MPH Travels: California Dreaming

Friends in High Places – 29 June 2010

We awoke to a cool misty morning. We left Crescent City and headed south again on 101. The mighty Redwoods were calling us again. Heading into the mist of 101 we turned off onto a very quiet ‘scenic’ byway. This scenic byway didn’t seem to be being used by anyone else, and we soon found out why. This road was in shocking condition. And at this moment in time it wasn’t scenic at all. Yes, in the mist it was eerily beautiful, but, apart from that you couldn’t see a damn thing. The highlight of this road was where we found an outlook on a clifftop above the ocean, only the mist was so thick we couldn’t see the water at all. We were just standing on a clifftop with a panoramic view of …nothing. Just whiteness. It was eerily like standing on the very edge of a flat world. The Viking blood in me stirred…

We turned around and headed back to the 101. But soon enough we were driving through Klamath where there is a sky ride through the redwoods and a tour through the ‘drive through redwood’. These are both money making ventures and we just wanted to see more of those majestic giants. The famous tree that you could drive through in the old days is now long dead and cut off just above the level of the ‘tunnel’, which you can’t drive through anymore anyway. It is far less impressive a sight than the living forests of giants.

Luckily throughout this entire portion of 101 there were many pull outs and scenic detours. At this point in the day the weather had cleared and the scenic detours were very scenic indeed. We took a turn off and parked. The walk we took made its way into what was signed as ‘The Big Tree’. This really made us laugh. All of these redwoods are huge. So how much bigger could this ‘big tree’ really be? Well, we were quite quickly shut up. This tree was huge.

We walked on one of the side trails and were yet again in awe of the majesty and immensity of these silent giants. Some of the skeletons of these trees had been hollowed out over time and you were able to stand up inside these monsters. The texture and colour of the trees is truly beautiful. I have a new immense appreciation of nature, courtesy of this National Park.

We regretfully made our way south again on 101. But thankfully we had a couple more miles of the giant redwoods to guide us south. The US 101 is a very beautiful drive: A two-lane blacktop, baby-bum smooth that twists and turns through the sun-dappled forest, winding around the mammoth trees rather than cutting a swathe through them.

Eventually though, we left the redwood forests behind. The further south we went the more the scenery changed. The green grass changed to have a golden sandy hue and we started to see something very familiar to an Australians heart: The beautiful big grey gum trees and smaller red gums. Very distinct in this scenery but it just added to the feeling that we were back home.

We stopped in Eureka for lunch at an Applebees’s restaurant. This is another chain restaurant. The meals are really reasonably priced and the food is really quite good. We kept heading south, with Sonoma set in our sights.

If you remember from one of our posts from Shenandoah National Park, we mentioned that we had met a couple from Washington DC. Well, we have kept in touch with Laura and Lindley and knew that they would be in California about the time that we would be. It was agreed that if we had the time we would organise to have dinner together and a catch-up.

We had been communicating via email and in the afternoon we spoke by phone. They were staying in a vacation-rental house in the Sonoma wine region, part of the famous Napa Valley. We met at a convenient nearby park and followed Laura up a long, steep, twisting driveway.

The house was very lovely indeed. A designer-style place but very liveable. It sits on a hilltop with a gorgeous panoramic view that looks like a cross between Australia’s wheat-belt and Tuscany, with the surrounding hills topped by vineyards. As the sun went down and the amber harvest moon rose, the distant lights of the towns of Sonoma and Napa spread out before us like a twinkling blanket, and was reflected in the star-filled sky. It was spectacular.

They had a bit of a feast prepared, with salads, veggies and cheeses from a local farmers’ market, as well as some bottles of some of the better local wines. We had a great time catching up and sharing the company of these wonderful folks. We are lucky to have become their friends and we hope that they can visit us in Australia sometime. We just know they’d love it. In the meantime, we hope they’ll accept our most sincere thanks for their friendship. Thankyou, guys.

To see the West, go East - 30 June 2010

This is a popular Californian term, because the ‘old west’ regions of the state are actually inland, not along the coast.

We had a fantastic breakfast with Lindley and Laura and wished them a very fond farewell in the mid-morning. Our intention today was to head west, through the wine and farm country towards Yosemite National Park. This is one of the most famous parks in the world and the only one in the US that approached Yellowstone for grandeur and diversity.

It took a few hours to cover the distance on the busy old country highways and once we got close to the park, we decided to follow US 108, which doesn’t run into the park, but runs around it to the north, climbing into the High Sierra.

The climb up us 108, through the Sonora Pass was amazing. The road itself climbs steeply into the foothills and the golden grasses and gum trees give way to mosses, clover and pine and fir trees as you pass signs that declare the pass ahead ‘open’. Then the forest thickens as we approached a sign warning articulated vehicles, trucks and vehicles over 25 feet to turn back. The gradient ahead was signposted as 26% and it was every bit of it.

Steeper than any other road I’ve seen anywhere, the road is constantly cresting, dipping, twisting, changing camber and switching back in vertiginous hairpin turns, with sheer cliff on one side the whole way and no guardrails at all between you and a drop of 200 – 1000 feet. Even though your speed only ranges from 5 to 30 MPH, it is a two-hour-plus white knuckle drive with very, very little other traffic. Also, the grinding climb really threatened to overheat the poor van’s engine, which is ill-geared for mountain driving. We really had to baby her. We topped out at 9624 feet, a new record on this trip.

The descent 2000 feet down the other side was equally challenging, beautiful and dangerous. While the poor van’s engine cooled down, the trans and brakes heated up…

Eventually, the terrain levelled out into the table-lands of the High Sierra and we made the junction with US 395, turning south towards Mono Lake and the lakeshore town of Lee Vining, at the East gate of Yosemite National Park. We stopped for gas in the town of Bridgeport, where we had to pay $4.09 a gallon! This is the most we’ve paid for gas anywhere this trip, including Canada! Back in Virginia, we had bought it as cheap as $2.39 and here we were paying about as much as we would back in Australia! We also topped up the oil and bought a spare quart after the grinding climb.

Not far south of Bridgeport, we came upon the scenic overlook above Mono Lake. This part of California is truly still part of the old west and Mono Lake is a beautiful sight, but perhaps after seeing Crater Lake, we’ll never be amazed by such a site again. I hope not, though.

We descended into the valley and walked along the shore a bit before drifting into the town of Lee Vining. We got a spot in the local RV Park and had a cheap(ish) dinner in a famous local restaurant. Tomorrow: Yosemite.

How is that for a steep grade? Please all give Sacky a round of applause.