Eastbound Out West

Leaving beautiful California behind we took a direct but relatively leisurely seven days and six nights to cross the Great Basin*, the remainder of Utah and about one-third of Colorado to reach our “summer home”; the Snowy Peaks RV Park in Buena Vista, Colorado.

*The Great Basin is a sprawling area that covers almost all of Nevada, a big chunk of both Utah and Oregon and a bit of Idaho where no water flows out to an ocean. From Mono Lake on the west to the Great Salt Lake on the east all of the water in the basin either percolates into the ground collects in a few lakes or evaporates. Incredibly, the explorer and U.S. Army Captain John C. Fremont was able to conceptualize this phenomenon when he traversed the area in two exploratory trips in 1843-45 and declared it a "Great Basin".

Here are some photos from our final California hike when we returned to Devils Postpile National Monument near Mammoth Lakes (click here for video of Rainbow Falls on the San Joaquin River).

Attentive readers may recall photos in a previous blog post looking up at the Devils Postpile formation from below. The Postpile consists of hexagonal columns of basalt. On our second visit to the national monument we hiked up to the top of the "pile"...

...and looked down on the talus at the base of the postpile; clear evidence that the columns of basalt do occasionally break and fall, most recently during a series of earthquakes in 1980.

Looking down on the San Joaquin River below Rainbow Falls.

Rainbow Falls, I wonder how they came up with that name?

Remnants of a 90s era forest fire just south of Devils Postpile.

I stumbled onto the Snowy Peaks RV Park in Buena Vista in 2012 when I spent the summer in Colorado climbing 14ers. Betsy visited several times that summer and we liked the area so much that we have returned for extended summer stays in 2013, 2015 and again this year.

The drive from Bishop to Buena Vista is not easy if you are pulling a trailer in the middle of the summer but the faithful truck chugged up and across at least a dozen mountain passes and we caught a break when monsoon winds brought plenty of cloud cover but not much rain. Our first stop was Ely, Nevada for two nights, the second stop was Salina, Utah for two nights and then two nights in Fruita, Colorado before making the final pull to BV.

Nevada's highest point is located, as the name suggests, on the border with California.

 

What better place to experience the Great Basin than Great Basin National Park (on the Nevada-Utah border)? Also, check out this video of us driving to the park from Ely, NV.

High up in the mountains at Great Basin National Park is a "forest" of ancient Bristlecone Pines; 4,000 plus years and still going strong!

One of dozens of mountain passes between Bishop and Buena Vista.

Two weird coincidences during the drive east. When we were in Ely, Nevada I was listening to a news report about the cancelled execution of a prisoner on Nevada's Death Row when they mentioned that the prison where he resides is in Ely. Then, as we were out exploring in Utah and at about the same time that we were passing by this Mormon Temple, we got a message saying that Tex and Rachel were attending a performance of the musical Book of Mormon.

The 100-mile stretch of I-70 between Salina, Utah and Green River, Utah may have the most spectacular scenery of any interstate in the country.

This collared lizard resides in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area, 123,400-acres of BLM land just south of Fruita, Colorado, I-70 and the Colorado River near the Utah border.

Looking north towards Fruita and the Colorado River in McInnis Canyons NCA.

Looking south near the mouth of Devils Canyon in MCNCA.

We've stayed several times at a state park near Fruita but had never been into the town until this trip when we discovered a beautiful bike path that connects the park with the town (and passes under I-70). Lo and behold, two brew pubs in the same block downtown. Fruita, Colorado, nice place! Who knew?

We are planning to stay in BV through the end of September and then return directly to San Antonio.

The Sierra Circle Tour

Road Trip!

Betsy had a close encounter with the California Golden Bear outside of Gov. Jerry Brown's office at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

As we have done several times now in our post-retirement travels around the country we took a trip within a trip; leaving the travel trailer behind in Bishop to venture out into parts of western California where towing the trailer would have been impractical.

We called this nearly two-week extravaganza the Sierra Circle Tour.

From Bishop we went south into the Mojave Desert area northwest of Los Angeles to visit the U.S. Naval Museum of Armament & Technology at China Lake and the Cesar Chavez National Monument near Tehachapi. From there we blew through Bakersfield, avoided I-5 and tooled up U.S. 101 to the city of Hollister where we stayed during our visit to Pinnacles National Park. Then it was on to Big Sur for two days of foggy ocean views on beautiful California Highway 1. From there we took “The One” north and blew right through the heart of San Francisco, crossing the Golden Gate (click here for a 1:20 M video but be forewarned; there is singing...and whistling) and San Rafael Bridges to reach the East Bay city of Richmond – more specifically, the beautiful Point Richmond neighborhood - where we stayed in the AirBnB of a college friend and made two forays into San Francisco; one for a baseball game, the other to visit yet another college friend. After five chilly nights in the bay area we spent a much warmer night in Sacramento and then two nights in the tiny hamlet of Mineral, in the southern Cascade Mountains near Lassen Volcanic National Park. From there we completed the "circle" by returning to Bishop via Reno Nevada on U.S. 395.

There is much too much to say about these adventures so, for the sake of my time and yours, I'll let the photos tell the story. 

One of the newest additions to the National Park Service this site is going to need a lot of work and careful attention to fully and fairly interpret the complex and controversial story of Cesar Chavez and the farm workers union. It's a beautiful place and Chavez and his wife are buried on the grounds.

Pinnacles National Park surprised us. The rocks were formed by volcanic activity, moved by earthquakes and exposed by erosion to rise sharply out of the otherwise rounded slopes of the coastal mountain range. To put it mildly we were expecting something a little cooler when we arrived at the tiny visitor center in triple digit heat. Even stranger was the gaggle of kids crammed into the tiny park swimming pool. The restrooms were not working and the port-a-potties were overflowing. It looked more like a county park than a national park. But that was the east entrance. We went back the next day to the much more serene and sedate west entrance and took a beautiful hike with great views of the signature rock formations that included a cool(er) section through caves created by piles of rock slabs that have fallen from the cliffs over the eons.

 

The agricultural abundance of California was on full display during our trip. Miles and miles and miles of (to us) exotic fruits and vegetables; almonds, avocados, olives and (pictured here) artichokes (french fried and dipped in garlic - yet another type of California produce - dijon mustard sauce).

Gorda is, quite literally, just a wide spot in California Highway 1, about 100 miles or so south of Carmel; nothing more than a collection of eclectic cabins, a restaurant, a convenience store and some gas pumps.

While Gorda is always "out of the way" it was especially so for our visit because the highway has been closed for nearly two years due to a massive rock slide. Thus we were, quite literally, at the end of the road and it was a source of amusement and entertainment to see the reactions of people who had managed to drive more than 100 miles passing numerous signs warning that the road was closed only to arrive at Gorda and be shocked to discover that the road was, in fact, closed.

A room with a view...and not much else. Barely room for a bed and you had to walk outside to a separate building for the bathroom. But our deck was a great place to watch the cars and trucks turn around; or, theoretically, to look for gray whales passing by.

On a foggy, chilly, damp morning I hiked a few miles up into the hills where it was sunny and hot looking down on the foggy ocean below.

In addition to this photo and the four below, you can also see and hear the Pacific Ocean on any these three videos: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3

Betsy's Trinity University sorority sister Donna Stoneham and partner Julie gave us the "special guest treatment" at their AirBnB in Point Richmond; providing great meals, good beer, erudite conversation and (quite literally) very cool views of San Francisco Bay.

Yes, it is June and it is cold.

The view from Donna and Julie's porch as the sun sets behind the San Rafael Bridge.

 

Say Hey! Where is the Barry Bonds statue, the one with the giant head?

A Thursday afternoon "getaway" game got away from the Giants when their closer blew a lead in the ninth. Thanks to Donna for loaning Betsy her Giants shirt.

The Giants AT&T Park is, no question, one of the best in the majors.

 

Where is the the point here?

World Cup fans.

Counting our drive through on U.S. 1 we went in to San Francisco three separate times during our five-day stay in the Bay Area. The last trip and our only overnighter was to visit an old friend from my freshman year at Marymount College, Stan Fasci.

 

Thank God for rent control. This the million dollar view from Stan's apartment in a city where a family of four with a household income of $117,000 is considered to be "low income".

 

Tex and Rachel gave us a gift certificate to use at Starbelly in the Castro. Nice place. Thanks kids!

  

Stan took us downtown to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Awesome building. Pictured here is the men's room at SFMoMA

Orkin a little overdue?

 

Forest fires north of San Francisco put a layer of ash on Betsy's car parked in Richmond; but enhanced the sunset in San Francisco.

Going from AT&T Park in trendy San Francisco to the Coliseum in gritty Oakland where the A's play is like going from day to night. But it is just one of California's many sharp contrasts.

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon Cleveland pounded out a near-record 11 doubles to crush the A's on Root Beer Float Day.

California has a beautiful state capitol and both the Assembly and Senate were in session while we were there.

Betsy wanted to go to Fresno to see the Astros AAA team, the Grizzlies. Unfortunately, the Grizzlies were on an extended road trip. Fortunately, one of those road games was against the Sacramento River Cats! The Cats won on a walk off, two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th. Of the three games we saw, this minor league game was the best.

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. But Dinger, the mascot of the Giants-affiliated River Cats, was a good sport about posing for a photo with an Astros fan.

En route to Lassen Volcanic National Park we made a detour to eat a picnic lunch here at Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity National Recreation Area for the sole purpose of checking this NPS site off of our list. Betsy has now been to 224 NPS sites and I have been to 272. There are 417 NPS sites, 18 of them are national recreation areas and we have now each been to eight of the 18 NRA sites.

The volcano known as Lassen Peak, the southernmost volcano in the Cascade Mountains, erupted in May of 1914 and again, more violently, in May of 1915. B.F. Loomis, an amateur photographer who lived nearby, captured the events with stunning documentary photos that helped to spur the creation of the national park in 1916. This is a photo of the crater at the top of the peak.

 

There was a lot of smoke in the air from the northern California fires but Mt. Shasta was able to poke its head into the blue sky above the haze, about 100 miles north of Lassen Peak.

I hope this is not a violation of NPS rules.

The smoke is not coming out of Betsy's car...it's coming from this.

It's been 103 years now since the volcano erupted and the surrounding area seems to have recovered quite nicely.

There are 59 NPS sites designated as national parks and Lassen was Betsy's 43rd. I've been to 49 of them.

Relaxing at the Lassen Lodge in Mineral.

We saw a lot of beautiful scenery on the Sierra Circle Tour but it is hard to beat our very own U.S. 395; El Camino Sierra.

Our stay here in beautiful, bountiful California is nearly over. We leave Tuesday and will take about a week to cross the Great Basin to Buena Vista, Colorado. There is so much to see and do in California it's impossible do cover it all in one trip. Thus, there is no question about it; we'll be back!