B 523 Bill Mott

– Doug McConnell

I had the honor to MC the transfer of Fort Baker from the Army to our Golden Gate National Parks in 2002.   Over the years, I followed the planning led by the Park Service, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Passport Resorts and Equity Community Builders to turn an historic military base into an iconic Park Lodge, spa and conference center for the 21st Century.   What a team!   They worked closely and well together and created a jewell in our National Park crown……and a place that welcomes all of us to visit, to relax, to enjoy the spectacular setting and learn about history and nature in the process.  It’s one of my favorite places in the Bay Area……in one of the finest urban settings on earth.  Committed to environmental sustainability at every level, from its Leed Gold Certification, to its fine and mostly locally grown and organic food, to its partnership with the Institute at the Golden Gate (www.instituteatgoldengate.org,) Cavallo Point, the Lodge at the Golden Gate is setting new standards for comfort, quality and commitment to an improved environment in the 21st century.   Check out our video, then stop by and soak it up.  Whether you spend the night, have a meal or just wander around on your own…..you won’t be disappointed……and you won’t want to leave.

– Doug McConnell

Lost Coast photo by yourmap.

The sensational coast of California is famous around the world and one of our state’s finest but most vulnerable treasures.

The coast and ocean are spectacular to look at, but the aquatic ecosystem beneath the waves is under grave assault from overfishing, pollution and global warming.  Too many of us are demanding too much of this rich but fragile environment, and we have to back off a bit right away.

We Californians have done a terrific job in many ways over the past half-century in protecting the land along the coast, especially from Santa Barbara north.  OpenRoad.TV features many stories about famous locations that have been set aside for nature’s sake and for future generations to experience, including Big Sur, the San Mateo Coast the Marin Headlands, Pt. Reyes, the Lost Coast and much, much more.

We’ve saved the land, but to a large degree we’ve allowed the ocean to fend for itself.  It’s time we save the sea as well.

The good news is that a solution is at hand.  It’s a plan created over three years by many people representing many interests working closely together in an open and transparent process.  People in fishing, science, conservation, business, recreation and tourism have joined together to recommend a plan with a boring name but an inspiring vision.

The INTEGRATED PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE PLAN (not too snappy) calls for the establishment of a network of marine parks, reserves and conservation areas off the coast from San Mateo County in the south to Mendocino County in the north.  These parks and reserves will be the Yosemities of the sea and will allow nature to care for itself and give the ocean a fighting chance to thrive in the decades ahead.

The ocean environment desperately needs the protection and so does the ocean economy which is worth $22 billion to the state every year and provides nearly 400,000 jobs.  If the ocean’s health falls apart, the ocean economy won’t be far behind.

There’s a lot more to say about this urgently needed plan.  But here’s the important point.  On August 5th, the California Fish and Game Commission will decide the fate of the plan.  So the fate of our coast hangs in the balance this week.

To find out more and how you can help, go to www.caloceans.org.  Then, get out to the coast and enjoy the view.

– Doug McConnell

I hope you enjoyed our journeys in Hawaii and will travel there yourself soon enough.  The human and natural histories of the islands are fascinating and the environment is, of course, extraordinarily beautiful.  Hawaii calls, that’s for sure, but it’s not a cheap getaway from the mainland…and that’s keeping many of us “stateside” now in this harsh economy.

The good news is, for those of us who live in the West, we have wonderful places to visit right in our own backyards.  We can have world-class vacations without really leaving home.

Mt. Tamalpais State Park photo by Jerry Downs

For example, I live in northern California, not far from Olompali State Park which we featured with legendary drummer, Mickey Hart, in this show.  Olompali is just one of California’s several hundred state parks, some of the Golden State’s crown jewels.  The first official state park in California was Big Basin, near Santa Cruz, which was established in 1902.  In the past 107 years, California has created the largest state park system in the nation.  These parks protect the state’s environment, interpret the complex and fascinating stories of the state, provide recreational opportunities to many millions of people every year and serve as important engines of California’s tourist economy.

When I was a kid growing up in California, people of all political stripes were proud of the fine public education and park systems that had been created here.  Now, tragically, California’s educational and state park systems have fallen into serious disrepair….and in this economic crisis word has just come down from Sacramento that 80% of our state parks will be closed and boarded up beginning early this September. Olompali, which helped shape the nurturing social and environmental values of Mickey Hart, and I’m sure many others, will be one of more than 200 parks to be shut down.  In a word, this is outrageous.

In times of great social stress, we need our parks more than ever.   They are essential investments in our health and well-being, and they are inexpensively accessible to people of all ages, all cultures and all levels of income.  They restore and renew us, they bring us together and connect us to nature and history, and they appeal to our finer selves.  To lose them now is a tragedy beyond measure.   And their closure will do little to close a yawning budget gap created in large measure by governmental dysfunction, incompetence and shortsightedness.   We need a fundamental overhaul of our political system….not the closure of our finest public treasures.

My heart is breaking for the California I know so well and love so deeply.  My family has been in California for nearly 140 years, and I can’t believe what we are allowing to happen to our most important social institutions, such as our parks…created and sustained over many decades by Republicans and Democrats alike. We have lost a sense of public service for the greater good, and have allowed the politics of bitterness, self-righteousness and self-interest, and government by recall and initiative to hold sway.  When I was young, and two of my mentors in college and graduate school were Republican, Hugh Flournoy and Democrat, Jesse Unruh, political leaders on both sides of the aisles would argue like cats and dogs, reach generally reasonable compromises, go have a drink together and get ready for combat and compromise the next day.  We now have system of term-limited legislators from safe seats who don’t have much experience, won’t be around long
and have no need to compromise, and they have to pass budgets by super-majorities. There are many good people still doing good work, but the fact is that Sacramento is in shambles.  Our state government needs fixing fast.  So here’s my simple proposal.

Assemble a Constitutional Convention. Gather delegates sworn to uphold the public interest.  Demand the best from them and scrutinize their efforts.  And have them gather on hallowed ground somewhere, a place that might inspire the greatness we so desperately need and that California so richly and at long last deserves.  Let’s see, how about a State Park somewhere?  Just a thought.

In the meantime, no matter what, we have to keep our state parks open.  To find out more and how you can help, follow this link to the California State Parks Foundation, www.calparks.org.  We need a voice for parks and they are speaking as loudly as anyone.

Thank you.

– Doug McConnell

As I’ve mentioned here and there on the television series and this website, I’ve had a long love affair with Alaska.  I moved to Ketchikan in 1973 to help organize the local planning department and do a comprehensive and transportation plan for the community.  In 1975, I moved to Anchorage and did many projects for the Governor’s Office, the Alaska Humanities Forum, the University of Alaska, Alaska Public Television, the Capital Site Selection Committee and many others.  When President Carter was in office, I commuted to Washington quite a bit for a variety of fascinating assignments, but my heart and my home remained in Alaska.

My wife and I our two dogs finally left Alaska in 1982 so that I could get back into television full time.   We moved to Seattle and I went to work for legendary KING Television.  At the end of 1983, we moved to the Bay Area to be closer to our families and raise our kids, but we never lost our affection for Alaska and we get back as often as possible.  Since 2002, I’ve served on the board of the Alaska Conservation Foundation.

Driving the Dalton Highway was a treat, but one of the things I love most about Alaska is how few roads there really are.  In the Lower 48 states, I don’t think it’s possible now to be more than 14 miles from a road.   That may not be exactly right, but it’s close.  In Alaska, you can find yourself hundreds and hundreds of miles from the nearest roadway of any kind.  In fact, from the northern reaches of the Dalton Highway….due east and west…the nearest roads of any magnitude are thousands of miles away.  There are few places on earth where that can be said, and may it remain true for a long time to come.

For the Public Television broadcast, we had to leave out some other portions of our shoot along and near the Dalton Highway that I liked very much.   But, you can find them here on OpenRoad.TV. The stories are in the column to the right.  You can see the full lengths of our two stories about driving the Dalton Highway, and meet some other interesting people including Eric May, an old friend who lives in Europe and just happened to be in Coldfoot when we got there.  He was working with a German television crew. Now what are the odds of that chance encounter?  Actually, in Alaska, places like tiny Coldfoot become sort of Grand Central Stations.   Stay there long enough and everybody will show up eventually.

And then, you can take a flight with us deep into the Brooks Range to visit the eskimo village of Anaktuvak Pass located in a stark, imposing and magnificently beautiful setting.

Alaska is a forceful place.  It grabs hold, and doesn’t easily let go. It requires respect and attention, and it can be deadly.  It never lets you forget exactly where you are.  You take it for granted at your peril.  It heightens the senses.  If you’re willing to stay alert and attentive, Alaska is for you.  It certainly is for me.

Zion National Park Photo by Flexidan

WATCH THE EPISODE 6 VIDEO ABOUT THE SOUTHWEST

USEFUL LINKS TO INFORMATION ABOUT THE SOUTHWEST EPISODE

– Doug McConnell

Back in the late 60’s, I worked for awhile on the Navajo Reservation and had a chance to explore the Grand Canyon and the colorful landscape of southern Utah quite a bit.  I was hooked by its sheer beauty and wildness, and have returned as often as possible to visit some of my favorite haunts and to discover new canyons and vistas.

I’ve been to Zion National Park and its neighborhood many times and in every season.  One of my favorite trips was long ago, in the winter of 1971 and 1972. In those days, Zion was very quiet in the “off season.”   Which meant it was the “on season” for me.  I spent about a week in Springdale, Utah, at the west entrance to the Park.  As far as I remember, I was about the only tourist in town and the only guy in Zion for 8 days.

A light snow fell in the first few days I was there, and I spent many hours cross-country skiing absolutely alone beside the North Fork of the Virgin River and beneath the towering cliffs of Zion.  It all reminded me of a red rock version of Yosemite Valley.

One day, I took my four wheel drive, an old Ford Bronco, and drove deep into the high backcountry.  The snow was deeper there, and as I skied through it the only tracks I saw belonged to a mountain lion.  I encountered its large and very fresh prints high on a remote ridge line, and decided it was wise to make a gradual u-turn and descend slowly back towards the car.  The lion surely had its eyes on me, but was even more leery than I was I’m sure.

I’ve always loved being in places where I’m not at the top of the food chain. It heightens my senses and gives me a visceral appreciation of the power of nature and the the vulnerability of humanity.  It’s pretty humbling really to be in the presence of lions, bears and sharks for example…and we humans need to be humbled every now and then.   Hubris will take us long before the lions ever do.  Tragedies do happen, and people are killed by predators. I don’t mean to minimize those dangers or make light of deadly encounters,  but when you think of the millions of us wandering through their habitats every year, the numbers of human deaths caused by critters is miniscule. They’ve always had much more to fear from us than we have to fear from them.  Be smart.  Take appropriate precautions.  Be alert. And then, with rare exceptions, the animals of the West will give you a wide berth.  Frankly, after all my time in the backcountry out this way, I’m still
waiting to see my first mountain lion in the wild. They’re pretty shy.

Zion’s wildness was bracing and beautiful.   I hated to leave that winter retreat, but I’ve returned to watch nature’s handiwork there many times since.  She always puts on quite a show….and I hope you go see it for yourself.

– Doug McConnell

At the very turn of the last century, in 1900, my mother’s father, then 17, found himself in the little port town of Santa Monica in southern California. It was reasonably quiet with many long and largely empty beaches.  Ray Gregory wisely decided to stick around, and so that’s where my mom grew up, where she met my dad (who had been raised on a homestead near Flathead Lake in Montana) and where my two older brothers and I were born.

Avalon Harbor photo by The Ritters

As a little kid, I loved getting down to the beach and could often see some islands floating on the waves out to the southwest.  But I never got to Catalina until I was in my early 20s. I spent a few months in late 1968 and early ‘69 visiting high schools on behalf of my alma mater, Pomona College, located east of Los Angeles about 30 miles in the village of Claremont. In those days, there was a boarding school between Avalon and Two Harbors, and I flew out there in a seaplane to meet the students.   I’ll never forget that short flight. I boarded the plane in Long Beach.  The pilot was straight from central casting.  Deep tan. Aviator shades.  A fine head of dark hair swept back by ocean breezes or some powerful jell.  He was draped in a dashing purple scarf flung recklessly over his shoulder.   As the small seaplane lifted off and banked over the Pacific, I suspect he imagined himself to be a Pan American Clipper pilot, navigating by the sun and the stars and heading west with the night towards the Orient.  Suddenly it was the 1930s, and very romantic.   A little like Avalon on quiet days.  When we touched the water and taxied to a stop (he was a good pilot it turned out in addition to being a believable actor,) I half expected to see Amelia Earhart waiting for me on the beach….rescued at last from her ditching at sea.  All these years later I have no idea where that pilot and his plane have gone, and Amelia’s fate remains a mystery, but Catalina lingers in its own time zone anchored off the busy 21st century coast of the Southland.  That’s comforting to know.

CLICK HERE to see Catalina and Forestiere Gardens in Episode 5 of OpenRoad with Doug McConnell

I lived in southern California until I was 8, and then we moved to Fresno and for a time lived about a mile from the Forestiere Underground Gardens.  Back in those days, the Forestiere family had no control of the place and it was marketed by others as a cheesy roadside attraction…come see the work of the “Human Mole.”   It was even featured on a national TV show in the 50s as a strange roadside oddity.   And so we never visited it.   It wasn’t until decades later when I learned that the  family had taken control to honor the work of their uncle that I decided to  go.  And I was just blown away by the beauty and ingenuity of the Gardens….and by the amount of work it took to carve a castle by hand from the rock hard soil near Fresno. It was an amazing achievement.  You’ll especially appreciate its value on summer days when temperatures soar well above 100 degrees fahrenheit.  Step down into the natural cool grasp of the earth….and you’ll experience air conditioning that leaves no carbon footprint.

I hope you send us some ideas about your favorite “roadside attractions” and romantic getaways.   The world…and of course the West…are full of them…and we’d love to hear your stories.

– Doug McConnell

I hope you enjoy prowling around OpenRoad.TV for stories and tips about travel in the West, and that you pass along to us descriptions of your own journeys in the wide and wonderful West… all the way out to Hawaii.

I was asked by some friends who’ve developed another extraordinary travel site to write about my favorite places in this huge region of ours. It was tough to choose just five spots to describe, but I did somehow and here’s a link. I hope you enjoy it and then discover the terrific values of NileGuide along the way.   It will be a superb travel resource for you wherever in the world you decide to go.

– Doug McConnell

One of my favorite places in all of California is the village of Mendocino, up the coast a few hours from San Francisco.  In some important ways, it’s a relic of the 19th Century with much of its character and many of its old wooden buildings intact from a time long ago when Mendocino was the first logging port on California’s north coast.  Redwoods taken from deep forests nearby, where shipped south to help build early San Francisco.

In later decades, Mendocino has been frequently used by Hollywood to play the role of a seaside New England town in movies and on television…..and Monterey in East of Eden with James Dean.   Check out our story here and see what else we have on the village of Mendocino.

And for sure, Mendocino has become a prime tourist destination over the years.  We visitors come by the tens of thousands to enjoy its restaurants and galleries, stay in its lovely inns and soak up the rugged coastal scenery, especially across the street from the village on the open expanse of the Mendocino Headlands State Park.

The Park has given many of us countless hours of pleasure, and now we have an opportunity to give back to the Park in its hour of need.   The land is overrun by trails and harmed by erosion.   Historic landmarks are not being maintained adequately and are in danger of being lost.   The terrific State Park staff and many loyal and hard working volunteers know what to do to solve the problems and take care of the Park, but they don’t have the money to do it.   The State is broke.   They need a little financial help, and that’s where we come in.   The next time we spend the night in Mendocino, we can contribute a little money and together we can all help out a lot.  It’s easy and painless.

To see exactly what the challenges are…….and to find out how we can make a difference right away, please take a couple of minutes to watch this video.  Then join all of us in helping care for one of our beloved and vulnerable State Parks.

Then, if you’d like, please take another minute and go to the website of the California State Parks Foundation, now celebrating its 40th anniversary of providing help to our entire system of extraordinary parks.   Some of us were interviewed about our favorite State Parks. I talked about Mendocino and you can find my podcast and many others at www.calparks.org/podcasts.

After watching the video and listening to the podcast, I hope you head as soon as possible to Mendocino and enjoy your legacy of protected lands and places of profound historic and cultural importance.   Have fun.

– Doug McConnell

I’m often asked what my favorite short road trip is in the West, and I can never really answer because I have too many favorites.  From the Black Hills to Hawaii and Alaska to Mexico the beauty and true nature of the West can be found on countless great drives along the ocean’s edge, over steep mountain passes, through ever-changing desert landscapes and into the hearts of big cities and small towns in every state and province.   But OK, here’s one drive I especially love, and it’s only 90 miles long.

It’s no secret that the Big Sur coast of California is about as drop-dead gorgeous as a union of land and sea can get.  From north to south, you enter the Big Sur the moment you leave lovely Carmel and follow State Highway 1 towards Hearst Castle.   Mountains erupt from the sea and the highway clings to cliffs and bluffs as it threads its way gingerly southward.  Every bend in the road reveals another stunning vista.  You’ve got to drive carefully and stop often or you’ll do the journey an injustice.   The trip can take a few hours or a few weeks.   I prefer the latter.

Along the way, you should visit Pt. Lobos State Reserve, the Pt. Sur Lighthouse, and Andrew Molera and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Parks.  You should pull over to admire the Bixby Bridge, the Big Sur River, the Henry Miller Library, the elephant seals in winter at Piedras Blanca and, of course, Hearst Castle itself. Then, go back in every season because the climatic conditions are always shifting.  Oh, and by the way, keep your eyes peeled for sea otters and huge, endangered California Condors gliding along steep ridge lines or perched on rocks and abandoned structures near the road.

You can camp or stay in expensive world-class inns or get something in between. And did I mention that it’s all very romantic?

Well, that’s my Big Sur starter kit.  Take your time and you’ll easily discover much more.   Let us know what you find.

CHECK OUT THE MAP OF ALL OUR CALIFORNIA CENTRAL COAST VIDEOS AND STORIES.