Northern California

Although we enjoyed the city and all it had to offer, we were back in our favorite area when we escaped Alcatraz and headed into Northern California.  The open space and varied agriculture made us feel more at home again.  The first interesting area we visited was Napa Valley.  The vineyards and wineries were amazing.  It's hard to believe that many grapes could grow in one area but that must be why the Napa Valley is one of the prime wine producing areas in the world.  We ate lunch at V. Satturi, a local winery that only markets at it's home location and the internet.  We then went to Sterling Winery and took a tram ride and toured the wine-making facility.  After that we went to Sonoma to visit Ravenswood Winery.  It was a little hard to find but well worth the trip.  Of course, we helped the local economy by buying some of the wines.

As we traveled farther North, we were amazed to learn of the many aspects of the farm economy.  Northern California is a major producer of medium grain brown rice.  There is also a  large olive industry in the area.  When we saw the billboard advertising the Olive Pit, we were drawn to it like a magnet.  I guess it reminded us of the Olive Mill at Queen Creek, AZ.  Of course, we helped their economy too.  We also noted a lot of cattle and saw many nut groves.  Not sure what kind but definitely nut trees.

We stayed at Lakehead, CA where we camped for 3 nights.  From there we visited Shasta Lake and it's dam and powerhouse.  It was a very picturesque setting with Mt. Shasta looming over the lake.  The dam is the second largest in the USA with the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington the only one larger.  The power plant was awesome, supplying enough electrical energy to power the entire city of San Francisco. 

Our next travel adventure was a day trip through Lassen National Park.  Although snow-clogged roads kept us from going completely through the park, we were able to get far enough into the park to have many great picture opportunities, as you will see when you click on the link to pics.  The reason for the National Park is Lassen Volcano, a 10,457' mountain that last erupted in the 1914-21 volcanic cycle.  It was a beautiful day that allowed us to eat our picnic lunch at a scenic area in the park.  On the way back home we stopped at Burney Falls.  Burney Falls is unique because it is not fed by a river, it is fed by large springs above and within the falls.  The massive waterfall, 129' high, pours out an average of 100 million gallons of water a day.