank">Crescent City</a> - and a lot of old panoramas. These will stay until I can get back up there for rephotography. The older film-based panos are instantly recognizable by their smaller thumbnail images, and the absence of a fullscreen version.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The "Redwood National and State Parks" begin just outside Crescent City, with <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/JedSmithPark/JedSmithPark_TOC.html" target="_blank">Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park</a> on the Smith River. A major part of this park is on Mill Creek, which can be seen to advantage from the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/HowlandHillRd/HowlandHillRd_TOC.html" target="_blank">Howland Hill Road</a>, an unpaved one-laner which has hardly changed since stage-coach days. The Boy Scout Tree Trail leads from this road through some of the most magnificent forest on earth, home to a number of world champion trees.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I have a lone pano from the Smith River Recreation Area - a favorite destination of mine in pre-panography days. I need to get back there to document the beautiful South Fork of the Smith River, the historic Kelsey Trail, and the unique geology and botany.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/DelNorte/DelNorte_TOC.html" target="_blank">Del Norte Redwoods State Park</a> spills down the high bluffs south of Crescent City. Hiking the Damnation Creek trail down to the coast here has been high on my "to do" list for years. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">More rephotography is needed at Klamath and the north end of Prairie Creek Park.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/PrairieCreek/PrairieCreek_TOC.html" target="_blank">Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park</a> is considered one of the crown jewels of the California state park system. Though I visit it almost every year I still don't have a good set of panoramas, partly because I am often with a class (see my blog comments on <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/blog_archive.html#Blog_FieldClass" target="_blank">panography and the field class</a>). But no excuses - I need to make it a high priority to photograph Elk Prairie and its resident elk, plus the amazing redwood forests.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Prairie Creek park spans from the sheltered valley of the creek across low ridges to the coast at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/GoldBluffsBeach/GoldBluffsBeach_TOC.html" target="_blank">Gold Bluffs Beach</a>. The incomparable Fern Canyon is hidden here in the coastal bluffs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">For the second-ever World Wide Panorama event the theme was World Heritage, and Redwood National Park is a UNESCO listed world heritage site. I made a weekend trip and got some great photos. The one I used for the WWP site was taken on the <a href="http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp604/html/GDonaldBain.html" target="_blank">Boy Scout Tree Trail</a> as a full spherical image - but I didn't have time to create it as a cubic pano for the event. I have done so subsequently (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/HowlandHillRd/BoyScoutTreeTrail_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/HowlandHillRd/BoyScoutTreeTrail_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). This was also the trip where I captured one of my best panoramas ever (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/LBJGrove/LBJGroveFerns_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/LBJGrove/LBJGroveFerns_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), in the fog and huge ferns of the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/LBJGrove/LBJGrove_TOC.html" target="_blank">Lady Bird Johnson Grove</a>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">My memories of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/Orick/Orick_TOC.html" target="_blank">Orick</a> and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/RedwoodCreek/RedwoodCreek_TOC.html" target="_blank">Redwood Creek</a> go back to high school, when I made one of my first solo trips to the newly created Redwood National Park. It was truly an adventure, including three days spent camping alone at the Tall Trees Grove. I repeated the hike a few years later with my sister and a group of college friends - by that time intensive logging was taking place all around the park perimeter. Given that personal history, I really need to produce a better series of panos, retracing my hike up the creek to the Tall Trees. Next summer - I promise.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/HumboldtLagoons/HumboldtLagoons_TOC.html" target="_blank">Humboldt Lagoons</a> are a lovely string of freshwater lakes, drowned valleys cut off by barrier beaches. With the exception of Big Lagoon I haven't done them justice. I have always wanted to boat across Stone Lagoon to the primitive campsites on the far side.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I did manage to update my <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/PatricksPoint/PatricksPoint_TOC.html" target="_blank">Patricks Point</a> panos with a trip this last January - normally the north coast is not a prime destination in winter, but I was very lucky with the weather. I was particularly glad to be able to shoot a new series of the re-created <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/Sumeg/Sumeg_TOC.html" target="_blank">Yurok Indian village of Sumeg</a>, built within the park by Yuroks and park staff. My old panos have been very popular over the years, especially with school kids studying Native Americans.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Finally we come to <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/RedwoodPark/Trinidad/Trinidad_TOC.html" target="_blank">Trinidad</a>, a delightful little town with a harbor and lighthouse, beach and pier. My panoramas continuing south from here can be found in the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/NorthCalCoast_TOC.html" target="_blank">Virtual Guidebook to the Northern California Coast</a> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">(currently being revised).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Another big update to the Redwood National Park guidebook will probably be forthcoming next fall, after my summer trips.</span></p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-63920292286831452332008-03-10T11:54:00.000-07:002008-03-10T12:41:24.610-07:00New Panoramas of Oregon<p><span style="font-size:85%;">With two years of catching up to do, this update increases the number of panoramas of Oregon on the site from 257 to 375. Let me tell you about it guidebook by guidebook.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast_TOC.html" target="_blank"><b>The Oregon Coast</b></a>:<br /><br /> In June of 2006 I finished my long trip to the northwest with a couple of days on the southern Oregon coast. I came over the mountains from Corvallis to Newport on Yaquina Bay, then worked my way south. There are new panoramas in the following localities: <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/Newport/Newport_TOC.html" target="_blank">Newport</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/AlseaBayYachats/AlseaBayYachats_TOC.html" target="_blank">Alsea Bay and Yachats</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/HecetaHead/HecetaHead_TOC.html" target="_blank">Heceta Head</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/CapeBlanco/CapeBlanco_TOC.html" target="_blank">Cape Blanco</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/PortOrford/PortOrford_TOC.html" target="_blank">Port Orford</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/RogueRiver/RogueRiver_TOC.html" target="_blank">Rogue River</a>, and <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/BoardmanPark/BoardmanPark_TOC.html" target="_blank">Boardman State Park</a>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">My favorites are one taken late in the day at Whaleshead Beach (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/BoardmanPark/WhalesheadBeachOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/BoardmanPark/WhalesheadBeachOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), and a scene with local people crab fishing by the big bridge at Yaquina Bay (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/Newport/YaquinaBayBridge_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/Newport/YaquinaBayBridge_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge_TOC.html" target="_blank"><b>Portland and the Columbia River Gorge</b></a>:<br /><br /> I have added several new views of Oregon City, including the John McLoughlin House National Historic Site. See the Oregon City localities, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/OregonCityUpper/OregonCityUpper_TOC.html" target="_blank">upper</a> and <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/OregonCityLower/OregonCityLower_TOC.html" target="_blank">lower</a>. This was the first incorporated city in the west, along with many other firsts, and was the official end of the Oregon Trail.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">In the Columbia Gorge section I added some much-needed spherical shots of waterfalls, such as Latourelle (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/BridalveilLatourell/LatourelleBridge_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/BridalveilLatourell/LatourelleBridge_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and Multnomah (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/Multnomah/MultnomahBase_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/Multnomah/MultnomahBase_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). There are new panos in every locality except Bonneville Dam, just start at <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/CrownPoint/CrownPoint_TOC.html" target="_blank">Crown Point</a> and work your way east. I particularly like this shot of Wah Gwin Gwin Falls at the Columbia Gorge Hotel (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/HoodRiver/ColGorgeHotelFalls_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/PortlandColumbiaGorge/HoodRiver/ColGorgeHotelFalls_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/WillametteSouthern_TOC.html" target="_blank"><b>The Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon</b></a>:<br /><br /> New panos of historic <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/WillametteSouthern/Champoeg/Champoeg_TOC.html">Champoeg</a> (the birthplace of American Oregon), <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/WillametteSouthern/Canyonville/Canyonville_TOC.html">Canyonville</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/WillametteSouthern/MedfordGrantsPass/MedfordGrantsPass_TOC.html">Grants Pass</a>, and the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/WillametteSouthern/CascadeSiskiyou/CascadeSiskiyou_TOC.html">Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument</a> near Ashland. Once again I had to skip Salem because of a lack of time - but next year for sure.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades_TOC.html"><b>The Oregon Cascades</b></a>:<br /><br /> In July 2007 I spent a week in the Oregon Cascades, enjoying a long day hike in the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/MarionLake/MarionLake_TOC.html" target="_blank">Marion Lake</a> area, another day seeing waterfalls and forests on the upper <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/McKenzieRiver/McKenzieRiver_TOC.html" target="_blank">McKenzie River</a> and <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/WillamettePass/WillamettePass_TOC.html" target="_blank">Willamette Pass Highway</a>, plus the dramatic lava fields of <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/McKenziePass/McKenziePass_TOC.html" target="_blank">McKenzie Pass</a>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I planned to spend two days on Mount Hood, but had to cut it short when heavy smoke from a fire on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation cut visibility and made breathing difficult. All I managed to see before beating a trategic retreat was <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/TimberlineLodge/TimberlineLodge_TOC.html" target="_blank">Timberline Lodge</a>. But there was an unexpected bonus - it was Smokey the Bear's birthday, and he posed for a picture with me (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/TimberlineLodge/TimberlineEntrance_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/TimberlineLodge/TimberlineEntrance_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) (Smokey is the one on the left).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I also finally got around to taking the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/CraterLakeBoat/CraterLakeBoat_TOC.html" target="_blank">boat tour at Crater Lake</a>. The views of the lake from the rim drive viewpoints are beautiful (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/CraterLakeRim/AboveWizardIsland_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/CraterLakeRim/AboveWizardIsland_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), but the lake level perspective is very different (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/CraterLakeBoat/CraterLakeBoatTour_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/CraterLakeBoat/CraterLakeBoatTour_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Only two tours a day go to <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/WizardIsland/WizardIsland_TOC.html" target="_blank">Wizard Island</a>, which I have always wanted to visit, so I had to get up early to stand in line (no reservations taken). We only had two hours on the island, just enough time to hike to the top of the cinder cone, around the rim, and have lunch. Fast-moving clouds made panoramic photography difficult, but it was a very satisfying day's outing. Recommended. My favorite shot features one of the silvery snags on the crater rim (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/WizardIsland/WizardCraterThree_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCascades/WizardIsland/WizardCraterThree_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon_TOC.html target="_blank""><b>Eastern Oregon</b></a>:<br /><br /> In summer 2007 I targeted a few previously overlooked areas east of the Cascades. First, the lower <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/LowerJohnDayRiver/LowerJohnDayRiver_TOC.html" target="_blank">John Day River</a> and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/JohnDayPaintedHills/JohnDayPaintedHills_TOC.html" target="_blank">Painted Hills unit</a> and <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/JohnDaySheepRock/JohnDaySheepRock_TOC.html" target="_blank">Sheep Rock unit</a>. I particularly like an other-worldly shot of the boardwalk at Painted Cove (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/JohnDayPaintedHills/PaintedCoveOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/JohnDayPaintedHills/PaintedCoveOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Back closer to the mountains, I documented the charming town of <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/Sisters/Sisters_TOC.html" target="_blank">Sisters</a>, including one of my periodic personal appearances, in a delightful campground in the ponderosa pine forest east of town (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/Sisters/PerfectCampSisters_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/Sisters/PerfectCampSisters_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). Further south, I added a few shots from <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/NewberryCaldera/NewberryCaldera_TOC.html" target="_blank">Newberry National Volcanic Monument</a> and the interesting area around <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/EasternOregon/FortKlamath/FortKlamath_TOC.html" target="_blank">Fort Klamath</a>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">There are a lot more panoramic opportunities waiting for me in Oregon and I plan to visit there every year. I need to revisit the Kalmiopsis area in the southwest corner and Smith Rock near Bend. I love the river canyons on the west slope of the Cascades, and need to get back to the alpine meadows on Mount Jefferson when they are summer green and flowery. The Oregon coast always beckons, and I need better panos of the Seaside/Cannon Beach area, and the Cascade Head preserve.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">But most importantly I need to spend a few days concentrating on the charming city of Portland. It was on my itinerary in both 2006 and 2007, but got rained out both times.</span></p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-78276971964338847172008-03-10T11:49:00.000-07:002008-03-10T11:54:24.601-07:00On My Way to Leadville<p><span style="font-size:85%;">Sometimes I end up spending more time along the way than at my planned destination. On my Colorado Rockies trip last summer (June 28 to July 10), out of thirteen days on the road I only spent two in the Rockies, and on one of those it rained all day. But it was a successful trip nonetheless, improvising and exploring as I dodged bad weather and major forest fires. I ended up shooting a lot of places from my list - just not the ones that I had planned on, and have added new panoramas to no less than eight guidebooks.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">My first night was spent at Pyramid Lake on the Paiute Indian Reservation north of Reno. You can camp almost anywhere along the west shore of the lake (though there are no facilities) and I was able to find a spot on a bluff top with no other campers nearby. So this trip began with a night of magnificent solitude (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Nevada/NorthAndCentralNevada/PyramidLake/PyramidSunsetOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Nevada/NorthAndCentralNevada/PyramidLake/PyramidSunsetOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), a great sunset, then an even better sunrise (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Nevada/NorthAndCentralNevada/PyramidLake/PyramidSunriseOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Nevada/NorthAndCentralNevada/PyramidLake/PyramidSunriseOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). Better entertainment than any casino-hotel in Nevada, as far as I am concerned.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Then I hit the highway and spent most of the day crossing Nevada to Salt Lake City. I had planned to revisit Temple Square and drive out to Antelope Island to camp, but the heat was oppressive and the air was polluted with smoke from forest fires, so I ended up in a motel.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">But the day after that was great. First a couple of historic Mormon towns: the railroad town of <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/Ogden/Ogden_TOC.html" target="_blank">Ogden</a>; then <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/BrighamCity/BrighamCity_TOC.html" target="_blank">Brigham City</a> with the nearby Bear River Wildlife Refuge on the northern arm of the Great Salt Lake. The Salt Lake is a closed basin and in wet years the lake level rises, in dry cycles it recedes. There is an impressive new visitor center (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/BrighamCity/BearRiverRefugeVC_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/BrighamCity/BearRiverRefugeVC_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) , replacing one that was flooded out a few years ago.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Late in the afternoon I got to <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/GoldenSpike/GoldenSpike_TOC.html" target="_blank">Golden Spike National Historic Site</a>. I expected not much more than a plaque out in the middle of nowhere (the railroad bypassed this area many years ago). To my amazement, when I got there I found the two historic locomotives standing on the tracks, nose to nose as in the famous photographs (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/GoldenSpike/GoldenSpikeTwo_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/GoldenSpike/GoldenSpikeTwo_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). They are replicas, very faithful ones, and had steam up ready to roll. You can stand on the tracks between them, directly over where the golden spike was driven (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/GoldenSpike/GoldenSpikeFour_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/GoldenSpike/GoldenSpikeFour_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). I barely had time to take a few different views, when they announced that the locomotives were going back to the train shed. So I hustled a mile down the tracks and shot them as they steamed past (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/GoldenSpike/JupiterCrossingA_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/GoldenSpike/JupiterCrossingA_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Some of the places I shoot are completely fortuitous, I just stumble upon them, or I see something intriguing on a map. It said "Thiokol Missile Exhibit" on the map near Golden Spike so I made a slight detour to check it out. It turned out to be a missile fuel facility, closed to the public, but with an impressive array of (dummy) missiles in front of the office building (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/Promontory/ThiokolMissilesTwo_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/Promontory/ThiokolMissilesTwo_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). It's a company with an <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiokol" target="_blank">interesting history</a>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Finding a cool and pleasant place to camp that night turned out to be a challenge and I ended up heading east into the Wasatch Range. I was pulled over by a state trooper for going 75 in a 50 mph zone as I came down the grade towards Logan. He let me off, presumably because I claimed (with total honesty) to have been distracted by the beauty of the view.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The next morning I went up to Tony Grove Lake (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/NorthWasatch/TonyGroveLake_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/NorthWasatch/TonyGroveLake_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), north of Logan Canyon, named for the "tony" local elite who used to camp there. Then I followed the Bear River from Bear Lake (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/NorthWasatch/BearLakeBeach_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/NorthWasatch/BearLakeBeach_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) south all the way to its source on the north side of the Uinta Mountains, ending with the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/MirrorLakeByway/MirrorLakeByway_TOC.html" target="_blank">Mirror Lake Scenic Byway</a>. Nice lakes and meadows but the most dramatic parts of the range are remote from any roads and not easily viewed.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">There was a huge forest fire burning in the eastern Uintas, with smoke blowing east - right towards where I was heading next. So I poked around the southwest corner of Wyoming for a couple of days. Fort Bridger is a fascinating bit of history (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/FortBridger/FtBridgerOfficersRow_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/FortBridger/FtBridgerOfficersRow_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), maintained as a state park. To camp I drove south to China Meadow in Wasatch-Cache National Forest, an area popular with locals and practically unknown to the outside world (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/NorthUintas/ChinaMeadow_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/NorthUintas/ChinaMeadow_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Evanston, Wyoming is an interesting old railroad town (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/Evanston/EvanstonMainStreet_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/Evanston/EvanstonMainStreet_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), which will be even more so when they finish restoring the locomotive roundhouse. This is rolling sagebrush country, thinly settled, with the original route of the trans-continental railroad running through it (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/FossilButte/CarterWyoming_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/FossilButte/CarterWyoming_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/FossilButte/FossilButte_TOC.html" target="_blank">Fossil Butte National Monument</a> is famous for its fossil quarry and has an excellent visitor center, but what I enjoyed most was the road up to the mesa top (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/FossilButte/FossilSummitOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Wyoming/SouthCentralWyoming/FossilButte/FossilSummitOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Then south once again into Utah, the forest fire still burning, but the smoke blowing elsewhere. Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area was a surprise. I expected a red rock canyon(<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/FlamingGorge/SteepCreekBay_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/FlamingGorge/SteepCreekBay_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), but not the adjacent high country (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/FlamingGorge/MoosePondFlaming_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/FlamingGorge/MoosePondFlaming_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). To get around the gorge the road climbs through miles of beautiful forest with extensive views (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/FlamingGorge/RedCanyonViewWest_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/FlamingGorge/RedCanyonViewWest_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), then drops dramatically to the Green River .</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Next major stop was Dinosaur National Monument. The canyon of the Green River was scenic (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/DinosaurQuarry/SplitMtnBoatRamp_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SaltLakeNorthUtah/DinosaurQuarry/SplitMtnBoatRamp_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), but the famous dinosur quarry was closed for rehabilitation, and the heat was intense. Some miles east I took a road that heads north from the tiny town of Dinosaur into the monument's backcountry, Another beautful high mesa (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/HarpersCorner/DinosaurGrasslands_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/HarpersCorner/DinosaurGrasslands_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), ending with a short hike to a dramatic viewpoint above Echo Park (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/HarpersCorner/HarpersCornerOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/HarpersCorner/HarpersCornerOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), the junction of the Green and Yampa Rivers. I badly wanted to drive down to the river, but was feeling pressed for time - this was my Colorado Rockies trip, after all, and it was more than half over, with the Rockies not yet in sight.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">On the way back to Dinosaur I saw lightning strike repeatedly in the flatlands below, then a column of smoke. It is not often that you actually see lightning start a fire (I phoned it in). I drove eastwards through rolling country, stopping for a great sunset (thanks to all the fires), then camped on the Yampa River in the eastern part of the monument (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/DinosaurEast/DeerlodgeParkYampa_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/DinosaurEast/DeerlodgeParkYampa_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The next day I finally reached the Rockies at Steamboat Springs, where it began to rain, and continued all day and night. But the next day the weather was clear and I made a loop through some of the best of the Colorado Rockies. First through the Eisenhower Tunnel on Interstate 70, then back over the top on Loveland Pass (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/LovelandPass/SummitLovelandPass_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/LovelandPass/SummitLovelandPass_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and down past the Arapahoe ski resort (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/LovelandPass/SnowMachinesArapaho_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/LovelandPass/SnowMachinesArapaho_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">West on the interstate again for a while, then south to Leadville (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/Leadville/LeadvilleFour_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/Leadville/LeadvilleFour_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). A very impressive and well preserved old mining town, free of the condo and resort development that has spoiled so many places in Colorado. Leadville was especially meaningful as I had just been reading Wallace Stegner's masterpiece <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0141185473?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0141185473">Angle of Repose (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=0141185473" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />, a signficant part of which takes place there.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">From Leadville I crossed the headwaters of the Arkansas River (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/ArkansasHeadwaters/BeaverPondSawatch_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/ArkansasHeadwaters/BeaverPondSawatch_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and headed west again, into the Sawatch Range and over Independence Pass (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/IndependencePass/IndependencePassTop_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/IndependencePass/IndependencePassTop_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) to Aspen. I had intended to put some effort into documenting this interesting area, butAspen was just too crowded and busy and I couldn't handle it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Seeking a high cool place to camp I headed west and ascended Grand Mesa. This is an amazing and little known feature, a huge plateau of high country with desert all around. I spent the next morning exploring its little lakes in flowery meadows (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/GrandMesaPondThree_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/GrandMesaPondThree_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), and spruce forests (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/EngSpruceParkland_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/EngSpruceParkland_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The Lands End lookout (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/LandsEndLookout_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/LandsEndLookout_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) was a CCC project, as was the road that zig zags up from the desert. A drunk driver had run off the road just below the lookout (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/LandsEndWaterfall_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/LandsEndWaterfall_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). The south side of Grand Mesa has a cluster of deep glacial lakes in forest (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/LandOLakes/LandOLakesView_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/LandOLakes/LandOLakesView_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and there are some beautiful aspen groves (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/LandOLakes/AspenGroveOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/LandOLakes/AspenGroveOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">But the day wasn't over yet. On the way to my motel in Grand Junction I made the loop drive through Colorado National Monument. Some prime red rock scenery (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/ColoradoMonument/OttosPoint_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/ColoradoMonument/OttosPoint_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) but the air was smoky and the light just wasn't good. At Cold Shivers Point a young woman was sitting on the cliff edge past the railing, feet dangling over the vertical drop, staring at her cell phone. I wondered if she was planning to jump, and if I should say something. But she didn't, and I saw her driving away a little later, so there was no drama after all.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">My trip was almost over so I headed west on the interstate, with a short side trip to the petroglyph site in Sego Canyon (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/Canyonlands/ThompsonSprings/SegoCanyonOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/Canyonlands/ThompsonSprings/SegoCanyonOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and road-side views of the San Rafael Swell country (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/Canyonlands/SanRafaelSwell/SanRafaelReefView_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/Canyonlands/SanRafaelSwell/SanRafaelReefView_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). It was smoky everywhere, but got much worse as I approached Salina. Sure enough, dozens of big fires were raging ahead and traffic was backed up for miles. Over a hundred miles of Interstate 15 had been closed and I had to detour down the old highway along the Sevier River. But it worked out okay - I camped at Cedar Breaks National Monument that night (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SouthwestUtah/CedarBreaks/CedarBreaksTwo_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Utah/SouthwestUtah/CedarBreaks/CedarBreaksTwo_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">This put me far from from my original route, and fires were still burning to the north. So I headed across Nevada on the Extraterrestrial Highway, stopping at the Little A'le Inn (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Nevada/LasVegasSouthernNevada/Extratrrestrial/LittleA'le'Inn_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Nevada/LasVegasSouthernNevada/Extratrrestrial/LittleA'le'Inn_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) for a beer (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Nevada/LasVegasSouthernNevada/Extratrrestrial/InsideLittleA'le'Inn_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Nevada/LasVegasSouthernNevada/Extratrrestrial/InsideLittleA'le'Inn_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). That night I camped very comfortably in the Jeffrey pine forest east of Mono Lake (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/(EmptyReference!)" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/(EmptyReference!)" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">So, the trip to the Colorado Rockies was kind of a bust, but on the way there and back I saw: Pyramid Lake, Ogden, Brigham City, Golden Spike, Thiokol missiles, Logan, the Uintas, Fort Bridger, Evanston, Fossil Butte, more Uintas, Flaming Gorge, Dinosaur, Echo Park, Grand Mesa, Colorado National Monument, Cedar Breaks, and the Extraterrestrial Highway. Not so bad, after all.</span></p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-70767180090610352732008-03-10T11:43:00.000-07:002008-03-10T11:49:39.539-07:00New Panoramas of Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen<p><span style="font-size:85%;">The volcanic northeast corner of California is one of my favorite camping and hiking destinations. I swing through every year in the fall with my field class (see <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/#Blog_FieldClass">below</a>) and often tarry a day or more on my way north to Canada in the summer. Over the last two years I have taken a number of new panoramas scattered around these two guidebooks, and now finally have them posted to the site.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Early summer of 2006 I explored upstream along the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/IronGateKlamath/IronGateKlamath_TOC.html" target="_blank">upper Klamath River</a> from the Interstate 5 crossing - new country to me. Some beautiful landscapes (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/IronGateKlamath/EagleRanchBogusCrk_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/IronGateKlamath/EagleRanchBogusCrk_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), and of especial interest because of the controversy over two hydroelectric dams that block salmon and steelhead migration. We may well see the removal of Iron Gate Dam (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/IronGateKlamath/IronGateDam_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/IronGateKlamath/IronGateDam_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) in the next decade. Restoration of the fishery would be wonderful, though we would also lose these beautiful high desert reservoirs (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/IronGateKlamath/CopcoLakeNorth_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/IronGateKlamath/CopcoLakeNorth_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Upstream even further I had a look at the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen/Tulelake/Tulelake_TOC.html" target="_blank">Klamath Wildlife Refuges</a> and the agricultural town of Tulelake, center of the upper Klamath basin water crisis in dry years.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">On my way to Canada in August 2006 I spent most of a day documenting the very complete and interesting company town of <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountShasta/McCloud/McCloud_TOC.html" target="_blank">McCloud</a>, just a few miles east of Interstate 5 on the south slopes of Mount Shasta. Controversy here, too, over a proposed huge bottling plant for natural spring water.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Lassen Volanic National Park is a gem, but a difficult one to visit because the road is blocked with snow for so long into the summer. My wife and I made a long weekend camping trip there in late July 2006 and I filled in some of the major sights.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Manzanita Lake is the classic postcard view of Mount Lassen (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen/LassenParkRoadNorth/ManzanitaLkSouth_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen/LassenParkRoadNorth/ManzanitaLkSouth_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). Lake Helen records some of the heaviest snowfall in the world, and true-to-form was still frozen the last day of July (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen/LassenParkRoadSummit/LakeHelenSnow_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen/LassenParkRoadSummit/LakeHelenSnow_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). We didn't have time to hike to Bumpass Hell (my panos of which are very old and need to be replaced), but the Sulphur Works is a smaller version, and right on the main road (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen/LassenParkRoadSouth/SulphurWorksVents_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen/LassenParkRoadSouth/SulphurWorksVents_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-89748676282166083572008-03-10T11:41:00.001-07:002008-03-10T11:43:23.076-07:00Puget Sound Updated<p><span style="font-size:85%;">On my many trips north through Washington to Canada I always seem to be rushing along Interstate 5 and missing the interesting places just a bit off to the side. So in 2006 I slowed down and explored. First the old port district of Bellingham known as Fairhaven - where a jazz concert was taking place (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Fairhaven/FairhavenVillageGreen_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Fairhaven/FairhavenVillageGreen_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). Then south on Chuckanut Drive (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Chuckanut/SamishCoveLarrabee_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Chuckanut/SamishCoveLarrabee_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), which follows the steep shore of Puget Sound where I-5 goes inland. Then a few hours in the picturesque waterfront village of La Conner (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/LaConner/LaConnerWaterTwo_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/LaConner/LaConnerWaterTwo_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), over the Rainbow Bridge (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/LaConner/OnRainbowBridgeOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/LaConner/OnRainbowBridgeOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and on to Deception Pass, (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/DeceptionPass/DeceptionBridgeRedux_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/DeceptionPass/DeceptionBridgeRedux_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) one of my favorite Northwest camping spots.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">In 2006 I spent just one day walking around Seattle. I could only cover the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/SeattleDowntown/SeattleDowntown_TOC.html" target="_blank">downtown area</a> and part of the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/SeattleWaterfront/SeattleWaterfront_TOC.html" target="_blank">waterfront</a>, plus a quick visit to <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/PikePlace/PikePlace_TOC.html">Pike Place</a>. I really need to devote a week to Seattle some time (maybe summer of 2008), so I can begin to do justice to this beautiful city.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">In late July last summer I spent a few days wandering around the Kitsap Peninsula and the San Juan Islands (plus the Olympia Peninsula, as noted <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/#Blog_Olympic_Peninsula">here</a>). The weather was superb, which is not always the case up there.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">I was charmed by the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/PortOrchard/PortOrchard_TOC.html" target="_blank">Port Orchard</a> area, near Bremerton. Further north I visited the pseudo-Norwegian town of Poulsbo (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Poulsbo/PoulsboStreetOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Poulsbo/PoulsboStreetOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), the restored historic town of Port Gamble (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/PortGamble/PortGambleFour_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/PortGamble/PortGambleFour_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), and the lighthouse at oddly named Point No-Point (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/PortGamble/PointNoPointTwo_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/PortGamble/PointNoPointTwo_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">San Juan Island itself was wonderful, with the historic legacy of the Pig War at English Camp in the north (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/NorthSanJuan/EnglishCampBlockhouse_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/NorthSanJuan/EnglishCampBlockhouse_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and American camp in the south (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/SouthSanJuan/AmericanCampParade_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/SouthSanJuan/AmericanCampParade_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). Plus the lighthouse at Lime Point (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/CentralSanJuan/SouthLimeKilnPtLight_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/CentralSanJuan/SouthLimeKilnPtLight_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and some very nice countryside, including a lavender farm (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/CentralSanJuan/LavenderFarm_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/CentralSanJuan/LavenderFarm_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">A beautiful ferry ride (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/BoardmanPark/WhalesheadBeachOne_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Oregon/OregonCoast/BoardmanPark/WhalesheadBeachOne_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) took me to Orcas Island where I camped at Moran State Park, the gem of the Washington park system. The ranger urged me to drive immediately to the top of Mount Constitution to enjoy the exceptionally clear evening. I did, and it was worth it (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/MoranPark/ConstitutionTowerEvening_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/MoranPark/ConstitutionTowerEvening_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). I went back the next morning (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/MoranPark/MtConstitutionMorning_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/MoranPark/MtConstitutionMorning_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). The tower here was built by the CCC.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Also on Orcas Island - beautiful lakes in Moran park (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/MoranPark/MoranMountainLake_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/MoranPark/MoranMountainLake_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), mariculture in Ship Bay (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/EastSoundOrcas/ShipBayOysters_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/EastSoundOrcas/ShipBayOysters_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), the elegant Rosario Resort (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/EastSoundOrcas/RosarioResortTerrace_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/EastSoundOrcas/RosarioResortTerrace_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), and charming little harbors scattered around (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/WestOrcas/DeerHarborMarina_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/WestOrcas/DeerHarborMarina_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>), before I had to return to the ferry dock (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/WestOrcas/OrcasFerryDock_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/WestOrcas/OrcasFerryDock_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and head back to the mainland. I was due at my niece Sarah's wedding in two days, in Vancouver, and could not be late as I was to perform the ceremony!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">On my way home, after the wedding, I spent a few hours in the interestng town of Centralia. It is the only town in Washington (or so far as I know the entire West) to be founded by an African American - named George Washington (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Centralia/GWParkCentralia_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Centralia/GWParkCentralia_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). It is also noted for a violent clash between the International Workers of the World (IWW - or "wobblies") and the American Legion, in 1919, known to history as the Centralia Massacre. Centralia has a well preserved downtown district (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Centralia/TowerStreetCentralia_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Centralia/TowerStreetCentralia_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) and a number of interesting murals (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Centralia/CentraliaMurals_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Centralia/CentraliaMurals_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>). I also managed to photograph Amtrak passing through (<a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Centralia/CentraliaDepotAmtrak_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/SeattleTacomaPuget/Centralia/CentraliaDepotAmtrak_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">These additions brought the number of panoramas in the Virtual Guidebook to Seattle and Puget Sound from a pathetic 60 to a reasonably respectable 165. In summer of 2008 I hope to spend some time in Seattle, maybe make a day trip over to Bremerton, revisit Tacoma, and poke around the southern Sound.</span></p>Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-85761545599904980182008-02-12T12:04:00.001-08:002008-02-12T12:04:31.726-08:00New Panoramas of the Olympic PeninsulaNew: <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula.html" target="_blank">The Virtual Guidebook to the Olympic Peninsula, Washington</a><br /><br />Today I posted a new edition of my virtual guidebook to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. There are now 112 panoramas (up from 83). I have replaced some very old panos taken on negative film a decade ago with new high resolution cubics (so you can look straight up and down). Compare one of the the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/HohRainForestOne/HallOfMosses4.html" target="_blank">old ones</a> to a new version (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/HohRainForestOne/HohRainForestFour_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/HohRainForestOne/HohRainForestFour_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>) taken in almost the same location.<br /><br />I had several days of beautiful weather in August 2007 when I revisited the north side of <a href="http://www.nps.gov/olym/" target="_blank">Olympic National Park</a> - great new images of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/LakeCrescent/LakeCrescent_TOC.html" target="_blank">Lake Crescent</a>, the forest at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/Marymere/Marymere_TOC.html target="_blank"">Marymere</a>, and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/HurricaneRidge/HurricaneRidge_TOC.html" target="_blank">Hurricane Ridge</a>. My favorite was taken from the end of the pier at Crescent Lake Lodge, with a rustic bench offering serene views in two directions (<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/LakeCrescent/LkCrescentLodgeDock_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/LakeCrescent/LkCrescentLodgeDock_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>).<br /><br />Then a cloudy day gave me perfect conditions to shoot the Hoh Rain Forest. There are rain forests in each of the major west-facing valleys on the peninsula (Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Hoh, Queets, and Quinalt), but the Hoh is the most famous by far. Two short loop trails from the visitor center at the end of the road show off the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/HohRainForestOne/HohRainForestOne_TOC.html" target="_blank">Hall of Mosses</a> area with its bigleaf maples, and the towering <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/OlympicPeninsula/HohRainForestTwo/HohRainForestTwo_TOC.html" target="_blank">Sitka spruce</a> rain forest.<br /><br />I'm not nearly done with the Olympic Peninsula. Most importantly, I hope to backpack up the Queets River again to photograph its superb wilderness rainforests. My wife Nora and I did this years ago (before I started taking panoramic photos) with her sister Barbara and brother-in-law Mike, who have been hiking it annually for many years. Mike grew up in nearby Hoquiam, and the Queets is his family's special place - we even met two of his cousins while hiking there. One of the allures of the Queets is the small number of people, largely due to the fact that the trail begins with an often daunting ford of the river. Once across there are miles of nearly flat trail through prime Sitka spruce forest, maple and alder groves, with good camping on the river bars.<br /><br />I have other high priority destinations on my Olympic trip planning list. When I was still in high school I hiked (alone) up the Hoh River all the way to the Blue Glacier on Mount Olympus, an adventure I hope to repeat. And as a waterfall fancier (see my site <a href="http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/Waterfalls.html" target="_blank">Waterfalls of Western North America</a>) I have always wanted to visit the Enchanted Valley. This is a lush steep-sided valley high up on the Quinalt River, a two day hike from the roadhead. It has glacier and snow-fed waterfalls all along the valley walls, and is sometimes called the "Valley of a Thousand Waterfalls". I also have always wanted to backpack the wilderness coast of Olympic National Park and I need to revisit Cape Flattery on a non-foggy day. And finally, I hope to explore some of the short steep valleys on the east side of the Olympic Mountains above Hood Canal.Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-62184249551554384752008-02-03T19:48:00.001-08:002008-02-03T20:58:38.364-08:00Finally, Some VR Panoramas of Colorado<b>New - </b><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies_TOC.html" target="_blank">Virtual Guidebook to the Colorado Rockies</a><br /><br />I am based in Berkeley, California, and there are practical limits to how well I can cover the huge region encompassed by the Virtual Guidebooks. Colorado is right out on the edge of my area, an 18 hour drive from the Bay Area to Denver. Also, being mountainous, many areas are best visited only in the summer (unless I start doing ski resorts and snowshoe routes). So I have been a bit slow in building my coverage of this beautiful state.<br /><br />My first effort was in May 2006 when I drove across the San Juan Mountains, through <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/Ouray/Ouray_TOC.html" target="_blank">Ouray</a> and <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/Silverton/Silverton_TOC.html" target="_blank">Silverton</a>. Great scenery and interesting towns - but too early in the year for the high altitudes - I will have to go back in mid-summer.<br /><br />In the summer of 2007 I made another effort to photograph the Colorado Rockies. My initial itinerary, to include Wyoming, the Dakotas, and the high plains, was just too much driving for the time available. So I decided to concentrate on the central Rockies, plus two days in Denver. Even that didn't work out - bad weather and forest fires - so I never made it to Rocky Mountain National Park, or to Denver. <br /><br />I really had only one day in the central Rockies, so I made a loop over <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/LovelandPass/LovelandPass_TOC.html" target="_blank">Loveland Pass</a> to <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/Leadville/Leadville_TOC.html" target="_blank">Leadville</a>, then across the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/ArkansasHeadwaters/ArkansasHeadwaters_TOC.html" target="_blank">headwaters of the Arkansas River</a> to <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/ColoradoRockies/IndependencePass/IndependencePass_TOC.html" target="_blank">Independence Pass</a>. Then I had to start home. Maybe next summer...<br /><br />(NOTE: a future blog will tell the whole story of "On My Way to Leadville", but first I need to finish all the panoramas used to illustrate it.)<br /><br /><b>Greatly Expanded - </b><a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado_TOC.html" target="_blank">Virtual Guidebook to Western Colorado</a><br /><br />Many people are unaware of how much of Colorado is desert, some of it the sort of red rock country we associate with Utah. It is closer to my home base than the Rockies, and the weather is better, so I now have pretty good coverage.<br /><br />Some of my earliest digital photography was done at <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/MesaVerde/MesaVerde_TOC.html" target="_blank">Mesa Verde National Park</a> in May 2000. It is a fabulous place to do VR panoramas, but problematic. There are crowds of people, and most of the ruins can only be toured as part of a group. Doing VR with a crowd of 70 people is just about impossible, the panos end up being about the people, not the ruins. The only way to do it right is to hire an off-duty ranger to give you a personal tour - I may try it out some day.<br /><br />In 2006 I spent a day down in the Four Corners area investigating the scattered sites of <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/HovenweepColorado/HovenweepColorado_TOC.html" target="_blank">Hovenweep National Monument</a> (Hovenweep's main site and the monument headquarters are across the state line in Utah).<br /><br />On my trip in summer 2007 I added a lot to this guidebook: the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/HarpersCorner/HarpersCorner_TOC.html" target="_blank">Harpers Corner Road</a> in the eastern part of Dinosaur National Monument, the upper <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/DinosaurEast/DinosaurEast_TOC.html" target="_blank">Yampa River</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/ColoradoMonument/ColoradoMonument_TOC.html" target="_blank">Colorado National Monument</a>, the high country of <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/GrandMesa/GrandMesa_TOC.html" target="_blank">Grand Mesa</a>, the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/LandOLakes/LandOLakes_TOC.html" target="_blank">Land O'Lakes</a> on the south side of the mesa, and the <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Colorado/WesternColorado/BlackCanyon/BlackCanyon_TOC.html" target="_blank">Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park</a>.<br /><br />I plan to return to Colorado in summer of 2008, and hope to visit Aspen, Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Great Sand Dunes National Monument.Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-89649450070486714892007-12-16T17:14:00.000-08:002007-12-16T17:23:36.894-08:00More About Roslyn, Washington (Cicely, Alaska)A few days ago I mentioned my newly posted panos of <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/Roslyn/Roslyn_TOC.html" target="_blank">Roslyn, Washington, also known as Cicely, Alaska</a>, and promised to say more.<br /><br />Roslyn is a picturesque small town in the eastern foothills of the Cascades (nearest sizeable town is Ellensburg). Its history centers around the coal mines and multi-ethnic populations brought in to work them. But its moment of fame came when the television series Northern Exposure was filmed there. The series is considered important enough to have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Exposure" target="_blank">its own Wikipedia entry</a>.<br /><br />The series first aired in 1990 and continued for six seasons, a total of 110 episodes. The basic premise is that a small Alaskan town pays for a medical student's education, and in return he is obligated to practice there for several years once qualified. Doctor Joel Fleischmann arrives straight from New York City, feeling as much out of place as if he had landed on Mars.<br /><br />Anyone who has seen Northern Exposure will remember the vivid characters in its large cast - Doctor Joel, Maggie, Maurice, Holling, Shelly, Marilyn, Ed, Ruth-Anne and Chris. The plots are quirky and interesting, many of them revolving around the cultural friction between Jewish New Yorker Joel and his new Alaskan community and environment. But there are also some intriguing takes on Alaska itself, with its long winter nights, spring thaw, Native Americans, bears and moose, isolation, and spirit of stubborn nonconformity.<br /><br />Not everyone in Alaska appreciated the characterizations. There has of course been some speculation about which town in Alaska might have been the model for Cicely, with <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/Nenana/Nenana_TOC.html" target="_blank">Nenana</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Alaska/AlaskaInterior/Talkeetna/Talkeetna_TOC.html" target="_blank">Talkeetna</a>, <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Alaska/KenaiPeninsula/Hope/Hope_TOC.html" target="_blank">Hope</a>, and <a href="http://VirtualGuidebooks.com/Alaska/KenaiPeninsula/Homer/Homer_TOC.html" target="_blank">Homer</a> all being suggested. And of course Washington is not a fully convincing stand-in for Alaska. For one thing the trees are wrong, also it isn't dark nearly enough in the winter episodes, nor frozen enough. But those are quibbles - the opening credits, with a young moose wandering through the town, now epitomize Alaska to many who have never been there.<br /><br />Most of the episodes begin with the "Chris in the Morning" radio show on station KBHR (kay-bear, get it?), the most local station imaginable, serving just Cicely. The DJ is Chris Stevens (played by John Corbett, also charming in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006FMUW?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00006FMUW" target="_blank">My Big Fat Greek Wedding</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B00006FMUW" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />), a philosophical ex-con with a gentle voice and eclectic tastes. The KBHR set is still there in Roslyn, in the Northern Mining Company building <span style="font-size:85%;">(<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/Roslyn/KBHRWindow_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/Roslyn/KBHRWindow_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>)</span>. A monument to the city's coal mining heritage has now been built in front.<br /><br />The "Oasis" Roslyn Cafe <span style="font-size:85%;">(<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/Roslyn/RoslynCafe_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/Roslyn/RoslynCafe_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>)</span>, and other series venues, including Dr Joel's office and The Brick pub, can be seen along the main street, Penn Avenue <span style="font-size:85%;">(<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/Roslyn/PennAveRoslyn_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/Roslyn/PennAveRoslyn_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>)</span>, but others existed only as sets. There have been a few changes in the town since 1990, but all in all it remains a gem of a northwest frontier town, with the bonus of reminding us of Northern Exposure.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V6LSO0?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000V6LSO0" target="_blank">Northern Exposure - The Complete Series</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B000V6LSO0" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EOTTS6?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000EOTTS6" target="_blank">Northern Exposure - The Complete First and Second Seasons</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B000EOTTS6" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007Z2KF6?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0007Z2KF6" target="_blank">Northern Exposure - The Complete Third Season</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B0007Z2KF6" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CQM4Z6?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000CQM4Z6" target="_blank">Northern Exposure - The Complete Fourth Season</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B000CQM4Z6" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HT3Q1E?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000HT3Q1E" target="_blank">Northern Exposure - The Complete Fifth Season</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B000HT3Q1E" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B000HT3Q1E" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LSAJ5M?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000LSAJ5M" target="_blank">Northern Exposure - The Complete Sixth Season</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B000LSAJ5M" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /><br />The music in the broadcast version of Northern Exposure was exceptional, starting with the opening credits. Some DVD versions seem to have altered the sound track, but the Complete Series edition promises most of the original music. The music is also available on CD.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002OMG?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000002OMG" target="_blank">Northern Exposure: Music From The Television Series (1990-95 Television Series)</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B000002OMG" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /> <br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002OT2?ie=UTF8&tag=virtualguidebook&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000002OT2" target="_blank">More Music From Northern Exposure (1990-95 Television Series)</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=virtualguidebook&l=as2&o=1&a=B000002OT2" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-32782108573907137542007-12-16T17:04:00.000-08:002007-12-16T17:12:53.980-08:00New Panoramas of the Washington CascadesI have been considering my new page layout and navigation experiment (see the previous blog entry and <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/EasternWashington_TOC.html" target="_blank">Eastern Washington</a>) for a couple of weeks now. I have decided that I like it, and will begin gradually switching the site over to this new system.<br /><br />First up - the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades_TOC.html" target="_blank">Cascade Range of Washington</a>. The number of panos here has gone up from 48 to 144 and features a great series along the Spirit Lake Highway leading to Mount Saint Helens.<br /><br />This is one of the most dramatic parts of the Pacific Northwest, a chain of mighty volcanoes atop a rugged older range, set in a matrix of ancient forests. I first fell in love with it when my family drove from California to Seattle for the World's Fair in 1962, spending a beautiful sunny day in the meadows at Paradise on Mount Rainier. Over the years since then I have been back to Rainier several times, as well as most other major parts of the range.<br /><br />New panoramas in this guidebook:<br /><br />The North Cascades: <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/SkagitRiver/SkagitRiver_TOC.html" target="_blank">Skagit River</a>, the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/DiabloDamTown/DiabloDamTown_TOC.html" target="_blank">town of Diablo</a>, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/AboveDiabloRossLakes/AboveDiabloRossLakes_TOC.html" target="_blank">Diablo and Ross Lakes</a>, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/WashingtonPass/WashingtonPass_TOC.html" target="_blank">Washington Pass</a>, and the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/CascadeRiver/CascadeRiver_TOC.html" target="_blank">Cascade River Road</a>. These were mostly photographed in August 2006. They are all in, or on the edge of, <a href="http://www.nps.gov/noca/" target="_blank">North Cascades National Park</a>, and along the North Cascades Highway. The scenery is stunning, and I was blessed with good weather. You can see me enjoying an evening in camp on the Cascade River <span style="font-size:85%;">(<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/CascadeRiver/MarbleCreekCamp_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or </span><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/CascadeRiver/MarbleCreekCamp_F.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">fullscreen)</span>.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/Roslyn/Roslyn_TOC.html" target="_blank">Roslyn</a>, also known as Cicely, Alaska (in the television series Northern Exposure), photographed August 16, 2006. I will write more about this interesting town later.<br /><br /><a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/SunriseRainier/SunriseRainier_TOC.html" target="_blank">Sunrise</a>, in Mount Rainier National Park, also from August 2006. I was planning a longer stay and to re-photograph the Paradise area also on this trip, but encountered some pretty severe obstacles. First, there was a huge forest fire to the northeast and visibility was poor and getting worse, plus the smoke was giving me breathing problems, especially when hiking.<br /><br />But then a real disaster - the tripod mounting socket tore right out the bottom of my camera! It was really my fault, not the camera's, I was putting far too much strain on the socket with my heavy VR mount. It broke when I was hauling it carelessly out of the backpack. Live and learn. I took one final pano at Shadow Lake <span style="font-size:85%;">(<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/SunriseRainier/ShadowLakeRainier_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/SunriseRainier/ShadowLakeRainier_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>)</span> hand-held, then called it quits. As it turned out, that was my last pano of the summer.<br /><br />Mount Saint Helens was big news when it erupted explosively in May of 1980. Since then the area has been evolving steadily, the forests growing back and streams running clear. The volcano itself has had a series of smaller eruption, and is still emitting blue smoke and occasional clouds of ash. But the big change has been tourism - creation of <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/" target="_blank">Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument</a> and the building of a major highway approaching the mountain from Interstate 5 to the west. I revisited Mount Saint Helens in August 2007.<br /><br />The <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/SpiritLakeHighway/SpiritLakeHighway_TOC.html" target="_blank">Spirit Lake Memorial Highway</a> offers a tantalizing series of views ahead to the mountain as it winds along ridges above the Toutle River. There are four major visitor centers along the route. The largest is at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/ColdwaterRidgeLake/ColdwaterRidgeLake_TOC.html" target="_blank">Coldwater Ridge</a>, but the most popular and dramatic is right at the end of the road, the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/JohnsonRidge/JohnsonRidge_TOC.html" target="_blank">Johnson Ridge Observatory</a>. Less traveled by far are the roads that approach Mount Saint Helens from the east side, leading to <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/WindyRidge/WindyRidge_TOC.html" target="_blank">Windy Ridge</a>.<br /><br />The Cascades are densely forested from sea level to timberline, and significant areas of old growth remain among the checkerboard of clearcuts. In August 2007 I spent some time in these wonderful forests, primarily on lower <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/IronCreek/IronCreek_TOC.html" target="_blank">Iron Creek</a> in the Cispus River basin, and at <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/CedarFlats/CedarFlats_TOC.html" target="_blank">Cedar Flats</a> on the Muddy River. The Iron Creek campground is an experience in itself, a chance to camp among towering Douglas firs <span style="font-size:85%;">(<a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/IronCreek/IronCreekCampRedux_S.html" target="_blank">standard size</a> or <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/IronCreek/IronCreekCampRedux_F.html" target="_blank">fullscreen</a>)</span>. Most of these panos were taken on the nature trail that circles the campground. The Cedar Flats Research Natural Area was set aside to protect the giant western red cedars growing there in swampy conditions, but also contains big trees of several other species.<br /><br />A series of forest service roads give access the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/StHelensSouth/StHelensSouth_TOC.html" target="_blank">south side of Mount Saint Helens</a>, including Ape Cave. At two miles this is the longest lava tube cave in North America. The <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/LewisRiver/LewisRiver_TOC.html" target="_blank">Lewis River</a> has more beautiful forests and lots of waterfalls.<br /><br />The Cascade Range is cut right across by the mighty Columbia River, protected on both sides as the <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/columbia/" target="_blank">Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area</a>. The Oregon side, with hundreds of waterfalls, gets most of the attention. But the <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/ColumbiaGorgeWash/ColumbiaGorgeWash_TOC.html" target="_blank">Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge</a> is beautiful, too. <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/WashingtonCascades/BonnevilleDam/BonnevilleDam_TOC.html" target="_blank">Bonneville Dam</a> blocks the river and submerges the historic Cascades for which the river was named. It is an interesting place to visit, with its powerhouse and fish ladders.<br /><br />Future plans for panography in the Cascades? First of all I badly need to rephotograph the Paradise area on Mount Rainier in early summer. And I have always wanted to approach Mount Rainier from the west side, up the little-used Carbon River and Westside Roads. I tried to do this in 2007, but all the roads were washed out. I would also like to backpack into the Glacier Peak Wilderness, and take the long boat ride up Lake Chelan to Stehekin again.Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5841860046958123287.post-31106873842987321502007-12-16T16:57:00.000-08:002007-12-16T17:03:54.499-08:00New Page Layouts and NavigationHere's the news - I have just converted one of my guidebooks, <a href="http://virtualguidebooks.com/Washington/EasternWashington_TOC.html" target="_blank">Eastern Washington</a>, to a new format. I think it works pretty well - let me know what you think - <a href="mailto:dbain@VirtualGuidebooks.com">dbain@VirtualGuidebooks.com</a>.<br /><br />When I first devised the Virtual Guidebooks site, in January 2000, there were two versions of each panorama, small and large. But technology changes fast, and the former "large" size is now my standard size. With a little coaching from Hans Nyberg (see his site <a href="http://panoramas.dk/" target="_blank">Panoramas.dk</a>) I prepared one of my panoramas to be his "fullscreen of the week". This was <a href="http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen/fullscreen18.html" target="_blank">At the foot of Mount Whitney</a>, to be followed by <a href="http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen2/full15.html" target="_blank">White Sands, New Mexico</a>, and the <a href="http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen/fullscreen29.html" target="_blank">Olympic rain forest on the Queets River</a>. I agree with Hans that the fullscreens seem like a totally different graphic to most people, compared to small panos in context on a page.<br /><br />So I began to make fullscreen versions of all my high resolution, digital camera panos. By 2004 I had fullscreens ready for a majority of my work, so I added them to almost every part of the Virtual Guidebooks site.<br /><br />The problem with adding the fullscreens was that it disrupted my carefully worked out navigation. You could do a Previous-Next tour at the guidebook, locality, and standard size panorama level. But fullscreens have no place for my standard navigation bar, plus they open in a new window. It works pretty well - when you close a fullscreen window you are back where you started, the original window was just hidden underneath the fullscreen. But the asymmetry bothered me. And I never satisfactorally resolved the problem of navigation back and forth between the locality pages for standard size and fullscreen size. Also I had made larger thumbnails for the fullscreen versions, and they made the small old ones look pretty pathetic.<br /><br />So I decided to have just one series of locality pages, using the large thumbnails, with links to both the standard and fullscreen panos. Both types of panos open in similar fullscreen windows. It is simpler, more consistent, and I think easier to browse than the old system. If I continue to like it I will gradually convert the entire site to this new plan.Don Bainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01065619895860814395noreply@blogger.com1