The Sound of Settling

Another day of driving, but the last one of it's kind, for now. Not much to do while driving for hours in a straight line. A few photographs maybe. Felt a little like a movie, the rain added to that. I guess the deserts of Utah is the place where you can spot a sign that says: "Prison Area, Hitchhiking Prohibited"

The endless salt flats of Utah.

But all this driving was well worth it, as I had a great time at the concert I went to. It's good to here some independent music live. I though it would be a small venue, but there where a few thousand people there (no cameras allowed..).

And now, to Arches National Park.

Cheers..

"Just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles..."

25.05.08

Crossed the 1000 mile mark today, and as for tonight I've driven 1195.1 miles. That's 1923 km, almost four times the length of Israel. In a week. Today was mostly driving, though I did stop at two points in Lake Tahoe hoping for some good opportunities, but all day, the weather was horrible. Once again drove through a snow storm.


Dull lighting but this catches the eye, at Emerald Bay.


Heavy rain that noon. But you can see the potential of this beautiful place.
Sand Harbor.


Reno from the top.


Casinos all around.


Anyone in a hurry?


Lonely rest area at the end of a day.

Sticks and Stones

First week is over, and it's safe to say it was a good one. Tuesday morning I left San-Francisco for a 4 hour drive to Yosemite National Park. It probably sounds like a long drive, but compared to the other drives I've had and will have here, it's quite a normal one. From the flats of the California shores to high sierra of the Yosemite area. Not much to see during the drive, except for changing scenery colors and countless shopping centers (Staples ((like office-depot)) has free wireless Internet, by the way).

The New Don Pedro Reservoir on route 49.

To the park I arrived at noon, after buying the Annual National Park Pass. As i was entering the valley i was welcomes with 30 minute traffic jam, due to construction at some of the park roads (that were also closed). Sounds like a good start.

Despite the traffic problems the San-Francisco Vintage motor Club had their annual meeting that day.

One major thing is imperative to my kind of photography, light. that is determent by the sun and the clouds. I can't say I had the best of both during my stay there. It's a good thing i came prepared and know were to go, but there so many places it was hard to choose at which one to stay for sunrise or sunset. Yosemite is amazing because of it's huge granite mountain (towers is more like it) and the way they shape the valley.

One of the best views of the valley is right from the exit of the tunnel that brings you there. This is a sunset, that didn't came to color the sky. The viewing point was full of photographers. At the Right, Bridalveil Fall at 188 meters.

Camping here is a little tricky because of the bears,. Apparently, the are a lot of them here, and they like food. Not human food, but real food, like what you keep in your car and in your tent. so here that's not allowed and everyone staying overnight in the park has to store all there for in a bear proof metal bin. Since most of us don't usually bring that from home, these bin's are scattered along the valley for public use, if not, the bears will break into your car and wreck it (there are examples along the park). And no, no one takes your food while you sleep.

Bear locker.

The next morning I continued scattering the area for good locations and found a nice place where the first light hits "El-Capitan", a huge granite wall.

The good side of having almost no clouds to work with, is that you can do some night photography. At least that. I've always wanted to do a Star Trail image, and here there was a good spot.

A 25 Minute Exposure to capture the movement of the stars (earth actually). These falls qualifies Yosemite Falls as the 6th highest waterfall in the world at 739 meters from top to bottom.

At Glacier Point, a spot that over looks the whole valley at 2199 meter elevation. There I met a Park Ranger (not the one in the photo) who was pretty verse on the Israeli issue and kept using the word turmoil. At two years younger than me, he's thinking what his MA should be.

A side view from the Geological Building.

A different Park Ranger, with Nevada Falls in the Back.

As Thursday came to it's end, it was time to full up and drive to the High Sierra of the Yosemite Park, fortunately, that road was open that wednesday.

A group of Italians having a hard time with the American fueling system.

Can't say I was expecting snow up there.

The Tioga Pass road led me out of the park, and down to a beautiful place called Mono Lake.

A salt lake with alien like formations (called Tufa) rising from the surface. they were discovered when Los-Angeles started draining the lake for water.

At the South Tufa Beach.

There I met this very friendly professional photographer (still uses large format film) named Adriaan, and spent the rest of the sunrise talking. As he mentioned how it's one of the worst sunrises he has seen there, I wondered when will be the next time I'll be in this incredible place.

Another 4 hour drive to Sacramento, where I stayed for shabbat, and here I am getting ready to check out and start a 10 hour drive to Salt-Lake city.

Another views from Tioga Pass Road on the way back from Mono Lake to Sacramento. Driving through a snow storm.

If you stayed this long, have a great day.

Monday Morning Mist

This city is different, and beautiful.

But before that. Flights were ok, except an hour delay at Heathrow. Got a new Toyota Rav4, hooked up the GPS, and straight to downtown SF, where my motel was. I checked in at around 19:00, and there was still a lot of light outside, so I drove to the south side of the golden gate bridge. But it wasn't there. Thick fog swallowed the bay area, and visibility was very bad. I hoped for a change in the following morning (sunrise), but the weather wasn't in my favor. The first time I did sew the bridge was when I crossed it to the other side, hoping for better views. I'm going to shorted this tail because the Internet connection here could crash at any minute, so this will be fast and Hasty. At the end, the fog situation mostly staid the same. Tomorrow, to Yosemite.




All along the shore, people are running and walking and jogging and exercising and walking their dog's.. very popular. Alcatraz in the background.




The Six Sisters in Alamo Square.






Brown Pelican.






Monday Morning.





Baker Beach.





On the road..













A Typical Street.





13 image vertical stiched panorama. The other side of the gate.

Second Time Around

Hello to all of you..

It's 2:15 am and in just a few hours I'll start my take-off towards London and finally San-Francisco. A cool breeze of 15 and a half hours of flight.

Just like on the last trip, I'll update my whereabouts and my encounters (probably ones or twice a week), as well as some photos (if it's your first time here, take a look at the previous posts). Also' Ill try to implement the suggestions I've received from you last time, and so the images will be 'clickable' and will open a larger view for all you eye squinting fellows (you know who you are).


Click it. (it's an older image)

And hopefully some pictures of humans along the way.

At the bottom of the page there's a map of all my destinations in the trip, which I'll update as I go along. You can click on each marker and see what place it is. Red Marker is where I've been and a blue marker is where I'm going to be.

The plan is five weeks in the Southwest (California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada), and a short week in NY before returning home. I hope you'll enjoy and feel free to leave a comment at any time.

As much as I hate the word 'blog', this is the most convenient way.
Anyone who wants to receive each post to directly their E-mail, let me know.

Shavua Tov,

Itai