West Coast Road Trip (Part 2) - September 2016

Derek Evans
Sep 30, 2016
2 min read

Updated: Jan 16, 2021

Tunnel View Yosemite

Continuing on from last months blog we left San Diego and headed north on the Pacific Highway. Our route took us first to La Jolla enroute to LA where we stayed a couple of nights in Hollywood a short drive from the Griffith Observatory. We weren't that struck on LA and found it to be more hype than substance which probably sums up LA!

Los Angels Skyline and the Griffith Observatory

LA Panorama

Hollywood

As we left LA we made a brief stop at Venice Beach where we found the number of vagrants and homeless quite staggering. We then continued north to our next stop in Santa Barbara. The weather was a little cooler here and even a little chilly in the evening. Pressing on our next stop was at San Simeon where the sunset shot of the Elephant Seals was taken.

The next day we continued north to Monterey stopping off at Big Sur on the way. This was the labour day weekend so motels were becoming increasingly expensive and rather poor value for money!

Santa Barbara - Old Town

From Monterey we headed inland as our next stop was going to be in Mariposa just outside Yosemite National Park. Mariposa was quaint and perhaps a little lost in time but it allowed us to spend most of the next day in the Park itself. For me Yosemite was one of the highlights of the trip and where these photographs were made. Again these were not taken at the best time of the day, hence my decision to go to black & white for some.

Elephant Seal Vista - San Simeon

Big Sur

Mariposa Windmill

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite

Bridal Falls

After leaving Yosemite we headed north and then west to Mammoth Lakes. Principally a ski resort this resort makes for a pleasant few days at any time of the year and was arguably the best accommodation that we stayed in on the entire trip.

Rainbow Falls - Sierra National Forrest

Devil's Postpile - Sierra National Forrest

We had a couple of nights in Mammoth Lakes before continuing North and then Eastwards to Napa were we had one night before our final leg to San Fransisco where the shots of the Bay were made We flew back from San Fransisco to Washington after our road trip which was just short of three weeks in total - tired but glad we did it!