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...]
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.
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...]
Visit Pearl Harbor and be Moved
It is hard to predict when the sadness and solemnity will hit you when you visit Pearl Harbor. For me it was when we set out on the Navy vessel across the channel that on a December morning in 1941 turned into hell on earth, a bloody chaos of explosions and smoke and fire and bombs. December 7 is Pearl Harbor Day, and 2014 will mark the 73rd anniversary of the attack that brought the United States into World War II. Ceremonies will … [Read more...]