Ray & Stacey Janik's Photos

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- Ray & Stacey Janik, Santa Barbara, California

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Pinnacles National Park, March 2013 : We’d seen the sign dozens of times driving up the central coast and heard great things about Pinnacles National Park (even way back before the beginning of 2013 when it was a National Monument), and we’d frequently thought about visiting, but we were surprised by the stunning landscape once we finally made the trip. The rocky volcanic terrain is in stark contrast to the usual low hills of the area and the trails feature great vistas, interesting geology, deep caves (bats not included on this trip), and excellent condor-spotting opportunities. Can’t wait to go back.

Pinnacles National Park, March 2013

Santa Rosa Island, November 2012 : While we never saw ourselves as vacation-on-a-private-island types, that’s pretty much what we found ourselves doing over Thanksgiving weekend. We’d been trying to get to Santa Rosa Island for quite a while and were really thrilled to finally get to make the trip with our friends the Gwinns. We flew in from Camarillo and had great views of Anacapa and Santa Cruz before touching down on Rosa, unoccupied by anyone but one Park Service worker tracking foxes. We had a little of the island's infamous winds and mostly sunny weather on the miles of trails. Stacey, Carl, and Beth all proved to be excellent fox-spotters, and we were lucky enough to also see a bald eagle, local owls, the last horses on the island, and other interesting wildlife.

Santa Rosa Island, November 2012

Rwanda, February 2011 : After our time in Uganda, we were thrilled to cross into Rwanda for a chance to see mountain gorillas. After checking in at our lodge, and being treated to a performance of traditional dances by a lively group of local school kids, we could hardly wait for the next morning to come. We made two treks on consecutive days to visit two different gorilla family groups (Ugenda and Kwitonda) in Volcanoes National Park. We had hoped for a chance to see these magnificent animals up close, but never dared to think we’d get almost within touching distance of huge silverbacks and impossibly adorable babies. The gorillas, however, are well acclimated to human visitors and ended up getting very cozy with us at several points. Our time with them went by far too quickly, but it’s a memory we can’t imagine ever fading.

Rwanda, February 2011

Uganda, February 2011 : We’re going to have to come up with something better than “trip of a lifetime” to describe places like Uganda and Rwanda. After arriving in Entebbe, our journey began with a long and muddy yet scenic drive through western Uganda to Kibale Forest. We stayed at the completely charming Ndali Lodge in the Rwenzori Mountains (the famous “Mountains of the Moon”) and saw chimps, baboons, and many different varieties of monkeys. From there we descended into the Western Rift Valley, crossing the equator as we made our way to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Our base for the first two days was Mweya Safari Lodge, overlooking Lakes Edward and Albert. On our game drives we encountered elephants, lions, warthogs, Cape buffalo, antelope, hippos, hyenas, and more birds than we could ever hope to name. We even took an honest-to-goodness African river (well, okay, channel) cruise and got to see many of these animals along the shore or out in the water. Then it was off to Ishasha and the luxurious tents of the Wilderness Camp there. We looked for the famous tree-climbing lions of the region, but they had all been replaced by on-the-ground lions, which we still found very interesting. All our travels in Uganda and Rwanda were with our amazing driver Edward, who got us everywhere we needed to be in excellent style and spotted many, many animals we never would have seen otherwise. The trip wouldn’t have been the same without him.

Uganda, February 2011

Gallery Categories

Travel & Diving : 28 galleries with 1964 photos

Travel & Diving

Local Diving : 12 galleries with 248 photos

Santa Barbara : 33 galleries with 507 photos

Family : 50 galleries with 1126 photos

Photo Shoebox : 1 gallery with 101 photos

Photo Favorites : 2 galleries with 141 photos

Photo Favorites

UC Santa Barbara : 3 galleries with 67 photos

UC Santa Barbara

Wedding : 1 gallery with 71 photos

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