California Road Trip Part 3

The big drive…. Leaving Yosemite we looked on the phone for a route and they were all saying 5-6 hours back via Los Angeles,to get us to the next campsite in Lone Pines, so you can imagine our delight when the sat nav said about 3 hours, which is what we had expected when we planned the route. Weknewis would be a challenging drive with lots of curves and climbing but we were ready for the challenge. So off we set at 9.30am in the direction of Yosemite and the Tioga pass. With temperatures high the last thing we excepted when we got to the gate was to be told the pass was closed due to snow! I asked the guy at the gate if there was a small detour, to which he smiled and gave me a piece of paper with an alternative route. He told me not to take the first 2 roads in an RV as they were not suitable. We said thanks, turned around and set off again. What we did not realise was that this detour would take us a full day, through some icon destinations, and landscapes! We travelled along the old pony express highway, the first part of the detour was almost 100 miles. We went through Sonoro, where Mark Twain had his log cabin, in parts climbing to over 8000 feet in elevation before dropping down to the stunning Lake Tahoe before joining the historic US 395 to Mammoth Lakes. We then travelled alongside the stunning Sierra Nevada mountains before reaching our camp site in the shadow of Mount Whitney and close the the hottest place on earth, Death Valley. A detour that made us appreciate the size of California, the difference in temperature from snow capped mountains to 100 degree plus desert and also the geography of the state. Ironically the Tioga Pass reopened 4 days later?????

Lone Pines. Situated in the middle of the Sierra Nevada and in the foothills of Mount Whitney, Lone Pines looks like a Western town. It even has a museum of Western Films. The area around it has been used as a backdrop from everything from the old Maverick series to Django Unchained and Iron Man. The feeling of space is what you get here. You can see for miles ahead in the desert and still not see the end of the road. The fact it is very close to Death Valley means that it is also very hot. Which is strange as you can still see the snow on the mountain tops. The reason for this stop was to experience the desert, and the clear stars at night. The star show is amazing, as there is very little artificial light. We used this place to stop and relax for a couple of nights and it was a great chance to do this after travelling around. One stop we did make was to a place call Manzanar. It was something we knew nothing about from a history point of view. It was one of 10 Japanese Internment Camps in the US. These were used during WW2 to house all American Japanese citizens. These people were given 48 hours to collect their belongings and leave their homes and belongings and sent to these camps, where they had to live in shared blocks and grow and work for there food as they were deemed a threat to the State, even if they were born in the US. It was a really thought provoking place and interesting to speak to the park rangers who were really honest but embarrassed about this part of their history. It was something we knew nothing about and the last thing we expected in the middle of nowhere. We had planned to visit Death Valley but the heat in Lone Pines was over 100f and that was enough in our little RV.

Mojave Desert. Still following the gold rush towns and the heat our next stop is Barstow. It is in the Desert and has grown as from being a crossroads of the pioneer trails. It also dropped us onto a bit of route 66, which could be our next road trip. The RV really attracts the heat and it can be unbearable when the fan is not on. It took us a day or so to realise we could leave it on all night. The electric is included in the campsite costs. Talking of the RV. You do get RV envy when you see the amazing and huge mobile homes the Americans travel in. We have discovered they travel for months and sometimes years at a time. Many have retirement homes they can go back to when they are ready, but happy to live the nomad life for a while, with all the luxury comforts. Barstow gave the kids the chance to do some shopping at the outlets and also a chance to top up at Walmart for some essentials. We have also learnt a lot of RV parks have nothing around them, so you have to unhook every time you want to go out. 3 miles from the park is Calico. It is an abandoned silver mine that has been loving restored to its original state. It is a great place to visit to experience how tough life was for the pioneers. The heat alone is extreme, let alone when you go down into the mines. The saloon is still the original building and some houses remain and offer gifts and refreshments. The next stop feels like we are going back into civilisation after being out in nature for a while. I am going to miss the feeling of space and the amazing stars at night.