Yesterday Pat and I had a great time at a harvest festival, at which we heard more Russian than English. Some of you will guess where it is. I’ll reveal it near the bottom.

Now that Yosemite National Park has reopened from the Federal Shutdown, it is a prime time to take a drive and see the fall color. One of our favorite places to see the yellow leaves of the fall aspen is at a small pullout with restrooms near Yosemite Creek on Tioga Rd. The dogwoods are also beginning to show off ...

We found a snowy, icy wonderland up above 11,000′ elevation at the lower of the Dana Lakes. Snowy reflections of mountains in a beautiful turquoise lake were a site to behold!

We hiked a little visited canyon in the Tioga Pass to see yellow aspen and beautiful east side mountains.

We sneaked over to Lundy Canyon to view and capture the yellow, orange and red colors of fall. Our timing was right on!

High mountain lakes that are as glassy as a mirror, reflecting Ragged Peak, the surrounding white, rocky ridges and an occasional cloud were the highlights of this hike. Of course, the close-up encounter with the Grouse family was pretty wonderful also.

Sally and I had headed over to the east side of the Sierras for a few days, spending some of that at Rock Creek, experiencing fall with chilly temperatures, some rain and those leaves were turning color. And we caught some fish!

Scrub jays (along with their corvid relatives ravens and crows) are among the most intelligent of non-human animals, up there with primates, dolphins, elephants, etc., depending on whose list you consult. Today as I was reading a book on the back deck I threw out a peanut. Within less than a minute a jay got up enough nerve to move ...

Sally and I packed up the vehicle to head over the Sonora Pass to the east side of the Sierras for a few days, looking for early signs of fall color, some hiking, some fishing and some relaxing. We achieved all of our goals plus some!

I hear that you are looking for a group to go hiking with. Well, I have just the group for you! Have you heard of MeetUp Groups? There are Meetup Groups for just about every activity that you can think of. The Central Valley Hiking Meet Up Group is a local group that hikes the area from Yosemite down to ...