On a recent trip to southern California, with some time on my hands on a Monday afternoon, I decided to point my wheels toward a place that had always intrigued me: the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. One of 13 presidential libraries in the United States, it sits atop a hill in the suburban enclave of Simi Valley, about forty-five minutes from downtown Los Angeles. I had never been to a presidential museum before and to be … [Read more...]
About Kevin Nelson
Kevin Nelson writes frequently about the West and California, particularly the northern part of the state where he makes his home with his wife, children, and dog Ruby. He is the author of more than 20 books, which have won awards for excellence in journalism and history. His writing has appeared in Dave's Travel Corner, San Francisco Chronicle, California Historical Quarterly, San Francisco Magazine, and many more.
North Dome: A Spectacular Day Hike in Yosemite
In all its moods, in all its seasons, Half Dome remains as young as it was ten thousand years ago. It never seems to age, unlike the rest of us ordinary mortals who gaze in open-eyed wonder at its grandeur and beauty. There are many ways to admire this most sublime of creations. One of the best is from the top of North Dome, a smaller sister dome on the rim of Yosemite Valley that provides a spectacular vantage point for Half Dome and other … [Read more...]
A Piece of Hollywood in the Eastern Sierra
Quentin Tarantino shot there. So did Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Kevin Costner and John Wayne. Robert Downey Jr. went on location there as the Iron Man. Whenever Hollywood is looking for a distant planet, or the long-gone Old West, or a rugged outdoors landscape for a Dodge Ram Tough truck commercial, there is one go-to location: Alabama Hills. The Alabama Hills are not, as you might think, in Birmingham or Mobile. Rather, they are in … [Read more...]
John Muir Slept Here
The best place to walk in the footsteps of John Muir is Yosemite National Park, where the famed naturalist and conservationist hiked and climbed granite domes, lovingly surveyed plants and animals, studied with rapt eyes “cloud mountains” in the sky, and developed his passion for wild spaces. Another place that evokes feelings for one of the visionary creators of our national park system is his old home in Martinez, California, about an hour … [Read more...]
Crashing and Burning at Randy’s Rock Rapid on the Wild Colorado
On a rafting trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, there are passages of high drama and excitement around every bend: House Rock Rapid, the Roaring Twenties, Little Colorado River, Crystal, Upset Rapid, Lava Falls. These are all very famous. Every guide on the river knows about them. Another rapid on the booming Colorado is not nearly as well known. You may float serenely past it without your guide even uttering a word about it, so … [Read more...]
How to Survive a Trip to the Top of Yosemite’s Half Dome
The plastic water bottle skidded off the granite and disappeared. It wasn’t the sound the bottle made that disturbed me. It was the silence that followed its rapid disappearance. Along with twenty to twenty-five other people I was perched on the east face of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, the world-famous granite slab that John Muir called “the most beautiful and most sublime of all the wonderful Yosemite rocks.” We were climbing the … [Read more...]
Playing the Points Game: A Beginner’s Thoughts
My youngest son is about to fly the coop and start college, joining his older brother in the fall at San Diego State. This means that my wife and I are about to become empty nesters, giving us the chance to fly the coop ourselves and travel more. With this looming rebirth of freedom, I am beginning to look into the wonderful (and complicated!) game of acquiring points as a means of knocking down the costs of airfare, lodging, restaurants, and … [Read more...]
7 Hidden Treasures of Napa Valley
Despite being one of America’s best-known tourist (and wine drinking) destinations, Napa Valley still offers plenty of discoveries and surprises for travelers. These surprises are everywhere you go and pop up when you least expect it, like finding a Pokemon Go character you did not anticipate seeing. Here are seven hidden treasures of Napa Valley, which you may wish to seek out the next time you go there: The Benny Bufano statues at … [Read more...]
How an Omelette Taught me About Life
This is a personal travel story about how a simple omelette showed me a fundamental truth of life. It all began quite accidentally when, after a tasting up valley, we decided go back down to the central square of Sonoma for lunch. Sonoma is a place of Spanish and Mexican history (a 19th century Catholic mission is there), and a place of early California history too (it was the center of a rebellion by American settlers against Mexican rule … [Read more...]
Where Eagles Roam: Howe Sound, British Columbia
Perched on a rock in the middle of Howe Sound, less than a half hour from downtown Vancouver, was one of nature’s grandest flying creatures: a bald eagle. Though we could not see the bird in its entirety, we could not miss its white head gazing down imperiously on a pod of harbor seals snoozing in the sun below. Our 30-foot-long rigid hull inflatable boat, powered by twin 225-horsepower Mercury Verrado engines, motored slowly by as the six of … [Read more...]