Tour of Northern California and
Southern Oregon - Part 4
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Gorgeous Crescent City Bay along beautiful coast of Northern California. This photo is taken by May Lee.

After finished touring southern Oregon, we drove south on coastal Highway 101 to the picturesque Crescent
City on August 7, 2004 to start touring beautiful coastal areas of Northern California. Crescent City Harbor is
the northernmost port in California. This city is also the site of the Redwood National Park headquarters. Gold
was discovered at Crescent City Harbor in Myrtle Creek and along the Trinity River in the mid-1800s. The
Crescent City Harbor settlement began to grow in the middle 1800s during the California Gold Rush.
月形的海灣, 碧藍的海水,海浪湧向沙灘, 構成一幅美麗的海岸風情畫。

Beautiful Crescent shaped bay of Crescent City in Northern California Coast. This photo is taken by
May Lee.  
Crescent City was named for the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city.

Map: Click here for interactive Google Map showing location of Crescent City
藍天碧海,岩岸的奇岩異石,怪石嶙峋,遍佈四周的礁岩和小島,讓人充分享受海邊的逍
遙風情。

Spectacular coast just south of Crescent City in Northern California. We were lucky to have a sunny day with
blue sky to enjoy such beautiful coast line in Northern California. This photo is taken by May Lee.
Battery Point Lighthouse at the Crescent City Harbor.   This photo is taken by May Lee.
Several sea lions in Crescent City Harbor.  This photo is taken by May Lee.
Many fishing birds on the bird rocks along the beautiful coast of northern California.
Many fishing birds on the bird rocks.
One of many pelicans flying and cruising over the water of Crescent City Harbor and Bay in search of fish to
catch. There are also some cormorants swimming on water surface searching for fish to catch.
Another one of many pelicans flying and cruising over the water of Crescent City Harbor and Bay in search of
fish to catch.
When the pelican finds a fish while flying, it pulls in the wings and dives from mid-air straight down into the
water, like a heavy diving bomber, to catch the fish.
Since pelican is a big bird, it makes a big splash when it plunges from mid-air down into the water to catch the
fish. It is quite interesting to watch a lot of such actions by many pelicans diving successively into the water.
We enjoyed watching many fishing birds in action at Crescent City Bay. Although I have seen pelicans at
several different places, Crescent City Bay is the first place that I see many pelicans plunge diving high from
mid-air down into the water to catch fish. This photo is taken by May Lee.

We also observed frequent related actions by other fishing birds, such as cormorants, nearby when a pelican
plunge dives into the water.  When a pelican plunge dives into the water with a splash, one or more other
smaller fishing birds nearby on the water surface lunge quickly into the big splash area to catch something.

Cormorants do not plunge dive from mid-air down into water. Cormorants swim on the water face and dive
from water surface down under the water to chase and to catch fish. Flying high above water, pelicans have
much better view of where the school of fish is located. Furthermore, flying in the air gives pelicans much
greater mobility to cover much larger areas quickly to find the school of fish. When a pelican plunge dives into a
particular spot, it is a good marker on where the school of fish is located. It is quite natural for nearby
cormorants to lunge forward quickly to that particular spot to catch fish.
Beautiful Klamath River Delta where Klamath River flows into the Pacific Ocean. We drove on coastal Highway
101 going south to enjoy many miles of pristine coastline with majestic coastal redwood forest.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
More bird rocks along the coast with many fishing birds and marine mammals on the rocks.
The coastal Highway 101 took us into the majestic Redwood National Park and Redwood State Parks.

Map: Click here for interactive Google Map showing location of Redwood National Park
The massive and giant redwood goes up, up, up ! Some of them are about 2,000 years old. We can't get our
arms around this one.
Simple beauty of nature abounds here. The tiny size of a person at the base near the hole of the redwood
tree in the middle of this picture shows the size of the giant redwood tree.
Most point and shoot cameras can't capture the entire tree, they're far too tall!

These two photos are taken by May Lee.
Beautiful flowers in these coastal Redwood National Park and Redwood State Parks.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
Beautiful flowers in coastal Redwood
National Park and Redwood State Parks.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
Just perfect to enjoy a stroll through the magic and peaceful redwood forest.

This photo of redwood forest is taken by May Lee.
There are two or more meadows on the border of the Redwood National Park and of Redwood State Parks
where visitors can enjoy watching herds of wild Roosevelt Elk. Roosevelt Elk are the largest subspecies of elk
in North America, with bulls weighing up to 1,200 lbs. A six point rack of elk antler may weigh up to 40 pounds.

One favorite place to spot these wild elk is Elk Meadow located at the junction of US-101 (i.e., Redwood Hwy)
and Davidson Road, Orick, CA 95555.  

This photo is taken by May Lee.

We also saw large herd of elks in Point Reyes National Seashore in California as shown on my web page at:

http://
www.shltrip.com/More_Than_400_Wild_Elks.html

and at Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta, Canada and near the border with Montana in USA as
shown on the last picture on my web page at:

http://
shltrip.com/Canadian_Rockies_1.html
This photo of elk is taken by May Lee.

10 years ago in this 2004 trip, I was a beginner in photography using my first Point and Shoot digital camera
that had only 4X optical zoom which is too small to take good pictures of this herd of wild elk more than 100
yards away. I added a Tele-Photo lens in front of my camera but such combination could not focus easily and
properly on the herd more than 100 yards away. I could see them but could not take their pictures. It was
very frustrating to me. I encountered a similar frustration in the following year (2005) during my trip in
Newfoundland where a handsome bull moose with a huge rack of antlers was too far away for my camera to
take good pictures. Such frustrating experience prompted me to buy a compact super-zoom camera with 12X
optical zoom as my next camera to eliminate such frustrating problems in my subsequent sightseeing and
wildlife photography trips. Now in 2013, I am using a compact super-zoom camera with 50X optical zoom that
can handle this kind of situation easily and very well.
Many white pelicans and other birds at San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Volleyjo/Sonoma in
California. It is at the northern end of San Francisco Bay. After touring Redwood National Park, we drove
southeast to tour San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge for bird watching.

Map: Click here for interactive Google Map showing location of San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge
Large number of several kinds of birds in San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
A view of San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
More birds in San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

This photo is taken by May lee.
More birds or ducks in San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
This photo is taken by May Lee.
After touring San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, we drove west to get on coastal Highway 1 to Muir
Beach Lookout on high cliff at the shore in Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
This photo from high cliff at Muir Beach Lookout is taken by May Lee.

Map: Click here for interactive Google Map showing location of Muir Beach Lookout
From high cliff of Muir Beach Lookout looking down, we see the top side of birds in flight below.
From Muir Beach Lookout, we drove along coastal Highway 1 to go north to Point Reyes National Seashore.
We saw more pelicans in action along Bolinas Lagoon.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
A pelican taking off from Bolinas Lagoon.

This photo is taken by May Lee.

Map: Click here for interactive Google Map showing location of Bolinas Lagoon
A pelican in the water in Bolinas Lagoon.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
Magnificent and picturesque Tunnel of giant Monterey cypress trees off Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Point
Reyes National Seashore. At the end of this tunnel is the historic RCA/Marconi Wireless Telegraph Station
(also known as KPH Radio Telegraph Station).

Map:
Click here for interactive Google map showing the locations of this Tunnel of Cypress Trees and KPH
Radio Telegraph Station in Point Reyes National Seashore.

More beautiful photos of this magnificent Tunnel of Cypress Trees with fantastic golden sun rays in the
morning or late afternoon can be seen at:

https://www.theoutbound.com/san-francisco/photography/photograph-the-cypress-tree-tunnel-in-point-reyes
Magnificent Drake Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore. Notice the tiny size of three visitors in the middle
of this picture.

This photo is taken by May Lee.

Picture at the following website indicates that at certain season, many elephant seals show up on Drake
Beach. This website also has several beautiful aerial photos of Point Reyes National Seashore.

http://www.robertcampbellphotography.com/point_reyes.html
Many gulls and wild flowers at Drake Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
At Drake Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore, we also saw many pelicans flying and plunge diving from
mid-air down into water to catch fish. But they are at much greater distance away such that it is much more
difficult to take good pictures of these pelican in action here. The weather was also cloudy and not as good as
yesterday when we were at Crescent City Bay. This limitation again gave me another strong incentive to buy a
more powerful compact super-zoom camera for my future wildlife watching trips.

Anyway, this is the second place that I enjoyed watching many pelicans plunge diving from mid-air down into
water to catch fish.
Another view of Drake Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore located at 1 Bear Valley Road, Point Reyes
Station, CA.

This photo is taken by May Lee.

Map: Click here for interactive Google Map showing location of Point Reyes National Seashore
Rocky cliff in Point Reyes National Seashore. From the high cliff lookout, we can see the tops of many birds
flying below.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
A cattle farm in Point Reyes National Seashore.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
Another view of Point Reyes National Seashore. It was a cloudy day.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
Another view of Point Reyes National Seashore.

This photo is taken by May Lee.
We also got a chance o tour the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge located at 1
Marshland Road in Fremont, California at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. We saw many terns in
flight in this National Wildlife Refuge.

Map: Click here for interactive Google Map showing location of Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National
Wildlife Refuge
Some other kind of birds in flight in Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

We saw a serious photographer set up a camera with a huge long lens supported by a heavy duty tripod and
waiting. We asked him about what he was waiting for? He told us that a majestic golden eagle shows up in
this National Wildlife Refuge from time to time. He was waiting to take good close up pictures of that golden
eagle.
10 Years later in August 2012, we visited Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge for the
second time, and we saw many birds line up nicely.
Zoom in for closer view of these birds with my new compact super-zoom camera.
Interesting patterns when these birds are in the air.
Zoom in on one of several egrets in this National Wildlife Refuge.
Quite a few egrets in this National Wildlife Refuge.
There is a round hill in this National Wildlife Refuge. Visitors can drive half-way up this hill, then take a short
hike to an Outlook Platform on the top to enjoy panoramic views of the southern part of San Francisco Bay
area.
One of the views from the top of the hill.
Another view from the top of the hill. It seems that visibility here is quite limited due to the smog in the busy
San Francisco Bay Area. This is quite different from that in Lava Beds National Monument in northern
California where the air is so clean that people can often see over 100 miles.
Another view from the top of the hill in this National Wildlife Refuge.

This completes Part 4 of our Tour of Northern California and Southern Oregon.

Parts 1, 2, and 3 are at the following web pages.

http://
www.shltrip.com/Northern-California_Part_1.html

http://www.shltrip.com/Crater_Lake_Volcanos.html

http://www.shltrip.com/Northern_California_and_Oregon-3.html

My tours of other parts of California are on the list on the home page of my Travelogue website at:

http:/
/www.shltrip.com/index.html
In this National Wildlife Refuge, visitors see many big birds like this flying in and out of the busy San Francisco
International Airport.
How I use information age technologies to enhance my enjoyment greatly of sightseeing large driving tour
loop of thousands of miles and of one to two weeks in duration covering many Points of Interest is described
on my web page at:

http://
www.shltrip.com/Sightseeing_in_Information_Age.html