Two Beers and a Pretzel

Pike's Peak as seen from Garden of the Gods

In August, I went to Colorado Springs to support my brother-in-law, Marc, as he ran in the Pike’s Peak Half Marathon with his Grad School roommate, Matt, who lives in the area.

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A few days before the race, Matt took us on a mini-tour of the area.  Colorado springs is a beautiful town, literally bordering the Rocky Mountains. You could clearly see the areas that were devastated by the wild fires earlier this year.  If you look in the picture, all the trees on the hill in the background have burned…  The fire got pretty close to the city!

Aftermath of the Colorado Springs fires of 2012

Nearby is Garden of the Gods, a free park, donated to the city by a railroad executive.  With amazing sandstone formations, this area shows where the mountains meet the plains.

Garden of the Gods

We also went to see the Air Force Academy.  The campus was huge and gorgeous, right on the edge of the mountains.  There were cadets learning basics of flight in gliders above us.

Air Force Academy Campus

The highlight of the campus was the stunning chapel.  It looks like some kind of mothership out of a scifi movie!

Air Force Academy Chapel - Exterior

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Air Force Academy Chapel - Interior Roof

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Air Force Academy Chapel - Interior Pipe Organ

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Even the pews were designed to reflect aeronautics… like propellers and the leading edge of a wing.

Air Force Academy Chapel - Pews

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We then went back into town and toured the US Olympic Team headquarters.  Very nice campus, but hard to photograph…  However, I did perform amazing feats of strength, like my two finger dead lift!

Feats of Strength

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Finally, race day.  Marc’s Parents were in town as well, so we saw off the athletes in Manitau Springs, and found a great sidewalk cafe for breakfast.

Pike's Peak Ascent - near the starting line

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I showed Marc’s parents the Garden of the Gods, then we made our way up the mountain to see the finish line at the top.  We actually completely missed Marc & Matt up here, but it was a great view and a fun atmosphere (what little there was at 14,114 feet / 4,302 m).

Pike's Peak Ascent - the finish line

It could have been the altitude getting to me, as I haven’t been this high up since hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but I started wondering if I could enter the race next year and tie a bunch of helium balloons to myself to ease my ascent.  Hmmmm….

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The next day, Sunday, I was planning on seeing Great Sand Dunes national park, but could not get a rental car.  Luckily, there was a ‘Good Guys’ car show in town where I saw some of my all time favorite cars:

2nd Generation (1966?) Corvette Stingray Convertible

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Monster Caddy

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Creative use of a Jack Daniels bottle on a rat rod

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The Grizwold family rides again!

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On the flight back to LA, I was treated to a stunning early morning view of the Grand Canyon from 30,000 ft.

Grand Canyon Morning at 30k ft.

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Grand Canyon Morning at 30k ft. with engine

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Grand Canyon Morning at 30k ft. - wide angle

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I love flying over the Grand Canyon because you get a real sense of how grand it really is.  It takes nearly an hour…

After Redwood, I drove down the coast…

…to San Francisco…

…and then shot across the state to Yosemite National Park.

I tried some Astrophotography, but the only shot that turned out was the moon.

After seeing the eclipse, I had a marathon driving day from Lassen to Crater Lake to Redwood National Park.  About 14 hours behind the wheel.  I definitely need to go back to Crater Lake after the snow melts and the weather improves.

The Redwoods were impressive.  Not as imposing as the Sequoia’s, but very tall…

There were lots of other plants… definitely a rain forest!

Down near the Ocean, there was a meadow where Elk often hang out.  I got lucky and saw a heard of females with one juvenile male.

Then I was off to Yosemite.  The drive thru Humboldt State Park and the “Avenue of the Giants” was even more impressive than Redwood N.P., but harder to capture images from a moving car.

On May 20, 2012, the moon passed between the Earth and Sun, creating a not quite total eclipse, where you can see a “ring of fire” if you’re in the right place (known as an Annular Eclipse).  The center of the moon’s shadow passed across the US in a line from Redwood National Park in Northern California to right around Lubbock, Texas.  I ventured up to Lassen Volcanic National Park to see the eclipse.

Entering from the South, everything looks clear…

Until you get to the top…

So I went around the South-West side of the park where you could get a sweeping view of the volcanoes and clearly see how they used to join together into a massive ancient volcano.

And a little closer in from Manzanita Lake:

At the top of the “Devastated Area”, a number of astronomers were debating how much eclipse we would see, since the sun would be about 19 degrees above the horizon, while the mountain blocked everything below 17.5 degrees.  I went back down the North side of the mountain to a plain with a clear view to the West and setup my telescope at a spot with a host of other eclipse junkies.

I had a filter for the scope, and tried to use it to take photos of the eclipse… they turned out OK.  Not great, but they get the point across…  still, the coolest lens flare I’ve ever shot…

The reflections off the lens, back to the filter and back to the lens are what caused the straight line distortions on the main image, and the blur in the lens flare… but still a pretty cool image.  It was even better through the telescope.  Larger magnification, and you could actually see the shape of the craters of the moon against the sun.

I got another good one at a much lower exposure level during the partial eclipse where you can actually make out a few sunspots.

While hanging out, I met a photojournalist from MSNBC, John Brecher, who took a Panoramic Image of our viewing spot during the annularity.  I’m in the blue shirt behind the tent.

And for anyone still following this blog, I’ll be updating it with a few trips from the lat 2 years…  I’ve just been avoiding adding mundane – normal life stuff, as that’s what Facebook is for, and this is a travel blog.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time looking for a great drive on twisty roads with very little traffic anywhere on the North-East side of L.A., and I think I’ve found it…

This route is 126 miles thru Los Padres National Forest.  About 15 of the miles are straight or thru small towns.  The other 116 miles are pure driving pleasure.