Be careful when driving to these 2 places. The route to Lake Tahoe is long, narrow and winding. But along the way, there are places where you can stop, the view is very beautiful.
To Yosemite, there is one stretch of route that is very zig zag, it is not very long, but it takes more than half hour to go through. This stretch, be very careful. In the past, when I visited Yosemite with my friends (visitor too), we made it a point to leave that stretch in daylight.
Now, the waterfalls in Yosemite would be great, but it is also a long climb. Plan for a full weekend visit there; it would be worth your while. Usually, it is almost impossible to get accomodation in Yosemite, the next best that you can do would be to get accomodation in the city nearest to Yosemite. When night falls, go back to the motel, continue the next morning.
And go more often, it is not everybody that gets a chance to visit. You 'll be surprised, talk to the locals in your office and see how many visited Yosemite, Grand Canyon etc, Other than photogs. :bsmilie: :bigeyes:
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There is a waterland (or marshland) reserves in Palo Alto. You can spend a couple of hours there, if you are into bird photography.
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Go north of the Golden Gate bridge. look for this place for Point Reeyes National Seashore.. Highway 1 can be very scenic once you get north of the Golden Gate..
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The Golden Gate Bridge Park is also a nice place for a weekend; There nice places to shoot there, but get back onto the freeway before the evening jam build ups.
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If you can have a superlong weekend (4 days or take leave to make it a week) you can do an itinerary like this
Day 1 - Drive all the way to Las Vegas, reaching there about mid late afternoon. Spend the night there, take a walking shoot along the main street, can take more than few hours to and fro.
Day 2 - morning - drive towards Grand Canyon, stopping at Hoover Dam on the way, reaching Grand Canyon about mid afternoon. Spend 1 or 2 nights there if you can. You can do both sunset and sunrise in Grand Canyon. Other times of the day, panoramic shots of the Grand Canyon is flat as the lighting is not ideal.
Check out mid late morning - drive towards LA. These are the places you can do in that vicinity
Disneyland (1 day - 'cos the queues for the rides, not that it is that huge.)
Universal Studios (1/2 to 1 day)
San Diego - Zoo, Sea World, Wild Animal Park - more than a day to cover all three). San Diego is about 1 hour 's drive away from LA..
Do your planning ahead, book your accomodation in advance, it is cheaper.
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Have fun