Southern California Club Xterra
Southern California Club Xterra => SCCX Xcursion Pictures => Topic started by: FrankB on June 02, 2013, 09:23:56 PM
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Heather and I just finished up a little 9-day drive in the Xterra around Central California. We covered 1,445 miles from San Diego, with overnights in Visalia, Angels Camp, South Lake Tahoe and Bishop. We stayed on the pavement, but still managed to see quite a bit. Here are a few pictures.
Since most here like to see the trucks, or other gear, we'll start with this.
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Our first stop, after a very long drive due to 3 major incidents on the road, was Kings Canyon National Park. They have some really big trees there.
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The little road up to the Panoramic Lookout has some pretty tight turns. Here's a shot over the dashboard on the way back down.
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From Kings Canyon we drove north up to Angels Camp, and hung out in the Gold Country for 3 nights. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains are particularly nice this time of year.
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In the town of Jamestown there is a great railway museum. This old oil-fired steam locomotive still runs, they take it out quite often. It's also been used in the filming of several movies, include Back to the Future III.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Jamestown-Railroad-Museum/i-rh6MCMg/0/L/DSCF3325-L.jpg)
From the Gold Country we drove over Ebbetts Pass (CA-4) towards Lake Tahoe. Along the way we stopped for a hike at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. More really big trees.
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The middle stretch of CA-4 is known as the Ebbetts Pass National Scenic Byway. I can see why. This is a great stretch of road. It's a bit too narrow to have a center stripe.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Ebbetts-Pass/i-PTbrXdw/0/L/DSCF3864-L.jpg)
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(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Ebbetts-Pass/i-bGqcSSF/0/L/DSCF3906-L.jpg)
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The higher elevation meadows on the road to South Lake Tahoe are nice in the late afternoon.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Lake-Tahoe/i-2Nf3V8H/0/L/DSCF3929-L.jpg)
We had a pretty nice sunset on our first night at Lake Tahoe. By the way, I can highly recommend the Alder Inn on Ski Run Blvd. if you're looking for a nice place to stay that doesn't have all the chaos of the Stateline area.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Lake-Tahoe/i-xZCJDpW/0/L/DSCF3955-L.jpg)
We rode the gondola at Heavenly up to their observation deck, and then all the way to the lodge at the very top. Nice views from the observation deck.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Lake-Tahoe/i-ZxrkKX5/0/L/DSCF4008-L.jpg)
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We drove out CA-89 to check out Emerald Bay. It was Memorial Day weekend so the narrow road was crowded with people who didn't seem to know how to drive on narrow roads. But, the views were worth it.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Lake-Tahoe/i-rKpSxxv/0/L/DSCF4322-L.jpg)
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Lake Tahoe has very little public access shoreline. I think this was actually a private campground beach.
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This is near the US Forest Service's Tallac Historic Site, which has some great beaches, and some old houses from the late 1800's that have been restored.
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The views from the road down to the Carson Valley, on the way to US 395, are pretty good.
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Some nice views driving south on US 395 too.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-fVsTvjR/0/L/DSCF4753-L.jpg)
Heading south towards Mono Lake.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-drFB9qf/0/L/DSCF4775-L.jpg)
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We spent our last night on the road in Bishop. On the way there we stopped to check out some of the lakes, and went up to Mammoth Mountain.
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(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-nS2fxBX/0/L/DSCF4832-L.jpg)
(http://[http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-Dp9FDQS/0/L/DSCF4858-L.jpg[img]
We road the gondola to the top of Mammoth, but when we got up there it was all clouded up, not much of a view.
[img][http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-s8x3XXv/0/L/DSCF4892-L.jpg)
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-pSbWQtb/0/L/DSCF4928-L.jpg)
The weather in the morning as we left Bishop was a little better for pictures. We made a few stops along the way, including the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery and Mananzar.
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-g4r2dJt/0/L/DSCF5066-L.jpg)
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-MTjqw2c/0/L/DSCF5094-L.jpg)
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Traveling-South-on-US-395/i-Qp7rGjw/0/L/DSCF5152-L.jpg)
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Manzanar/i-kGNFxf2/0/L/DSCF5168%20-%20Version%202-L.jpg)
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Manzanar/i-tKkzZdt/0/L/DSCF5173%20-%20Version%202-L.jpg)
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip/Manzanar/i-xD58LFw/0/L/DSCF5187-L.jpg)
If you want to see more from the trip, here is a link to a few galleries with lots of pictures.
http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/California-Mountain-Road-Trip
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Great pictures Frank. Thanks for sharing
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Wow! Any one of these pictures could be a postcard. Very nice
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Great Pictures Frank. Always love the pictures you take. You should submit some shots to Nissan for Owner Picture shout out on their page.
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Great pictures as always!
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I like the pine cones on the beach...very nice Frank.
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Great pictures Frank!
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As always, professional quality photos....great work Frank!
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Absolutely beautiful. Looks like it was a great trip.