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few days in California... Sacramento to LA trip

adamduckworth

New member
Sorry, I know it's not directly camera related... but many of you are USA types!

I have a shoot in Sacramento on May 21/22. Then have to be in So Cal for another from May 27-30. (Shooting motocross... U.S. national at Sacremento, U.S. motocross GP in San Bernadino).

So I have a few days to drive from Sacramento to LA. And would like your suggestions of places to visit to take some pics!

I have been to Yosemite (for a whole afternoon) so wouldn't mind visiting again. But would prefer to go somewhere new and amazing. Don't mind a longer trip, like to Death Valley or some big sand dunes or ghost town. I'm sure you know the sort of must-shoot places!

Help please! Thanks
 

Lars

Active member
Take highway 50 over to Tahoe, then continue 395 south on the east side of the Sierras. Check out Mono Lake at dawn, Bodie ghost town, then south to Lone Pine. The White Mountains and its bristlecone pines are worth checking out if you can take 3500 m altitude. Climb Mt. Whitney if you are so inclined. Then south and east to Death Valley. It will be hot but motels should be open.
 

adamduckworth

New member
Had a quick look, sounds amazing... But Death Valley looks huge. Where are the places to go there. Where is the big white cracked floor area that you always see?
Thanks Lars. All the way from Sweden! Nice!
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
In Death Valley, there are two prominent "cracked" earth areas -- one is "Badwater Basin," basically a large salt flat with chunks of salt and easy to get to. The other more commonly photographed "cracked" earth area is called "Racetrack Playa." This is where the mysterious moving rocks are. This is more difficult to get to, requiring a 4 wheel drive, high-clearance vehicle and it takes about 2 hours to drive out there.

Badwater: http://www.google.com/images?um=1&h...&aqi=g3g-m1&aql=&oq=badwater&gs_rfai=&start=0

Racetrack: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCIQsAQwAw

Finally, if you wander out into Mesquite Dunes (at Stovepipe Wells), you will find small areas of cracked earth in the low lying regions between dunes.

However and IMHO, that time of year our coastal area from Monterey South along highwway 1 is pretty spectacular.
 
I cannot improve on Lars' suggestion, but can give an alternative.

You can drive from Sacramento to Monterrey and then down the California coastline through the Big Sur. You will have some of the most spectacular seascapes on the planet, along with redwood forests, waterfalls, flowers and marine life (various seals otters, birds, etc). It is an area where you can linger and hike and you have enough time to really enjoy it. Going the eastern sierra route will be too early for mountain flowers and too late for Death Valley flowers. Still, that route will offer more spectacular mountain/desert scenery, while the coast is milder, richer in organic life, and has, of course, the sea!

Really, what I recommend most is to go to www.naturephotographers.net and then to the California forum. Post your travel dates, your potential routes, and ask for advice. They are the most helpful and generous photographers you can imagine, and can give you immediate, on-the-ground reports of actual conditions at the time and that might decide which route you take.


California just has too many choices!
 

kdphotography

Well-known member
Another idea would be to cut across from Sacramento over to San Francisco. You could then work your way down the coast on Hwy 1 to So. California.

(great minds, Guy) :)
 

Lars

Active member
The dunes near Stovepipe wells are most commonly photographed, like this one:

http://www.8x10.se/pages/gallery-large.asp?id=16

It's a huge national park, and there are some remote locations that you can only get to by 4WD (or by seriously banging up a rental car hehe). The Racetrack is remote but very interesting, for example.
 

jimban

New member
You can take hwy 99 out of Sacramento south to Hwy 120 east to Yosemite (about 4hr drive). From Yosemite you can continue to Sequoia and then south to the 5 and into LA.

jim
 

Lars

Active member
Another road that's just lovely is hwy 49 which winds its way south along the western foothills of the Sierras, from east of Sacramento all the way down to Fresno. Rolling grass-covered hills with stands of Californan oak trees, old mining towns converted to weekend getaways, narrow two-lane highway perfect for some carving with that Corvette rental of yours. :) Just watch out for the motorcyclists - it really is their highway.
 

adamduckworth

New member
So many choices! I'm in Sacramento now (after long and boring drive here from L.A. up highway five)
No Corvette rental, Lars... I went for a new Dodge Challenger. To live out my Dukes of Hazzard fantasies, natch... Yee-hah!
 
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