Sad news or good news, depending on how you look at it, for all of you Rock-a-Hoola fans.  Someone is in the process of trying to reopen the place.

A blogger friend of mine visited the place recently and found a contractor there who told her the place would be closed up in two days.  And I read in a newspaper story that a reporter who visited there met up with a security guard.  And so it appears party time at the abandoned water park is over.

Back last October, we took our kids and their bikes out to the place.  They knew all about it, having watched skaterboarders and bikers doing tricks there on YouTube, so this made us, for at least a few hours that day, the coolest parents in the world.

It was, of course, short lived.  They are teenagers, after all.

It’s hard to imagine this place opening up again.  Internet rumor says by 2014 – but this place is thoroughly trashed.  Seems to me they’d have to practically start over …

On this hot day, I didn’t trek up to the top.  Instead, I walked around the dried up lazy river ..

Here’s the bifurcation point …  I just had to say that, because I just love the word, “bifurcation”.  Kinda sounds like you’re saying something nasty but you’re not!

Here are some more random shots of the place …

While I wish the new venture good luck, in part because I think they will need it, I will miss this place for it’s creepy abandoned-ness.

For more photos and more information on this place, check out my previous photoblog post:  Dried up oasis in the desert – The ruins of the Rock-a-Hoola Water Park

To follow the possible reopening of the water park, click here.  (The new venture is called Oasis Theme Park)

This is the view of downtown Sacramento from the new water intake facility on the Sacramento River.  It’s really quite beautiful, considering it has a rather mundane function of sucking up river water for use by city residents.

I like the fact that it’s a nice facility.  Relative to the project, the costs of making it accessbile to the public were likely relatively small.  It also gives people an opportunity to interact with their infrastructure, which I think is important.  So much of this is tucked away where people don’t see it, it’s hard for them to appreciate the hard work that infrastructure, like this facility, does for us.

This facility is quite close to the hotel I stay at when I’m in Sacramento and not able to stay with others.  It makes it a weirdly appropriate place for me.  These pictures are from December, when I spent a few days there at the end of my epic “get a job” tour.

The Sacramento River was flowing strong, my trip having coincided with the arrival of an atmospheric river.  This was one of the first dry days I had experienced in a week, and it was so nice to be outside, without an umbrella and boots, enjoying the mild weather.

This beautiful facility was built to replace the old intake for the city of Sacramento (pictured below):

Now the interesting thing about these two intakes is that they both have exactly the same capacity to draw water from the river.  The new intake is massive compared to the old one which was probably built 75+ years ago and no longer in use.  The capacity, however, is exactly the same.  The difference is the new facility is built to be protective of fish, whereas the other one didn’t really consider fish at all.  Oh, and also it’s a tad more expensive.

So long, for now, from Sacramento, although much more to come …

Another month, another trip to Sacramento … It is April now. The blooms on the trees, so prevalent the previous month, have now all turned to green …

I miss the squares of pink and red … but the green is nice, too.  It’s just not as spectacular.

Prior to this stop at the northward bound Vista Point, I took a short detour to take a look at the San Luis Reservoir, which did not fill this year.

It’s about 63% full on this day.

I head off the road into the valley to try and get inspired to take some shots of agriculture …

But today I am not feeling inspired to shoot agriculture, so instead, I head towards the Delta.  I decide to look for a place I stopped at many years ago called “Bullfrog Landing.”  The Mokelumne Aqueduct passes through it.  I can’t remember quite where it is, but first I find the aqueduct, so I know I am close.

I continue on, looking for Bullfrog Landing, which I figure out, is on Bacon Island and is not called Bullfrog Landing anymore.  It’s really not called anything, it seems.

It is that neat old railroad bridge that I remember about this spot.

Here is the Mokelumne Aqueduct, marching across the island …

On my way out, I notice this, which is highly annoying …  This really makes me mad when I see people leave their trash places, as if they think the government can afford to hire people to go around and pick up all of this trash …  Whatever happened to the concept of personal responsibility?  Pack it in, pack it out!!!!

After this, I head in to Sacramento.  On this trip, I ended up with loads of time for pictures, so there’s much more to come.  And on the way back, here are the shots from the Vista Point on the other side of the freeway.  The grass is definitely more brown these days.

I wonder how much longer the cows will be there ….

Back last December, while traveling up north, I had the chance to spend the weekend with my sister who lives in Berkeley.  At the time, the north state was getting hit pretty hard by one of those ‘pineapple expresses’ as some call it (atmospheric river storms, if you’re a water geek like me).  There was a break in the seemingly incessant storms that had been pounding the area for days, so we went out to Treasure Island.

What I really wanted to see was the construction of the new section of the Bay Bridge.  If I lived up here, I would do a lot of photoblog posts on the bridge as the construction proceeds.  I am fascinated by bridge construction and I would love to learn more about it.

And on the other side, one of my favorite cities I never spend time in, San Francisco.

The Bay Bridge is really two bridges connected by Treasure Island in the middle.  The portion being replaced is the uglier cantilever portion; however, the other span of the bridge will remain intact.

Here are some older pictures I have of the construction.  This shot below is from an airplane in 2009.

About 15 months later, I was crossing the bay on a tour and could see the bridge off in the distance.

Here’s a picture of the entire bridge with Treasure Island in the middle.

For a look at the Bay Bridge as it originally was, check out the Historic American Engineering Record:

I had the opportunity to visit the Long Beach Aquarium this past January with my two kids.  It’s a beautiful aquarium with plenty to do and well worth the admission price.  I had my small camera with me which takes surprisingly good pictures in this environment.

However, I am going to admit to you up front that I pretty much just ran around trying to keep track of my kids while taking pictures, so I can’t tell you what types of sea critters these are.   So sit back and enjoy!

I love the little worms sticking out of the sand (below)  …

A wonderful aquarium, well worth the price of admission.  Check it out here:  http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/

I’ve been slowly working my way through the chore of cataloging my photos, and as I get ready to file things away, here is a collection of odd shots from in and around the Owens Valley from last year.  (I’m not going to include the dust control project much; I’ll post links to those at the end.)

Over on the western shore of the lake is the former Pittsburgh Plate Glass Factory, always a mysterious place.

The plant was abandoned in 1968.

A website says the caretakers are more than happy to show photographers around, but somehow those “No Tresspassing” signs and the barking dogs are telling me otherwise …

Out somewhere on the Owens Lake bed, there is “Sulfate Well”.  It’s a well that was drilled for industrial purposes, and they are unable to cap it, and so it spews an infinite amount of stinky water.

It certainly demonstrates that there’s a bit of groundwater underneath Owens Lake, but it’s rather shallow and unusable for human purposes.   The shallow groundwater table makes Owens Lake a wet playa, rather than a dry one (such as Searles Lake), and why it is so dusty there.

The excavator parked out on Owens Lake was a lot of photographic fun.

And here are a few – just a few – from the dust control project ….  

Back in town … clever marketing!

The town, in this instance, is Lone Pine.

Lone Pine is very proud of its western heritage.  A lot of western films were made here; they even have a museum dedicated to it.  You can drive around the Alabama Hills and see where some of the old westerns were filmed.  The Best Western has themed rooms based on western film stars – and this horseshoe cactus out front.

Does it look nice out here?  Do you want to live here?  Property can be kind of hard to find in Lone Pine or Bishop, but as luck would have it, just down the road at Cartago, they are selling homesites!  Yes!  And there is a Crystal Geyser bottling plant just down the road – jobs!  Look at all those homesites plotted out on this board here ….

So how many have been sold?  Mmmm… not many ….

The view is nice … (except when it’s not)  So if you buy here, let me know and I’ll stop by and say hi!

And about that Crystal Geyser bottling plant … let’s all enjoy the delicious irony for a moment thinking about how many people in Los Angeles buy Crystal Geyser water when they could get the same water from their faucets for a fraction of the price …

Mazurka Canyon Road … I like this shot but I do wish I had walked forward so the guardrail wasn’t there.

Just south of here, by the way, is probably California’s smallest water company:

I took this photo (below) over at Swansea … there isn’t much at Swansea, just some rail cars and other stuff sitting around.  Swansea is on the east side of the lake, a bit farther north than Keeler.  Swansea used to be a port city back in the late 1800s, when Owens Lake was still a lake and the silver mines at Cerro Gordo were in operation; a steamship was used to carry the silver across the lake to be taken by wagon to Los Angeles.  The earthquake of 1874 changed all of that by uplifting the east side of the lake, tilting the water away and leaving Swansea high and dry, necessitating the move of the port to Keeler.

Not much at Swansea but a historical marker and some odd buildings, rail cars and stuff …

Here are the beautiful Eastern Sierras in early spring …

And here they are at dusk … in the summer.  I am usually not out taking pictures at this time, but on this particular day, our van broke down at the rest stop, so while we were waiting for the tow, I took this shot.

And lastly, a few shots of me, a rarity for the photoblog.  Out on the Owens Lake bed, there is this silly cow sign which marks the place where the water lines are underneath the soft earth, so the cow is a reminder that no heavy equipment should tred there.  That’s me with Michael Prather of the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society when he took me on a tour of the lake to see the birds.

And here is my self portrait.

For more on Owens Lake:

• The Owens Lake Dust Control Project: The ultimate human-managed landscape
• More from Owens Lake
• The view from Whitney Portal Road: Owens Lake and the Alabama Hills
• Halobacteria and infrastructure: Owens Lake in the summer

High above the Owens Valley in the White Mountains is the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home to the oldest living things on earth.

To get to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, you take Route 168 east from Big Pine. Towards the top of mountain, turn left at the sign. On the way, you will have an opportunity to stop at two viewpoints to enjoy some spectacular views of the valley floor below.  That is Deep Springs Lake down below.

Further up the road, there is another vista point …

From which you can take the short path …

Up to a point the viewpoint with some nice seats …

And an okay view …

But the geology here is very interesting.

Some of the rocks appear (to me) to be volcanic in nature, but that’s just an semi-educated guess.

Further on up the road, you will come to a visitors center.  When we visited, the center was being rebuilt after a fire destroyed it a few years earlier.  The road is paved until this point; but do not be dismayed.  You do not need a four wheel drive to go into the Bristlecone Pine Forest.  The main road is a well-maintained dirt road and no problem  for a passenger car.

The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine trees are the world’s oldest living inhabitants.

This website describes their age like this:  “Many of the trees living today were seedlings when the pyramids were being constructed, mature in the time of Christ, and ancient patriarchs today.”

The conditions up here are cold and dry.  There is very little precipitation, and most of that is snow.  The poor quality soil and short growing season of about 3 months means the trees only increase in girth only 1/100″ per year.

The needles can live anywhere from 20 to 30 years.

And the tree has the ability to dieback the parts that have been damaged by lightning, droughts, or severe storms.

The trees like to grow on outcrops of dolomite, where the substrate has a higher moisture content.   Additionally, the dolomite reflects the sunlight, contributing to cooler root zones and conserving moisture.

The White Mountains tower 10,000 feet above the floor of the Owens Valley, making for some fabulous views of the valley floor below:

The trees make some fascinatingly interesting shapes … say, weren’t you in the Wizard of Oz?

And this one has a Halloween face …

Just having some fun with the trees here.

For more on the Bristlecone Pine Forest:

• This website has the most information.
• Here is the official website.
• This page from Digital Desert is informative as well.

And here’s the map!

View Larger Map

This is Klondike Lake, sort of secret locals-only sort of place in the Owens Valley.

The lake is located in an alkali sink about 2 miles north of Big Pine.  It is an ehancement & mitigation project by the Department of Water and Power.  I’m not sure I’d want to swim in it, but the locals do.  There aren’t many other options around.

Off to the side is this wetland area and a few birds …

If you look off in the distance in this shot, you can barely make out some satellite dishes …  this is the Caltech Owens Valley Radio Observatory.  You might have seen them strung out along the far side of the valley as you drive the 395.

We drove over and took a look at what we could see.   There are more than 2, but this is just as much as I could photograph from behind the fence lines.

You can take a tour here, but not in the summer months, and unfortunately, we’re here in August.  Check out this website for more information on tours and the laboratory.  (Note: click on Information for the link to the tour page.)

This is Zurich Station, an old railroad station on the Carson & Colorado Railway which used to run down the eastern side of the Owens Valley.  We discovered this gem on our way back from the Bristlecone Pineforest.

The station was established in 1884.  It fell into disuse in the 1940s and abandoned in 1960 when the railroad ceased operations.

There are some interesting twisted metal objects lying around.  We decided this was some sort of railroad part.

The station was named Zurich as the eastern Sierras reminded Owens Valley resident Emelie Nikolaus of her native Switzerland.

The view from the porch …

The Carson Colorado Railroad ran from Mound House, Nevada to Keeler, which is located a bit south from here on the eastern shore of Owens Lake.  See my post on Keeler for more on the Carson-Colorado Railroad.

For more information:

• Here is a webpage with more pictures from 1998 – most of these structures are no longer here.
• Zurich Station is also included in this essay: 5 strikingly abandoned railway stations

In June of last year, we went camping at Lake Isabella, which is just above Bakersfield.  Behind our campground was a grove of sycamore trees (at least I think they were sycamores … ) where a fire had swept through not too long ago.  I named it the ‘black and white forest’.  After setting up camp, I had a chance to stroll and take some pictures.  It was sunset which made for some interesting colors.

The black and white forest against the sunset made for a wonderful display of colors.  This is my favorite:

Although this one is cool, too …

And I liked these as well …

The next day, I checked it out in the light of day.  That is the black and white forest in the background.

The owner of the campground told us that the fire occurred the previous Memorial Day, so this is about a year post-fire.  It is amazing to see how quickly things are recovering.

Now, a note about the campground … or I guess I should say “Kampground”.  We are staying at the Lake Isabella KOA.  There’s a lot to like about this campground: it’s our first stay in a KOA, and there is a pool here, a splash pad, and organized activities, good for the kids.  Our tent site has electricity, our own water spigot, and wi-fi!  I’d show you a picture of the campsite, but it’s not that impressive.  A patch of dirt, a tree, side by side by everyone else.  I’ve stayed in other campgrounds similar or worse.  The owners of the facility are really energetic, and I would stay here again, maybe even this summer.

So, if you are looking for a campsite, secluded and surrounded by nature, this would not be the place for you.  But if you want a campsite with all the amenities – tent sites with electricity, water, and wi-fi -  as well as organized activites and a pool, then this place is for you!

Yes, a lot to like about the campground, but then there’s this … Theoretically, we’re supposed to be near the lake, if you look at this map …

Well, it certainly does appear to be lakefront, now doesn’t it?  But if it were, the lake would be where the black and white forest is … The kids ask, does the lake ever come that close?  I would say, judging by the black and white forest, that it doesn’t ….

So off we go to drive around the lake.  Here is Lake Isabella …

Lake Isabella has a bit of a dam problem.  It’s dam has been found to have some seismic issues, and so the lake has been drawn down for the time being.  There is much angst among the residents, both up here in the town of Lake Isabella as well as the residents down the hill in Bakersfield, about when the dam will be fixed.  Even though it’s one of the worst dams in the country, it is taking quite awhile for the Army Corps to decide what to do.

We also stopped at the Kern River Fish Hatchery.

The hatchery raises trout.

Back at the campground, one last stroll out to the back.  This time, I head not into the black and white forest but instead to a farm in the other direction …

I pass stupid plastic bags on my way.  Even way out here, those ubiquitous bags are here … I hate those bags, especially when I see them in places I shouldn’t, like here … !

The farm at the end of the pathway …

And this  …

So long from Lake Isabella!

For more information:

• Here is the webpage for the Lake Isabella KOA.
• Click here for more on the Kern River Fish Hatchery.
• For more on Lake Isabella, click here or click here.