California and Las Vegas part two
The next day we drove to Palm Springs leaving the June Gloom behind! We had chosen a small hotel. This was a fantastic place, fairly simple accommodation, the swimming pool was a good size and could be used at any time of the day or night! There were free bicycles. They asked that you just let them know when you were going to use these. The hotel had a limousine, also hired for free, should you wish to visit a restaurant and not drive. All that was required was to “look after the driver”. Wine, beer and other drinks were free, available at any time, plus nibbles in the room.
The first afternoon we went on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, a rotating ‘tram’ travelling up through the Chino Canyon cliffs. The journey goes through several different climatic areas from very hot up to the top where there is still some snow.
The following day we drove to the Joshua Tree National Park. These trees only grow in the Mohave Desert. Larry, owner, rushed out with bottles of frozen water for us.
When we left Palm Springs we were again given frozen water and a detailed map, very useful, as Patty, the other owner, listed the places we would drive through, very helpfully explained the towns or areas that nothing to offer in the way of refreshment or fuel.
We spent 4 nights in Las Vegas, watched the fountains at the Bellagio, both in the day and at night. We saw the refurbished volcano at the Mirage. We drove to the local Red Rocks Canyon. A wedding party were having photographs taken amongst the rocks.
After relaxing for a few days we made our way to Death Valley, staying at Furnace Creek for one night. They have a swimming pool, the lowest one in the USA, but with the water being in the high 80 decrees even I found it a little too hot. I usually find swimming in the sea and swimming pools too cold! We went to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America and the Western Hemisphere, an area of salt flats and extremely hot. Also explored the Artists Drive, a nine mile drive. The rocks vary in colour and with the shadows in the late afternoon on the mountains a very dramatic effect.
We headed to Yosemite. We went over the Tioga Pass which was really beautiful. Having been to California in May and early June the road over the pass was always closed making it necessary to travel the long way round via Bakersfield and Fresno.
Yosemite is beautiful but extremely popular. Yosemite has many waterfalls, the Bridal Falls being the best known.
We drove to the northern part of California to Red Bluff to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park. On our journey we could see Mount Shasta, the largest mountain in the area, from 90 miles away, covered in snow. This is an area of volcanic activity, with bubbling mud pools and fumaroles smelling of sulphur. Although it was June, when we reached the entrance to the Park we were told we could only go so far as the road at the top was closed by snow. We decided to try and see as much as we could, reaching a notice stating ‘Road Closed’ it was beautiful but cold up there although the sun shone.
We made our way back to San Francisco via the Napa Valley where we stayed for one night. We visited a couple of Vineries, although we didn’t try any of the produce unfortunately! One of the vineyards had closed around lunchtime before we went there but the grounds were lovely. The other one was due to close shortly after we arrived but they did chat to us in a very friendly manner, mostly as we weren’t from the local area. Our hotel for our last night was conveniently near San Francisco Airport.
We returned home with thoughts of going back some day to see more of the area on a future occasion.