Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge

Trillium Falls

Manila Dunes Walk

Sunset Arcata, Ca February 17, 2009

Caught some really nice colors and shadows in this evening's sunset.

A Duck's view of the Arcata Marshes

A short journey through the Arcata Marshes and part of the Mad River Slough.

Highway 96 and Clear Creek Trailhead

Highway 96 and the first mile of the clear creek trail.

Spiral Redwood Giant

This was an incredibly twisted Redwood in Prairie Creek Redwoods. Time of day made photographing it difficult but the shape of it is clear.

Guthrie Creek Trail, Lost Coast

Banana Slug, the spotted variety, and tree fungus

Abandoned Highway Series

This is a stretch of Highway 101 south of Garberville. The highway was rerouted to the other side of the hill, but once followed this cliff ride above the river below.

South of here is confusion hill where two very large bridges are being built to avoid a continuous slide.

The Stone Ring and the Legend of Hall City Cave

Hall City Cave Entrance

I stumbled upon this cave about 2 years ago and have been back three times. It is located in the Shasta Trinity Forest in Northern California. It is a small limestone cave, about 100 feet deep. I went in with a friend the first time. As we made our way down with flashlights the end of the cave came up quickly. There were about three additional chambers, two of which we explored, the third required a short swim so we did not make it. The cave had some modest limestone formations but what was really spectacular was the pool of water at the left end of the cave. It was about 4' wide by 8' deep and long, but at the far end of it was a tube, about 6' in diameter, that went straight down as far as the eye can see in clear water.

When I went back home, I learned the history of the cave. Two natives robbed some gold prospectors in the late 1800's. A posse caught up to them and said they would spare their lives if they told them where the gold was. The natives said they stashed it in Hall City cave. The posse hung the natives and searched the cave finding nothing.

There aren't too many hiding places, save the bottomless pit. As it turns out, divers have attempted to get the gold before. This is an incredible account of one attempt (may have been in the 80's?). It is also a great story. Some of the equipment in that photo is still in the cave! I have read that divers are still interested in finding the gold, but it looks extremely difficult.

When I was there, I saw something strange beneath the water in the pool. It was a ring in stone, about 2 feet in diameter. Nearly perfectly round and quite natural looking. It sits just below the surface of the water and above the hole that goes down forever. One would almost have to swim through the ring to get to the third chamber of the cave. I did my best to capture the ring in the photos below. Another part of the legend was that Hall City Cave was a place of worship for the the Natives. I'm not sure if the ring had any influence in the selection of this location. One last interesting note is that there is a natural stone bridge nearby this cave.

In the first photo, the upper dark oval is a passage to the next chamber. It is the circle below it that is the ring. The ring is illuminated in the bottom photo.

Cactus Flower

This cactus was given to me by my Grandmother. For five years it never produced any flowers. The summer after she passed away it produced three of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen.

Ocean Front Property

The sign above these buildings read the following:

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in World War II, the possibility of an enemy attack on the us mainland became very real. At one point, Japanese submarines operated in offshore waters and actually shelled some shipping operations and oil installations off the coast of California and Oregon.

To guard against potential invasion, the US Army built the "farm" buildings you see below. The cinder block structures, complete with shingled roofs, and fake windows and dormers, housed an early warning radar staion.

From the air, the sea and even the road, these buildings appeared to part be a working farm. In fact, they housed a diesel generator, electronic equipment and two 50-caliber machine guns.

As part of a network of observation stations, the soldiers and civilians stationed here reported any suspicious boats and planes to a communications center in San Francisco, ready to dispatch fighter planes if the crafts were identified as hostile.

Humboldt Redwoods