Photos by Mike & Sally Harris

We recently spent two weeks in California visiting with friends and relatives and playing some golf at beautiful ocean front courses. As always, photography was a prime factor in our travel plans and we are thrilled to share some of our impressions with you.

Our travels began in LA, but we immediately headed up the Pacific coast. The order of the photographs follows our travels. Hopefully you will get a feel for the trip from the descriptions.

As we were heading north from LAX up the Pacific coast we spotted this field of flags at Pepperdine University. We found out that the school sets this up each year to honor those who died on 9/11.

We moved into the field and the flags engulfed us. There was one flag for each person who died. Note there is a splash of yellow. That is the partially hidden flag of another country representing one of the fallen.

As we entered the area known as Big Sur, we followed signs to Julia Pfeiffer State Park. The land for this park was donated to the State by its owners who wanted to honor their friend. This is a view looking down to the inlet.

All the way along Route 1, there are spectacular views. This one captures water flowing into the Pacific.

We visited the world-class aquarium in Monterrey. Rather than photographing the fish, this is a silhouette of a crowd viewing a school of sardines.

We visited friends who lived near Salinas. As you drive out of the hills you come upon this wide, absolutely flat valley. It is America’s breadbasket. This photo captures the geometrics of the fields.

Agriculture is big business. The farms pick and replant their crops every few weeks. Here is a field ready for harvesting.

While much is done by machinery, picking the crops remains the task of migrant workers. To find workers, we simply looked for cars parked by a field. This is backbreaking work, as each worker moves up the field, bent over in this picking position.

Here is the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise. The wide angle lens lets you have a panoramic view.

A lone tree in Yosemite just begs to be photographed.

Departing Yosemite we headed for a ghost town named Bodie. As we drove, we happened upon a huge flock of sheep. These three seemed to focus on us.

An old car sits in a field in Bodie, maybe the best-preserved ghost town you can find. Most of this one-time city remains intact.

As we headed to Death Valley there was a sign for the Grant Lake Loop. We took the detour and found this view.

The descent into Death Valley is foreboding. There was a sign suggesting we turn off our air conditioner so the car would not overheat. There was a 10-mile ascent followed by a 15-mile descent into the oven. Zabriski Point is a known favorite viewpoint for visitors. As we arrived for sunset, we noticed the group assembling at the lookout. It made a nice silhouette.

This is the view from the top of Zabriski Point. It provides a sense of the many colors present in Death Valley. There was once a large lake filling much of Death Valley. When the Sierra Mountains rose, rains no longer reached the valley, and the lake dried up leaving a vast flat salt field. It is blinding on a bright day. The West is expansive. Size and distance can be very deceiving.