My Fav 100

People love lists. Here’s my list. Well, two of them.

Places I have been and want to re-visit.
Places on the big list (the second 50) – to go soon or someday.
I am going to add to this and hope to get to 50 of each – this is an evolving list. I will add photos where they are missing…I promise.

 

THE FIRST LIST – PLACES TO REVISIT

 

1. Point Reyes Station, California –

Great non-quite-near-the-seaside town, but it is a gateway to the Point Reyes National Seashore. I have gone back to the same area to stay in one of two cabins.  It can be sunny in the town, and then cold and cloudy as you explore beaches, trails, and the lighthouse many miles out into the Pacific. Truly dynamic and beautiful place, near the point where the north end of the San Andreas dips into the ocean.

 

 

 

2. Glacier National Park, Montana –

I was there in late winter, back around the year 2000. Could not climb into the mountains from the valley floor near McDonald Lake, as the Going to the Sun Road was snowed in. Took a snowshoe hike, but due to time constraints, I did not get up to any great lakes or near the Continental Divide, as I had hoped. The nearest glacier to a vehicle-accessible road is a ten mile hike (I’ll fact-check that distance)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Mount Saint Helens, Washington –
This is one remote mountain. I recall getting to the freeway interchange where you can head east on the main highway and knew I would have little time to get to the mountain lookout by sundown.

It is so good we made it – the Coldwater Ridge lookout was very much worth it – you can stare out over Spirit Lake and see the volcano crater way in the background – about 10 miles away – but feels like you could walk to it in a few minutes. You can’t get a good judge of physical scale when you are there. That lookout/center closed not too long after that visit, but it has opened again.

4. Savannah, Georgia –
In urban planning school, this was one of the cities we studies as part of city planning history. The City has its famous park squares, where the local roads are split in two and wrap around the park space. This is repeated in a grid pattern over a dozen or more park locations, and each park is only a few blocks away from the next. It makes for interesting walking tours. These original city blocks of Savannah are close to the port, where you can travel over cobblestones roadways made from ballast from ships that came from Europe in the colonial days. I obtained a conditional scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design around 1990, but decided instead to stay closer to home and go into urban planning (I am wholly satisfied with this decision) at Cal Poly Pomona. So, the city has a special place in my heart for that reason as well.

5. St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana –
Historic hotels, great little cafes, a short streetcar (possibly named Desire) ride can take you into the French Quarter, and so you don’t have to stay in the wild side of town if you don’t want to…

6. Balboa Park, San Diego, California –
One of my favorite places while growing up in San Diego.  The San Diego Zoo is inside the park, and its just up the hill from downtown and the Gas Lamp Quarter, and on the edge of the cool and quirky neighborhoods of North Park, Kensington, and University Heights.

 

 

 

 

 

7. South Rim, Grand Canyon, Arizona –
Have not been in a while. So many lookouts where you can crawl out and look over the edge, and get immediately back to non-sloping terra firma. Great to be there after light snow has fallen, roads are still traversible, and tourists are at a minimum.

8. Lincoln Park neighborhood, Chicago, Illinois –
A decent neighborhood north of the Loop. On the way to Wrigley Field and the always-interesting Evergreen Cemetery…

9. Tehachapi Loop, California

10. Castle Crags State Park, California

11. Columbia River Valley, Oregon –
Who doesn’t like big rivers? Connecting points such as Astoria, Portland, Multnomah Falls, Hood River, the other points to the east such as The Dalles and eventually Boise Idaho (OK, the river diverts from the path by then). Have not driven directly to these eastern points – turned around at Hood River on my last trip, but would like to take the trip all the way along I-84 between Astoria/Portland and Boise, Idaho.

12. Cannon Beach, Oregon –
Come for the cannon, stay for the beach! The cannons have long been silent, so nothing to worry about there.

13. False Klamath Cove – 
This is a great stop on the US-101 trip in Northern California.  If coming from the north, this is one of the first spots where the highway is adjacent to the ocean.  If coming from the south, its a point where coastal towns disappear and you feel like you’re really in the coastal forests.  You can wander on the rugged and driftwood-strewn beach or take a loop high among a lush and dense forest with some ocean-cliff views along the way.

 

 

14. Morro Bay –
I say a lot how much I love the Central Coast of California.  I really do, so why stop now?  I like this small town more than nearby Cambria and other nearby places.  Little seafood restaurants down by the water, hiking in nearby parks or over the rocky jetty near the Rock, a farmers market…all these are great aspects of Morro Bay.   The odd juxtaposition of the big rock and the big three-stack power plant.  A 20-minute or so drive from the Coast’s inland “big city” of San Luis Obispo.  Off-season (non summer) is best.

 

[more to come]

 

 

THE SECOND LIST – PLACES TO GO

 

1. The Dalles, OR and eastward –
A future road trip will originate in Portland, OR or thereabouts, and continue on past where I turned around on the last trip at Hood River.  This journey would take one farther out in the Columbia River valley, our past the Bonneville Power Plant and locks (a great stop in and off itself), and eventually into Boise, ID a great town.  It’s on the list now…

2. Glacier National Park and Yellowstone –
OK, really a returning to Glacier NP, but combining it with another great National Park in that area.  I figure I need one more trip to Glacier NP before it is renamed to North Rockies NP (sans glaciers).  A future road trip to see all of this, likely based in Spokane or maybe farther east into Montana or Yellowstone NP and Grand Tetons NP. 

3. Dover, England –
Yes, this is quite a jump from #1 and #2.  I am a sucker for color in nature.  Would like to go when the grass is really green (is it ever dry there?  don’t know) and the cliffs are really white.  Can the sun come out for me?

4. Angel Falls, Venezuela –
..And now over one continent and slightly south.  I recall finding this on maps – east continent, south of so-and-so, then placed it in my head in East Africa.  I think this is the one.  Saw it on a nature slow a couple of years back and became obsessed.  Drops off the top of a mesa and seems to evaporate (only figuratively) before the water hits the forest. 

 

[I have more ideas here! Just need to continue to lay them out].