Eureka, CA wharf

Eureka California is on the ocean, but its certainly not a beach town.

California State Capital Building

This is back when the building was undergoing renovations, I hope they're done by now.

East Bay bay trail

An East Bay portion of the San Francisco Bay Trail. Nice place for a walk or ride.

Ocean Beach, San Francisco again

Lake Tahoe Beach

Ocean Beach, San Francisco

Ocean Beach is on the west side of San Francisco, more information here.

El Sobrante in the fall

A tree right after the rain in a bay area suburb.

Winter Lake Tahoe

Its not always pretty.

Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA

The lost coast California

Northern California Coast

A California classic

Mt Shasta.

Some pelicans by the freeway

Pelicans enjoying their own little slice of the San Francisco Bay a stone throw away from I580.

Foggy San Francisco

Squaw Valley, California.

San Francisco skyline from afar

It was a great weekend.

A foggy day at the beach

Still got sunburned though.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

More Sonoma Coast scenes

Ready to visit yet?

One log house

A cut down redwood made into a house on route 101.

A redwood treehouse

This giant redwood tree house is off some tourist trappy exit of old 101.

Monterey bay.

Scenes from the 17 mile drive

Russian River

The Russian River in Sonoma County is a fairly popular place for bay area residents to kayak, swim and raft. Right now the river is pretty tame since it is a low water year and late in the season.

UC Berkeley Campus

Fish

A fish tank at the Monterrey bay aquarium, where the seem to spend a good deal of time on presentation than other aquariums do. Relevant History and Real Travel Blog have more pictures.

More tidepool pictures

Here is another picture of the tide pools at Point Reyes National Seashore, about 1.5 hours north of San Francisco.

Tide pool

A tide pool at Point Reyes.

Yosemite National Park.

The lighthouse at Santa Cruz

The lighthouse at Santa Cruz.

Sonoma Coast again

Sonoma Coast

Duncan's Landing on the Sonoma Coast.

Big Sur California

You can see why its a popular getaway spot.

Cable car turn around

The Powell & Market street cable car turnaround in San Francisco always draws a crowd. More about cable cars here.

Flowerland

True story?

California wildflowers

Wildflowers along the Ohlone greenway in Richmond.

Downtown Oakland, California

A busy day in downtown Oakland, California.

Sonoma coast beach view.

Just drive up highway 1 and you'll see miles of this sort of scenery.

Golden Gate Bridge and beach

The beach on the San Francisco Bay (Presidio) side of the Golden Gate bridge is pretty busy and a neat place to just hang out. Baker beach lets you get pictures from the ocean side.

Point Lobos State Reserve.

The rocky shore at Point Lobos State Reserve (a bit south of Monterey), a great place to visit, get there early on weekends because parking is limited. You're almost certain to see seals and otters. More pictures here and here.

Lake Tahoe California.

Point Pinole

I went to Point Pinole in Richmond, California the other day and thought I'd share some pictures. Overall its a nice place, but not worth the $5 parking fee, when so many similar places nearby are FREE. Dogs can run around off-leash on the trails, but there is a $2 dog fee. The parking lot is nice though, they have a shuttle that runs to the 1200 ft long pier and back, that way you don't have to carry 100 lbs of fishing gear out there.


There are ton of non-indigenous eucalyptus trees planted by the explosive companies, some of them are pretty big. To the right of the ruined foundation is one of the more minor paths, which look great for mountain biking, overall its probably a little bit limited spacewise for really tearing it up for more than an hour.


There is a freshwater pond with a couple large fields nearby.


And of course, as with any San Francisco bay area coastal park, you get great views.



Bay Area Hiker has a hike guide and more photos.

Wildflowers

The wildflowers on this east bay hillside are starting to brown.

Inspiration point.

The California hillsides are already dried out.

Late Spring.

Early Spring.