It was pretty quiet overnight here at the Walmart of Willows, California.  We thought it was snowing, but it was actually raining ash from the Carr Fire:

We drove north to Lassen Volcanic National Park:

Visibility was limited here thanks to the Carr Fire:

Our first stop was the Sulphur Works area.  We checked out the boiling mud pots:

For the Lassen Dark Sky Festival, NASA scientists set up a display about Astrobiology here:

We continued north to our dispersed camping Shabbos location near Lava Beds National Monument:

Good Shabbos!

What a difference a day makes!  We’re loving the cool weather!

We received a package today at an Amazon Locker in Half Moon Bay.  This is great for RV travellers:

We left the RV in Half Moon Bay and drove into San Francisco:

Our first stop was Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park:

The park is located in a Ford plant used during World War II to outfit tanks.  With so many men serving in the military, 50% of the workers here during the war were women:

Oh boy:

We crossed the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge:

Our next stop was Point Reyes National Seashore:

Point Reyes is on the ocean side of the San Andreas Fault, slowly sliding north relative to the rest of California on the mainland side of the fault.  We walked out the the Fault:

This fence shows the location of the fence at this location after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  The fault slipped, causing the earthquake and displacing the land on either side of the fault:

The blue posts show the location of the fault.  It will slip again someday:

We wanted to visit Muir Woods National Monument, but there’s no longer public parking there and all the shuttles were booked for the day.

We next visited Golden Gate National Recreation Area:

This area used to be a military base:

A former Nike Missile site:

There are bunkers and gun emplacements scatted all over the area:

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco:

We next stopped at Fort Point National Historic Site, a Civil War-era fort.  The Golden Gate Bridge was built over the fort 50 years later:

I remember visiting the fort as a kid, but it’s now only open on weekends:

We could see San Francisco and Alcatraz Island in the distance:

We drove into San Francisco.  Parking was easier than I would have thought.  We waved at the cable cars going by:

We walked a couple blocks to San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park:

The visitor center was well done:

Turns out this area was built on fill that left many abandoned ship hulls buried under the new land.  Before the fill arrived, ship owners sunk their hulls to claim what would become valuable real estate around their ship.  Sky scrapers were built on top of these hulls:

We checked out the boats at the pier:

The tug Hercules:

Alcatraz prison:

Inside the tug:

Heading back to the truck:

San Francisco City Hall:

On the way back down the coast to Half Moon Bay, we saw a paraglider free-flying at Pacifica.  I texted my PPG instructor Mark, who I knew was nearby, and we visited briefly.  He offered to take me for a flight tomorrow, so I’ll be back:

We said goodbye to Sequoia Field and the adjacent prison this morning:

We drove west to Pinnacles National Park.  It’s over 100 degrees today, so a long hike out into the Pinnacles was out of the question.  We decided to do a short hike to a cave:

Checking out the pinnacles along the way:

Heading into the cave:

Here’s a photo of my father at this same location around 1970:

On the other end of the cave is a small reservoir:

The staircase up to the reservoir:

Back down:

Oreo isn’t much for spelunking:

We drove northwest from Pinnacles:

Within an hour we went from over 100 degrees inland to low 60s on the coast at Santa Cruz.  We continued up the coast to overnight at the state campground in Half Moon Bay.  See the alternating yellow line on the trip map for today’s drive.

We woke up to a hazy morning thanks to the Ferguson Fire.  Visibility was about 3 miles, so I decided not to fly:

It was exciting to wake up at Sequoia Field, an airport rich in history:

The airport is adjacent to a prison, so we checked in with the Sherrif’s department to let them know we would be here.  We didn’t realize they use this hanger to store vehicles and equipment, so we awoke at dawn to vehicles moving in and out of the door we almost blocked:

We left the RV at the airport and drove up to Sequoia National Park.  There was a bit of a line to get in:

We checked out the visitor center:

Somehow I ended up with the cat:

Looking down at the steep and winding road we came up:

Waiting for road construction:

Our first stop was the Moro Rock trailhead:

The last time I was here I was a bit younger:

At least they upgraded the sign:

Up we go:

Looking down at the road we came up:

Thanks to the fire, the views are poor:

The sign shows what we should be seeing:

M looks out:

We checked out the big trees that made the park famous.  The Giant Sequoia is the largest living organism by volume on Earth:

We visited the General Sherman tree, the largest living organism on Earth.  It is 274 feet high, has a volume of over 52,000 cubic feet, and is estimated to weigh over 2.4 million pounds:

We next visited the visitor center at Kings Canyon National Park:

The visibility is so poor we decided not to drive down into Kings Canyon, so we headed back to the RV:

Our neighbors for the evening: