elementary
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,077
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Post by elementary on Aug 14, 2012 22:41:12 GMT -5
Well, I've been bouncing around Central California for the past two weeks. Spent two weekends ago visiting Monterey and visiting family I hadn't seen for a decade. This past weekend I traveled with my wife's family members to Sequioa. We left on Thursday and got back last night. Thursday - Our Campsite:  and a view from one side:  Friday - We headed over to see some big trees and I got to see my first bear. It was a brief glimpse from the bus so no photo.... But we got to the Sequioa grove with 'General Sherman' - the name given to the largest tree in the world (by volume).  These trees are huge!  The hike we took - about 2 1/2 miles - brought us through some magnificent scenes of trees and flowers (anybody know what the flowers are?):     Saturday: We traveled to Hume Lake (no photos) and swam a bunch and got real hungry. Sunday: My wife, dad, and daughter and I went to Crystal Cave, a cave bore out of a Marble deposit you can see here:  It was a 1/2 mile long, 300 foot drop, hike down to the cave entrance.  The inside was fascinating. I have never had a chance to go through a cave system before, so I had a great time gawking.    We saw deer as well, and my daughter had a ball chasing down and catching any insect that came within reach. She found a few interesting ones: (Hey - Mel, know their names?)   And the best of the lot:   On the way home I was going to take the 63 but my wife said to do the 245. OH MY WORD - that was a mistake! If you ever want to get on a road that has NO straight portion, this is the one. We lost a bunch of time and the temp was hitting 109. Worse yet, my wife and daughter are prone to car sickness. I wasn't happy. We finally cut across to the small town of Orosi. We left a road that actually had a center divider to a narrower road that had no markings on it at all. I was expecting it to pinch off into a horse path...When it finally rolled down into the valley I was so grateful to hit a straight road! But we made it out eventually and stopped for lunch (and to lower my blood pressure) and then hit the road (again.) Phew.... It was a fun trip, and had a couple of firsts for me, which is nice at age 4*. Thanks for looking, Lowell PS. Back to working on the Agate Index....School begins next week. |
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Post by parfive on Aug 14, 2012 23:45:26 GMT -5
Yikes!! The best of the lot looks like an Asian long-horned beetle.
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Post by helens on Aug 14, 2012 23:52:43 GMT -5
Very kewl pix, thanks again for the tour Lowell:)
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Wolfden
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2007
Posts: 1,368
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Post by Wolfden on Aug 15, 2012 0:11:18 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing your trip .. great pics
Dennis
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Aug 15, 2012 0:48:53 GMT -5
That yellow flower I've heard commonly referred to as a "DYC". (d*mn yellow composite). ;-)
Thanks for a great tour! I never even knew that cave was there, until my friend from Ventura (what a coincidence) mentioned it. And now you've gone there . . . (wierd).
But anyway, thanks for the pics, every little bit of nature helps!
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rockingthenorth
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2012
Posts: 1,637
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Post by rockingthenorth on Aug 15, 2012 1:11:12 GMT -5
that was a great tour probably the closest I will get to that area. loved it and the cave was awesome I went on a tour to cave of the winds in colorado when we lived there it was beautiful but I got nausiated because I was pregnant at the time with my daughter. thanks for sharing.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2012 8:53:46 GMT -5
Looks to me like you wasted a lot of time there when you could have been working on the agate index but what a wonderful way to waste time. I always take the slow and winding road but sometimes they can be tiresome. One fifty mile stretch in western North Carolina where the only time you were going straight was when you were swinging from left turn to right turn. The scenery was beautiful but I could not look away from the road over two seconds and there was not one place to stop and look.
Caves are fascinating and it looks like you got into a good one. I never pass up a chance.
I have not been to see those huge trees but it was great to see them through your camera.
In Montana I believe those yellow flowers are called Indian paint brush but I could be mistaken.
Thanks for the ride.
Jim
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Post by texaswoodie on Aug 15, 2012 9:00:13 GMT -5
Awesome trip! On my bucket list.
Curt
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 15, 2012 9:41:30 GMT -5
The second flower is a Lupine.
I've traveled pretty much the same route several times. Beautiful country.
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Post by Pat on Aug 15, 2012 11:20:49 GMT -5
The yellow flowers look like cone flowers (echinacea), and the long purple ones look like lupine.
We've been there. Those trees ARE magnificent! Thanks for the tour! It brings back good memories.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,504
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 15, 2012 17:17:29 GMT -5
Cool pics Lowell! The first insect is a nymph stage of a true bug ( Hemiptera), maybe one of the stink bugs. The second is a beetle in the Buprestid group ( metallic woodborer group) That group is huge and I don't recognize the species you've posted. The third is indeed one of the long horned beetles Cerambycidae. Close to a thousand species in North America plus as Rich has noted, there are a pile of new invaders from China that are common in California. Looks to me to be one of the Sawyer group but I can't tell with any kind of certainty without having it under the scope. Though it does have banded antennae, I don't believe the asian long horned beetle has those little points on the outside anterior edge of the elytra. That would be more typical of the white spotted sawyer....Mel
PS: I have relatives in Orosi. Used to spend time there in summer as a teen. Hotter than Hell but riding horses and cows and chasing the neighbor gals who were super hot was fun. *L*
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hand2mouthmining
spending too much on rocks
Purveyors of California Gem Rock
Member since September 2011
Posts: 495
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Post by hand2mouthmining on Aug 15, 2012 19:53:19 GMT -5
Sweet trip, Lowell! Next time you get up here with good weather and extra time, you're invited to go out to Panoche Hills with us and collect some of our local agate!
Of course, there's hundreds of other gem rock varieties to collect out there, but we're as sweet on the agates as you are ... Well almost!
Glad to hear that you had a great time! Enjoy the weather back home!
Kris
Hand-2-Mouth Mining
Fresno, CA
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Steve
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2005
Posts: 506
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Post by Steve on Aug 15, 2012 20:54:33 GMT -5
I was at Crystal Cave a couple of years ago. Critters had chewed through the wires, so there was no electricity at the cave. We did the tour with flashlights -- wonderful. Love Sequoia and Kings Canyon. Saw lots of bears and had to deal with them around the campground.
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Post by bobby1 on Aug 16, 2012 9:53:46 GMT -5
Looks like you had a great time on your vacation. Another place to see the big trees is in the Calaveras Big Trees Park. I took my grandson there last summer. Over the winter there were some fierce storms there and a bunch of the very old and large pine trees blew over and blocked some of the hiking trails. The Sequoias weren't affected, fortunately.   Bob |
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elementary
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,077
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Post by elementary on Aug 16, 2012 10:15:02 GMT -5
Kris,
If I ever get up into that area again with some free time, I'd love to go hunting with you. I have a magazine article with maps to that area from the 1960's or 1970's. I just ran across the article a couple months ago, and I think it might be a Mary Strong article. I don't know if you've seen it (probably) but I can scan and post you a copy if interested.
Bob,
I love the shots. Those trees are amazing...
I also like how after a while kids will just stand in front of whatever you want to take a picture of like mug shots, arms at their sides, resigned look on faces. I'm thinking of getting one of my daughters images like that and photoshop them in front of random landmarks across the world and show people shots of my 'international' travels.
The worse thing I could do is show them to my daughter when she's 20+ years old and say "What? You don't remember going to paris? But we saw the Eiffel Tower! See, here's a picture!"
Lowell
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hand2mouthmining
spending too much on rocks
Purveyors of California Gem Rock
Member since September 2011
Posts: 495
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Post by hand2mouthmining on Aug 17, 2012 18:03:20 GMT -5
Lowell,
You bet we'd love a copy of that article! One of my pastimes these sultry Summer eves is sitting on the back patio, re-reading 40 & 50 year old rockhound & lapidary magazines. We find some sweet stuff that way!
I seem to remember a Mary Strong article on Lake San Antonio, near Paso Robles, but the most written about Central Valley destinations were the Devils Den fossil exposures, Shark Tooth Hill, and Jacolitos Creek, near Coalinga. Those were (relatively) easily accessed by folks traveling Hwy 41/46, or adventurous folk braving the wilds of Hwy 33. You wouldn't want to venture there without plenty of planning & provisions in that era!
In those days, with no I-5 to speed past the Panoche Hills, the area was considered quite remote. Much of the year, weather, geology and terrain made the Mercey Hot Springs area a "Ya cain't get there from here" proposition from the Central Coast.
These days, rockhounds still rush on by, unaware that there's a huge, mostly untapped gen field right outside their car window. We have collecting areas that are within shouting distance of the freeway!
Hope you can make it up for some family friendly collecting, soon!
Kris
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Deleted
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Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2012 15:51:40 GMT -5
That yellow flower I've heard commonly referred to as a "DYC". (d*mn yellow composite). ;-) And the insects are LBB, LGB and of course LBB That is, in order: Little Black Bug Little Grey Bug Large Black Beetle There you have it. |
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Post by talkingstones on Sept 2, 2012 20:47:33 GMT -5
Somehow, just seeing the pictures of those trees makes me feel small! LOL! Beautiful picts and thank you for the share!
Cathy
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