Category: - LeicaLux

Burney Falls...

7/19/2021

For the past week, we retraced our Oregon Roadtrip from a couple of years ago. And, of course, we added a few new stops along the way, too. Burney Falls in the McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park was something that we missed last time. I'm so glad to catch it this time around as it was just amazing.

The waterfall is very accessible. From the parking lot, you simply walk down a winding paved path and you'll start to get some glimpse of the waterfall through the trees. Once you get down, the evaporative cooling took the temperature from high 90's to a cool 70+, it's like a natural air conditioning! Besides the main streams that falls from the top, there are lots of water seeping through the moss-covered rocks on the sides, and that's the real beauty of the waterfall, to me.

From the photos, you can see the clear blue pool of water, but you don't see a lot of people swimming in it. That's because by the time you get down there, the air temperature drops significantly, and the water felt like freezing cold. It was too cold for us, even in the peak of summer season. I'm super glad that we were able to visit this amazing waterfall this time around.

Another Solo trip...

5/1/2021

Covid-lockdowns has given me riches of vacation hours. There's no reason why they should go to waste. Two years ago, I took my first solo trip to the Trona Pinnacles, and I've been wanting to do something similar again. So I decided to take a few days off work and visit a few places that's 2-3 hours away from home that's been on my map for quite a while.

Fossil Falls was the first stop. I've driven past this place many times, but because it was always in the summer, and it just seemed too hot to visit. As soon as I reached the campsite that's right next to the trailhead, my neighbor, Fred, came over and chatted with me. Fred, who I guess was in his 70's, grew up in the area and had a wealth of information to share with me. He told me about the Little Lake Overlook, which I'm very glad to have visited. To thank him for his knowledge and company, I shared my dinner and breakfast with him.

Next day, after promising to see Fred "down the road", I headed west towards Lake Isabella. The original plan was to camp at this place called Rabbit Island that's close to the lake, but in researching for backup camp spots, I found this secluded spot that's next to the Kern River, and I had to check it out. Since it was Friday, I got in early, and expected to see a bunch of disappointed campers that this spot was taken. To my surprise, for the entire time I was there, no one came by. So I had a lot of alone time and did my best to find things to do to take my mind off the 90 degree heat.

Next morning, I woke up early to drive to Miracle Hot Springs for a good soak. Then it's time for the next attraction: Tehachapi Loop. You probably have not heard about this place if you're not a train enthusiast. It was built in the 1800's. Due to the train back then did not have enough power to climb the steep grades of these mountains, they designed a loop so the train can pull itself up over the Tehachapi Pass. It's great fun to watch the train loop over itself if that interests you, but alas this was my last stop before I'm heading back to reality. For the full set of images on this trip, [CLICK HERE]

Eastern Sierras...

8/14/2020

As an attempt of a "last hurrah" before the summer vacation ends, we packed up the van and headed up the Interstate 395 to the Eastern Sierras. It's sparsely populated with a diverse terrains of mountains, deserts, lakes, rivers, and forests if you climb high enough in elevation. And, that's the key, stay high up enough during the summer so the nights will cool you down.

First we visited the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest at over 10,000 feet above sea level. The thinner air at that elevation really put a damper on the desire to hike more.

We had high hopes of finding a camp spot near a natural hot springs, but there were just way too much people out this weekend during the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems that people are tired of being cooped up at home, but many campground are closed, so they flock to the BLM lands. It was our family's first time at trying kayaking at Convict Lake. It was a lot of relaxing fun, and I can see it being a regular part of our future adventures.

For the last night, we travelled up higher for a nice camp spot in the pine forest. It was too bad that we couldn't have a campfire due to the fire restrictions, but we had a nice meal and a lively fire-side chat, without the fire. The summer of 2020 certainly has been different than the past summers, but we've made the best of it, and again, the Revel was a key contributor.

Prewitt Ridge, Big Sur...

7/13/2020

The Prewitt Ridge dispersed camping area overlooking Big Sur has been on my bucket list for a while now. With the offroad-capable Winnebago Revel, I finally got the chance to visit this place. The views were spectacular, although we did not get to witness the sea of clouds due to hot weather. The whole area was super crowded during this weekend, but it was the amount of bugs and flies that may detract us from coming back for another visit in the summer months.

To avoid making the 6+ hours drive all at once from LA, we spent Friday night on the ridges above Santa Barbara, which also had beautiful views of the city, night lights, and we did see the sea of clouds in the early morning from there.

What a great weekend filled with memories, amid this COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Here's a time lapse video of the sunset over Prewitt Ridge.

The Mojave Road...

3/29/2020

While California is shut down due to the COVID-19 Corona virus, we escaped out to the desert. The legendary Mojave Road is somewhere I've heard a lot about but never had a capable vehicle to experience. I thought I might push my luck and take the Winnebago Revel on it, but after this trip, I think that's probably not feasiable.

A must-visit place on the Mojave Road is Fort Piute. After a very rocky ascend into the mountain, we see the ruins of a fort that used to guard the spring waters in the 1850s.

We continued on from Fort Piute and reached Lanfair Valley. That marked the end our trip, but I do plan to come back and continue the Mojave Road from here in the future.

Moonstone Beach Park...

11/17/2019

A bunch Winnebago Revel owners met up at the San Simeon Washburn Campground this weekend. It was nice meeting up with people who shares the same passions and interests. A lot has been talked about the down side to social media, but I think it's simply a tool, and it's about how you use it. There is quite a large group of folks on Facebook, and we all help each other by sharing mods, troubleshoot problems, and just share adventures. A meet up like this highlights the fact that sometimes it's just more fun seeing each other face to face and have a conversation in real life. On Sunday, once we departed from the group, we head into Cambria to get some deserts and visited the Moonstone Beach Park to have our breakfast.

Fail... Tried to Watch SpaceX Rocket Launch

6/12/2019

I was pretty excited that SpaceX was going to have a rocket launch in Vandenberg Air Force Base this time. Drove up in the middle of the night to a spot that I scoped out that should allow me to watch it above the low morning fog and waited. When the sun rose, things looked good, and looks like I may be able to see the rocket pierce through the fog, but just 30 minutes before launch, it completely fogged up.

Although the captured video is just white fog, I was able to capture the sonic booms in audio...
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A post shared by David Young (@hosermage) on Jun 12, 2019 at 11:45am PDT

California Poppies in Lake Elsinore...

3/3/2019

The super-blooms are happening... Although I wanted to drive to the Anza Borrego Desert to check out the super-blooms, but we settled for the poppy hills in Lake Elsinore. A lot of people had the same idea, causing traffic near the exit on the freeway.

Even with the traffic, it was still worth it. The weather cooperated, too, giving us some spotty sunshine which is welcomed after all the rain this season.

I've always known that the color green really pop with the M9 CCD sensor, but today it felt the orange really pops, too.

Mission San Juan Capistrano...

2/10/2019

While we were down in San Clemente to pick up something for the RV, we took a few hours detour to visit the San Juan Capistrano Mission. My son had to study about the California Missions last year during 4th grade, so this was a great chance to re-enforce what he had learned in class and see it in real life. But of course, we're really there so I can take some photos :)

New Year in Borrego Springs...

1/1/2019

Happy new year! We did our count-down in Borrego Springs, CA. It's a small town next to the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, where we found an Airbnb for a reasonable rate to host 9 of us. Most points of interests are accessed via dirt roads, so we drove our Revel even though we didn't need to. Plus, it'll be good to have a mobile restroom with us just in case, but honestly, it'll take less reasons for me to want to take the Revel out for a spin.

The iron sculptures in Galleta Meadows were pretty awesome to see. They're scattered all around town, so make sure you map them on maps before you head out. Groups are them are also in close distance to each other, so I think visiting them while riding bikes will also be cool, just make sure you have fat tire bikes because you will be riding on sand.

The Slot Canyon Trail was a highlight on the trip. After driving about 2 miles off the main road, we reach the trailhead that was full with parked cars. Some part of the trail gets so narrow that I had to turn sideways to pass. While people were very friendly waiting for people to pass in a few tight spots, I felt I might have annoyed some because I wanted to wait for people to clear out of my shots. So I quickly grab a few shots and moved on, didn't have much time to dwell in the same spot.

Font's Point was a great place to watch the sunrise. I just happened to wake up at 6am and made a quick decision to try to head out there before the sun rises at 6:45am. We drove about 15 minutes to the offroad area, and drove about another 15 minutes on a 4-mile dirt track. The dirt road wasn't too bad, but a high clearance vehicle and 4x4 is recommended. Once we reached the point, the view just took us over. We stood on the edge, overlooking the expansive craggy canyon below, while the sun slowly moves beyond the horizon.

To see the full set of images [CLICK HERE].