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PAGE 4
Our vacation in 2006 was spent exploring along the eastern Sierra and around Death Valley. This travelogue shows many photos taken from that trip. All photos were taken with a Canon G5, and can be viewed as larger images by clicking on the small photos. |
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| We traveled on up the Sierras and made a side trip to see
the Portola Railroad Museum, a spectacular collection of mostly diesel
locomotives. This is the huge UP Centennial dual-engined
locomotive. I had the opportunity to see one of these in
operation in Los Angeles around 1980. |
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This
is an operational F7A, in Western Pacific colors. F-units were
very popular and ran for decades all over the country. I rode in
a C&NW train pulled by an F-loco back in 1979. |
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| After the rail museum we drove to around the Fall River
Mills area. On the way, there is this wonderful overlook. |
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In
the area is the Hat Creek Radio Observatory. I visited here on a
field trip with my Physics class about 15 years ago. The
observatory is now setting up a huge array of small dishes for the SETI
(Search for Extraterrestial Life) project. This is a view of some
of them from the access road (the observatory was closed when we
visited). |
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| We
had some rain overnight (we stayed in Burney), and the next morning
headed east back down. There was a nice rainbow near MacArthur. |
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We
arrived in Tulelake and decided to attend the annual Migratory Bird
festival. A few birds were on display--these were birds that were
found wounded in the wild and nursed back to health. This is a
great horned owl. |
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| There was a barn owl on display also. Owls are amazing
birds--so very quiet, yet inquisitive. They remind me a lot of
cats, and not just for their eyes. |
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A
hawk sat quietly watching the activity around him. A bald eagle
was also there, but I didn't get a good photo of him. |
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| This was the best shot I managed to get of the eagle. |
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Operating
out of Tulelake is the shortline railroad Modoc Northern. This
railroad operates between Klamath Falls, Alturas, and Lakeview.
We saw it in action near Highway 139. |
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| Klamath
Falls is home to an Air Force Reserve unit. We saw this pair of
F-15 planes coming into land as we came into the city. |
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The
next day, we decided to head into a remote part of Oregon to check out
a large Air Force radar site we had heard about. On the way, we
stopped briefly at Chandler Park, north of Lakeview. The park is
very pleasant, but the restrooms were closed! |
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| As
you drive north of Lakeview, the Abert Rim is visible to the
east. On the left is the large Lake Abert. It is
beautiful, empty country. |
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As
we came into the Christmas Valley, the transmitter site became
visible. It consists of three huge antenna arrays, one of which
is shown here. |
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| The
antennas are huge and unusual. The site is one of three
backscatter radar sites that were constructed in the 1980s to see
Soviet bombers up to 1800 miles away. They were capable of
transmitting enormous amounts of power (one million watts). The
site was only
operational for a few months before it went into "warm storage" since
the Soviet Union collapsed. We were able to drive right up to it. |
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The
sign indicates that this was called the Christmas Valley Air Force
Station. "OTH-B" means "Over-The-Horizon Backscatter". |
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| A
side view of one of the antenna arrays gives some idea of its
size. The array was thousands of feet in length. |
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The
next day I hiked in Lava Beds National Monument. Although it was
early in the season, there were already noticeable flowers such as this
blue one. |
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| There
were these purple ones, too. |
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At
one point on the hike, the ground was literally covered with flowers,
as shown here. It is a beautiful place to visit. |
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