i-40

when i left san luis obispo tuesday morning, i headed west towards i-40. of course, the highway i took to get there just happened to be the road on which james dean crashed his car, cutting his career tragically short. he essentially just turned a corner, had the sun in his eyes, and crashed his car in the middle of nowhere--it's not even a mountain road. so i got out to take a few pictures and pay homage to the king of cool. (for those of you who don't know, i know quite a lot about james dean, since he was very influential to the german films i on which wrote my honors thesis. go watch rebel without a cause if you haven't already seen it).



after about 3 hours i finally made it to barstow, where interstate 40 starts. pretty much immediately after i got on there was this sign for wilmington, nc, so of course i immediately pulled over on the shoulder to rather hazardously take the picture at the top of this post. quite funny to think that it is only 2554 miles to the east coast--at this point i had put about 9000 miles on my car since i left raleigh. after getting on the interstate it was incredibly desolate. i have now been in quite a few desolate parts of the country, but i think this california desert takes the cake. there was NOTHING--it looked like this, which is beautiful, but no gas, food, etc. not even a visitors center when i entered arizona. i decided to press on to flagstaff, which is a small university town and a common jumping off point to the grand canyon.

on the way i took a 20 mile detour off of 40 to go by lake havascu. now, what claim to fame does it have? the london bridge. in 1967 the london bridge, which had been built in 1831, was falling down. (haha?). the city of london sold it to robert mcculloch, who put it across this lake in arizona. in reality, it is a modern bridge with the original exterior granite put on top, but still--the london bridge. really quite bizarre in the middle of the arizona desert, but cool nonetheless. from there i went on to flagstaff, pulling in about 10 that night.

i drove 10 1/2 hours that day, and was quite tired and very sore, but i realized something as i went to bed. i have now driven every mile of i-40. having now driven from barstow to flagstaff, i had driven (or at least been in the car) when covering the rest of the miles to wilmington. neat, huh? i took this picture, very carefully, outside of my window at sunset.wednesday morning i woke up to find my car towed. needless to say this put a damper on my day, and i don't want to talk about it. by the time i rolled out of flagstaff wednesday, it was after noon. (interestingly, arizona does not belief in daylight savings, so in the summer they are on pacific time. but the indian reservation in the state do use daylight savings. strange place). i had wanted to go to sedona, but now had no time. so, continuing on i-40, i headed toward albuquerque. i was sooo ready to leave arizona.

of course, i stopped on the way at winslow, arizona. as in the eagles song: 'i was standin' on a corner in winslow arizona, there was such a fine sight to see. it's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed ford slowin' down to take a look at me.' there really isn't much of a town, and they really are just playing up their tie to the song, but it was neat to see. the town was also really big into their route 66 history. all the way from barstow to albuquerque, i-40 runs pretty much exactly parallel to the old famous route. and from flagstaff, it also follows the old santa fe railroad line. winslow, therefore, has both.
from there until santa fe i was probably more often in indian territory than not. it's one reservation after another, which means, for the average traveler, that there is no cheap gas. although, if you have time to stop, a lot of them are quite interesting. like this one that i saw from a distance--this pueblo in new mexico, called the laguna pueblo. founded in 1692 by refugees from other pueblos fleeing the spanish. and it's still occupied today--that's it below.

i stopped in the new mexico visitors center, and was quite impressed. staffed by indians (it was on a reservation) it was huge, modern, clean, and had a very friendly and helpful staff. the state is really trying to play up its tourism aspects, something i support whole-heartedly. i LOVE new mexico. maybe it was just me, but i thought the roadside scenery got much prettier when we entered the state. that day, though, i drove right on through albuquerque, taking i-25 up to santa fe. i reached my final destination, glorieta, about 8 (now mountain time). glorieta, while there is also a town, is know for its huge christian complex--a conference center, camp--they can do just about anything. my great-grandparents bought a house there a long time ago, and that's where i headed. (thanks uncle kirk!).

to the ocean

sorry that i am a few days behind! i've been having way too much fun to blog. last friday, the 2nd, we left death valley and headed west to san luis obispo, where my aunt mary lives. on our way out we stopped to take pictures of this joshua tree. of couse, they are misnamed--they are really overgrown yucca plants and not trees at all, but were really cool nonetheless. this one was a little bigger than the others.
other than that, friday was spent driving--more twisty roads--and getting the tires on my car replaced. we also ran a few errands we needed to take care of, reveling in the fact that we were once again someplace with real stores and real things in them.
so saturday we woke up, and since aunt mary had to take her grandkids to lax, we wandered out on our own to enjoy the wine country. the area around san luis obispo (from hereon, slo), is known for their chardonnay and pinot noir, if i am remembering correctly. we drove around to a few of the wineries, where we were able to split wine samplings. this meant that not only was it cheaper, but we were able to enjoy it all more. i learned a lot that day, and enjoyed it all (mostly) in the process. half of it was because of the beautiful scenery though. rolling vineyards , with mountains in the background. and of course, sunny. although, for the record, it was foggy half of the time we were in slo--what they call, rather mysteriously, 'the marine layer.' it's also cooler in slo than in los angeles, and saturday afternoon was the only time it really got warm at all. anyway, you can see in the picture to the right just how many vineyards are in the area: and those are just the ones off of that one road.



sunday was the fourth of july, so we spent much of the day enjoying aunt mary's beautiful view, above, just sitting around catching up. we did go to her local country club to watch the kids (ahem, dads) built cardboard boats for a neighborhood race and enjoy a delicious barbeque/veggie buffet. one of the huge upsides of california is that they get absolutely wonderful fruits and veggies almost all year. but for the evening, since it was the fourth of july, after all, we headed down to pismo beach to watch the biggest fireworks display in her little area of central california coast. we headed down only to discover that the entire town, a small beach town, was covered in pedestrians and parked cars. luckily, we were able to convince a family to let us park in front of their driveway, so we actually had a really great view. also, mum had bought a bottle of sparkling pink wine--i forget exactly what it was called in france. so the three of us sat on the hood of the car, eating some delicious strawberries to go with our wonderful sparkling wine. it really was a great fourth of july, and the fireworks just finished everything off nicely.
monday, our last day in slo, we got in a pretty full day of sight-seeing. first off we went to brunch with aunt mary and a group of women who make up a knitting club. while not much knitting was done, it was a lot of fun to talk with them and get to know some of mary's friends. from there we headed to avila beach, where we wandered down a pier, watching the boats and hoping to see some seals. we ended up getting a glass of wine at a restaurant at the end of the pier that had a glass room with a great view. luckily, on our way back down the pier, we saw some very impressive sea lions showing off at the bottom of a set of stairs which led to the water. they even went so far as to go jumping, soaring really, in and out of the water on their way out to sea. while it was still foggy, it was nice to see the pacific ocean again, and to see all the people fishing and crabbing! i, as a non-fisher, was certainly impressed.

from the avila beach pier we headed back inland to the madonna inn. now when they say inn, they really mean old school resort. it has a limo service, two restaurants, a gourmet baker, a wine cellar, men's and women's boutiques, and a spa. aunt mary took us around the place, showing us everything. first off, just about everything that can be is either pink, sparkly, or covered in flowers. and i do mean everything. the picture below is of one of the dining areas. it looks like a literal fairy tale--they even have fancy dancing on friday nights. the funny thing is, it was established and designed by a man! i certainly don't know many men who would opt for this decor, but apparently even the likes of john wayne were willing to put up with it. the rooms themselves are all done in different themes, from red to western. luckily, and you may not be able to tell this from the pictures, it doesn't actually go too far from gaudy into the grotesque. it looks like a fairy-tale, but not completely absurd. at least not in person. in my opinion.the picture to the left is of the outside front of the madonna inn. it was really neat for me to see, since i had visited aunt mary before, but had not seen this particular oddity. what a strange group we americans are. and to think that hurst castle is only about an hour away from the madonna inn.

after the inn, our next stop was at the san luis obispo mission (obispo means bishop, for any of those interested). the mission was beautiful! while the mission no longer functions, the church still holds services, as well as local concerts. we wandered around the beautiful garden (ye gods! the plants they grow in california!) these were some of the original bells, which have now obviously been replaced. the fog had rolled away, so we were once again left in sunlight. i really like spanish mission architecture--there is a certain beauty in the starkness of the dark wood and the white walls, and the flowers murals are also quite nice.

after exploring, we needed a little break. so after cleaning ourselves up we headed into town to a fantastic restaurant called ciopinot. interestingly, mum had met the owner's wife in portland in a weird happenstance (she also suggested a tire place to us in slo). so we went to this restaurant on her recommendation, and got free appetizers for it! our meal was the best we've had on this trip. the crab cakes were the best thing, i thought, but my salmon and aunt mary's sole were also delicious. we (and by that i mean they, i was the designated driver) drank too much, meaning that i was the only one awake all the way through the film we had rented. nonetheless, it was a great day finished off by a wonderful evening. thanks, wendy!

death valley

this picture, directly above, is probably pretty close to what you think of when you think of death valley. am i right? well, it was taken there, so good job. don't get too comfortable, however--there is a whole lot more to this national park, scorpions aside. we drove down here from lee vining, outside of yosemite, and it was a beautiful drive down, through valleys surrounded by national forests. first off, this is the largest park in the lower 48: in fact, all of the other parks in california could fit inside of this one. it is also the hottest, dries, and lowest place in the western hemisphere. we entered the park from the west, so the first grouping of things we saw was around stovepipe wells, which is about in the middle of the park. of course to get there we had to cross a mountain range, so we promptly gained and then lost about 5000 feet in elevation. stovepipe is at 5 feet above sea level. near the tiny town is a grouping of sand dunes, pictured to the left. as some of you probably know, sand dunes aren't actually all that common in deserts, so these were pretty neat. also, there are tiny gold flakes in the sand. we also saw what is called the devils cornfield--a bunch of taller desert plants, which someone humorously named. we also went by the devils golf course, which is a salt flat covered with rocks, which are also pretty much made of limestone and salt residue.

from there we drove straight on through furnace creek, -190 feet, to the lowest point in the western hemisphere--badwater basin. badwater itselt is a tiny lake made mostly of ancient snow melt--at least the parts which haven't evaporated. you can actually walk out a bit, as you can see. however, you can't stray from the 'path' because they don't want you to walk on the salt flats, which is the crackly stuff in the background and the white swatches in a lot of the pictures. we took some pictures, but rather quickly got back in our car, tasting the salt from the wind on our lips. for real. also, i should note, that it was about 12:30 at this point, and was also about 113 degrees. it is in fact called death valley for a reason, and for this reason much of our time in the park was spent in our car. this felt a little like a cop out, but even at a negative feet below sea level, and no matter how much water you drink, you get dizzy when you spend too much time outside in 120 degree + heat.
while on the topic, here is proof of how hot it was--it actually peaked that afternoon at about 123. of course, this changes a lot depending on where you are--these temperatures were down in the valley. up 5000 feet above it, it was only 90 as well as windier. why is it so hot? it is bone dry, has a very low elevation, and is surrounded by mountains. these mountains essentially act as insulation, keeping the hot air in, meaning it is hot at night as well. in the summer it usually doesn't drop below 100 at night. the second highest recorded temp is from here--134--and is only two degrees lower than the highest ever, from libya and the sahara. it feels a lot like a dry sauna, except that you're outside and not in a box at the ymca. it is so hot you can literally see the heat rising as the sun goes down.

from badwater we headed down a scenic drive called artist's drive, most of which looked a lot like the picture above. it was beautiful! foothills to the taller mountains behind, in an array of colors. in fact, one section was called artist's palette and had these beautiful purples and teals--that's part of it to the right. we tried to get out and walk around a tiny bit here, but it really just wasn't possible. i will never complain of heat anywhere else ever again. these hills really were stunning, nonetheless. we just enjoyed them while sweating in our car instead of fainting outside.

after artist's drive we headed to the single spot i was most looking forward to--dante's view, so called because you can see both the lowest point in north america--badwater, -282--and the highest point in the lower 48--mt. whitney, 14, 505. it is also 5000 feet above badwater, and thus has a great view of the actual death valley, as well as the mountains all around it. it was absolutely breathtaking. and to think that this whole valley not only used to be a system of lakes, but is also formed and continues to be formed because the pacific tectonic plate, on which california sits, is pulling away from the north american plate. this pulling apart created the valley, and the next earthquake could deepen the valley even further (as well as possibly cause cali to fall into the ocean). it was also only 90 up here, so that made it much more enjoyable as well. while it is difficult to see in the picture, i am actually looking off at mt. whitney in the distance--it was above what looks like the far end of the valley.
after dante's view it was approaching six, so we headed back to furnace creek and the lodge/town there for dinner, which was almost as expensive as the gas-- $4.23 a gallon. almost twice what i paid in virginia. sigh. this picture of me with the sea level sign was taking facing east towards furnace creek--notice how the ground level continues to drop behind me?





following dinner we headed back up into the hills/mountains for our last scene of the day, a place called zabriske point, possible the most iconic of all of the scenic shots of death valley. at least it's on the cover of their information newspaper. we chose to come here last because it's supposed to be stunning at sunset. and while it was still about an hour and half before sunset, the longer shadows really showed off the spines of the mountains. it was a beautiful scene of painted mountains, in the thankfully cooling weather; of course, the setting sun helped with the heat as well.
on our way back to our lodge, in panamint springs, we got more gorgeous views of the sun setting on the mountains, dunes, and desert plants. we also got pictures of some of the signs in the park, such as this one. it is suggesting this because it's 5000 feet up and then back down the other side, but who would turn off their ac when it's 110 outside, i don't know. there are also about a dozen places where you can stop to fill up your radiator water. that's in addition to all of the signs telling you to park off the pavement. all of this makes me wonder how many cars break down from overheating each year. while theodore was running hot, he never ran the risk of overheating. but apparently some cars do. all in all, this picture below is pretty representative of the park as a whole. for the record, death valley also wins the nomenclature award: it has places like coffin peak, hells gate, deadman pass, in addition to devils cornfield and golf course and the others listed above. coming and doing all of this in one day--and that includes no real hiking--makes me want to come back in february when the wildflowers (yes, wildflowers) are in bloom and you can actually hike to the colorful canyons and to the top of telescope peak, at 11000+ feet. next time, gadget.

i climbed a mountain

ok, so maybe i'm exaggerating a little. the ranger did call it a hill. nonetheless, i am proud of myself. we set out today for our own, independent hikes. i for one am a big believer in experiencing wilderness by yourself, though i know that there are also dangers involved. we started off at the twolomne meadow ranger station, and got advice as to which trail to take. he recommended that i take a two mile round trip hike up to gaylor lake, on the easternmost edge of the park. me, i'm thinking, 'well, that's not as long of a hike as i wanted, but it sounds like the views will be neat.' so mum dropped me off. what i failed to note about this 'moderately strenuous' hike, was that it gained 500 feet, and then lost 200, in the matter of a mile. and it started at 9945 feet above sea-level. now, this isn't necessarily a problem, but we just came from the coast.

he also warned me that there would be snow: this time of year this meant that pretty much the whole trail was either under running snow melt, snow itself, or ridiculously muddy. so here i am, panting, shoes covered in mud, trying to climb a trail that was essentially all stairs or switchbacks. and loving every minute of it. i got to the top of the mountain, reaching my maximum elevation of 10,445 feet, and looked down at the valley two hundred feet below me. when the ranger said 'there will be snow up there,' he really meant it. most of the lake and surrounding valley were still covered. i later walked across some of the meadow--most of the snow was still at least 2 feet thick. anyway, i climbed down, and actually hiked to what looks in the picture like the furthest part of the lake. it was absolutely beautiful. snow and mountains all around, creeks and rivers swollen with snow melt, and no one in sight. i found myself an impromptu recliner made of the ground and a rock, and sat down to eat my lunch in the middle of the valley. in about a month, this valley will be brimming with wildflowers and animals, but right then i had it all to myself, with the sunshine and the snow. the view to the west is the one at the top of this post. below is a 360 degree video i took from the middle of the meadow, if you are interested.

meanwhile, my mom was taking a hike to parsons lodge and the soda spring, which is a naturally occuring carbonated spring. the lodge is one of the old historic ones that was built back in the day before the park was really protected at all. she also got some great pictures of twolumne meadow, one of john muir's favorite spots in the park. that's it to the right.

after we were both down with our hikes, we headed back out the eastern end of the park, and back to lee vining, where we spent last night and will spend tonight. we both wanted to find out more about this mysterious lake just next to town, which i mentioned in yesterday's post, so we headed to the mono lake national scenic area visitor center. this is under park service control, and i suppose is somewhere in between a recreational area and a national park. anyway, what we learned was quite interesting! the lake used to be much bigger, but in the 40s they started diverting water for los angeles. soon after, a group of locals got together with environmentalists to save the lake. what's so special about this lake? it is one of the oldest lakes on the continent, features volcanoes, loads of birds, a delicate ecosystem, is saltier than the dead sea, and has a ph of 10, which is really quite alkaline.

we decided to go on a tour of the southern end of the lake, famous because it is the largest occurrence of tufas. now what is a tufa, you ask? it's a petrified spring. and how does that happen? the lake, as i said, is very salty and has lots of carbonate it in, and the water that springs up into the lake has lots of calcium. so, you have water bubbling up with calcium, which mixes with the carbonate, forming calcium carbonate--that's limestone. these little pieces of sediment settle around the spring over time, forming these hollow towers. of course, no one knew they were there until the lake level dropped. quite interesting, and one very, very strange but awesome lake. after that we just went to dinner and turned in for the evening--it had been quite a long day.

yosemite

this morning we woke up in dublin, ca, just to the east of oakland, and headed east. after a breakfast at ihop. and do i mean east! luckily we were able to stop at a roadside stand in the san joachim valley to buy some delicious blueberries and cherries to fortify us. taking a number of highways, because apparently californians do not believe in east/west roads, we finally made the approach up to yosemite national park. while it was not nearly as bad as yesterday or the day before, this road was literally switchback after switchback as we gained 7000 feet in elevation in practically no time at all. thankfully, we did make it safely to the park. and for the record the entire way there, until we were almost on top of the park, the scenery was much like the picture above, although usually without the lake. i think this lake (name unknown) was caused by a dam, simply because it looks so surreal and out of place in this particular spot. there were a lot of people out on it and for good reason--it was getting above 90 degrees.
the first place we went in yosemite was to the eponymously named village by the falls. of course, this was also where the most pedestrian and auto congestion was. anyway, we stopped for a while to see the falls, taking the picture from a ways away to get most of it in the pic. this waterfall is the highest in north america, falling over 2400 feet. it does do it in two legs--this picture really only captures the top half. i then proceeded to walk to the bottom of the lower falls and climbed some limestone boulders until i was spitting distance from the falls. i sat there for quite a while, until i was practically drenched and freezing to boot, and decided that i didn't want to catch pneumonia.

by the time we were finished looking at the falls it was getting towards late afternoon, and we knew that we still had a two hour drive through the park before reaching our destination: a little town called lee vining on the east side of the park. thankfully, this drive was not particularly twisty, and it was actually quite enjoyable. we saw some more snow, and also such funny things as this icy sign by the side of the road--this being the very end of june. of course, much of the park is between 8000 and 10000 feet, so that helps to explain this phenomenon. at least the roads were open. we also got to take pictures of our first up close giant sequoia tree, which is kind of like a cousin of the coastal redwoods we saw yesterday, and have many characteristics in common. of course, these are not the biggest--those would be in sequoia national monument--and not as big as the redwoods either. nonetheless, they were still impressive.


our next stop on the tioga road through the park, much of which looked like the picture at the bottom of this post, was out olmstead point, where we had fantastic views of the second thing the park is known for--its granite faces. about 8 or so of them are famous enough to be landmarks, including the most famous--el capitan and halfdome. it was fun to get to see so much of it. it's really quite strange: there are these trees which literally seem to be growing out of giant rocks. of course, these rocks weren't always like this. they have been smoothed by both water and glaciers, making many of them easily hikeable today, as you can see.

by the time we left the park, and then the forest around the park, and got to lee vining, it was past 7, and we stopped at a place called nicely's for dinner. then it was on to our bed and breakfast, a nice place called the hess house, just off of main street in lee vining. i'm actually kind of excited to see more of what is immediately around here--its only 6000 feet, so it is certainly warmer, but there is also some sort of strange lake, probably volcanic. tune in tomorrow for more details.

giant

when we left our motel this morning, the excellent curly redwood lodge, our first stop, at what was supposed to be a fantastic lookout, we took the above picture. not very promising, but not to be thwarted by any creepy northern california fog, we pressed on. for our determination we were treated to our first wild hollyhock flowers of the day--we would see a bunch later on, and in quite a few different colors, but these were our first, and even i thought that it was cool to see them in the wild. anyway, we continued to head south on highway 101, which eventually led us through the national and state redwood parks. while we had done this yesterday, i never really got over the fact that we were driving through a redwood forest, giant trees all around--it was truly amazing.we also took a scenic byway that took us to the largest tree in the park--at least diameter wise. it is 64.8 feet around, and so tall it has another tree growing on top of it. no joke. they also estimate that it is 1500-1600 years old. i'm not showing you a picture because you would have no idea that it was any bigger than any of the other redwoods.while we were in a trail network we headed town the cathedral trail, which i thought sounded promising. and what a cathedral--a lot of our pictures came from this area. i chose to include pictures with people in them to give you some scope. when you just see these trees from a distance, it looks much like any other forest. but walk among them and it feels like you are walking through the set of jurassic park. for not only are the trees giant, as you can see, but so is everything else. this picture of me with some ferns is me standing in the ferns, not sitting. they were as tall as me. we also saw rhododendron plants that were easily 10 feet tall, for those of you who know anything about plants.

of course, the trees dwarf everything else. these trees only grow out of each other, so they are called mother/daughter trees--they don't propagate by seed like other trees. their bark is naturally flame-retardant, so they can't burn down. and their bark is silvery with vertical stripes--it is the wood inside that gave the tree its name. and just when you think you've seen it all on one of these trails, you see something like this: a giant uprooted tree. and then you realize that it is a root system this small that supports a 200+ foot tree. crazy.





after a short walk, we headed further south, and walked the lady bird grove loop hike, where we also ate lunch. interestingly, this national park was not designated as such until the 1960s, and it was in this grove in the heart of the park that it was dedicated. after lunch it was several hours of twisty roads leading south to the coast road, highway 1, long considered one of the great american drives. i'm talking harrowing, 15 mph turns, through speckled lighting. but it was still beautiful driving, with more than the occasional redwood. and i think it was all worth it for those 40 or so miles that we spent driving along the coast. the fog had gone away several hours before, and it was nothing but sun and wind on the mostly rocky northern california coast. we stopped in fort bragg (no relation) for a great authentic italian dinner, thanks to the yelp application for iphone. and then it was more driving--we made it all the way to dublin, which is a little east of oakland in the bay area. thankfully this means that we have only a few more hours to yosemite tomorrow. yay!