Articles, reviews and tutorials about photography

A landscape photographer's tour
Shasta, CA to Lakeport, CA

Keith's travels in California and the Pacific Northwest - April-May 2007

This photo-diary covers a driving trip up the coast from San Francisco in April/May 2007 along the Pacific highway

Now I've returned, I've included some of my travel photography from this trip in the main Gallery, and updated any info that may be of help to people who come across these pages as part of their planning for driving tours of the California and Oregon coasts, looking for places to stay or sites to visit.

It's a great place for a vacation, or just a road trip up the Pacific coast to photograph some of the scenery. If you've any questions about the hotels/inns/motels where I stayed, then please do feel free to drop me a line.

There are other photo travel diaries covering trips to:
Washington and Oregon in Fall 2007 and Colorado in Spring 2006 and Fall 2008

Daily pages

Why not create your own customised A3 size wall calendar from some of Keith Cooper's photographs. Choose your own images for your own custom printed calendar - 12 months starting any month of the year. Choose from nearly a hundred images - many not yet in our main gallery.

Starting out from Shasta, the weather doesn't look too good for a trip to Lassen

mt shasta in the clouds

However before leving I have to wait for a train to cross the road

shasta city railroad crossing

Now I know that Mike back home will want more details, so here are both power units (with numbers) and one of the sleeper cars

Amtrak 115 and 117

Amtrak superliner

It's about 90 miles to Lassen, and the weather started to look a bit better in the distance

road to lassen volcanic park

and then a lot better

mt lassen

Lassen (one of the big Cascade volcanoes) is the more distant snow covered peak

Here's the view at the entrance to the park.

lassen park

...and here is what met me 10 miles into the park - Doh! I'd forgotten that it's only the first of May :-(

Last time I visited it was late September...

lassen volcanic park road closed

It's a fair old drive to the other entrance, and chatting to someone at the sign, I found you could only get 7 miles in on the other side (it's a 33 mile drive through the park)

So this is about the closest I got to the peak today :-(

mt lassen from the devastated area

I did think of travelling round to the other entrance, but the weather was clouding up from the west.

This is a view looking back to the mountains, as I headed west to Redding to take I-5 south... it started raining not long after.

looking back to mountains

Travelling down I-5 there are the usual adverts

olives

That's more convenient gift ideas...

I also spotted these (another pic for Al and Steve back home)

pylons by i-5

I came off I-5 at Williams and called in at Granzella for a snack.

granzella, williams,ca

Hang on though, what's that on the wall? (rather noisy pic at 1250 ISO)

watneys red barrel

Yup, Watneys Red Barrel - a true relic of just how bad beer in the UK was in the 70's. I believe they had Double Diamond on draught as well...

Williams looks to have seen better times

williams shops

here's a detail...

williams tourism

I thought people looked rather smartly dressed ;-)

Heading West out of Williams, there are lots of flooded fields - I remembered that this is where a lot of rice is grown.

rice paddies near williams

After travelling through the mountains, you come the the impressively large 'Clear Lake'

clear lake

Quite stormy and raining in the distance

storm on clear lake

I'm staying in Lakeport, and tomorrow I need to end up in San Francisco - not sure of the route yet, but probably back across the Golden Gate bridge.

NEXT DAY

19th April >> 20th April >> 21st April >> 22nd April >> 23rd April >> 24th April >> 25th April >> 26th April>>27h April>>28th April>>29th April>>30th April>>1st May>>2nd May>>3rd May