A Lovely, Lonely Road through Nevada

This morning, we left the unlovely Hawthorne, Nevada, home of the little El Capitan Casino, and drove south and east on Route 95. We then followed Route 361 north and Route 50 east to Ely. We learned that the Nevada section of Route 50 is known as the "Loneliest Road in America," and although we thought that 361 better deserved the title, they are BOTH very lonely! We drove about 300 miles today, and passed three areas recognizable as tiny towns. The road was perfectly straight for miles and miles, passing through endless plains of sagebrush, with only occasional sections of switchbacks through the more mountainous areas. The drive really was beautiful, and the sense of immense space was incredible. We tried to imagine living in a town the size of little Austin, population approximately 350 and about a two-hour drive from the next tiny town.

We saw a little patch of snow under a stunted pine tree, and more small pockets of fall foliage. We passed a sign reading "Major Deer Crossing," and shortly thereafter saw deer, indeed crossing the road. We stopped and watched as each one hesitated at the yellow center line and finally bounded over it as if it was a tall fence. Silly deer! They all crossed the road safely, despite their dawdling.

We reached Ely, Nevada, this afternoon, and are KAMPED at a very nice campground with wi-fi internet access. Molly met a friendly horse and some unfriendly burros; the burros are in a pen next to the campground, and create a tremendous braying uproar everytime a dog passes by. No burro friends for Molly...oh well.

We'll be driving through Utah towards Bryce National Park tomorrow.

Beautiful (and Popular!) Yosemite

Saturday morning, we drove north from June Lake to the little town of Lee Vining, turning onto Route 120 and the east entrance to Yosemite National Park. The drive from Lee Vining over Tioga Pass into Yosemite is spectacular, although once again I had to grip Molly tightly in the irrational fear that she would fall out of the van. Sandeep told her to yelp if she couldn't breathe but she was very tolerant. The road clings to the edge of a STEEP hillside, with evidence of rock slides above the road and below it (and suspicious gray scrapes across the road as well). I wondered if the park rangers have a rock plow with which they can push aside fallen rock just like snow. The paved shoulder of the road is about a foot wide, with either a little sand or a steep drop-off beyond that. Eeek!

The east entrance road passes through Tuolumne Meadows, a high, flat area with sparse brown and yellow grasses. We passed a lovely mountain lake and ascended, through rocky areas and evergreen forests, to a viewpoint overlooking Yosemite Valley. A nice man took our photograph; you can see me sitting slightly in front of the wall and clinging to it, tightly. It appears that I have a slight fear of heights... I did admire the view into the valley, though, which was very beautiful.

We admired the giant stone El Capitan, and walked the short path up to Bridalveil Falls. For Pooja and Hugh, who are planning a visit to Yosemite next weekend, we are happy to report that there is a little bit of water in Bridalveil Falls! We also were pleased to learn that Molly was allowed on the walk to the falls, as dogs are allowed on paved trails in the park. She did stray, ever so slightly, from the pavement to lay in Bridalveil Creek...happy pup. The popular sights, unfortunately, were very crowded. Sandeep said, "This looks like Central Park!" as we negotiated our way around people and vehicles everywhere, and he was right.

We did have a lovely, somewhat solitary walk (down a paved path and across stone, which is so much like pavement, really, that our little dog came with us again...), from Olmsted Point. The views of the valley and of the striking Half Dome were spectacular.

We saw a man driving, on a relatively flat road, with the funniest expression on his face. Sandeep reproduced it beautifully, with perhaps just a bit of exaggeration, in the photograph above. We hoped he would be leaving the park through a less dramatically steep route than the one we had followed!

We, on the other hand, did take same beautiful and dog-gripping route leaving the park as we had while entering. We stopped in Lee Vining for groceries, and at the lovely and strange Mono Lake just north of town to eat dinner and watch the sun beginning to set. Mono Lake is extremely alkaline and salty, and limestone deposits, called tufa, protrude from the lake in odd shapes.

We drove across the Nevada border on Routes 167 and 359, passing through some very empty sagebrush plains bordered by mountains, before arriving at Hawthorne, Nevada, where we camped for the night.

From Los Angeles to Yosemite (almost...)

We said goodbye to Sunny and Rupali (Mrs. Sobti!) on Friday morning. We'll miss you, Sunny and Rupali! Thank you, Rekha Auntie, for hosting the Gumby van in your driveway during our stay in LA. Also, thanks to Doug and Kathy for suggesting wonderful routes to follow all the way to Arizona. We really enjoyed the drive to Yosemite, and we're looking forward to all the others.

We followed Route 14 past Edwards Air Force base, and we were lucky enough to see one fighter jet streaking overhead. We also saw a hillside covered with windmills of all sizes, including a section of tiny ones (at least, they were tiny relative to the others!). Route 14 continued on into the Mojave Desert and through Red Rock Canyon State Park before joining Route 395 North, which we followed all the way up to the Yosemite area. We stopped repeatedly to look at (and photograph) the strange rock formations in Red Rock Canyon. The geologic history of the area is visible everywhere you look, with stratified layers of rock pushed up out of the ground at angles, and other rocks eroded into sculptural forms like in the photo above. The views along Route 395 caused at least as many stops. The spectacular Sierra Nevada mountains tower at the edge of the plains along the left side of the road, and several other beautiful mountain ranges border the plains on the right side. In some places, the tops of the Sierra Nevadas were dusted with snow while the sides were dressed with streaks of yellow fall foliage.

The changing temperature was almost as dramatic as the changing scenery. From an initial 80F near LA, the temperature dropped as the altitude increased, descending into the high 40s. Sandeep's watch, with a built-in altimeter, informed us that our highest altitude was about 8000 feet.

We camped at June Lake, about 12 miles south of Lee Vining and the east entrance road to Yosemite. Our campsite was in a little canyon, with steep rock sides and little evergreen trees growing from small pockets of soil in the rock. Sandeep, Molly, and I climbed to the top of the canyon wall (via a sort of trail, not straight up the rock!), and looked down on June Lake. Sandeep pointed out the campsite to Molly, who was having great fun climbing up and down the rocks like a tiny mountain goat. I'm not sure if she was interested in seeing the van from above, but she looked obediently in that direction. We saw the sun begin to set behind the opposite canyon wall, silhouetting several picturesque dead trees, before climbing back down to the campsite.

Giant pinecones plunked onto the roof of the van all through the night.

REALLY Open Range!

We are driving through Nevada on Highway 361, one of the most amazing roads we've been on yet! Endless open sagebrush plains, mountains in the far distance, a road so empty we see one car every 20 minutes or so, and these wonderful frisky cow signs...wow.

Yosemite

Here we are in Yosemite, with everyone else in the world! We're used to having our national parks largely to ourselves, but not today - poor us. It IS still very beautiful, though, and Molly got to wade in Bridalveil Creek, so all is not bad...

It's chilly in June Lake, California!

We're camped a bit south of Yosemite. It's cold enough this evening - in the 40s, I think - that I wanted my gloves. Molly wanted them, too... There's a BIG rock next to our campsite, with twisted little evergreens growing from the crevices.

Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

We spent the whole day driving north-east from LA, through the Mojave Desert and the beautiful and dramatic Sierra Nevada mountains. There is an occasional stream of yellow fall foliage curving down the otherwise gray and brown rocky mountainsides.

In LA...

Here's Sunny and Rupali's apartment building, and here's Molly, fresh from swimming in a fountain. Some people toss coins into a wishing pool for luck; we toss our dog!

View Larger Map

I think I have solved the map puzzle. It wasn't very difficult, as Google has clear instructions on the maps webpage; I just required a functioning brain, which I was missing the other night when I put up the first link to the map of our travels. Here's our map!

Happy Wedding Day, Sunny and Rupali!

We arrived in Los Angeles Tuesday morning, ready for Sunny and Rupali's wedding! Molly was also ready, dressed in her best sari.

The wedding was at the beautiful home of Rupali's family friend, outdoors in a lovely enclosed courtyard. The pundit, or priest, explained the ceremony in English as it went along, and it was lovely to hear the wedding oaths in English as well. They are usually read in Sanskrit, so even the participants seldom know exactly what they are promising, but the vows are very sensible and detailed. Marriage promises and marriage counseling all in one, said Sandeep.

Near the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom are ceremonially tied together, and walk around a fire seven times. The husband leads for the first three circles, and the wife leads for the last four. The couple are then married for seven lifetimes, not just one! The pundit joked that the couple doesn't know if this is the first or the last of the seven lifetimes.

Congratulations, Sunny and Rupali! We're so very happy for you!

Driving South Towards LA

Monday was a day of driving, driving, driving, as we headed south from San Francisco, needing to reach Los Angeles by Tuesday morning (at the latest!) for Sandeep's brother Sunny's wedding. We did follow the beautiful coastal Route 1 for a little way, stopping on a beach for a half-hour of play time. Sandeep threw a small piece of driftwood for Molly to fetch, but she preferred to bring back something a little larger. I sat on the beach, playing with beach rocks and burying my toes in the sand.

Molly has found a new travelling position, and seems very happy lounging on her cushions like a travelling princess.

We passed through agricultural land near Salinas, with wide, flat fields on either side of the highway enclosed by brown, wrinkled mountains in the distance. We saw workers picking in the fields, and trucks loaded with red peppers and cabbages.

We hoped to drive all the way to Los Angeles, but, finding ourselves too sleepy, we stopped for the night at Lake Cachuma, north of Santa Barbara. Our planned night of restful sleep was interrupted at 1 am by Molly erupting into ferocious barking at the window. We sat straight up in bed, our eyes bulging, expecting mountain lions and bears attacking from all directions, but it appeared to be nothing more than a skunk. Probably a huge, sabre-toothed skunk from which our fearless dog saved us...

Big Trees and Big City

I apologize for the time with no posts on our little blog. We've been out of our normal routine while in California, with lots of driving and then lots of visiting taking up the last few days, and not many photographs taken.

On Sunday morning, we left Eureka and drove south on Route 101, which follows the coastline for a little while and then heads inland, towards the redwood forests. We wanted to visit the giant redwoods in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, and the fairy-tale feeling of those trees is complemented by the name of the road that bisects the park: "The Avenue of the Giants." We stopped quite a few times to walk into the woods and stand next to one spectacular tree after another, looking upwards in awe. The groves are so quiet and the trees so huge that somehow it feels like another time; I felt that a dinosaur might peek around from behind a gigantic trunk at any time. Molly walked inside one hollowed-out trunk and just stood there, looking upwards like a person in a great cathedral. Many things growing around the redwoods also seem larger than normal. We walked through extra-large ferns, and Sandeep found a BIG leaf from some other, unseen tree. We, on the other hand, felt very, very small. Tiny, tiny dinosaur snacks...

We followed Route 101 all the way to San Francisco, stopping only to eat lunch overlooking Lake Mendocino. We reached San Francisco in the late afternoon, and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge into the city. Our GPS continued to punish us, sending the Gumby van straight up the steepest streets to our friend Ash's apartment building. My goodness, San Francisco has steep streets! I always forget just how steep they are until I am actually on them, and looking down over the edge of the street the car is about to descend is like looking over the edge of a black-diamond ski slope. Wheeeeeeeee! The Gumby van was undaunted, however, and we arrived safely. We all took a lovely, long walk, down to the bay. Molly played on a little San Francisco beach, and tried to greet all the San Francisco dogs. "Hello! Hello! My name is Molly! I'm from New Hampshire!" The other dogs mostly passed by without even a sniff. City dogs...

We ate dinner at the wonderful Rose's Cafe, at an outdoor table with Molly. We knew she would be welcome, as each of the tables along the sidewalk was occupied by a dog and its people. The waitress brought Molly a homemade dog biscuit: now, that's service! Our dinner was delicious as well.

Thanks for a lovely visit, Ash, and beautiful, dog-friendly San Francisco.

Mapping Our Route

Just a quick note to say that I have tried to make a map of our travels, for those of you who have asked for a way to keep track of where we are going. It's not very exact right now, but this is just the trial run. Also, I am just going to paste a link to it here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=116183757164649198065.0004389ae92c1e3d5cbfe&ll=41.244772,-97.822266&spn=29.179625,59.238281&z=4&om=1
but I think I can include it on the blog, maybe - we'll see!

Oregon Beaches and California Elk

Our first stop Saturday morning was not very far from our campsite; we drove across the park to the lake. Eel Lake is a lovely little lake, apparently undeveloped except for the park and a fishing dock. Molly waded in the lake, and played with two Golden Retrievers; they fetched a stick from the lake, and she dashed around after them and looked excited. Molly and I walked a little way on a trail that circles the lake while Sandeep sat on the shore and worked on his trip journal.

We made it at least one mile down the road before our next stop: a trail out to the dunes. I had read a few lines about the “famous Oregon dunes” but wasn’t expecting much more than a big beach, so I was amazed to come out of a beautiful wooded path onto something that looked like the Sahara desert. Huge sand dunes with just a few patches of beachy grass stretch two miles out to the ocean. That’s a REALLY big beach! The dry sand blows and makes ripples, and I sat at the top of one dune and slid down the side (and had sand in my pants for the rest of the day). We took Molly off the leash and she ran and ran in big circles, just like she does on the beach. Then she sat on top of a big dune, squinting into the blowing sand. The path to the dunes was remarkable, too; the sign at the trailhead said that all the ground along the trail was atop old sand dunes (and we could see the sand spilling out of areas where the dirt had eroded), but the vegetation was thick, with trees and plants of all kinds. We saw the strangest small trees, with their old grey interior wood mostly covered with bright red bark like a skin.

We followed Highway 101 down the Oregon coast, stopping at a lovely beach to greet, officially, the Pacific Ocean. I greeted it more enthusiastically than I meant to, as a big wave soaked my pant legs and shoes before I could leap out of the way. Molly ran on the beach, lay in the water, and ineffectually stalked the seagulls. Sandeep chased Molly, investigated a big stretch of blue-green rocks, and waved his arms in the wind. I took photographs and tried not to be too jealous of two girls riding their horses, bareback, on the sand. We love the beach!

We crossed into California, and drove through some of Redwood National Park. The amazing trees line both sides of the road, standing so very tall and straight. Tomorrow, we’re going to spend a little time hiking in amongst them. We’re also very impressed with the California wildlife, as it is very compliant with posted signs. We passed a sign saying “Elk Crossing Next 2 Miles” and, about a half mile later, saw two elk, crossing the road. Then, a sign said “Elk Viewing Area in 1/2 Mile” and in a field just a bit down the road, there stood about thirty elk, grazing next to the road. We stopped with many others to watch them, and were treated to an elk melodrama. The big male (Sandeep named him Jim) was busy keeping an eye on his herd, bustling around and snorting at them to behave. Then another male (Mike) approached from the side, casually, as if he were only interested in the grass. Jim made a little dash at him, and Mike veered off towards the woods. Jim continued issuing instructions to his herd, and occasionally posing for photographs in front of the parked cars. Suddenly, Mike came back in a hurry, as if he had suddenly worked up his courage and decided to take a chance. He trotted around the herd, sniffing the females and keeping a wary eye on Jim. Jim made a threatening gesture, and Mike ignored him, keeping the herd between himself and Jim. Then, Jim ran at him, and Mike ran across the road and off into the woods on the other side. Someone in the audience threw Jim an apple. The end!

We watched the sun set over the ocean at a little beach by the side of the road. Now, we’re KAMPED for the night in Eureka, California, and I have had time and wi-fi access to catch up with words and photos while my kind husband cooks dinner. The menu? Rice and beans, of course! Thank you, Sandeep.