Trips recommended for the fall time.
With the creation of the new Sand to Snow National Monument on Feb 12, 2016, we decided to check out one of its access points near Yucca Valley, California. We choose to hike up Pipes Canyon near the tourist attraction of Pioneertown. This allowed us to enjoy an almost full day of hiking and the […]
Just north of busy San Francisco is a quiet, peaceful seaside region known as the Point Reyes National Seashore. With its many bays, inlets and estuaries, the Point Reyes area offers plenty of scenic places to explore. There are also dozens of sleepy little towns tucked into the rolling, forested hills here. Point Reyes is […]
Located just east of the Anza-Borrego State Park boundary is a unique geologic phenomenon known as the Pumpkin Patch. Here, you’ll find a patch of land, roughly the size of an average city block, covered with spherically-shaped rocks that are all the size of an average pumpkin. The surrounding desert terrain is very consistent, with […]
Situated along one of Southern California’s most well-known highways is one of its least-known botanical gardens – Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden in Claremont. Many people who travel on Route 66 don’t even notice the little sign that marks the entrance to this botanical garden that specializes in plants from its home state of California. […]
In central Utah there are several superb Native American rock art sites and the Rochester Panel is probably one of the most spectacular. While most rock art sites have a smattering of petroglyphs or pictographs, the Rochester Panel is a large concentration of petroglyphs of many different designs. You will leave the site scratching your […]
The most remote and barren stretch of Route 66 passes through California’s Mojave Desert between Barstow and the Colorado River, and the touring route described here covers the eastern half of it, between the towns of Barstow and Ludlow, and passing through the historic towns of Daggett and Newberry Springs. Driving this very remote part […]
Before Route 66 reaches the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, it has one last obstacle to negotiate – the Cajon Pass. Other than a small mountain pass east of Albuquerque and the high summits near Flagstaff, the Cajon Pass is the most significant mountain pass along the entire length of Route 66.Our virtual video tour will show the alignment that Route 66 followed […]
Route 66 slices horizontally through the State of Arizona exposing some of the best historic artifacts and Americana in the USA. This article explains what you’ll find along the original alignment of Route 66 through Arizona. The accompanying two videos will visually show you what you’ll find along this 385 mile-long stretch of the Mother […]
Located at the southeastern tip of Death Valley and just outside of the park boundary are the Salt Creek Hills. This small oasis offers an easy hike through the oasis to the old gold mines of Amargosa Spring and is a great place to stop, stretch your legs and enjoy the desert serenity for an […]
Along with our other road trips along California’s San Andreas Fault, this tour takes us through the streets of San Bernardino, Highland, Yucaipa and Oak Glen, which are all cities within the region known as the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles. Similar to our tour of the San Francisco Peninsula showcasing the San Andreas, […]
Continuing our series of road trips along California’s infamous San Andreas Fault, this tour takes you through the remote Carrizo Plain National Monument, which is located roughly halfway between Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo. No other place in California shows off the long and straight ridgelines created by the fault’s grinding action better than the […]
We are going to take you on a tour of the San Andreas Fault, starting in the Cajon Pass, through Wrightwood and Big Pines, then along the north side of the San Gabriel Mountains. California is world-famous for many things and one of them is earthquakes. This introduction to a small section of the infamous San […]
We’ve taken our readers on tours of the San Andreas Fault before, this time however, we’re going to take you on an urban back roads tour of where the fault can be seen along the San Francisco Peninsula. Our tour starts near Stanford University in Palo Alto, and ends where the fault plunges into the […]
Along with our other road trips along California’s San Andreas Fault, this tour is a bit different as it visits a sister fault to the San Andreas – the San Jacinto Fault. The San Jacinto is a major parallel fault sharing much of the stored-up energy from the sliding action between the North American and […]
The area around southwest Utah is packed-full of small volcanoes known as cinder cones. Hiking to the top of one of these cones can offer great views of the awesome scenery below. This virtual hiking tour will take you up one such cinder cone on the edge of Snow Canyon State Park, just ten miles […]
Seven Keyholes is a unique, small and remote canyon in the middle of Nevada’s Gold Butte National Monument. On some maps, it is referred to as a slot canyon. Other maps simply label it as Seven Keyholes. As the crow flies, Seven Keyholes is located merely one mile from a popular attraction in Gold Butte […]
This road trip adventure takes us to the vast Great Basin Desert of western Utah. When we decided to find an ideal spot to view the October 2023 annular eclipse, we headed to an area north of the town of Milford, which is 50 miles north of Cedar City. After watching the eclipse, we noticed […]
This road trip is a rather adventurous dirt road trip through some amazingly colorful and simply stunning Utah scenery. Our road trip is a loop that will take the average driver most of the day to complete. It starts and ends in the small town of Big Water, Utah, near Lake Powell, about 16 miles […]
In the heart of downtown St. George sits the Pioneer Courthouse, a historical building that was the cornerstone of this once young and emerging community. The following article will explain how the Pioneer Courthouse came into being, along with detailing a walking tour to nearby historic buildings in St. George.
The Taylor Creek Trail that heads up into the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek, is located in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. It gives the hiker a sampling of what Zion is all about, along with a unique half-created double arch at the trail’s end. The Taylor Creek Trail is located in […]