It’s now September 22nd and we’ve been in San Francisco for more than two weeks – and I’ve only just got around to finishing writing up our road trip. I’ve been busy on other things. More about that another time. So here’s a catch-up post.
Monday 1st
Stowaway! In the night, something ran over Rose’s arm and woke her up. A cheeky kangaroo rat had made its way aboard somehow, and was hunting among our packets of food. Throughout the hot night there was a shuffling and scuffling around in the bottom of the van, and by the morning it was gone. We were up early to catch the sun rise over the stunning red landscape, and explore before the sun got too hot. We made a trip across the park to see Elephant Rock which had been on Rose’s “crazy American scenery” list.
Saying goodbye to the desert, we drove the final few miles into Las Vegas, found a motel and crashed out in the cool, air conditioned rooms for the afternoon.
I’d been to Las Vegas before, so I had an idea of what to expect – but last time was for a software conference which was hosted in a fairly exclusive hotel. That time, we stayed in a budget hotel but it was out of town, so I never got to see “the strip”. This time, our motel was only a couple of blocks away. Time to party! Actually we’re not the kind of people that would come here by choice, but as we’re here for J&H to fly out, we thought it would be worth spending a night in town. Las Vegas is definitely a spectacle. Bright neon lights, tacky entertainment, halls filled with gambling machines, hotels, shows, everyone here to let off steam. A complete contrast from the emptiness of the desert!
We wandered around, had a drink at a run-down “Mexican beach bar”, had an amazing dinner at a faux-Parisian street restaurant, blew away our gambling money (all 5 bucks of it) and then made our way back to base.
Tuesday 2nd
Early start for Jon and Helen – flight out was 7am so I took them to the airport a couple of blocks away and then went back to bed. Rose and I spent the rest of the morning hanging out in the motel, sorting photos and enjoying the luxury of air conditioning. Found breakfast at “Farmer Boys” (or something like that), which turned out to be yet another fast food chain, even though I thought I’d searched out an organic, healthy food place. After gobbling down a breakfast burrito, which actually turned out to be not so bad, we went directly onto find a Starbucks for coffee and internet. Normally we’d try to hunt down a nice small independent coffee shop, but I thought the chances of finding something like that in Las Vegas was pretty remote. It was getting pretty hot, so we enjoyed a couple of hours in the air conditioning, reading, writing and not doing very much – just stalling for time so as not to get into Death Valley too early in the day.
Eventually, late afternoon, it was time to get going. It’s not a long drive into Death Valley from Las Vegas, just a few hours through hot, arid desert. We arrived at the visitor centre at Furnace Creek where the temperature was 117F; over 47 centigrade, at 6pm! We made a dash up the valley to catch the sunset, and then found a campground.
Here the seasons are back-to-front. Summer is the quiet period when most things are closed, including half the campgrounds – it’s just too hot. There was one open, just open gravel pitches and a picnic bench. Not even shade, which was surprising considering that we’d had decent [man made] shade in Utah camp sites. Maybe it’s a state thing – we’re now back in California. It didn’t cool down much, I think overnight it just about dipped below 100F.
Wednesday 3rd
Woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed, considering I’d spent the night on the picnic table outside, in an attempt to stay in the breeze and keep cool. “Breeze” makes you think of a cool, gentle wind – but here it’s more like standing in front of the door of an open furnace. In fact the campsite is called Furnace Creek… but I think that might be because of the borax mining and processing that used to go on here rather than anything to do with the temperature. Camping in Death Valley in August eh. Nutters. A guy nearby started working with a chainsaw at about 5am – the coolest time of the day.
So anyway, yeah, it’s hot. We drove up to Zabriskie Point to watch the sun rise, and we’re now sitting back in camp in the shade of a tree waiting for the visitor centre to open at 9, where we’ll pick up some info, maybe a cold drink and then dash across the baking desert into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
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Driving up along the east side of the mountains, things are starting to looks more “Californian”. It’s hard to put my finger on it – it’s arid, like everywhere else. And mountains, sand, dust, long straight roads. I think it’s the trees – big solid looking trees, not pines, but more like a cross between oak and eucalyptus. Drove through Bishop, which is a town I’d known about as a climbing and outdoor hub ever since my days at Sheffield, where I was immersed in the climbing world. A place I’d always wanted to go to, and here we are just driving on through. Just not enough time! Maybe if we spend more time in California in the future… it’s only “just” over the mountains from San Francisco.
Before turning left into Yosemite and over the last range of mountains before home, we stopped off briefly at Mono Lake, an alkali lake with incredible tufa formations. Like every lake it seems, the level is really low. Only recently have local authorities recognised that they need to think about water usage to prevent these lakes from drying up completely.
Just a few miles up from Mono Lake is the Yosemite park boundary. Back in pine and rock country. Huge granite domes and cliffs. We’d never been over this side of the park before – the Tioga Pass has always been closed due to snow each time we’d been, so it was good to finally get to drive through it. Just driving through one of the most amazing National Parks in the world feels like a crime, but we’re nearly home now and having been on the road for 3 months, we can “smell the barn”. Looking forward to getting back to the boat, seeing San Francisco friends again, and having some time in one place.
Road and Ocean 