[2019]
[2019]
OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS
0216 Death Valley, Bakersfield & Yosemite
As part of our tour of California, Death Valley was interesting, though perhaps not the highpoint that had been promised. Even so, the desert, with real sand dunes, was interesting to see; as was the remote settlement in the middle of it. We also saw the peculiar hill formations about Zebriskie Point -- where an Antonioni film had been made at that time.
In fact, it being springtime, the temperature was not that high; certainly not the 120+ degrees which had taken such a toll of the first wagon trains.
From there we drove over to the other side of the desert where, had it been summer, we would have turned right - to go straight up to Yosemite National Park. It still being spring, however, the passes into the Park from the East were still closed and we had to divert, to the left, as far south as Bakersfield. Reportedly this added something over 600 miles to our journey; which was some indication of the vast distances involved in travelling in North America.
Bakersfield was pretty dreary place, and the highlight was eating in yet another hamburger joint – this time Wendy’s. So we were quite happy to get onto the route north again, going up the Santa Clara Valley and then through the rolling foothills. These were surprisingly like those of England; with dairy herds grazing - altogether unusual scenery for the US.
It was a long hard day's drive before we arrived at Yosemite. We drove in through the first of the redwoods, towering high into the air above us.
This was to be an unusual overnight stop, for we were located, instead of in the hotel, but in the wooden chalets with communal toilet facilities. The two days there were pretty basic. When we got home I claimed against this; since all rooms were supposed to be 3* at least. Even so it wasn't too bad and we didn't have the promised marauding bears coming into the cabins. Yosemite is, of course, a wonderfully scenic park. There is the massive outcrop (El Capitan, the largest monolith of granite in the world) on one hand.
Then, close to where we were staying, were the Yosemite Falls (2,425 ft) which are just as impressive in their own right.
Having said that, as our stay was cut so short – and was so badly organised - that I can't say that we really saw much more than we'd seen from the bus coming into it and going out of it.
From there we went north to Reno.
On route we visited Lake Tahoe. The lake itself was beautiful, still surrounded by snow – as it is high in the hills. Of course, it was also a casino town!
I don't quite know why we went to Reno. It's just a smaller version of Las Vegas. We didn't even bother going to the casinos there.
The only excitement was that Sarah developed toothache and had to be taken to the dentist -- once more at a very high cost. The only positive outcome of this was that he was a rather dishy young dentist who managed to persuade Sarah that she ought to have bands put on her teeth. As a result of his advice she did exactly that when she got back home, where we had been plaguing her over the best part of a year to do this. Perhaps that was well worth the $100 dollars or so it cost to have the toothache sorted out.
From Reno, we went to into the mountains, to Carson City. The town had been preserved very much as it was in the silver rush days. Having said that, tourism was the only available industry. En route we managed to get up to something like 11,000 feet in the Rockies; the highest I had ever been before I went up Mount Entoto in Ethiopia.
From there we drove back down towards the coast, passing through Sacramento. One tends to forget that Sacramento is the capital of California. In the event, all we did there was visit the Railway Museum and a mock-up of its old town Street. Once more this was set up specifically for the tourists, and had very little to do with the original. We didn't even see the capitol in Sacramento but pushed on towards San Francisco.
Approaching San Francisco I also once more tried clairvoyance and correctly predicted two sights on the way in. That was the last clairvoyance I ever tried.
hits