Travelskills 5/10/21: What it s like to fly AVELO, the new, dirt-cheap California-based airline
May 10, 2021
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AVELO Air now flying out of Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport.Freda Moon
Intrigued by the prospect of a new airline launching during a pandemic, and tempted by incomprehensibly low fares ($38 RT between Sonoma and Hollywood), SFGATE’s fully vaccinated travel editor that would be me decided to take her first flight since Feb. 1, 2020.
I chronicle my surprising experience here:
The trip yielded a few other pandemic-era firsts:
My first dine-in restaurant experience (at a Los Angeles restaurant that, for lovers of Mexico’s capital city, is a destination in itself)
I went on a crazy hike in Pinnacles National Park and giant birds were everywhere
May 7, 2021
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Beautiful view from the High Peaks Trail in Pinnacles National Park.Ashley Harrell
It’s crucial to get certain things about hiking in Pinnacles National Park right to maximize your visit.
California’s newest national park is pretty small, with just 27,000 acres total and only 30 miles of hiking trails. That means the place gets crowded fast, particularly in the springtime and especially this year.
More:
This amazing hike is 100 feet off the ground in a redwood forest. ‘It’s different to see a burl this close. Read more.
I went on a crazy hike in Pinnacles National Park and giant birds were everywhere
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Beautiful view from the High Peaks Trail in Pinnacles National Park.Ashley Harrell
If a trail in Pinnacles National Park starts to seem too hard, you might not be on an actual trail. My friends and I learned this in mid-April when an incredibly steep patch of dirt and rocks we had mistaken for Juniper Canyon Trail abruptly dead-ended, albeit with lovely views of the park’s soaring namesake pinnacles.
After an inconclusive discussion over whose fault it was, our group doubled back and learned yet another lesson: to climb up loose dirt and rocks is easier than to descend.
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I drove the trails of California s largest and most mysterious state park - and it was mind-blowing
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“Are you really going to do this?” my partner Steve says.
We’re sitting in a Jeep on top of a mesa in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park down near California’s border with Mexico, due west of the Salton Sea. The stark beauty of the cactus-speckled Colorado Desert and its badlands, dry lake beds and erosion-carved peaks spills out for miles in every direction.
Right in front of us is the Diablo Drop-off, a famously steep and uneven precipice that should only be attempted in favorable conditions with a high-clearance vehicle. Soft sands and occasional flash floods mean the drop can vary from mildly amusing to downright treacherous, but luckily for us, today it seems doable.