Kuan Yee Han’s Blog

“Lands End is a popular family trail, the wide and pleasant dirt path follows the cliffs above the bay of San Francisco. It occasionally heads inland through scrub and eucalyptus trees, just often enough to make the next open view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco stunning all over again. If you’re making a day of it, check out the California Palace of the Legion of Honor museum, across from the Lincoln Park Golf Course. A short stint on city sidewalks takes you past the mansions of upscale Sea Cliff. The hike next heads to historical China Beach, where you can talk to surfers returning from a morning at Land’s End, the popular surfing spot you can see from Eagle’s Point.

Lincoln Park occupies the Point Lobos headlands at the northwest corner of the San Francisco peninsula. There are scenic walks throughout the park, or you can follow the Coastal Trail through the park from Eagle’s Point, a breathtaking stairway and viewing platform at the northeast corner, all the way to Cliff House and the Sutro Baths.

If you leave the Coastal Trail and follow the trail to Land’s End, you’ll wind your way down the slope through cypress and pine forest to a promontory overlooking the Pacific. Note that the trail to Land’s End is for experienced hikers only, as the steep cliffs and occasional landslides can make the footing treacherous. Also, it’s a long way down from the bluff to the bottom, and we all know what that means when it’s time to return.”

This is a nice place to go and admire the spectacular view. It’s a short hike for one who feel like escaping from the city rat race. Along the trail, you will be able to enjoy the scenery. There’s this tree trunk which has a very nice texture.

When you reach Lands End, there’s this rock formation (man-made) which represents imaginary labyrinth. Not really a maze but if you follow the path and reach the centre point, you will be able to see the best spot of the place. Look at me being excited at the best view point. (Oh well, actually I just walked through the ‘walls’)

When you go down the beach, you can see the nice rocks lying around the place. It was really a very nice view with the waves hitting the rocks too. There are a lot of couples there enjoying the sunset. But my aim there is to take photos. It’s a place worth visiting.

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Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, USA. It’s a small town with a nice long beach. Half Moon Bay hosts an annual “Art and Pumpkin Festival” on Main Street downtown. 250,000 people visit every October for the festival. There’ll be an upcoming Pumpkin festival on 13-14 Oct. Check out the website here.

“There are a lot of other things that you can do in Half Moon Bay. If you have not been to the Half Moon Bay Coastside, you have not been! They have it all: fresh air, scenic country roads, ocean panoramic views, golf courses & a driving range, deep sea fishing, horseback riding on the beach, fields of glorious flowers, vegetables, pumpkins, and Christmas trees, marvelous restaurants, superb hotels and inns, and the perfect gift for everyone on your list.

Travel to the Coast in a luxury limousine, relax in a day spa, and enjoy small theater at its best. The historical sites and natural beauty of the different flora and fauna activities that await you will fill your days with learning and adventure. Here’s an informative website on Half Moon Bay which would be helpful. Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber website

Me and a few friends drove to Half Moon Bay, hoping to catch the beautiful sunset over the horizon. The coast is very long and you’ll get a perfect view of the sun setting. There are no islands nearby so you can see the sky and the sea. On the way there, we saw pumpkins all over the ground. Oh well, Pumpkin Festival is coming soon.

Here’s a photo of the coast. I find that the picture is quite nice with the cyclist resting there.

And here’s a photo of my jumping!

The view next to the coast has a nice view for photo taking. Here’s a nice shot while we were waiting for sunset. It looks like in MTV.

As it started to get darker, the weather became colder. Unfortunately for the four of us, we wore shorts and t-shirts. We had to resort to hiding behind shrubs to block out the freezing cold breeze. Oh ya, the water is very cold too. Anyway, here’s a nice photo of the sunset. We stayed until 7.30pm before making our way back home.

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Alcatraz Island (sometimes referred as The Rock) is a small island located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California, United States. It served as a lighthouse, then a military fortification, then a military prison followed by a federal prison until 1963, when it became a national recreation area.

Today, the island is a historic site supervised by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to tours. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Pier 33, near Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

I took a ferry ride to the island. It was about 10 mins ride excluding twenty minutes wait. You can purchase the tickets online at the Alcatraz Cruises website. The link can be found at the bottom of this post. If you plan to go over the weekend, be sure to purchase online first because you’ll most likely will not be able to purchase at the counter. Each ticket costs $24.50 (price may vary).

The best site on the island is actually the prison. Once inside, you’ll receive an audio guided tour. Just follow the storyline and walk around the place. I didn’t managed to complete the whole audio tour so I just went around taking nice shoots. You can check out the photos below.

There are also a lot of famous escape attempts throughout the 29 years of operation. The most famous escape attempt involved Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, popularized in the motion picture Escape from Alcatraz. The three disappeared from their cells on June 11, 1962 in one of the most intricate escapes ever devised.

Read more on Alcatraz at here

Alcatraz Cruises
Alcatraz Website

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Half Dome is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, located at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley — possibly Yosemite’s most familiar sight. The granite crest rises more than 4,737 ft (1,444 m) above the valley floor and is about 2693 m above sea level.

As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was declared “perfectly inaccessible”, but it may now be ascended in several different ways. Thousands of hikers reach the top each year by following a trail from the valley floor. The trailhead is only 2 mi (3.2 km) from Half Dome itself, but the circuitous route is 8.5 mi (13.7 km) long. The final ascent is accomplished by following a pair of metal cables raised on posts up the peak’s steep but somewhat rounded east face. The cable route was constructed in 1919, but followed close to the route of George Anderson’s October, 1875 first ascent made by drilling iron eyebolts into the smooth granite. The hike is strenouos and is physically demanding. Each hike (both ascent and descent) usually takes about 10-12 hours to complete.

A new hiker must be fully prepared and equiped if he plans to conquer Half Dome. Bring enough water and energy bars for lunch and perhaps even dinner. Good hiking shoes are recommended as well as a good pair of gloves for the last 400 ft ascent. Take a look at one of my photos and you’ll know why; the cable hike.

I managed to reach the peak on 2 Sept 2007 with 5 other friends. We took 6 hours to ascent and another 4 hours to descend. To include the resting time and photo taking up on the peak, we spent a total of 12 hours for the whole hike. I encountered a few leg cramps while hiking. After doing some stretching and drank the energy drinks, I managed to overcome the cramps and completed the extremely strenuous hike of Yosemite National Park.

The view from along the way and especially at the peak is absolutely majestic. The valley and the mountains were simply amazing. It was a tough hike but the view and the memories overcome all.

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