I’ll let the video do the talking…even though it won’t do it justice.
One Big Ass Party – Vegas Baby!
Las Vegas isn’t our usual cup of tea, but Death Valley basically dumps you right into the city, so we said ‘why not’ and made reservations at the MGM Grand right on the strip for one night. We even up graded to a suite with a view! Oh my, what a study in contrast after being in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Death Valley.
We joined the crowds and walked the strip for hours. We saw The Bellagio fountain show, botanical garden display and beautiful glass ceiling, the Flamingo where it all started, and of course the old Vegas sign as you drive up the strip.
We also saw young girls in feathers and super heroes in costume all looking to make a penny in exchange for a picture. There were families on vacation, and couples strolling hand in hand speaking a variety of languages. There were bachelorette parties, and brides and grooms; some getting married for the first time and others renewing their vows Elvis style.
But, there were also crowds of people sitting at automated slot machines that reminded us of video games, blackjack tables, and roulette wheels gambling away their savings (the house isn’t in your favor), and homeless strangers looking for a dime. There was pot and alcohol, and everything else, for sale on every sidewalk, corner and store.
We gawked and took pictures. We were sensory overloaded by the lights and constant loud music. For a one night visit, it was all light and fun for us, a big ass party, but looking around one could easily see the depressing gross overindulgence the lights and music hide, perhaps an escape from reality some were seeking.
We enjoyed ourselves, but definitely felt out of our natural element and probably looked like country bumpkins (maybe not since someone actually asked if we were from Vegas). We we’re glad we came, everything, well almost everything, should be experienced once.
Back to our simple back country camping life!
The Lowest Place in the World
Death Valley was surprisingly beautiful, if a bit hot!
I had no idea what to expect, except heat, as we approached the turn off of 395 towards the valley, but Darrin wanted to go so off we went.
My first surprise was that it is a national park. I had no idea. I thought it was just a back road through a desolate piece of unforgiving land. My second surprise was that it isn’t all flat and dry. We had to traverse fairly high passes to get in and out of the damp, yes damp, salt valley floor, another salt flat. Another surprise was the beautiful colors and designs of the rocks. Who knew? I couldn’t stop taking pictures.
No surprise was the heat. We road with the windows down in the 100 degree heat, a great way to get the full effect. I can’t imagine what it is like in the summer.
Overall, we had a very enjoyable, or perhaps memorable, visit. I think it is what we refer to as ‘a one and done’ because of the heat, but definitely a place everyone should visit.
It’s all downhill from here
So, it is my birthday! And what a day it turned out to be. It all started with a night of stealth camping next to a beautiful mountain lake inside Yosemite National Park and breakfast at almost 10,000 feet overlooking another mountain lake. From there it went all down hill…literally.
We left the mountains behind and travelled down and down and down some more, right to 200 feet below sea level at the Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park. The only thing that went up was the temperature! We went from a chilly night of 25 degrees to an afternoon of 100 degrees.
What a day!
Yosemite: Climbing Meca
We had to see Camp #4. The small campground that was the birthplace of modern rock climbing in the US. It still looks like a tiny campground with a bunch of climbers milling around. El Capitan, a climber’s dream ascent, was awesome! Climbers hauling up loads of gear for multiday assents; just crazy to think that someone made that climb in 4 hours with no rope or protection.
This time we didn’t get caught!
Ok, for long time blog readers, there has been an often repeated scene. We are in the middle of nowhere, after a long day driving, find a hidden pool, and go for a dip! Then someone shows up! We got caught, in BC, Yukon, Alaska, Oregon, etc…..
So, here we are in Yosemite. We are walking across the Pohono Bridge with our filled jugs of water from Fern Spring. Yosemite is packed, the roads are packed, el Cap is packed, but the pool below the bridge is empty! In we go…and we didn’t get caught! (Except for the double decker tour bus that went across the bridge! I wonder if our cute little bippies photo bombed anyone’s vacation pictures?)
Yosemite
Yosemite was awe inspiring, majestic and crowded. I’m not used to sharing Mother Nature with long lines of cars, buses and RVs. It was beautiful and I am glad we went, but I think I prefer the quiet woods and bubbling streams.
Plan ‘B’
We are camped just outside the entrance to Yosemite National Park. Most of the forest service campgrounds are closed and gated for the season or too expensive for our budget. Our site is a small pull out a few miles into the National Forest, on a back road along a beautiful little stream. There is even a little dippin’ spot where we took a little dip! A single vehicle has passed by while we are setting up, probably bummed because we found this spot first (dispersed camping in National Forests is quite popular, free, and an under used resource allowable because of our hard earned tax dollars).
We found this site the same way we usually do; we had the Plan ‘B’. The plan B is were we spot a couple of, just OK, potential campsites on the way in. This massively takes the pressure off of us to find the right spot for the night. We then can relax and push on to the perfect spot for the night! Like here!
Burn here, but not there
In the movie Twister the main character, Jo, can’t understand why a tornado will take one farm and not the next. Skipping across the landscape in a pattern of chaos indecipherable to the human mind. I’ve never really been around tornados so it really didn’t mean that much to me, but today I couldn’t get the idea out of my head as we drove through the hills and valleys of southern California.
Last summer in the far north, we had our first experience with wildfires. We saw huge expanses of forest burnt to lonely echoes of their former selves. It was eerie to drive for miles and miles amongst the burnt remains of such majestic souls. We knew cabins and homes were probably lost. We heard stories of whole towns evacuated for weeks. It never really sunk in until today.
As usual, we searched google maps for roads ‘off the beaten path’ which lead us through the dry foothills of southern California. As we rounded a corner into another remote valley, we started to encounter the remains of a recent forest fire. It was sad and eerie, but similar to what we had seen up north. Then we started to notice blank spots where a house should have been, or a store, or a cabin. But these blank spots were in between houses and stores and cabins that were untouched by the flames, little onassis where the fire swerved or dipped. Why? Why did the fire take this house or that cabin and leave the next? Why swerve around one and take the next? I suddenly understood Jo’s statement from the movie.
Why one and not the next?
Fall Gap Ride
Every fall, when the leaves peak, we take our motorcycles and do our ‘Gap Ride’. We ride north, cross Brandon Gap, north and cross Middlebury Gap, north then Lincoln Gap, and finish with Appalachian Gap. A spectacular, if long day, of criss-crossing the spine of the Green Mountains.
Well, it’s fall here in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the range that divides Nevada and California, and we are working our way to Yosemite. Let’s do a west coast version of the ‘Gap Ride’. Up and over, and back again we went taking every pass from Route 49 down to Yosemite (except Route 80…way too many fast cars for us). We even had lunch at Lake Tahoe.
It was absolutely beautiful!
