Trip Report October - Travels in the twilight zone

This is a trip report of our 3 week holiday starting and ending in Las Vegas, via Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Encinitas, Los Angeles, Monterey Peninsula, Big Sur, San Francisco, Yosemite and Death Valley.

Trip was to celebrate my 50th birthday, and there were just the two of us. I like hiking and scenery, while my wife Janette prefers cities, coast and culture, so I planned the trip to give a mixture of both.

Warning : these reports contain opinions and may cause offence! These are only based on brief visits to each place, and are honest opinions, so include both likes and dislikes. Hope you enjoy them, and I%26#39;d be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Links to previous days of our trip

Days 1-2 Las Vegas

http://tinyurl.com/6oy7z3

Days 3-4 Las Vegas to Zion via Valley of Fire

http://tinyurl.com/5vv9rk

Day 5 Zion to Bryce

http://tinyurl.com/6gsgeb

Days 6-8 Bryce to Grand Canyon and Encinitas

http://tinyurl.com/59ohpb

Days 9-10 Los Angeles

http://tinyurl.com/5j75da

Day 11 LA to Cambria

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g32148-i484-k23834…

Day 12 Hearst Castle

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g32148-i484-k23850…

Day 13 Big Sur and Monterey Peninsula

http://tinyurl.com/9qfoh5

Days 14-16 San Francisco

http://tinyurl.com/9pjvpj

Day 17 San Francisco to Mariposa

http://tinyurl.com/94ryj4

Day 18 Yosemite

http://tinyurl.com/9zojus

Trip Report October - Travels in the twilight zone

DAY 19 – Saturday 4th October - Mariposa to Lone Pine via Lake Isabella

Up early today for a big driving day. Original plan had been to take the Tioga Road to the east entrance, stopping off at various places en route (Tuolumne Meadows in particular) but Tioga Pass was closed due to last night’s storm, with snow about 7,000 feet. Our new plan was to get somewhere around Bakersfield for tonight, and head into Death Valley the next day.

It was raining heavily when we set off, but this stopped after a few miles. Highway 120 was very scenic here, running alongside the river first than going into the hills. Went through Mariposa again, then towards Fresno through what looked to us like ranching country with huge views over grassy fields. This part of the journey was very pleasant. We then got onto the Interstate which was quiet but very dull, through flat landscapes, with the mountains almost out of sight on our left. When we got to Fresno we decided to add some interest to the journey, by taking a short-cut over the hills to Lake Isabella. We didn’t realise just how much interest we were about to add to our travels!

Petrol tank was about one-quarter full, and I planned to stop by the next petrol station we saw, but was confident we had enough to get to Lake Isabella. We went through Delano without passing a petrol station, and then – about 10 miles down the road – there was a sign saying “No gas for next 55 miles”. Normally, you see signs like this outside petrol stations to encourage you to fill up, but this sign was just stuck by the road in an empty field. Decided not to turn back and look for gas, as I thought we should have enough.

The next few miles were a bit weird as the road was almost completely deserted, except for one car ahead, which kept changing its speed to make it difficult for us to overtake. All around was farmland, but just a sea of brown grass amongst low hills. There were very few farms, and they looked poor and half-deserted. One farm had a huge wooden cross about 20 feet high in front of the house by the roadside – this really looked like a place you wouldn’t want to visit and say “we’re strangers who have run out of petrol and no-one knows we’re here. My, don’t you have a lot of chainsaws too?”.

Round one bend we saw skid marks and wondered what could possibly have caused them as it was so empty and desolate here. Just then a squirrel suddenly ran out into the road and back as if playing chicken, and we had at least a possible answer about the skid marks! The road started to wind uphill leaving the brown grasslands behind, and entering a strange landscape with odd stunted trees in fall colours. A few miles later we went through the town of Glennville. This was the first settlement we’d seen since leaving Delano, but even so it was only about 50 houses on the main road.

The road climbed further and opened up to stunning views on the right of huge wooded valley in fall colours, but we didn’t stop as we were too concerned about running out of petrol. We eventually peaked at 6,000 feet altitude, driving through a ski area, then a long long descent in a pretty wooded valley towards Lake Isabella.

To save petrol we were using the brakes a lot and they started to make the car judder, exactly as if it was running out of petrol. At the end of the road, we had a t-junction with no road sign. Nice. Luckily J spotted a petrol station to the left - what a relief! As I paid for the petrol, a number of odd women appeared and started to circle the car than J was still sat in, which was weird. We made a sharp exit before the local albino banjo player could challenge me. This was the only place we felt at all uneasy in our entire trip.

Lake Isabella has a nice name, but was just a large splash of water in desert surroundings, with a bog-standard US small-town layout. We stopped at a helpful National Parks station, where they advised us to make for Lone Pine as an overnight stop. Hadn’t seen many Joshua trees so far, but the next 30 miles sure made up for that. Stopped briefly, but wind was strong and unpleasant here.

Got onto the 395 and headed to Lone Pine. Wind was even stronger here and we could feel it pushing the car sideways. On our left were the mountains, and to our right a massive expanse of featureless desert, and hardly a sign of civilisation, apart from the highway. Starting to get sensory deprivation now, and this was alleviated by a massive billboard up ahead. What marvels could this be advertising? It read “Only 30 miles to really fresh jerky!”. Yes, we were in the kind of area where this was a major attraction! There were frequent updates to this – “Only 20 miles”, “Only 10 miles!” – building us into a positive frenzy of anticipation.

When we reached it the jerky shop was a tired-looking building with a few tired-looking crows perched in front. Inside there were 3 friendly cheerful teenagers manning the shop who offered me a variety of samples. I’ve never had jerky before, but $10 a pack seemed a bit steep. However, it was obviously the best jerky shop for many miles around, and it would have seemed churlish to leave without buying something at least.

After driving forever, we reached Lone Pine at dusk and got the last room at a very nice little Best Western motel. Sunset gave some beautiful colours to the hill and was quite spectacular. Went into the downtown of Lone Pine to see its single traffic light, and to eat at the Seasons which had been recommended at our motel. J had steak and salad, and was given the option of three salad dressings, and asked if she could have salad without dressing. Cue stunned silence from our waitress! She recovered, checked that J really did want her salad to taste only of salad, and then agreed it might be possible to not have dressing, though it appeared she’d have to check with the chef. Felt like we’d indulged in some kind of deviant behaviour.

On our way back to our motel, in preparation for our Death Valley trip tomorrow

we stopped to fill up at the petrol station with petrol and a gallon bottle of water. While paying, a guy came in and asked how much further it was to Las Vegas, as he’d come from Los Angeles. The cashier told him he’d missed his turnoff about 250 miles earlier (now that’s what you’d call a BIG mistake) and now still had another few hundred miles to go through Death Valley.

And so the strangest day of our trip drew to a close.

Trip Report October - Travels in the twilight zone

Sounds like a wonderful time, thanks for reporting bacdk with us. :)

Thanks, David

I couldn%26#39;t stop laughing at your experiences through Kern County, especially the chainsaw and albino banjo player references.

As a former Kern County resident, I know all too well the type of folk you encountered. Glad you survived to tell the tale.

Still laughing.....

Ah yes, I too can easily visualize your Kern county experience . . . thanks for the laughter :-))

I found it interesting that you were underwhelmed by Yosemite, but seemed to see Las Vegas as

';normal';. Whatever.

Is Kern County known for being a bit weird then? We didn%26#39;t know what was happening with the women circling our car - whether they were looking to see if there was anything worth stealing, or whether it was just the excitement of seeing a car where they didn%26#39;t know the occupants.

This was in Wofford Heights - looked the kind of place where people would turn out to see the traffic lights changing - if only they had traffic lights.

Puter,

I can%26#39;t believe I would have used the words ';Las Vegas'; and ';normal'; in the same sentence, they just don%26#39;t fit together!

I%26#39;m aware of our heresy in not liking Yosemite, and know most people seem to love it. It was a surprise to me, as I%26#39;d really expected it to be great.