Two posts have been added today.
27th May 2008, St George, Utah
Today we travelled in 4 states: California, Nevada, Arizona and then Utah.
The Mojave Desert cannot be described or photographed adequately; it has to be experienced. It is mountainous and flat at the same time. Roads run down the centre of flat valley from before Barstow to after Las Vegas yet on both sides mountain ranges flank the valley. There are at least a dozen different ranges, one after the other, all barren but all different and eye-catching.
Venturing into the Mojave National Preserve (no it does not make jam!) was worth every minute. (A preserve differs from a national park only to the extent that hunting is allowed in a preserve.) This preserve has salt lakes, yellow sand dunes rising to 200 metres, black lava flows, rounded granite mountains, cinder cones and sharp peaks of rhyolite. Its geology is fascinating, as is the whole area. Then there are the Joshua Trees. We saw our first ones yesterday near the air force base but this preserve has a forest of them. To grow, these distorted tree yuccas need to be above 3,000feet. They grow to 30 or 40 feet and live about 400 years. About 37 miles into the park is Kelso railway station, a Spanish Mission style edifice of 3 levels which has been restored and is now a visitors centre. Trains still use the line through the preserve. In fact, rail traffic through this area is amazingly heavy.
Las Vegas, on the other hand, is a place to be avoided at all cost. We arrived about 3 and intended to sail through on the main interstate highway only to be caught up in the afternoon peak hour! Still, it did give me the opportunity to stick my camera outside the window and get a few shots of this dirty, unattractive city. Firstly, you are bombarded with large advertising hoardings on both the road in and the road out. They also have structures, like modern triumphful arches of the Roman period built, over roads with flashing advertising as you drive under or near them. Then along side all the freeways there is nothing but sloped off dirt and small gravel. On the north side as we were leaving, I notice one small area had been turned into a gravel garden with a few small shrubs planted but from the road you could see barely a tree and no lawn. Newer residential areas are walled communities and all the houses appear to be the same style within each community and a very similar colour. In fact, house colours here are on the dirty side: stone, grey, brown and rust brown so that I was crying out for some blue, green or white. A trip to the Victorian houses of Eureka should be compulsory for all architects in Las Vegas. I know the dirty shades may be more practical in the desert but they look depressing.
We passed by the Luxor Casino pyramid, the creamy white Ceasar’s Palace complex (tacky Roman columns, statues etc) and were astounded at 3 shimmering gold high-rise buildings. The glass was gold tinted so that they glowed in the afternoon sun. One was the Trump building!
Actually, Las Vegas isn’t the only place to gamble. South of Las Vegas is Primm. There are at least four casinos and each has to have a gimmick to compete. One had castle turrets attached to its multi-storied hotel complex (Whiskey Pete’s), another was next door to 100 fashion outlet stores, another had fake pretty-pretty shop fronts like out of a Hollywood western, while a third had a hotel shaped like a huge barn, many stories high and had its own amusement park. A monorail crosses the Interstate 15 highway to connect Whiskey Pete’s to the fashion outlets and even the petrol pumps are topped with colour TVs that hit you with ads as you are filling the car! There are other gambling places north of Las Vegas too, including one on an Indian reservation. On the outskirts of north Vegas is a prison and we laughed heartily at the road sign that said:
“PRISON AREA Hitchhiking Prohibited”.
To the north of Vegas, the flat valley floor rises to a plateau around 2,000 feet into which wadis are cut and the mountains show ribs of rock strata at interesting angles that identify the lifting and folding of the rocks in the geological past. However, the final treat of the day was so find ourselves approaching a solid wall of rugged barren mountains. The map told us that this was Virgin River Canyon and for 11 miles a 4-lane highway winds its way around solid walls of rock and above gullies down to the river bed. What a fantastic sight and a little foretaste of the Grand Canyon in about a week’s time.
We are stopped the night at an attractive Mormon town of St George, which has the trees and the lawns not seen in Vegas, and we are a little ahead of schedule. Tomorrow, it is off to Bryce Canyon for a couple of days, then Zion National Park so we may not have computer coverage for a week or more.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
26th May, 2008, Yermo, Mojave Desert California
Mist hung low over the hills around El Porto early in the morning which meant that the National Parks Service would not review the opening of the Tioga Rd until after we wanted to be on the road. So it was the southern route via Fresno & Bakersfield for us! We are improving in our routine even now so that we take sometimes less than an hour and a half these days to get on the road.
Despite the longer route on main roads, it has not turned out a bad decision by any means. In fact, what a day of contrasts we enjoyed. From the narrow, winding road down the El Portal Valley, over two temporary bridges around a major rock fall that has permanently closed a short section of the road, we climbed up and down until we reached about 1,000 ft via rocky hills covered increasingly with grey leafed foliage and fewer conifers. Towards Fresno, dry rocky hills gradually flattened out until, in the middle of nowhere, we came to a stop at a 4-way intersection with traffic lights! Not even a farm building could be seen. Here vines and fruits trees presented a repeat of the scene of the Central Valley we had experienced before and after Lodi. It was rather boring since there was nothing to break the skyline but Fresno had very interesting flyovers with gracefully curved supporting columns and, once again, mile after mile of flowering oleanders occupied the centre of the divided road occasionally punctuated by our missed gums. They have so much more character than conifers!
This area is heavily dominated by Mexicans, some legal residents but many not so that when we picked up petrol at Goshen, south of Fresno, we did not hear one word of English spoken.
East of Bakersfield, orange trees were added to the menu and the Sierra Nevada was left behind completely as it descended into barren rolling hills. Bakersfield is like Renmark on the Murray gone mad. It is a dusty country town into which huge outdoor malls and haphazard industry has been spread out. Not at attractive sight.
We were beginning to regret our chosen route when I noticed the Tehachapi Loop on the map and we decided to go off and investigate. As David suspected, it was a rail loop and, to our amazement a long train was in the process of negotiating the loop. Before the attractive little town of Tehachapi, the railway line weaves its way down 3,000feet through at least 5 tunnels and then undertakes a 30 degree loop. As the train had 6 engines, then 105 wagons followed by another 2 engines, the first engines were out of the loop, at the lower level, while the wagons were passing over the top of them at the higher level. It made for an interesting sight. Yes, I, the dutiful wife of a train spotter counted all the wagons!
South of Tehachapi, our mouths dropped open when we saw hundreds upon hundreds of wind turbines lining the hilltops in this windy valley. This town prides itself on being the world’s leader in wind power and you can see why. The twirling white blades were mesmerising to the point of sending one stir-crazy. It would be Don Quixote’s worst nightmare! Please note, however, that several American towns and businesses seem to relish claiming that they ware the world’s biggest at something.
From there we entered the desert, heading for the Mojave. Across the flat plans we encountered the Edwards Air Force Base with its aircraft testing and NASA facilities. Several passenger jets were lined up including at least one 747 but the base went on and on after that. It has a frontage to the road of about 30 miles and is about 18 miles deep.
Furthermore, we made an interesting discovery. If you want good roads out here, travel by a military facility. There and 5 or more in the Mojave Desert area!
The Mojave River at Barstow was totally dry and used for car races it would seem from the tyre tracks and there were certainly plenty of cars around. Las Vegas, up the road, is the major holiday destination of the residents of Los Angeles who don’t go to Yosemite! There was a traffic jam at Barstow where 3 lanes converged into two and the stream of traffic lasted well into the evening.
It was Memorial Day Monday and so the end of a long weekend, just right for a flutter as the casinos of Nevada. According to the lady at the campground, it is the equivalent of Anzac Day but she was amazed and pleased to hear about our dawn services, marches and wreaths because, outside the big cities, she said, nothing is done to really remember the war dead.
Interestingly, she also complained about Bush’s weakness re illegal immigrants from Mexico who “take our jobs and get paid higher wages” as Bush was trying to build allies. This seems a little strange since illegal immigrants are usually cheap labour and I had noticed in a paper recently that several hundred had been rounded up and imprisoned for the first time rather than just deporting them. If they return to the US and are caught again, they will show up in a criminal check. She thought our detention centres were a very good idea!
We settled for the night at Yermo, just out of Barstow in a KOA site with excellent showers (10 would you believe) and an old Santa Fe caboose out the front. It was a dirt site, but you expect that in the desert. However, they had planted excellent windbreaks of she oaks and divided the sites with rows of pruned oleanders. Dozens of birds made the park home but their chirping could not be heard until the next morning when the persistent drone on the freeway returned to normal.
We saw our first racoon today – dead on the road near EL Portal. Until Yosemite we were surprised how little road kill there was but we have seen a fair bit since and, unfortunately, contributed to it as well.
Finally, some observations about signs in Oregon and California, in Oregon, they tell you it is illegal to self-serve petrol and to hitchhike. In California they persist on telling you not to loiter or solicit, but you can serve yourself petrol, provided you pay in advance, of course! Furthermore, signs frequently request that you “Report Drunk Drivers” by ringing their emergency no. 911 (our 000). It must be a huge problem especially on the road from Vegas.
Mist hung low over the hills around El Porto early in the morning which meant that the National Parks Service would not review the opening of the Tioga Rd until after we wanted to be on the road. So it was the southern route via Fresno & Bakersfield for us! We are improving in our routine even now so that we take sometimes less than an hour and a half these days to get on the road.
Despite the longer route on main roads, it has not turned out a bad decision by any means. In fact, what a day of contrasts we enjoyed. From the narrow, winding road down the El Portal Valley, over two temporary bridges around a major rock fall that has permanently closed a short section of the road, we climbed up and down until we reached about 1,000 ft via rocky hills covered increasingly with grey leafed foliage and fewer conifers. Towards Fresno, dry rocky hills gradually flattened out until, in the middle of nowhere, we came to a stop at a 4-way intersection with traffic lights! Not even a farm building could be seen. Here vines and fruits trees presented a repeat of the scene of the Central Valley we had experienced before and after Lodi. It was rather boring since there was nothing to break the skyline but Fresno had very interesting flyovers with gracefully curved supporting columns and, once again, mile after mile of flowering oleanders occupied the centre of the divided road occasionally punctuated by our missed gums. They have so much more character than conifers!
This area is heavily dominated by Mexicans, some legal residents but many not so that when we picked up petrol at Goshen, south of Fresno, we did not hear one word of English spoken.
East of Bakersfield, orange trees were added to the menu and the Sierra Nevada was left behind completely as it descended into barren rolling hills. Bakersfield is like Renmark on the Murray gone mad. It is a dusty country town into which huge outdoor malls and haphazard industry has been spread out. Not at attractive sight.
We were beginning to regret our chosen route when I noticed the Tehachapi Loop on the map and we decided to go off and investigate. As David suspected, it was a rail loop and, to our amazement a long train was in the process of negotiating the loop. Before the attractive little town of Tehachapi, the railway line weaves its way down 3,000feet through at least 5 tunnels and then undertakes a 30 degree loop. As the train had 6 engines, then 105 wagons followed by another 2 engines, the first engines were out of the loop, at the lower level, while the wagons were passing over the top of them at the higher level. It made for an interesting sight. Yes, I, the dutiful wife of a train spotter counted all the wagons!
South of Tehachapi, our mouths dropped open when we saw hundreds upon hundreds of wind turbines lining the hilltops in this windy valley. This town prides itself on being the world’s leader in wind power and you can see why. The twirling white blades were mesmerising to the point of sending one stir-crazy. It would be Don Quixote’s worst nightmare! Please note, however, that several American towns and businesses seem to relish claiming that they ware the world’s biggest at something.
From there we entered the desert, heading for the Mojave. Across the flat plans we encountered the Edwards Air Force Base with its aircraft testing and NASA facilities. Several passenger jets were lined up including at least one 747 but the base went on and on after that. It has a frontage to the road of about 30 miles and is about 18 miles deep.
Furthermore, we made an interesting discovery. If you want good roads out here, travel by a military facility. There and 5 or more in the Mojave Desert area!
The Mojave River at Barstow was totally dry and used for car races it would seem from the tyre tracks and there were certainly plenty of cars around. Las Vegas, up the road, is the major holiday destination of the residents of Los Angeles who don’t go to Yosemite! There was a traffic jam at Barstow where 3 lanes converged into two and the stream of traffic lasted well into the evening.
It was Memorial Day Monday and so the end of a long weekend, just right for a flutter as the casinos of Nevada. According to the lady at the campground, it is the equivalent of Anzac Day but she was amazed and pleased to hear about our dawn services, marches and wreaths because, outside the big cities, she said, nothing is done to really remember the war dead.
Interestingly, she also complained about Bush’s weakness re illegal immigrants from Mexico who “take our jobs and get paid higher wages” as Bush was trying to build allies. This seems a little strange since illegal immigrants are usually cheap labour and I had noticed in a paper recently that several hundred had been rounded up and imprisoned for the first time rather than just deporting them. If they return to the US and are caught again, they will show up in a criminal check. She thought our detention centres were a very good idea!
We settled for the night at Yermo, just out of Barstow in a KOA site with excellent showers (10 would you believe) and an old Santa Fe caboose out the front. It was a dirt site, but you expect that in the desert. However, they had planted excellent windbreaks of she oaks and divided the sites with rows of pruned oleanders. Dozens of birds made the park home but their chirping could not be heard until the next morning when the persistent drone on the freeway returned to normal.
We saw our first racoon today – dead on the road near EL Portal. Until Yosemite we were surprised how little road kill there was but we have seen a fair bit since and, unfortunately, contributed to it as well.
Finally, some observations about signs in Oregon and California, in Oregon, they tell you it is illegal to self-serve petrol and to hitchhike. In California they persist on telling you not to loiter or solicit, but you can serve yourself petrol, provided you pay in advance, of course! Furthermore, signs frequently request that you “Report Drunk Drivers” by ringing their emergency no. 911 (our 000). It must be a huge problem especially on the road from Vegas.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
25th May, Yosemite
Note: see previous two blogs posted today
25th May, Yosemite
Well, “the best laid plans of mice …” as they say. Glacier Point Rd was closed by snow! Apparently, when there is cloud in the valley there is snow on the upper roads and yesterday we had cloud! That means Tioga Rd is unlikely to be open tomorrow morning for our short cut across to Zion National Park to the east. The Sonora Rd a little further north, outside the park, is also unlikely to be open as anything above 8,000ft gets the snow in weather like this. So our exit looks like being to the south via Fresno, & Las Vegas (no, we are not stopping!)
However, we had another hiccup to deal with as well this morning as our car battery was flat. (Americans seem to call it a dead battery, even ‘though it isn’t beyond all help.)We were jump started and directed to the garage in the village where we were told that the battery was recharging okay and just to take it on a long run. But where? The weather was overcast but fine so we decided to head south west in the park to Wawona. Here there is an historic hotel, a store, a covered bridge and a collection of old buildings from the early days.
Two items of interest were found on this road. Firstly, the road cuts across a large granite structure called Turtleback Dome, which has interesting exfoliation, from a geological point of view, that is. I have seen exfoliation before, and even onion ring exfoliation, but this granite dome is fracturing in rectangles formed by both horizontal and vertical lines so that it is almost as if it is being carved to create an impressive stone wall. Exfoliation occurs when water freezes in cracks created in rocks and expands, forcing the rock to fracture. This process is repeated year in, year out, widening the cracks. Eventually rocks crack apart and can slide. Rocks slides are very prevalent in the area because of the steep sides of the U-shaped glacial valley.
Secondly, I discovered the reason for covered bridges. It is easier to replace the small shingles on the roof than the huge beams and planks of the bridge so these are protected from the weather by the roof and sides. The down side is that you can’t see anything from the bridge as you rattle over it.
Petrol was available at 45c a gallon cheaper than near our camp so we got some petrol as well as recharged our battery while we were out.
Otherwise, the drive was not very interesting. That’s the problem with magnificent scenery like Hurricane Ridge, Crater Lake and Yosemite Valley, they spoil you so that unless something is dramatic your attention seems to waver. The historical village was not developed to its full potential as inside the cabins there was little furniture and you had to peer in the small windows to try and gain an impression of what they were like inside. It would have been good to have had the insides lit, properly furnished and replaced the front doors with glass panels so you could see the insides without opening up the interiors to potential human damage. There was no one there on duty although one sole ranger was out in the car park.
Our other disappointment was that there is a fantastic viewing spot called Tunnel View near the Wawona Tunnel. On our way down, the crowds were so great there was nowhere to park our van. Rangers would not let us into the huge bus parking area even though only 1 bus was there so we had to move on. When we returned in the afternoon, it was raining and the view was reduced to a misty Bridalveil Falls and the darker grey U-shaped walls outlined against the lighter grey cloud-shrouded valley.
The rain started at Wawona about 1:30 pm and has not let up even back here at our camp so we have called it a day. Of course, we would have liked to do Glacier Point and the Tioga Rd but we have seen almost everything major the valley has to offer and we cannot blame the valley for my being ill. Until now, we have been very fortunate and we are off to the desert next so presumably, we will be back to dry weather. Mountain weather is always unpredictable.
The problem with Yosemite is the volume of tourists it has to deal with. This morning the crowds were not in the stores as it was fine, but huge waiting lines of cars were building up as people tried to drive into the most popular sites like Bridalveil Falls and Tunnel View. Shuttle buses run every 10 to 20 minutes in the main part of the valley but who wants to stand around waiting at each stop. You can spend more time waiting than seeing the sites or hiking as most sites are easily seen from the road or short hiking tracks. Then, when it rains, who wants to stand around in the cold and rain waiting for buses? I guess it will eventually get to the point where they ban cars or set limits so that you have to buy a permit in advance to get in.
Yosemite has shown us the value of our small van. It is no longer than many of the big utes so that we can tuck it into a normal car space, although we obey “No RVs” signs where they exist and park in the RV areas. This means that we can access many congested turnouts when a good view presents itself whereas those with large campervans or big rigs just have to keep going.
On the way back to our camp (where the showers were being cleaned for the second time today!!!!), we stopped off at the train exhibit near El Porto. Between 1905 and 1945, a railway line ran up to Yosemite terminating at El Porto. They have kept a small station building, a turntable, a caboose and a shay engine here along with 2 timber water towers all of which David found interesting. However, even more amazing is that just a little further along there used to be 2 incline railways. Here rolling stock loaded with forest logs were lowered 3,500 feet down the side of the canyon and empty ones were hauled up. The weight of the loaded cars was used to pull up empty ones! Amazing! David was fascinated by the thought of modelling such a rail system until he realised that in HO gauge the canyon walls would need to be about 40 feet high! Unlikely to fit into any garage!
I may know my redwoods from my spruces, and now, even my Ponderosa Pines (no jokes please!), but I have still to learn my lupines from my lilacs. The Californian lilac may be white, not mauve so that the mauve I saw previously on the coastal hills was probably lupin, not lilac!
Do you know what to do when you are told to “bus your table”? We asked, apparently it is a spelling error and should be “buss your table” but then at another place there was a sign that said, “Please take your dishes to the buspoint”. To buss / bus (besides the usually meaning relating to a passenger carrying vehicle) also means “to clean up”. It isn’t one phrase we shall be bringing home!
And, talking of phrases, we have heard only one “howdy” so far and not one person has told us to “Have a good one”, thankfully. Usually, it is “thanks for coming in”, “enjoy your day” or “ have a nice day now”.
We noted also the English on a sign here in the park. A president and the main park advocate sat around a campfire on this noted spot and “talked forest good”! Interesting, eh?
American produced cars have no separate yellow indicator light as we do. So all you see is a slight flashing of the red brake light on one side. It isn’t very distinct and has caused some close encounters!
Finally, there seems to be a problem with the words hire and rent when in comes to cars/vans. We were told you cannot hire a van, you rent one but then today, at the garage, the mechanic asked if our van was a “hire vehicle”. We are confused!
Leigh, a cashier recommended you buy the original horror movie, “the attack of the red tomatoes”! He sad it was a classic and a shocker! Apparently, there were later versions!!!!!
25th May, Yosemite
Well, “the best laid plans of mice …” as they say. Glacier Point Rd was closed by snow! Apparently, when there is cloud in the valley there is snow on the upper roads and yesterday we had cloud! That means Tioga Rd is unlikely to be open tomorrow morning for our short cut across to Zion National Park to the east. The Sonora Rd a little further north, outside the park, is also unlikely to be open as anything above 8,000ft gets the snow in weather like this. So our exit looks like being to the south via Fresno, & Las Vegas (no, we are not stopping!)
However, we had another hiccup to deal with as well this morning as our car battery was flat. (Americans seem to call it a dead battery, even ‘though it isn’t beyond all help.)We were jump started and directed to the garage in the village where we were told that the battery was recharging okay and just to take it on a long run. But where? The weather was overcast but fine so we decided to head south west in the park to Wawona. Here there is an historic hotel, a store, a covered bridge and a collection of old buildings from the early days.
Two items of interest were found on this road. Firstly, the road cuts across a large granite structure called Turtleback Dome, which has interesting exfoliation, from a geological point of view, that is. I have seen exfoliation before, and even onion ring exfoliation, but this granite dome is fracturing in rectangles formed by both horizontal and vertical lines so that it is almost as if it is being carved to create an impressive stone wall. Exfoliation occurs when water freezes in cracks created in rocks and expands, forcing the rock to fracture. This process is repeated year in, year out, widening the cracks. Eventually rocks crack apart and can slide. Rocks slides are very prevalent in the area because of the steep sides of the U-shaped glacial valley.
Secondly, I discovered the reason for covered bridges. It is easier to replace the small shingles on the roof than the huge beams and planks of the bridge so these are protected from the weather by the roof and sides. The down side is that you can’t see anything from the bridge as you rattle over it.
Petrol was available at 45c a gallon cheaper than near our camp so we got some petrol as well as recharged our battery while we were out.
Otherwise, the drive was not very interesting. That’s the problem with magnificent scenery like Hurricane Ridge, Crater Lake and Yosemite Valley, they spoil you so that unless something is dramatic your attention seems to waver. The historical village was not developed to its full potential as inside the cabins there was little furniture and you had to peer in the small windows to try and gain an impression of what they were like inside. It would have been good to have had the insides lit, properly furnished and replaced the front doors with glass panels so you could see the insides without opening up the interiors to potential human damage. There was no one there on duty although one sole ranger was out in the car park.
Our other disappointment was that there is a fantastic viewing spot called Tunnel View near the Wawona Tunnel. On our way down, the crowds were so great there was nowhere to park our van. Rangers would not let us into the huge bus parking area even though only 1 bus was there so we had to move on. When we returned in the afternoon, it was raining and the view was reduced to a misty Bridalveil Falls and the darker grey U-shaped walls outlined against the lighter grey cloud-shrouded valley.
The rain started at Wawona about 1:30 pm and has not let up even back here at our camp so we have called it a day. Of course, we would have liked to do Glacier Point and the Tioga Rd but we have seen almost everything major the valley has to offer and we cannot blame the valley for my being ill. Until now, we have been very fortunate and we are off to the desert next so presumably, we will be back to dry weather. Mountain weather is always unpredictable.
The problem with Yosemite is the volume of tourists it has to deal with. This morning the crowds were not in the stores as it was fine, but huge waiting lines of cars were building up as people tried to drive into the most popular sites like Bridalveil Falls and Tunnel View. Shuttle buses run every 10 to 20 minutes in the main part of the valley but who wants to stand around waiting at each stop. You can spend more time waiting than seeing the sites or hiking as most sites are easily seen from the road or short hiking tracks. Then, when it rains, who wants to stand around in the cold and rain waiting for buses? I guess it will eventually get to the point where they ban cars or set limits so that you have to buy a permit in advance to get in.
Yosemite has shown us the value of our small van. It is no longer than many of the big utes so that we can tuck it into a normal car space, although we obey “No RVs” signs where they exist and park in the RV areas. This means that we can access many congested turnouts when a good view presents itself whereas those with large campervans or big rigs just have to keep going.
On the way back to our camp (where the showers were being cleaned for the second time today!!!!), we stopped off at the train exhibit near El Porto. Between 1905 and 1945, a railway line ran up to Yosemite terminating at El Porto. They have kept a small station building, a turntable, a caboose and a shay engine here along with 2 timber water towers all of which David found interesting. However, even more amazing is that just a little further along there used to be 2 incline railways. Here rolling stock loaded with forest logs were lowered 3,500 feet down the side of the canyon and empty ones were hauled up. The weight of the loaded cars was used to pull up empty ones! Amazing! David was fascinated by the thought of modelling such a rail system until he realised that in HO gauge the canyon walls would need to be about 40 feet high! Unlikely to fit into any garage!
I may know my redwoods from my spruces, and now, even my Ponderosa Pines (no jokes please!), but I have still to learn my lupines from my lilacs. The Californian lilac may be white, not mauve so that the mauve I saw previously on the coastal hills was probably lupin, not lilac!
Do you know what to do when you are told to “bus your table”? We asked, apparently it is a spelling error and should be “buss your table” but then at another place there was a sign that said, “Please take your dishes to the buspoint”. To buss / bus (besides the usually meaning relating to a passenger carrying vehicle) also means “to clean up”. It isn’t one phrase we shall be bringing home!
And, talking of phrases, we have heard only one “howdy” so far and not one person has told us to “Have a good one”, thankfully. Usually, it is “thanks for coming in”, “enjoy your day” or “ have a nice day now”.
We noted also the English on a sign here in the park. A president and the main park advocate sat around a campfire on this noted spot and “talked forest good”! Interesting, eh?
American produced cars have no separate yellow indicator light as we do. So all you see is a slight flashing of the red brake light on one side. It isn’t very distinct and has caused some close encounters!
Finally, there seems to be a problem with the words hire and rent when in comes to cars/vans. We were told you cannot hire a van, you rent one but then today, at the garage, the mechanic asked if our van was a “hire vehicle”. We are confused!
Leigh, a cashier recommended you buy the original horror movie, “the attack of the red tomatoes”! He sad it was a classic and a shocker! Apparently, there were later versions!!!!!
24th May, Yosemite
Today the valley was occupied by little yellow pixies (people of all shapes and sizes in unflattering plastic ponchos purchased hurriedly at the store) flitting between the huge trees and drowned rats (people who failed to come prepared for mountain weather and wanted to show they were brave enough to hike in the rain)! It was cold and rained all day in the valley although it was dry at our campsite half an hour down the road when we returned. There was little to see today that we had not already seen because of low cloud and mist.
We know it’s raining but you have to wonder where all the water comes from. This is a valley of huge waterfalls and the river rushes on at a furious pace yet there is virtually no snow left on the mountains. It seems like there must be a huge water pump that recycles the water from the end of the valley back up into its headwaters because the valley is so immense in its impact, that you are totally unaware of anything outside of it. You cannot see the huge Sierra Nevada whose snow continues to feed the valley. It appears almost as a self-contained ecosystem and you have to remind yourself that in fact it is only a tiny part of a more magnificent whole.
I wasn’t well enough to venture out much in the rain, although feeling a lot better as the medication kicked in, and David didn’t fancy tramping about in the cold and wet so we confined ourselves to spending the morning moving about from one building to another in the village. First, we shopped for souvenirs in the store before inspecting the Visitor Centre and choosing a souvenir book to remember the valley by. There is a gallery here featuring mainly a local photographer’s work going back many years. One of his small, early black and white photos is available for sale at $60,000 US! Everything there was either not to our taste or too expensive. Then it was off to the Museum, which had a wonderful display of beautiful Indian woven baskets (done for non-Indian consumption, not native use). Several of the baskets were very large taking 3 or 4 years to make, although weaving was largely a winter activity. Originally baskets were used as cooking pots and large hot stones were placed inside them and stirred around so very few old examples survive hence the reliance of those bought by collectors. Nevertheless, it showed the skills of the female weavers of the early to mid-twentieth century. There is a reconstructed Indian village, including bark tepees, there behind the museum but in the rain we were getting too cold and retired to the store to purchase some food before a lunch of hot soup and toast in the van.
I guess this is as good a spot as any to discuss food. Back home, we were warned of the huge helpings served up at restaurants here (quantity rather than quality seems the order of the day) and to watch our cholesterol intake but we have basically cooked for ourselves. The biggest problem has been purchasing small quantities. Strawberries seem to be bought in 2lb (900gm) and 4lb (1.8kg) punnets (not 250gm!). Here, in the park, they have smaller quantities as they are dealing with lots of campers and backpackers. We were able to buy a litre (approx) size carton of orange juice, which we had struggled to find elsewhere. Except for individual servings, most juice comes in huge containers that will not fit on our little fridge door. I guess part of the obesity problem here may be caused by the cheapness of meat. We purchased good quality grilling steak 4cm thick at $1:77US a pound = $4:50 A per kilo! (Leigh take note!) We are spending only about $3 - $4 a meal on meat! On the other hand, many staple fruits and vegies seem similar or higher in price to back home so that we are actually spending more on food than David budgeted for even though we have only had 3 evening meals and a few lunches out. Tea is cheap here, being as low as $1:10 for a large cup but it is teabag in a paper cup! You get a brown corrugated cardboard collar to place around the cup so you don’t burn yourself. Bread continues to be a problem as sugar, honey or molasses is added to it making it too sweet for us but we have realised that what is called “sourdough bread” is more to our taste. Nevertheless, yesterday we bought some sourdough long rolls that were inedible. Also, we have yet to see anything like a Michael’s Patisstiere or a Deli France here. Cakes / biscuits tend to be of the Tip Top variety and not particularly enticing! This is very fortunate and we have not bought a packet of biscuits since we arrived and have avoided morning and afternoon tea. Consequently, David has lost weight but I will need to weigh myself as my waistline seems unfortunately unchanged!
In the afternoon today, we took the opportunity to do the week’s washing of sheets, towels etc at the local laundry (our camp site has no laundry facilities would you believe!). In one of the campsites within the park there is a very large Laundromat with very reasonable prices compared to many other items here. So, despite the inclement weather, our day was still profitable.
Talking of our campsite, according to one camper, the showers etc had not been cleaned for three days and you can tell. But this morning they were closed for cleaning. However, when I went in half an hour later, the toilet paper was still on the floor and the floor filthy with dirt and hair. I did not inspect to see if the hair bands and plastic bottle tops had been removed from the shower I used last night! Obviously, cleaning means replacing toilet rolls! The site had received a bad review on cleanliness on the internet but David had hoped that this was because the reviewer was there at the end of the season! Not true. At $40 a night for filthy showers and toilets and primitive gravel roads carved into the hillside, this site is a last resort. We were unable to get a place within the park because of the Memorial Day holiday so this was the closest. You expect a poorer level of facilities in a park but then you pay a lot less for it. Ah, but the showers are hot and included!
Tomorrow, they are predicting 40% rain, whatever that means! It is the same forecast as for today and it rained all day! We have decided to proceed with our plans and visit Glacier Point regardless. We shall have to investigate Monday’s plans too. An unexpected snowstorm dumped 6 inches of snow on the recently cleared Tioga Road which we had hoped to use as our exit from the park as it is the only road that transverses the park and rises to the Tioga Pass at about 10,000 feet.
Today the valley was occupied by little yellow pixies (people of all shapes and sizes in unflattering plastic ponchos purchased hurriedly at the store) flitting between the huge trees and drowned rats (people who failed to come prepared for mountain weather and wanted to show they were brave enough to hike in the rain)! It was cold and rained all day in the valley although it was dry at our campsite half an hour down the road when we returned. There was little to see today that we had not already seen because of low cloud and mist.
We know it’s raining but you have to wonder where all the water comes from. This is a valley of huge waterfalls and the river rushes on at a furious pace yet there is virtually no snow left on the mountains. It seems like there must be a huge water pump that recycles the water from the end of the valley back up into its headwaters because the valley is so immense in its impact, that you are totally unaware of anything outside of it. You cannot see the huge Sierra Nevada whose snow continues to feed the valley. It appears almost as a self-contained ecosystem and you have to remind yourself that in fact it is only a tiny part of a more magnificent whole.
I wasn’t well enough to venture out much in the rain, although feeling a lot better as the medication kicked in, and David didn’t fancy tramping about in the cold and wet so we confined ourselves to spending the morning moving about from one building to another in the village. First, we shopped for souvenirs in the store before inspecting the Visitor Centre and choosing a souvenir book to remember the valley by. There is a gallery here featuring mainly a local photographer’s work going back many years. One of his small, early black and white photos is available for sale at $60,000 US! Everything there was either not to our taste or too expensive. Then it was off to the Museum, which had a wonderful display of beautiful Indian woven baskets (done for non-Indian consumption, not native use). Several of the baskets were very large taking 3 or 4 years to make, although weaving was largely a winter activity. Originally baskets were used as cooking pots and large hot stones were placed inside them and stirred around so very few old examples survive hence the reliance of those bought by collectors. Nevertheless, it showed the skills of the female weavers of the early to mid-twentieth century. There is a reconstructed Indian village, including bark tepees, there behind the museum but in the rain we were getting too cold and retired to the store to purchase some food before a lunch of hot soup and toast in the van.
I guess this is as good a spot as any to discuss food. Back home, we were warned of the huge helpings served up at restaurants here (quantity rather than quality seems the order of the day) and to watch our cholesterol intake but we have basically cooked for ourselves. The biggest problem has been purchasing small quantities. Strawberries seem to be bought in 2lb (900gm) and 4lb (1.8kg) punnets (not 250gm!). Here, in the park, they have smaller quantities as they are dealing with lots of campers and backpackers. We were able to buy a litre (approx) size carton of orange juice, which we had struggled to find elsewhere. Except for individual servings, most juice comes in huge containers that will not fit on our little fridge door. I guess part of the obesity problem here may be caused by the cheapness of meat. We purchased good quality grilling steak 4cm thick at $1:77US a pound = $4:50 A per kilo! (Leigh take note!) We are spending only about $3 - $4 a meal on meat! On the other hand, many staple fruits and vegies seem similar or higher in price to back home so that we are actually spending more on food than David budgeted for even though we have only had 3 evening meals and a few lunches out. Tea is cheap here, being as low as $1:10 for a large cup but it is teabag in a paper cup! You get a brown corrugated cardboard collar to place around the cup so you don’t burn yourself. Bread continues to be a problem as sugar, honey or molasses is added to it making it too sweet for us but we have realised that what is called “sourdough bread” is more to our taste. Nevertheless, yesterday we bought some sourdough long rolls that were inedible. Also, we have yet to see anything like a Michael’s Patisstiere or a Deli France here. Cakes / biscuits tend to be of the Tip Top variety and not particularly enticing! This is very fortunate and we have not bought a packet of biscuits since we arrived and have avoided morning and afternoon tea. Consequently, David has lost weight but I will need to weigh myself as my waistline seems unfortunately unchanged!
In the afternoon today, we took the opportunity to do the week’s washing of sheets, towels etc at the local laundry (our camp site has no laundry facilities would you believe!). In one of the campsites within the park there is a very large Laundromat with very reasonable prices compared to many other items here. So, despite the inclement weather, our day was still profitable.
Talking of our campsite, according to one camper, the showers etc had not been cleaned for three days and you can tell. But this morning they were closed for cleaning. However, when I went in half an hour later, the toilet paper was still on the floor and the floor filthy with dirt and hair. I did not inspect to see if the hair bands and plastic bottle tops had been removed from the shower I used last night! Obviously, cleaning means replacing toilet rolls! The site had received a bad review on cleanliness on the internet but David had hoped that this was because the reviewer was there at the end of the season! Not true. At $40 a night for filthy showers and toilets and primitive gravel roads carved into the hillside, this site is a last resort. We were unable to get a place within the park because of the Memorial Day holiday so this was the closest. You expect a poorer level of facilities in a park but then you pay a lot less for it. Ah, but the showers are hot and included!
Tomorrow, they are predicting 40% rain, whatever that means! It is the same forecast as for today and it rained all day! We have decided to proceed with our plans and visit Glacier Point regardless. We shall have to investigate Monday’s plans too. An unexpected snowstorm dumped 6 inches of snow on the recently cleared Tioga Road which we had hoped to use as our exit from the park as it is the only road that transverses the park and rises to the Tioga Pass at about 10,000 feet.
23rd May, Yosemite, California, USA
Which would you prefer: wind or fog? Fog, definitely! It blew a gale all night and the strong wind whipping up topsoil from newly ploughed fields and from between rows of vines and cherry, almond and apricot trees which meant that only David slept the night at Lodi and the brown soil haze was worse the next day (yesterday). However, the locals describe it as unusually strong wind although wind is a common feature of the broad Central Valley.
After stocking up on a few groceries, since we can carry about 3 days supply only, we headed straight for Yosemite National Park. There wasn’t much of interest to see along the way except the longest covered bridge west of the Mississippi, which is now out of commission but resides near the “rodeo capital of the world”, Oakdale, an outwardly average looking town.
Around Oakdale onwards the landscape was very Australian with rolling dry hills almost barren of trees and lots of corrugated iron sheds. But as we drove into the mountains, the hills doubled in size quickly and the mountain road wound steeply for 5 miles to reach over 2,000ft. Then we were in conifer forests once again. The higher we rose the stiffer the petrol prices became. From under $4 a gallon it increased to $4:10 to $4:17 then $4:29 and so on until El Portal (near our campsite), where it hit $4:96 almost the same price as at home. While there are shops and restaurants as well as hotels and campsites within the park, no petrol is available within the park itself.
Suddenly, you round a bend and WOW! Yosemite Valley, a narrow valley, a minute part of the overall park, lies before you from an unmarked lookout. If Crater Lake was stunningly beautiful, then Yosemite Valley is dramatically powerful. The scene is of grey sheer cliff faces topped by a number 1 crew cut of conifer trees. At the feet of the cliffs lie sloping forests that edge the cascading river that winds and tumbles over boulders from small to immense that litter the valley floor. In the afternoon sunlight, the river glows a light, pale green making it an eye-catching feature rather than some grey stream lost in the valley floor.
Everywhere you look, your attention is arrested. Straight in front of you, your eyes immediately are stunned by the immense Half Dome, which is Yosemite’s most distinctive feature. This granite dome formed from magma deep within the earth and thrust upwards in the making of the Sierra Nevada, rises 8,842 ft isolated by the erosion of the softer surrounding rocks. Half of it, loosened by exfoliation (rocks do it too!) due to weather has disappeared into the valley creating this astounding feature. To the right is a huge Elephant Rock dome that has partially collapsed leaving gigantic boulders on its scree slopes and in the Merced River. It has a thinner tower of rock at its face, like an elephant’s trunk, presumably leading to its name. In the upper right of your vision is the slim Bridalveil Falls. Despite its length (650ft), it is outdone by two other falls within the valley that fall within the top longest falls in the world. Luckily, as it is spring, all the falls are still gushing as is the lovely Cascade Falls (550ft), which are to your left as you stand at viewpoint and neither it is one of the two long falls in the park.
But you have to move on. This is so narrow a valley and so popular that cars cannot find enough spaces to park on the viewpoints or turnouts (laybys) along the winding road that clings to the cliff faces about a third the way up the valley wall at this stage. We stopped another couple of times especially at the Cascade Falls but were too tired to continue into the valley proper at this late time in the afternoon.
A lot of roadwork is being undertaken within the park especially near the three-way intersection at the entrance to the main part of the valley. To get the work done, traffic in one direction or another if not all directions is stopped so that you can be delayed for 30 minutes. David & I went to sleep just sitting in the van waiting in the afternoon sun so we were rudely awaken when the 30 minutes was up! The road is so narrow that they are continuing to construct two feet high stone walls along the outer edge of the road to stop you going over! Road works signs are clamped onto these walls so that the signs themselves are cantilevered over the edge! There is no room on the road for them!
From here we made our way back along the lower road, and out of the park, to El Portal, as we were unable to prebook a park campsite. It is the Memorial Day long weekend. It is a basic looking site but we have full hook ups (water, power & sewerage) and the hot showers are included. Yeah! Unlike almost all of our previous private campsites, this one takes tents so there is often a queue for the 4 toilets and 4 showers available for the whole van park!
Last night, we planned our hiking routes for the day to makes sure we cover the major features of the park over the next 3 days. However, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that meant that David ended up doing most of the walks and I slept in the van after a visit to the Medical Clinic. My head cold had developed into a sinus infection and bronchitis.
This was our first brush with the American health system. For $156 I got to see 2 nurses and was given 30 antibiotic tablets. The first nurse took your medical history, your current drug usage and your temperature and blood pressure. The second nurse took your medical history, your current drug use and listened to my chest before prescribing. At home, one would see a specialist for the price! However, I was very grateful and was the first patient of the day so the service was prompt.
After investigating the Village store for a muffin to assist in the taking of the first set of tablets (68% fat, 30% saturated fat, 65% cholesterol according to the label!), David set off alone.
Ros
All alone in Yosemite! That’s impossible except maybe in the backwoods. If the number of people and cars that I saw today is any indication then I can certainly see why this is the most popular National Park in the USA. And the holiday weekend doesn’t start until tomorrow (Saturday) – what will it be like then? Being only 3-6 hours from several major cities makes it a very accessible place.
Since the plan for the day had been upset, I ended up with a somewhat modified version. A check at the Visitors Centre confirmed that the road we want to take out of the park on Monday and the one for sightseeing on Sunday are both open. After purchasing a map of trails in the valley I had a pleasant walk along a well-paved path to the Lower Yosemite Falls. These falls form the third tier of the Yosemite Falls, dropping 320 feet out of a total of 2425 feet. The main viewpoint for the falls, at the bridge across Yosemite Creek, was very popular with the tourists despite the shower of rain that had commenced during my walk there.
As my plan was to gradually travel east, I branched off the falls trail onto the Valley Loop Trail that curves around the north side of Yosemite Village. The path was rough in places and, passing mainly through light forest, only offered minimal views of the valley sides. The village is one of several in the valley that provides services not only for the tourists but for a permanent community of about 1500 people. There are a number of stores, including a substantial supermarket, post office and a school for all the worker’s children. As the sun started to reappear I descended to the valley floor arriving at an open meadow near the Medical Centre. The open space provided more views of the shear rock sides of the valley as I headed south-east to the Happy Isles. After walking as far as Curry Village the rain was returning so the free Shuttle Bus seemed the better way to continue my journey. Free hybrid powered buses run frequent services to all the major points of interest in the valley in an attempt to limit the number of cars on the roads (but there are still plenty of them).
By the time the bus reached Happy Isles the rain had increased. Following the sign to the Mist Trail, which I thought would take me to the Happy Isles, resulted in me commencing the climb to the Vernal Falls. This 1.5 mile well paved trail, described in the guides as “moderate”, actually involves several rather strenuous steep climbs before reaching a bridge that provides an almost complete view of a wide body of water falling 317 feet before continuing its way down the boulder strewn Merced River valley. Signs at the bridge told me it was another half a mile to the top of the falls. As it was now lunchtime I decided to stop as soon as I found a very good vantage point. After another 10 minutes, during which the rain stopped, I found a spot where I was able to climb to the top of rock, eat my lunch, and enjoy a superb view of the falls. Other walkers could be seen continuing to last section of the trail that involves a rocky stairway of over 500 steps that reaches the top of the falls. Despite the difficult ascent, the trail provided numerous vistas of a river driving its way through a narrow valley, other waterfalls and cascades, and the omnipresent rock faces that seem to typify the Yosemite Valley. It is also a very popular route as witnessed by the almost continuous stream of walkers travelling in both directions of the trail. (The trail continues for another 2 miles to the Nevada Falls.) Although there were numerous people about the wildlife were both visible and active. I had several “close encounters” with squirrels as they scurried about foraging for food. Squirrels must be fairly common in the US as the local visitors seem to take no notice of them. That must be role of the foreign tourist. Except for about two short sections the return journey was, thankfully, downhill.
By comparison, the Happy Isles turned out to be a very easy stroll. This short walk takes you onto two islands in the middle of the Yosemite River. They were so named because of the tranquil surroundings engendered by the open forest and the water flowing past. However, my tranquillity had now been spent so I caught a shuttle bus back to the all day car park where Ros had spent the day in the van.
We drove out of the park expecting to take the same “two-way” route by which we arrived earlier in the day. The normal traffic flow within the valley is basically one-way anticlockwise but, because of road works, one section of road was closed while another was operating as two-way. To our surprise, the road works were finished (in time for the long weekend!) so we missed the stops that we had intended to make to obtain afternoon views. An even better surprise awaited us when we reached the spot where we expected the 30min delays. All gone – no doubt in readiness for the weekend.
David
Which would you prefer: wind or fog? Fog, definitely! It blew a gale all night and the strong wind whipping up topsoil from newly ploughed fields and from between rows of vines and cherry, almond and apricot trees which meant that only David slept the night at Lodi and the brown soil haze was worse the next day (yesterday). However, the locals describe it as unusually strong wind although wind is a common feature of the broad Central Valley.
After stocking up on a few groceries, since we can carry about 3 days supply only, we headed straight for Yosemite National Park. There wasn’t much of interest to see along the way except the longest covered bridge west of the Mississippi, which is now out of commission but resides near the “rodeo capital of the world”, Oakdale, an outwardly average looking town.
Around Oakdale onwards the landscape was very Australian with rolling dry hills almost barren of trees and lots of corrugated iron sheds. But as we drove into the mountains, the hills doubled in size quickly and the mountain road wound steeply for 5 miles to reach over 2,000ft. Then we were in conifer forests once again. The higher we rose the stiffer the petrol prices became. From under $4 a gallon it increased to $4:10 to $4:17 then $4:29 and so on until El Portal (near our campsite), where it hit $4:96 almost the same price as at home. While there are shops and restaurants as well as hotels and campsites within the park, no petrol is available within the park itself.
Suddenly, you round a bend and WOW! Yosemite Valley, a narrow valley, a minute part of the overall park, lies before you from an unmarked lookout. If Crater Lake was stunningly beautiful, then Yosemite Valley is dramatically powerful. The scene is of grey sheer cliff faces topped by a number 1 crew cut of conifer trees. At the feet of the cliffs lie sloping forests that edge the cascading river that winds and tumbles over boulders from small to immense that litter the valley floor. In the afternoon sunlight, the river glows a light, pale green making it an eye-catching feature rather than some grey stream lost in the valley floor.
Everywhere you look, your attention is arrested. Straight in front of you, your eyes immediately are stunned by the immense Half Dome, which is Yosemite’s most distinctive feature. This granite dome formed from magma deep within the earth and thrust upwards in the making of the Sierra Nevada, rises 8,842 ft isolated by the erosion of the softer surrounding rocks. Half of it, loosened by exfoliation (rocks do it too!) due to weather has disappeared into the valley creating this astounding feature. To the right is a huge Elephant Rock dome that has partially collapsed leaving gigantic boulders on its scree slopes and in the Merced River. It has a thinner tower of rock at its face, like an elephant’s trunk, presumably leading to its name. In the upper right of your vision is the slim Bridalveil Falls. Despite its length (650ft), it is outdone by two other falls within the valley that fall within the top longest falls in the world. Luckily, as it is spring, all the falls are still gushing as is the lovely Cascade Falls (550ft), which are to your left as you stand at viewpoint and neither it is one of the two long falls in the park.
But you have to move on. This is so narrow a valley and so popular that cars cannot find enough spaces to park on the viewpoints or turnouts (laybys) along the winding road that clings to the cliff faces about a third the way up the valley wall at this stage. We stopped another couple of times especially at the Cascade Falls but were too tired to continue into the valley proper at this late time in the afternoon.
A lot of roadwork is being undertaken within the park especially near the three-way intersection at the entrance to the main part of the valley. To get the work done, traffic in one direction or another if not all directions is stopped so that you can be delayed for 30 minutes. David & I went to sleep just sitting in the van waiting in the afternoon sun so we were rudely awaken when the 30 minutes was up! The road is so narrow that they are continuing to construct two feet high stone walls along the outer edge of the road to stop you going over! Road works signs are clamped onto these walls so that the signs themselves are cantilevered over the edge! There is no room on the road for them!
From here we made our way back along the lower road, and out of the park, to El Portal, as we were unable to prebook a park campsite. It is the Memorial Day long weekend. It is a basic looking site but we have full hook ups (water, power & sewerage) and the hot showers are included. Yeah! Unlike almost all of our previous private campsites, this one takes tents so there is often a queue for the 4 toilets and 4 showers available for the whole van park!
Last night, we planned our hiking routes for the day to makes sure we cover the major features of the park over the next 3 days. However, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that meant that David ended up doing most of the walks and I slept in the van after a visit to the Medical Clinic. My head cold had developed into a sinus infection and bronchitis.
This was our first brush with the American health system. For $156 I got to see 2 nurses and was given 30 antibiotic tablets. The first nurse took your medical history, your current drug usage and your temperature and blood pressure. The second nurse took your medical history, your current drug use and listened to my chest before prescribing. At home, one would see a specialist for the price! However, I was very grateful and was the first patient of the day so the service was prompt.
After investigating the Village store for a muffin to assist in the taking of the first set of tablets (68% fat, 30% saturated fat, 65% cholesterol according to the label!), David set off alone.
Ros
All alone in Yosemite! That’s impossible except maybe in the backwoods. If the number of people and cars that I saw today is any indication then I can certainly see why this is the most popular National Park in the USA. And the holiday weekend doesn’t start until tomorrow (Saturday) – what will it be like then? Being only 3-6 hours from several major cities makes it a very accessible place.
Since the plan for the day had been upset, I ended up with a somewhat modified version. A check at the Visitors Centre confirmed that the road we want to take out of the park on Monday and the one for sightseeing on Sunday are both open. After purchasing a map of trails in the valley I had a pleasant walk along a well-paved path to the Lower Yosemite Falls. These falls form the third tier of the Yosemite Falls, dropping 320 feet out of a total of 2425 feet. The main viewpoint for the falls, at the bridge across Yosemite Creek, was very popular with the tourists despite the shower of rain that had commenced during my walk there.
As my plan was to gradually travel east, I branched off the falls trail onto the Valley Loop Trail that curves around the north side of Yosemite Village. The path was rough in places and, passing mainly through light forest, only offered minimal views of the valley sides. The village is one of several in the valley that provides services not only for the tourists but for a permanent community of about 1500 people. There are a number of stores, including a substantial supermarket, post office and a school for all the worker’s children. As the sun started to reappear I descended to the valley floor arriving at an open meadow near the Medical Centre. The open space provided more views of the shear rock sides of the valley as I headed south-east to the Happy Isles. After walking as far as Curry Village the rain was returning so the free Shuttle Bus seemed the better way to continue my journey. Free hybrid powered buses run frequent services to all the major points of interest in the valley in an attempt to limit the number of cars on the roads (but there are still plenty of them).
By the time the bus reached Happy Isles the rain had increased. Following the sign to the Mist Trail, which I thought would take me to the Happy Isles, resulted in me commencing the climb to the Vernal Falls. This 1.5 mile well paved trail, described in the guides as “moderate”, actually involves several rather strenuous steep climbs before reaching a bridge that provides an almost complete view of a wide body of water falling 317 feet before continuing its way down the boulder strewn Merced River valley. Signs at the bridge told me it was another half a mile to the top of the falls. As it was now lunchtime I decided to stop as soon as I found a very good vantage point. After another 10 minutes, during which the rain stopped, I found a spot where I was able to climb to the top of rock, eat my lunch, and enjoy a superb view of the falls. Other walkers could be seen continuing to last section of the trail that involves a rocky stairway of over 500 steps that reaches the top of the falls. Despite the difficult ascent, the trail provided numerous vistas of a river driving its way through a narrow valley, other waterfalls and cascades, and the omnipresent rock faces that seem to typify the Yosemite Valley. It is also a very popular route as witnessed by the almost continuous stream of walkers travelling in both directions of the trail. (The trail continues for another 2 miles to the Nevada Falls.) Although there were numerous people about the wildlife were both visible and active. I had several “close encounters” with squirrels as they scurried about foraging for food. Squirrels must be fairly common in the US as the local visitors seem to take no notice of them. That must be role of the foreign tourist. Except for about two short sections the return journey was, thankfully, downhill.
By comparison, the Happy Isles turned out to be a very easy stroll. This short walk takes you onto two islands in the middle of the Yosemite River. They were so named because of the tranquil surroundings engendered by the open forest and the water flowing past. However, my tranquillity had now been spent so I caught a shuttle bus back to the all day car park where Ros had spent the day in the van.
We drove out of the park expecting to take the same “two-way” route by which we arrived earlier in the day. The normal traffic flow within the valley is basically one-way anticlockwise but, because of road works, one section of road was closed while another was operating as two-way. To our surprise, the road works were finished (in time for the long weekend!) so we missed the stops that we had intended to make to obtain afternoon views. An even better surprise awaited us when we reached the spot where we expected the 30min delays. All gone – no doubt in readiness for the weekend.
David
Thursday, 22 May 2008
21st May, 2008, Lodi, California
We are parked, if the van doesn’t take off in the blistering gale, at an RV park outside Lodi, a town in the Californian Delta region of the Sacramento River (= flat as a tack) and I have 3 days of touring to catch up as I have been feeling very miserable with this head cold I caught form David.
Let’s go back to where I left off with our proposed trip into Eureka on 19th. Eureka is a fascinating port town occupied by fabulous old mansions, houses, shops and hotels of the period 1880 to 1910. It is also a base for the Coast Guard; a home for the Pacific summer fog, which lasts until 11am or as late as 2pm before it burns off and returns late afternoon, and an airport built in WWII so US pilots could practise taking off and landing in fog. Homes vary from simple timber cottages to the totally over the top Victorian Carson Mansion and Carson House (relabelled the Pink Lady because of its paint work) build by the timber magnate Carson as a wedding present for his son. They’re unbelivable! Other buildings include Queen Anne, Edwardian, Regency and Italianate architectural styles. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around the first 2 streets back from the waterfront where these buildings reside before treating ourselves to a hot chocolate in the van to warm ourselves up.
By the time we reached the malls on the outskirts of the town, the sun was out early but we were amazed to find these huge single storey malls, occupying vast areas of land along with their external parking areas, almost deserted. On entering a shop, you not only get the usual greeting that comes everywhere as people are so polite here but they rush to serve you! It must be to relieve the boredom of standing around in an empty shop all day. In Eureka, the complex had 5 large stores plus numerous small shops connecting them but we did not see more than a dozen people in half an hour, except for Border Books where I found a fascinating book on embellishments for paper, painting and jewellery, which I bought.
With one shop assistant, we enquired what it was like to live with the fog, to which she replied ‘depressing’ and ‘that’s the reason the town has not gone ahead much’. Locals try to live out of town, inland, a little and so escape it. Still, if the fog has served to help preserve a unique township, then we were grateful.
Our hearts were very uplifted to see our first gum tree, a white flowering ironbark of an excellent age standing alone by the roadside. From here on, over the next 2 days, we have seen numerous groves of well-established eucalypts, including a line of about a mile of them, ironically outside the Californian Redwood Company timberyard.
However, it was soon back to Redwood forests and The Avenue of the Giants although we were a bit disoriented as they had closed a bridge part way along the avenue, which forced us back onto the main road for a while. Unlike in Australia, there were no detour signs erected to guide us so we were unsure whether we would get back onto the road or not. Fortunately, we did. However, despite the great awe these trees inspire and the peace they engender, after a while redwood forests all end up looking the same! (Big trees with lots of ferns beneath.) The tourist shops were full of redwood carvings and not particularly inviting.
That night we stopped at Benbow RV Park and Golf Resort since they offered free internet, a pool (the afternoon inland was very warm) and included showers in the price. This was our best park so far as we enjoyed our dip in the pool, our shaded site (the first) and were able to eat outside at the provided picnic table for dinner. We even got an icecream although there was only a choice of 3 types! Unfortunately, no site is perfect and we felt very guilty, coming from Australia, wasting 5 minutes of full flowing shower water waiting for any hot water to appear! The next morning when we were trying to get on the road, the ladies were closed for cleaning from 6:30 am to 9 am by which time we were on the road. What a strange time to clean an amenities block. The amenities blocks were very good, however; they even provided 2 padded chairs in front of dressing tables, with makeup lights, for the ladies to sit and fix their faces after their showers! How they got approval, however, to build these areas without an opening window amazed us. It was suffocatingly warm inside so that you needed another shower to wash away the perspiration by the time you had finished dressing!
Here are 4 road signs to ponder: “speed enforced by aircraft” ( F111’s?); “Empty 3 m.p.h” (?????); “Resting Oak Village” ( a retirement home for aged oaks?); “Slow for the cone zone” (What have you done to your cone?) and “POSTED Private Property” on a fence (obviously done by a mail/male person).
20th
After travelling through more redwoods and purchasing petrol at $4:21c a gallon at the village of Legget, we decline our second opportunity to see a drive through redwood tree. You have to pay and we can’t drive our van through anyway so it all seemed rather touristy and irrelevant. The Chandelier tree in Legget is 315 feet tall with a diameter of 21 feet but $5 each to look at it seemed a bit stiff.
From Legget, the road winds and winds its way down to the coast and the dramatic cliffs of the Pacific. Here hillsides above the cliffs abounded in wildflowers, mainly Californian lilacs but also some white to mauve flowers we were unable to name and yellow and orange Californian poppies. At turn after turn, dramatic vistas unfolded, of lilac hills abruptly ending in cliffs that disappeared into surf and grey sand beach inlets. Off shore, the seas were littered with tall rocks and headland remnants.
Fort Bragg, in comparison, had nothing to brag about. It is a depressingly grey town whose long waterfront is in the hands of a private company and supports an array of derelict large sheds and weedy scrub. The fog and cold wind did nothing to improve our impression of this drawn out town but it had one saving grace, a large Safeways! At last, we found bread rolls; well, we had a choice of three types you could buy individually. We grabbed them and some soup to warm us for lunch, which we consumed down the road at the delightful tourist mecca of Mendocino.
Mendocino is a pretty coastal, holiday town full of gift and clothes shops and galleries but it is still lovely. The main street of timber shops and the small painted timber holiday style houses date from 1854 to 1905 and faces south. By this time, the fog had lifted and Mendocino was bathed in glorious sunshine. Across the road from the shops, which line only one side of the road, is a field of white, mauve and lemon yellow wildflowers until the field drops to the sea and your eyes take in the cliffs on the other side of the inlet where wind swept waves crashed incessantly against the rocky faces. Between the shops, delightful cottage gardens were in full flower and beautifully attended. We did a tour of some of the streets taking in the historic houses and the all white Masonic Lodge with its tower decorated with large figures of Father Time and a Maiden, and in the process I discovered the best knitting shop I have seen so far. The yarns were enticing but I confined myself to buy some wonderfully unusual buttons (very expensive) to adorn my craftwork. They, at least, are easy to transport home.
Unfortunately, my dallying meant we were running late and David wanted to cross inland and reach Cloverdale, via Boonville. Looking at the map, it was just 47 miles or so but what a 47 miles it was. Poor David had spent all day twisting and bumping over narrow coastal roads only to find himself driving through narrow forested road, worse than we had already experienced. In three sections even the centre lines disappeared which made the hairpin bends really scary. The going was so slow; it seemed to take hours! Fortunately, the only huge RV we saw (bus sized) had given up and found a spot to free camp on the side of the road for the night. I swear it was the only spot on the entire road. Today, when we told the tourist information officer in Sonoma where we had been, she rolled her eyes and was amazed. Only one car came up behind us and that was near the end while only about 6 cars passed us in the other direction and that was in the last 5 miles. It must have been the evening peakhour.
We bought pizza as we were so late and, while waiting, David set off to find someone to tell us why we could not find the camping area we sought. As it turned out, we were on the right road but poor street naming, no signage and uncertainty about why a van park would miles out in the bush away from main roads had confused us. This was our first experience of a KOA (Kampsites of America) park and while there was nothing major wrong with it, the price was a sting at $54 and that’s with a discount because we took our Big4 card with us. Sure, it had a pool but we were too exhausted, and it was too cold, to use it. When you arrive at a site after 7.30pm, you don’t have time to use either children’s playground or the video game machines either! The facilities were basic but clean while only a mist of water emerged form the showerheads as they were trying to conserve water. We are much happier with “Good Sam Club” sites.
Boonville in the Anderson Valley and Cloverdale in the Alexander Valley had lovely situations as wineries now entered our travels. The Alexander Valley, though very dry and in places reminding us of Australia right down to gums and corrugated tin sheds, had rich green vines sitting in a narrow valley between rolling hills so that it reminded us of MacLaren Vale in South Australia.
Today, 21st started with travel bumpy travel down the main 101 through the vineyards to the very attractive town of Healdsburg with its delightful street trees although one 5 way intersection with the railway line running through the middle of it rather raised our eyebrows.
The thumping along the 101 finally got to us and we took the first of about 8 exits into Santa Rosa, a great looking city of over 157,000. This was the home of 2 famous Americans: the horticulturalist Luther Burbank and the cartoonist Charles M. Schultz (Peanuts). We visited one of the homes occupied by Burbank where they are attempting to plant the garden with Burbanks’ plant breeds. The garden is a delightful mixture of a domestic garden and experimental beds. He is considered the father of horticulture in the US and California’s Arbor Day is celebrated each year on his birthday.
As much as we love Peanuts, we decided not to see the Schultz museum and contented ourselves with a photo of a statute of Charlie Brown & Snoopy outside the old train depot, which has become a trendy area of town. David did have a little play with a working model train layout in the Visitor’s Centre which now occupies the restored depot.
We took a wrong road and ended up entering Sonoma from the south rather than coming down the valley from the north which was a shame but we enjoyed a couple of hours in Sonoma, which has a very Mexican feel to it for very good historical reasons. The centre of town is an 8 acre park, once the larges Mexican plaza in the state. Here a group of rebels calling themselves the Bears deposed the Mexican military leaders and declared California a republic which lasted for just 25 days until a US warship captured the Mexican capital of Monterey and claimed the state for the USA. The Mexican commander adjusted quickly and later became a state politician. Numerous old buildings including the Spanish Mission, the Mexican commander’s adobe servant’s quarters, he and his brother’s homes and a hotel or two are preserved on the streets running around the plaza.
Outside of town is California’s oldest and largest winery, the Buena Vista Winery, which has a delightful setting. You park your car in a well groomed, gravel parking area with robinias, underplanted with flowering lavender beds, and walk along a shaded avenue to reach the two main buildings of the winery, both encrusted with climbing vines. In front are picnic tables sheltered by trees and green market umbrellas, which add to the sense of coolness. One building is the Champagne House and the other the Press House where tastings are held. We gave the tastings a miss since it costs $5 each to taste 4 of their wines (tastings are not free in California) and they make just 4 types: merlot, pinot noir, syrah and chardonnay and we prefer dry whites and cab sav. The winery was set up by a Hungarian immigrant of great character who tried his hand an innumerable jobs with varying degrees of success but finally found this site, got Chinese labourers to burrow tunnels into the limestone hills for his cool cellars and then build his stone buildings in front of the tunnels. He is considered the father of California’s wine industry.
The road numbering system is up the creek here with one road carrying several designations so that, being tired and sick, I got lost and David had to stop a couple of times to work out our cross country route from Sonoma to Lodi. Nothing much of interest greets the eye here. The valley becomes very wide and flattens out as you enter the delta area of the Sacramento River. It is dry, and so wind swept that at one point over 200 wind turbines could be seen over several miles along the route. The river is very wide and a large opening bridge is used to cross it. Apricots and Delta Bluegrass are grown here along with some olives and vines dotted among dairy farms. The road was again narrow and full of traffic so there was nowhere to pull off and let the stream of cars behind us pass. In places, concrete and other barriers were placed down the middle of the road to force traffic to stay on the correct side of the narrow roads. The narrowness and the condition of the roads still amaze us.
We have put up for the night in a new van park that rates 10/10 in the guide for amenities yet still costs less than $40. However, the wind is so intense there were waves on the swimming pool! So we are again unable to use the facilities we are paying for. Trees are struggling to establish themselves on the treeless plains of the delta. They are about 6-8 feet tall here and heavily staked. While the wind dropped during dinner, it is up again now so I shall battle my way to the showers and hope we can get some sleep despite the wind. Perhaps the rocking of the van will put us to sleep! Tomorrow we drive to Yosemite National Park (we will camp just outside the park) for 3 days and will possibly be unable to send any blogs form there.
We are parked, if the van doesn’t take off in the blistering gale, at an RV park outside Lodi, a town in the Californian Delta region of the Sacramento River (= flat as a tack) and I have 3 days of touring to catch up as I have been feeling very miserable with this head cold I caught form David.
Let’s go back to where I left off with our proposed trip into Eureka on 19th. Eureka is a fascinating port town occupied by fabulous old mansions, houses, shops and hotels of the period 1880 to 1910. It is also a base for the Coast Guard; a home for the Pacific summer fog, which lasts until 11am or as late as 2pm before it burns off and returns late afternoon, and an airport built in WWII so US pilots could practise taking off and landing in fog. Homes vary from simple timber cottages to the totally over the top Victorian Carson Mansion and Carson House (relabelled the Pink Lady because of its paint work) build by the timber magnate Carson as a wedding present for his son. They’re unbelivable! Other buildings include Queen Anne, Edwardian, Regency and Italianate architectural styles. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around the first 2 streets back from the waterfront where these buildings reside before treating ourselves to a hot chocolate in the van to warm ourselves up.
By the time we reached the malls on the outskirts of the town, the sun was out early but we were amazed to find these huge single storey malls, occupying vast areas of land along with their external parking areas, almost deserted. On entering a shop, you not only get the usual greeting that comes everywhere as people are so polite here but they rush to serve you! It must be to relieve the boredom of standing around in an empty shop all day. In Eureka, the complex had 5 large stores plus numerous small shops connecting them but we did not see more than a dozen people in half an hour, except for Border Books where I found a fascinating book on embellishments for paper, painting and jewellery, which I bought.
With one shop assistant, we enquired what it was like to live with the fog, to which she replied ‘depressing’ and ‘that’s the reason the town has not gone ahead much’. Locals try to live out of town, inland, a little and so escape it. Still, if the fog has served to help preserve a unique township, then we were grateful.
Our hearts were very uplifted to see our first gum tree, a white flowering ironbark of an excellent age standing alone by the roadside. From here on, over the next 2 days, we have seen numerous groves of well-established eucalypts, including a line of about a mile of them, ironically outside the Californian Redwood Company timberyard.
However, it was soon back to Redwood forests and The Avenue of the Giants although we were a bit disoriented as they had closed a bridge part way along the avenue, which forced us back onto the main road for a while. Unlike in Australia, there were no detour signs erected to guide us so we were unsure whether we would get back onto the road or not. Fortunately, we did. However, despite the great awe these trees inspire and the peace they engender, after a while redwood forests all end up looking the same! (Big trees with lots of ferns beneath.) The tourist shops were full of redwood carvings and not particularly inviting.
That night we stopped at Benbow RV Park and Golf Resort since they offered free internet, a pool (the afternoon inland was very warm) and included showers in the price. This was our best park so far as we enjoyed our dip in the pool, our shaded site (the first) and were able to eat outside at the provided picnic table for dinner. We even got an icecream although there was only a choice of 3 types! Unfortunately, no site is perfect and we felt very guilty, coming from Australia, wasting 5 minutes of full flowing shower water waiting for any hot water to appear! The next morning when we were trying to get on the road, the ladies were closed for cleaning from 6:30 am to 9 am by which time we were on the road. What a strange time to clean an amenities block. The amenities blocks were very good, however; they even provided 2 padded chairs in front of dressing tables, with makeup lights, for the ladies to sit and fix their faces after their showers! How they got approval, however, to build these areas without an opening window amazed us. It was suffocatingly warm inside so that you needed another shower to wash away the perspiration by the time you had finished dressing!
Here are 4 road signs to ponder: “speed enforced by aircraft” ( F111’s?); “Empty 3 m.p.h” (?????); “Resting Oak Village” ( a retirement home for aged oaks?); “Slow for the cone zone” (What have you done to your cone?) and “POSTED Private Property” on a fence (obviously done by a mail/male person).
20th
After travelling through more redwoods and purchasing petrol at $4:21c a gallon at the village of Legget, we decline our second opportunity to see a drive through redwood tree. You have to pay and we can’t drive our van through anyway so it all seemed rather touristy and irrelevant. The Chandelier tree in Legget is 315 feet tall with a diameter of 21 feet but $5 each to look at it seemed a bit stiff.
From Legget, the road winds and winds its way down to the coast and the dramatic cliffs of the Pacific. Here hillsides above the cliffs abounded in wildflowers, mainly Californian lilacs but also some white to mauve flowers we were unable to name and yellow and orange Californian poppies. At turn after turn, dramatic vistas unfolded, of lilac hills abruptly ending in cliffs that disappeared into surf and grey sand beach inlets. Off shore, the seas were littered with tall rocks and headland remnants.
Fort Bragg, in comparison, had nothing to brag about. It is a depressingly grey town whose long waterfront is in the hands of a private company and supports an array of derelict large sheds and weedy scrub. The fog and cold wind did nothing to improve our impression of this drawn out town but it had one saving grace, a large Safeways! At last, we found bread rolls; well, we had a choice of three types you could buy individually. We grabbed them and some soup to warm us for lunch, which we consumed down the road at the delightful tourist mecca of Mendocino.
Mendocino is a pretty coastal, holiday town full of gift and clothes shops and galleries but it is still lovely. The main street of timber shops and the small painted timber holiday style houses date from 1854 to 1905 and faces south. By this time, the fog had lifted and Mendocino was bathed in glorious sunshine. Across the road from the shops, which line only one side of the road, is a field of white, mauve and lemon yellow wildflowers until the field drops to the sea and your eyes take in the cliffs on the other side of the inlet where wind swept waves crashed incessantly against the rocky faces. Between the shops, delightful cottage gardens were in full flower and beautifully attended. We did a tour of some of the streets taking in the historic houses and the all white Masonic Lodge with its tower decorated with large figures of Father Time and a Maiden, and in the process I discovered the best knitting shop I have seen so far. The yarns were enticing but I confined myself to buy some wonderfully unusual buttons (very expensive) to adorn my craftwork. They, at least, are easy to transport home.
Unfortunately, my dallying meant we were running late and David wanted to cross inland and reach Cloverdale, via Boonville. Looking at the map, it was just 47 miles or so but what a 47 miles it was. Poor David had spent all day twisting and bumping over narrow coastal roads only to find himself driving through narrow forested road, worse than we had already experienced. In three sections even the centre lines disappeared which made the hairpin bends really scary. The going was so slow; it seemed to take hours! Fortunately, the only huge RV we saw (bus sized) had given up and found a spot to free camp on the side of the road for the night. I swear it was the only spot on the entire road. Today, when we told the tourist information officer in Sonoma where we had been, she rolled her eyes and was amazed. Only one car came up behind us and that was near the end while only about 6 cars passed us in the other direction and that was in the last 5 miles. It must have been the evening peakhour.
We bought pizza as we were so late and, while waiting, David set off to find someone to tell us why we could not find the camping area we sought. As it turned out, we were on the right road but poor street naming, no signage and uncertainty about why a van park would miles out in the bush away from main roads had confused us. This was our first experience of a KOA (Kampsites of America) park and while there was nothing major wrong with it, the price was a sting at $54 and that’s with a discount because we took our Big4 card with us. Sure, it had a pool but we were too exhausted, and it was too cold, to use it. When you arrive at a site after 7.30pm, you don’t have time to use either children’s playground or the video game machines either! The facilities were basic but clean while only a mist of water emerged form the showerheads as they were trying to conserve water. We are much happier with “Good Sam Club” sites.
Boonville in the Anderson Valley and Cloverdale in the Alexander Valley had lovely situations as wineries now entered our travels. The Alexander Valley, though very dry and in places reminding us of Australia right down to gums and corrugated tin sheds, had rich green vines sitting in a narrow valley between rolling hills so that it reminded us of MacLaren Vale in South Australia.
Today, 21st started with travel bumpy travel down the main 101 through the vineyards to the very attractive town of Healdsburg with its delightful street trees although one 5 way intersection with the railway line running through the middle of it rather raised our eyebrows.
The thumping along the 101 finally got to us and we took the first of about 8 exits into Santa Rosa, a great looking city of over 157,000. This was the home of 2 famous Americans: the horticulturalist Luther Burbank and the cartoonist Charles M. Schultz (Peanuts). We visited one of the homes occupied by Burbank where they are attempting to plant the garden with Burbanks’ plant breeds. The garden is a delightful mixture of a domestic garden and experimental beds. He is considered the father of horticulture in the US and California’s Arbor Day is celebrated each year on his birthday.
As much as we love Peanuts, we decided not to see the Schultz museum and contented ourselves with a photo of a statute of Charlie Brown & Snoopy outside the old train depot, which has become a trendy area of town. David did have a little play with a working model train layout in the Visitor’s Centre which now occupies the restored depot.
We took a wrong road and ended up entering Sonoma from the south rather than coming down the valley from the north which was a shame but we enjoyed a couple of hours in Sonoma, which has a very Mexican feel to it for very good historical reasons. The centre of town is an 8 acre park, once the larges Mexican plaza in the state. Here a group of rebels calling themselves the Bears deposed the Mexican military leaders and declared California a republic which lasted for just 25 days until a US warship captured the Mexican capital of Monterey and claimed the state for the USA. The Mexican commander adjusted quickly and later became a state politician. Numerous old buildings including the Spanish Mission, the Mexican commander’s adobe servant’s quarters, he and his brother’s homes and a hotel or two are preserved on the streets running around the plaza.
Outside of town is California’s oldest and largest winery, the Buena Vista Winery, which has a delightful setting. You park your car in a well groomed, gravel parking area with robinias, underplanted with flowering lavender beds, and walk along a shaded avenue to reach the two main buildings of the winery, both encrusted with climbing vines. In front are picnic tables sheltered by trees and green market umbrellas, which add to the sense of coolness. One building is the Champagne House and the other the Press House where tastings are held. We gave the tastings a miss since it costs $5 each to taste 4 of their wines (tastings are not free in California) and they make just 4 types: merlot, pinot noir, syrah and chardonnay and we prefer dry whites and cab sav. The winery was set up by a Hungarian immigrant of great character who tried his hand an innumerable jobs with varying degrees of success but finally found this site, got Chinese labourers to burrow tunnels into the limestone hills for his cool cellars and then build his stone buildings in front of the tunnels. He is considered the father of California’s wine industry.
The road numbering system is up the creek here with one road carrying several designations so that, being tired and sick, I got lost and David had to stop a couple of times to work out our cross country route from Sonoma to Lodi. Nothing much of interest greets the eye here. The valley becomes very wide and flattens out as you enter the delta area of the Sacramento River. It is dry, and so wind swept that at one point over 200 wind turbines could be seen over several miles along the route. The river is very wide and a large opening bridge is used to cross it. Apricots and Delta Bluegrass are grown here along with some olives and vines dotted among dairy farms. The road was again narrow and full of traffic so there was nowhere to pull off and let the stream of cars behind us pass. In places, concrete and other barriers were placed down the middle of the road to force traffic to stay on the correct side of the narrow roads. The narrowness and the condition of the roads still amaze us.
We have put up for the night in a new van park that rates 10/10 in the guide for amenities yet still costs less than $40. However, the wind is so intense there were waves on the swimming pool! So we are again unable to use the facilities we are paying for. Trees are struggling to establish themselves on the treeless plains of the delta. They are about 6-8 feet tall here and heavily staked. While the wind dropped during dinner, it is up again now so I shall battle my way to the showers and hope we can get some sleep despite the wind. Perhaps the rocking of the van will put us to sleep! Tomorrow we drive to Yosemite National Park (we will camp just outside the park) for 3 days and will possibly be unable to send any blogs form there.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
18th May, 2008 Arcata, California, USA
After an earlier stop for the day, we are enjoying a limited menu for happy hour in our van as the Pacific summer fog rolls in across our camping ground. It has obliterated any view of the coast all day but we are a little inland here. Tomorrow we want to see the Victorian mansions of Eureka and as we are a little ahead of schedule, we have stopped here.
But I am ahead of myself. First, we must go back to yesterday. What a perfect day and a most magnificent experience at Crater Lake! It was almost too beautiful to leave; in fact, we felt depressed and sad leaving. There was only the occasional cloud in the blue sky that was only out done by the blue of the lake. Crater Lake was formed when Mt Mazama imploded after an eruption over 7,000 years ago so that 5,000 feet of its height was lost. With the extreme snow there and the exhaustion of the magma chamber, the caldera filled with snowmelt to the depth of over a mile. Annually, they get over 44 feet of snow a year plus rain! The lake is about 6 miles in diameter and, since there was not a breathe of wind, all the edges of the crater were beautifully reflected onto the surface of the lake. To enjoy the lake we had to climb up onto up to 2 metres of snow. We stood there in awe. Ultimately, we saw the crater from 3 vantage points. The main viewing area at the Rim Café was the spot most accessed but we also drove further to the east to the Lodge (closed) and climbed up on the snow. Then we saw the Rim Visitor’s Centre (closed) perched on the precipes. There we had morning tea with a panorama laid out before us over the snow bank. Later we drove around as far as they had opened the road with snowploughs, a mere mile on the western rim to Discovery Point. (They hope to have the whole 31-mile road around the crater opened by 4th July although the warm weather may assist them to open the full circuit earlier. It is supposed to have a maximum of 10 degrees at this time of year but we were all in short sleeved shirts and some wore shorts and thongs!) This is where a gold prospector’s mule stopped suddenly allowing its human companion, a prospector named Hillman, to see the fantastic sight in front of him. But absolutely no one could have seen it under better conditions than us. We felt do privileged. It was worth the airfare to the US just for half a day staring at such glorious beauty. As the occasional cloud moved across the sky, so did its reflection move across the lake. There was more snow on the western slopes into the lake. At one point, it looked like a bride’s train flowing down and spreading out onto the edges of the lake in a fan shape. Sadly, we retraced out steps out of the park through the snow drifts 2-3 m deep either side of the road that the snow ploughs had carved so that it had the striations of sedimentary rocks and, near Discovery Point, the tops formed weird ice sculptures that you could imagine as various creatures. Where pockets formed in the ice, the ice took on a lovely blue colour.
From there, we descended into the valley of the Illinois River, which was not to be compared to the Umpqua, and Jackson County until we reached Grant’s Pass. We had intended to stay here but all we did was stock up our limited pantry space at Walmart and leave. Walmart was huge, a combined Woolies and Big W, but the selection was poor and limited compared to home. In fact, there were things we could not get there that were available in earlier Safeways supermarkets so we will try and stick to Safeways in future. For a change, Safeways was in town, not on the outskirts as we had found previously but that is the problem of always moving on; you never know where to find what you want. We also filled our petrol tank as we were headed for over the border into California where prices are over $4 a gallon.
Grants Pass was surrounded by parched hills and scrubby vegetation and not as we had expected, another green Roseburg but at over 900feet in elevation. It meant another long day but we were happy not to stay in the unseasonal heat. This is another disadvantage of touring, you are moving constantly from one climate to another so that one night you are hot they next you are freezing and so on. Quickly we were driving into hills and then a narrowing gorge headed for snow capped mountains ahead. We were following the Illinois River into the Siskiyou Mountains. Unfortunately, the narrowness of the winding gorges left no space for scenic viewpoints and photograph spots. After ascending, we began then descent in the Smith River gorge down into California where an agricultural inspection station awaited us (like the fruit fly zones in sth NSW). We had expected no fruits would be allowed through and David was kicking himself for not remembering this when we shopped in Grants Pass, but apples, bananas and kiwifruit were all ok and we drove on without loss.
It was a beautiful drive that ended with our first taste of redwood forests, the Jedediah Smith State Park, just before our night stop at Crescent City (naturally, not a city at all). However, the campground proved uninviting and neglected so we opted to retrace our path to Hiouchi, just before the State Park. This meant 2 trips, and a necessary third the next morning, through this redwood forest. The large trees crowd almost onto the windy road, some being only 30cm or so from the edge of the already narrow road and the trees are huge.
Unfortunately, the Hiouchi van park, despite its rating as one of the top parks in the state, did not live up to its claims. The park like surrounds were fine but the gardens neglected and, as we arrived late, the office was closed. We were expected to pay, via an envelop system, which is fairly common, but there was no one to give us the code to the security locks on the showers etc. Another group of travellers kindly gave us the code but the amenities again proved to be less than ideal. The park takes 120 vans but only 4 showers and 3 toilets are provided for each sex. Only 1 of the men’s showers was available for use (the rest were under major renovation) and David couldn’t get it to work. The women had 2 working showers but, with David’s help, I finally found 1 that would work. However, around the taps there was a huge hole so that if you put your hand in it while attempting to reach the taps you got gritty concrete under your nails! The next morning, as we were leaving, we found out that they needed tokens, not quarters to work but there were no signs up in the amenities to tell you this and no one in the office to get the tokens from! WE HATE PAY SHOWERS! Fortunately, we got a discount and the night only cost $26. As I finally caught the cold that poor David has been struggling with for nearly a week, and as we had had such a long day the day before, we decided not to push ourselves and do some laundry before we left but the laundry was also locked outside the hours of 9am-5pm! Brilliant! The only good thing about the site was that the wireless internet connect worked here! That’s how David sent our last blog.
It seems that there is something not working at every park we go to. Here at Arcata, the main laundry is closed and the mini-mart (something only 1 previous park has had) has been emptied out so that you can only buy drinks and a few nuts and chips. We were rather looking forward to an icecream, but no such luck. However, there are no pay showers. Let’s now hope they work as this site is rated as a 9/10 point site, one of the best in California. As I have said before, there are few sites actually rated in guides, unlike the NRMA star rating at home, which is unfortunate and makes it difficult for travellers to select campgrounds.
Today, we swapped snow and ice for redwood forests along the Californian coast. By now we have seen rather a lot of forests although they are all different. Here there is no snow and the undergrowth is a mass of ferns a rather than moss and debris from fallen trees. The redwoods are not so easily blown over because their roots system interweaves with the surrounding plants adding to its stability. Even if fire destroys its central core, the outer bark stays alive and the tree continues to grow. I guess the highlight was the 1 mile trail around Lady Bird Johnson Grove. The peace and stillness, especially at the spot where the dedication of the walk took place by Nixon in the presence of Mrs Johnson, was very special. The trees grow to over 350feet and even if you took 2 photos going up the trunk of the tree, you would not reach the lower branches. They are so large it is almost impossible to photograph them and no photograph can give you the special feeling of being privileged to sit at their feet.
The fog along the coast is amazing. We saw it first from Crescent City where it extended right out to sea, but it also creeps up river valleys and inlets, so that it is almost impossible to see the sand, let alone the ocean as you drive along. But it was certainly atmospheric and the redwoods survive here because of it as almost a third of their moisture requirements come from the fog.
We had lunch under the shade of redwoods at Prairie creek State Forest Visitors Centre, which is an interesting log cabin built by men of the CCC (conservation corps) instigated by Roosevelt under his New Deal to solve the Great Depression’s unemployment problem. Much of the construction work in the forests was done by these men.
However, just as OR does not just mean Oregon, CA also = crumbling asphalt. The main road, the 101, all the way down the west coast from Olympic National Park in the north to Los Angeles is in very poor condition and often just 2 lanes wide. Don’t complain about the Pacific Hwy!
After an earlier stop for the day, we are enjoying a limited menu for happy hour in our van as the Pacific summer fog rolls in across our camping ground. It has obliterated any view of the coast all day but we are a little inland here. Tomorrow we want to see the Victorian mansions of Eureka and as we are a little ahead of schedule, we have stopped here.
But I am ahead of myself. First, we must go back to yesterday. What a perfect day and a most magnificent experience at Crater Lake! It was almost too beautiful to leave; in fact, we felt depressed and sad leaving. There was only the occasional cloud in the blue sky that was only out done by the blue of the lake. Crater Lake was formed when Mt Mazama imploded after an eruption over 7,000 years ago so that 5,000 feet of its height was lost. With the extreme snow there and the exhaustion of the magma chamber, the caldera filled with snowmelt to the depth of over a mile. Annually, they get over 44 feet of snow a year plus rain! The lake is about 6 miles in diameter and, since there was not a breathe of wind, all the edges of the crater were beautifully reflected onto the surface of the lake. To enjoy the lake we had to climb up onto up to 2 metres of snow. We stood there in awe. Ultimately, we saw the crater from 3 vantage points. The main viewing area at the Rim Café was the spot most accessed but we also drove further to the east to the Lodge (closed) and climbed up on the snow. Then we saw the Rim Visitor’s Centre (closed) perched on the precipes. There we had morning tea with a panorama laid out before us over the snow bank. Later we drove around as far as they had opened the road with snowploughs, a mere mile on the western rim to Discovery Point. (They hope to have the whole 31-mile road around the crater opened by 4th July although the warm weather may assist them to open the full circuit earlier. It is supposed to have a maximum of 10 degrees at this time of year but we were all in short sleeved shirts and some wore shorts and thongs!) This is where a gold prospector’s mule stopped suddenly allowing its human companion, a prospector named Hillman, to see the fantastic sight in front of him. But absolutely no one could have seen it under better conditions than us. We felt do privileged. It was worth the airfare to the US just for half a day staring at such glorious beauty. As the occasional cloud moved across the sky, so did its reflection move across the lake. There was more snow on the western slopes into the lake. At one point, it looked like a bride’s train flowing down and spreading out onto the edges of the lake in a fan shape. Sadly, we retraced out steps out of the park through the snow drifts 2-3 m deep either side of the road that the snow ploughs had carved so that it had the striations of sedimentary rocks and, near Discovery Point, the tops formed weird ice sculptures that you could imagine as various creatures. Where pockets formed in the ice, the ice took on a lovely blue colour.
From there, we descended into the valley of the Illinois River, which was not to be compared to the Umpqua, and Jackson County until we reached Grant’s Pass. We had intended to stay here but all we did was stock up our limited pantry space at Walmart and leave. Walmart was huge, a combined Woolies and Big W, but the selection was poor and limited compared to home. In fact, there were things we could not get there that were available in earlier Safeways supermarkets so we will try and stick to Safeways in future. For a change, Safeways was in town, not on the outskirts as we had found previously but that is the problem of always moving on; you never know where to find what you want. We also filled our petrol tank as we were headed for over the border into California where prices are over $4 a gallon.
Grants Pass was surrounded by parched hills and scrubby vegetation and not as we had expected, another green Roseburg but at over 900feet in elevation. It meant another long day but we were happy not to stay in the unseasonal heat. This is another disadvantage of touring, you are moving constantly from one climate to another so that one night you are hot they next you are freezing and so on. Quickly we were driving into hills and then a narrowing gorge headed for snow capped mountains ahead. We were following the Illinois River into the Siskiyou Mountains. Unfortunately, the narrowness of the winding gorges left no space for scenic viewpoints and photograph spots. After ascending, we began then descent in the Smith River gorge down into California where an agricultural inspection station awaited us (like the fruit fly zones in sth NSW). We had expected no fruits would be allowed through and David was kicking himself for not remembering this when we shopped in Grants Pass, but apples, bananas and kiwifruit were all ok and we drove on without loss.
It was a beautiful drive that ended with our first taste of redwood forests, the Jedediah Smith State Park, just before our night stop at Crescent City (naturally, not a city at all). However, the campground proved uninviting and neglected so we opted to retrace our path to Hiouchi, just before the State Park. This meant 2 trips, and a necessary third the next morning, through this redwood forest. The large trees crowd almost onto the windy road, some being only 30cm or so from the edge of the already narrow road and the trees are huge.
Unfortunately, the Hiouchi van park, despite its rating as one of the top parks in the state, did not live up to its claims. The park like surrounds were fine but the gardens neglected and, as we arrived late, the office was closed. We were expected to pay, via an envelop system, which is fairly common, but there was no one to give us the code to the security locks on the showers etc. Another group of travellers kindly gave us the code but the amenities again proved to be less than ideal. The park takes 120 vans but only 4 showers and 3 toilets are provided for each sex. Only 1 of the men’s showers was available for use (the rest were under major renovation) and David couldn’t get it to work. The women had 2 working showers but, with David’s help, I finally found 1 that would work. However, around the taps there was a huge hole so that if you put your hand in it while attempting to reach the taps you got gritty concrete under your nails! The next morning, as we were leaving, we found out that they needed tokens, not quarters to work but there were no signs up in the amenities to tell you this and no one in the office to get the tokens from! WE HATE PAY SHOWERS! Fortunately, we got a discount and the night only cost $26. As I finally caught the cold that poor David has been struggling with for nearly a week, and as we had had such a long day the day before, we decided not to push ourselves and do some laundry before we left but the laundry was also locked outside the hours of 9am-5pm! Brilliant! The only good thing about the site was that the wireless internet connect worked here! That’s how David sent our last blog.
It seems that there is something not working at every park we go to. Here at Arcata, the main laundry is closed and the mini-mart (something only 1 previous park has had) has been emptied out so that you can only buy drinks and a few nuts and chips. We were rather looking forward to an icecream, but no such luck. However, there are no pay showers. Let’s now hope they work as this site is rated as a 9/10 point site, one of the best in California. As I have said before, there are few sites actually rated in guides, unlike the NRMA star rating at home, which is unfortunate and makes it difficult for travellers to select campgrounds.
Today, we swapped snow and ice for redwood forests along the Californian coast. By now we have seen rather a lot of forests although they are all different. Here there is no snow and the undergrowth is a mass of ferns a rather than moss and debris from fallen trees. The redwoods are not so easily blown over because their roots system interweaves with the surrounding plants adding to its stability. Even if fire destroys its central core, the outer bark stays alive and the tree continues to grow. I guess the highlight was the 1 mile trail around Lady Bird Johnson Grove. The peace and stillness, especially at the spot where the dedication of the walk took place by Nixon in the presence of Mrs Johnson, was very special. The trees grow to over 350feet and even if you took 2 photos going up the trunk of the tree, you would not reach the lower branches. They are so large it is almost impossible to photograph them and no photograph can give you the special feeling of being privileged to sit at their feet.
The fog along the coast is amazing. We saw it first from Crescent City where it extended right out to sea, but it also creeps up river valleys and inlets, so that it is almost impossible to see the sand, let alone the ocean as you drive along. But it was certainly atmospheric and the redwoods survive here because of it as almost a third of their moisture requirements come from the fog.
We had lunch under the shade of redwoods at Prairie creek State Forest Visitors Centre, which is an interesting log cabin built by men of the CCC (conservation corps) instigated by Roosevelt under his New Deal to solve the Great Depression’s unemployment problem. Much of the construction work in the forests was done by these men.
However, just as OR does not just mean Oregon, CA also = crumbling asphalt. The main road, the 101, all the way down the west coast from Olympic National Park in the north to Los Angeles is in very poor condition and often just 2 lanes wide. Don’t complain about the Pacific Hwy!
Monday, 19 May 2008
16th May, 2008, Diamond Lake, Douglas County, Oregon, USA
What variety we have experienced in two days. Yesterday we experienced the power and grandeur of the sea along the Oregon Coast while today it was the beauty and majesty of the Umpqua River valleys.
It was unfortunate that haze and sea spray disrupted our views of the Oregon Oast from Canon Beach to Heceta Beach where we spent last night although it added to the mysticism of some of our photos.
A visit to Ecola State Park was a great way to start the day. To the west you can see one of the states 7 lighthouses but this one is rather special. Not only is it on an island, unlike the others, but it no longer functions as a lighthouse but as a columbarium, that is a place to store the ashes of the deceased! You get a magnificent view south along the coast and north to the next beach, Indian Beach as well. Off shore all along this coast, bird breeding grounds are found on basalt rock outcrops. The steep forested hills descend sharply into the sea except for little pockets like Canon Beach that hug the shoreline.
On second viewing, we rather liked Canon Beach, for all its touristy shops it is still small and simple although it must be hell in summer. A shuttle service runs along the narrow beach strip in summer, ferrying tourists from shops, art galleries and restaurants and back to their accommodations. (Yes, ‘accommodation’ is not an uncountable nouns in the US and Canada.)
At the southern end of Canon Beach is the Haystack, a large basalt protrusion that rises 235 feet from the waves just off the wide sandy beach. Homes and hotels line the dunes as no road separates the beach from the buildings. It would be a great holiday destination but we saw no evidence of lifeguards. Perhaps they appear in summer with the crowds. The Pacific Ocean was living up to its name as the waves were about 30cm high.
At Manzanita, I tried to buy 2 bread rolls for lunch since we seemed to be accumulating too much toast bread. The supermarket had only packets of 6 bread rolls, a la Tip Top at home, and I was directed to the local bakery. I found it to be the smallest shop we had come across bar the gift shop at the Japanese Gardens in Portland. Inside sat a shop assistant with 2 lemon iced donuts and 1 doz each of 2 types of ‘cookies’! She informed me that they get bread rolls on the weekend! Paying her wages must have made the cookies and expensive trading loss! What’s more, it was still only 11:30 am.
Around this time we discovered that our a/c wasn’t working and it was getting rather warm, unseasonably so. Fortunately, David was right in his assessment that a fuse had probably blown and the Ford dealership at Tillamook put in a new fuse without charge even though they were a mechanic short and we arrived about lunchtime. I gave in and bought more sliced bread!
From there we made our way to a scenic 3 Cape drive. This turned into a bit of a nightmare. OR is not just the abbreviation for Oregon; it stands for ‘orrible roads! Our poor van coped with dips, bumps, potholes, curves, narrow roads and landslips. No wonder we saw several homes along the route with little signs near their mailboxes demanding, ”FIX OUR ROADS”. We suffered a broken glass as a result and it almost spoilt our day. We would certainly not recommend this route to anyone. It certainly slowed us down so that we did not reach our campground until after 7pm that night.
While on the topic of signs, we are seeing lots of signs for the upcoming US elections as thy elect County Commissioners, Sheriffs, Judges, Congressmen as well as their president. So far, in the NW, it is either Obama or Hilary signs. It is interesting that these mass-produced signs say Hilary and not ‘Clinton’, don’t you think? We have yet, in all our 2000km we have not seen one sign for McCain but 2 other names have a rare appearance. These signs are accompanied by other political statements on local issues and, of course, lots of US flags on barns and outside houses although perhaps not as many as we expected. In fact, the people here seem to like things that fly as we have seen those twirling windmills you buy children at the show and Japanese style carp shaped wind catchers on sticks in gardens as well as kites. The NW is a windy spot with the Columbia River at Portland being a great spot for windsurfing we were told.
On the 3 Capes drive we started with Cape Meares, a small squat lighthouse that you can climb and a nearby spruce tree with a circumference of 50 feet that the wind had shaped into a candelabra shape with 6 arms.
It was a relief to get back on the main road, which became more undulating rather than steep and the forests receded. In places it reminded us of Kiama with waves pounding black rocks and houses sitting on the edge of cliffs in places. Beachside tourist towns dotted the coast. There were 2 interesting features in these towns. Firstly, there is a lot of building of beach houses since inland there are five large cities whose populations are looking for spots for weekenders. The beach houses appear to be of one style, hundred upon hundreds of them in town after town and dotted in clearings along the coast. While they look attractive it is nice to occasionally come across and older style one that isn’t grey shingles with white corner cover strips and white windows. Secondly, we drove across 4 large art-deco bridges, a couple of which were huge and wildly out of proportion to the size of the communities they connected. Some were green steel and others concrete but they all had concrete pylons (up to 8 a bridge), usually of 2 different heights, shaped like the Empire State Building and other early skyscrapers of the art deco period.
One small town, strangely named Pacific City, had an airstrip in the middle of town and all that separated it from the main road we were on was a chain to act as a barrier between the road and the end of the runway!
Lincoln City was closer to living up to its name a large tourist town full of apartments, hotels and condominiums.
Cape Foulweather was out next interesting stop down the coast as it was named by Captain Cook in 1778 and had a small lighthouse, naturally, and a gift shop perched on the very edge of the cliff face. Lighthouses are a very popular symbol here with lighthouse-shaped shops and even roadside mailboxes. From here we could see south to the Devil’s Punchbowl, a headland with a large round hollow in it and further south to Yaquina Head Lighthouse, our next major stop.
Yaquina Head’s lighthouse is the tallest on the coast and more typical of what one expects to see. As it was late, we did not venture into the Interpretive Centre there but concentrated on the view south where tidal rock pools are the feature and apparently used widely for educational purposes. One monolith close to the shore that a colony of long-necked black and white birds crowded on it top to capture the warmth of the afternoon sun as the wind was biting here.
Much of this coastal section is a tsunami alert zone and many homes are built so close to the sand and water that if a tsunami doesn’t get them, global warming will!
From the town of Yachats (pronounced YA-hots) the landscape alters dramatically with the road just clinging to the forested mountains as they plummet into the sea. But as you approach Heceta Beach the cliffs give way to mounded dunes, in fact, there is a place of a sea of dunes but we didn’t bother to investigate.
We were happy to finally reach our campsite at Heceta Beach; however, an inebriated ex-military man spied our van as we pulled into our site close to the amenities block and it took us an hour to get back to cooking a very late dinner. He’d been up to the Hood area near Portland delivering articles for a veteran’s home there and was amazed to here that we had Legacy in Australia for such a long time. His group have just started collecting money to offer scholarships to the children of deceased servicemen so they can finish their education.
The 16th started with a bright sunny day and met its prediction of ‘hot’. It was only when we reached higher elevations at the end of the day that we felt cool. So we were very pleased that we had had the a/c fixed so promptly. We drove down the coast a little way further until we reached Reedsport, a town with an old main street like several small towns we have passed through; it had the air of a wild west town in its main streetscape that had been overtaken by time. The old lampposts complemented the many wooden shop fronts.
Our delightful day really began as we left Reedsport and began to follow the Umpqua River upstream. This is a large, multi-tributary river valley system that delights the eye at almost every curve. Just outside of Reedsport there is a 2 mile stretch of parallel road set aside for elk watching. It is well set up but, unfortunately, elk know how to read! Wherever they put a sign “elk”, the elk vanish although locals tell us this is not so. A tourist gimmick?
The Umpqua River, once the domain of the Umpqua Indians is a wide river taking up, at this point, about one third of the valley floor while conifer forests cover the valley sides. From time to time rapids appear on the river increasing in frequency as you travel further up the river and its many tributaries. None of our maps had this area marked as scenic but what a hidden gem. In the state forest section between Reedsport and Scottsburg, the large river takes up almost 90% of the narrowing valley floor leaving room for a 2 lane road and some houses scattered along its banks.
Later, we saw our first sheep and passed by some wineries developing a reputation apparently but they were not open until later or, in some cases, until July so we failed to sample any of the local vino.
Did you know there is a town called Drain (we didn’t go there) and another called Kellog (has just a few farm houses)?
Roseburg, the main town of Douglas County is a very attractive city of 21,000 people set in a green valley and rolling hills. The tourist information centre was well laid out and there they were, like all Americans we have met, very polite. Apparently, it is a friendly, caring town and its situation is superb. It is about 70 miles south of the twin cities of Springfield (Doh!) and Eugene on the I 5; 57 miles from the beaches of the Oregon coast; has access to dozens of lakes for fishing; has the scenic drives along numerous tributaries of the Umpqua River; has over 79 miles of hiking trails in the Upper Umpqua River network alone; Oregon’s only national park (Crater Lake – a lake inside the crater of an old volcano that we will see tomorrow); mountain climbing on at least 2 mountains over 8,000 feet; kayaking, white water rafting; skiing; wineries etc etc. What a spot! It’s climate is described as mild and you can experience all the joys of 4 very distinct seasons so, if the USA is calling you, then you should consider delightful Roseburg in Douglas Country, Oregon especially if you are an outdoors type.
From Roseburg, we made our way up the Upper Umpqua River stopping first at the Colliding rivers, the confluence of 2 rivers that have been forced into narrow channels by the hardness of the volcanic rocks. While not spectacular, it was an interesting spot to have lunch and it was cooler out in the shade than in our van with the a/c off.
We had seen one covered bridge at Rochester, just before Roseburg, so did not bother to investigate several others in the area. We’ll see more later on in our trip. So we chose waterfalls to concentrate on in our drive up to Diamond Lake where we planned to stay for the night. The first, a little way off the road was more like a rapid; the next was closed, unfortunately, because of winter storm damage but the third was a beauty. To access Watson Falls (altitude 3,000 feet), you have a moderately difficult hike of about half a mile up hill from the car park but it was well worth it. The fall plunges about 272 feet over a sheer barren cliff face and then cascades around huge boulders and fallen trees as it rushes passed you down deeper into the valley near the car park. We were disappointed that the remaining 2 falls were also closed; this time because the snow had not been removed from the access roads. But, our compensation for the late heavy snow this year was to arrive at Diamond Lake and find it still frozen. Our first frozen lake! The day was still sunny and warm yet the lake was a plain of white ice, melting just a little around the edges. Diamond Lake lies between 2 very different mountains. Mt Thielsen is rugged with a jagged summit while Mt Bailey has a cone top. Both were still covered in snowy capes. We were amused to see a boat still on its trailer with an outboard motor running, at the boat ramp stirring up the little segment of water where the ice had actually melted. The purpose of this exercise is beyond us foreigners but it seemed ironic to be firing up your motor on the edge of a frozen lake.
By this time we realised that we were unlikely to find our proposed camping ground open. Snow had still not be cleared form the local road that linked the resort and boat ramp to the camping ground although the main road was open. So we stopped at the petrol station where our fears were confirmed. We either had to free camp the night or go further on, down more into the next valley and return the next morning. We, and another couple, decided to stay and were directed to large dirt parking areas behind the service station. Our spot is in a large forest clearing surrounded by piled up snow. In the middle of the clearing are numerous large shipping containers storing unknown items. Several utes came by to apparently check the containers but left again. David made his own inukshuk out of snow but it soon melted. It is a cheap night of free camping but we are set up ready for a quick get away should the need arise. We have hot water, gas, a toilet and shower as well as food so we can be independent on nights like this.
What variety we have experienced in two days. Yesterday we experienced the power and grandeur of the sea along the Oregon Coast while today it was the beauty and majesty of the Umpqua River valleys.
It was unfortunate that haze and sea spray disrupted our views of the Oregon Oast from Canon Beach to Heceta Beach where we spent last night although it added to the mysticism of some of our photos.
A visit to Ecola State Park was a great way to start the day. To the west you can see one of the states 7 lighthouses but this one is rather special. Not only is it on an island, unlike the others, but it no longer functions as a lighthouse but as a columbarium, that is a place to store the ashes of the deceased! You get a magnificent view south along the coast and north to the next beach, Indian Beach as well. Off shore all along this coast, bird breeding grounds are found on basalt rock outcrops. The steep forested hills descend sharply into the sea except for little pockets like Canon Beach that hug the shoreline.
On second viewing, we rather liked Canon Beach, for all its touristy shops it is still small and simple although it must be hell in summer. A shuttle service runs along the narrow beach strip in summer, ferrying tourists from shops, art galleries and restaurants and back to their accommodations. (Yes, ‘accommodation’ is not an uncountable nouns in the US and Canada.)
At the southern end of Canon Beach is the Haystack, a large basalt protrusion that rises 235 feet from the waves just off the wide sandy beach. Homes and hotels line the dunes as no road separates the beach from the buildings. It would be a great holiday destination but we saw no evidence of lifeguards. Perhaps they appear in summer with the crowds. The Pacific Ocean was living up to its name as the waves were about 30cm high.
At Manzanita, I tried to buy 2 bread rolls for lunch since we seemed to be accumulating too much toast bread. The supermarket had only packets of 6 bread rolls, a la Tip Top at home, and I was directed to the local bakery. I found it to be the smallest shop we had come across bar the gift shop at the Japanese Gardens in Portland. Inside sat a shop assistant with 2 lemon iced donuts and 1 doz each of 2 types of ‘cookies’! She informed me that they get bread rolls on the weekend! Paying her wages must have made the cookies and expensive trading loss! What’s more, it was still only 11:30 am.
Around this time we discovered that our a/c wasn’t working and it was getting rather warm, unseasonably so. Fortunately, David was right in his assessment that a fuse had probably blown and the Ford dealership at Tillamook put in a new fuse without charge even though they were a mechanic short and we arrived about lunchtime. I gave in and bought more sliced bread!
From there we made our way to a scenic 3 Cape drive. This turned into a bit of a nightmare. OR is not just the abbreviation for Oregon; it stands for ‘orrible roads! Our poor van coped with dips, bumps, potholes, curves, narrow roads and landslips. No wonder we saw several homes along the route with little signs near their mailboxes demanding, ”FIX OUR ROADS”. We suffered a broken glass as a result and it almost spoilt our day. We would certainly not recommend this route to anyone. It certainly slowed us down so that we did not reach our campground until after 7pm that night.
While on the topic of signs, we are seeing lots of signs for the upcoming US elections as thy elect County Commissioners, Sheriffs, Judges, Congressmen as well as their president. So far, in the NW, it is either Obama or Hilary signs. It is interesting that these mass-produced signs say Hilary and not ‘Clinton’, don’t you think? We have yet, in all our 2000km we have not seen one sign for McCain but 2 other names have a rare appearance. These signs are accompanied by other political statements on local issues and, of course, lots of US flags on barns and outside houses although perhaps not as many as we expected. In fact, the people here seem to like things that fly as we have seen those twirling windmills you buy children at the show and Japanese style carp shaped wind catchers on sticks in gardens as well as kites. The NW is a windy spot with the Columbia River at Portland being a great spot for windsurfing we were told.
On the 3 Capes drive we started with Cape Meares, a small squat lighthouse that you can climb and a nearby spruce tree with a circumference of 50 feet that the wind had shaped into a candelabra shape with 6 arms.
It was a relief to get back on the main road, which became more undulating rather than steep and the forests receded. In places it reminded us of Kiama with waves pounding black rocks and houses sitting on the edge of cliffs in places. Beachside tourist towns dotted the coast. There were 2 interesting features in these towns. Firstly, there is a lot of building of beach houses since inland there are five large cities whose populations are looking for spots for weekenders. The beach houses appear to be of one style, hundred upon hundreds of them in town after town and dotted in clearings along the coast. While they look attractive it is nice to occasionally come across and older style one that isn’t grey shingles with white corner cover strips and white windows. Secondly, we drove across 4 large art-deco bridges, a couple of which were huge and wildly out of proportion to the size of the communities they connected. Some were green steel and others concrete but they all had concrete pylons (up to 8 a bridge), usually of 2 different heights, shaped like the Empire State Building and other early skyscrapers of the art deco period.
One small town, strangely named Pacific City, had an airstrip in the middle of town and all that separated it from the main road we were on was a chain to act as a barrier between the road and the end of the runway!
Lincoln City was closer to living up to its name a large tourist town full of apartments, hotels and condominiums.
Cape Foulweather was out next interesting stop down the coast as it was named by Captain Cook in 1778 and had a small lighthouse, naturally, and a gift shop perched on the very edge of the cliff face. Lighthouses are a very popular symbol here with lighthouse-shaped shops and even roadside mailboxes. From here we could see south to the Devil’s Punchbowl, a headland with a large round hollow in it and further south to Yaquina Head Lighthouse, our next major stop.
Yaquina Head’s lighthouse is the tallest on the coast and more typical of what one expects to see. As it was late, we did not venture into the Interpretive Centre there but concentrated on the view south where tidal rock pools are the feature and apparently used widely for educational purposes. One monolith close to the shore that a colony of long-necked black and white birds crowded on it top to capture the warmth of the afternoon sun as the wind was biting here.
Much of this coastal section is a tsunami alert zone and many homes are built so close to the sand and water that if a tsunami doesn’t get them, global warming will!
From the town of Yachats (pronounced YA-hots) the landscape alters dramatically with the road just clinging to the forested mountains as they plummet into the sea. But as you approach Heceta Beach the cliffs give way to mounded dunes, in fact, there is a place of a sea of dunes but we didn’t bother to investigate.
We were happy to finally reach our campsite at Heceta Beach; however, an inebriated ex-military man spied our van as we pulled into our site close to the amenities block and it took us an hour to get back to cooking a very late dinner. He’d been up to the Hood area near Portland delivering articles for a veteran’s home there and was amazed to here that we had Legacy in Australia for such a long time. His group have just started collecting money to offer scholarships to the children of deceased servicemen so they can finish their education.
The 16th started with a bright sunny day and met its prediction of ‘hot’. It was only when we reached higher elevations at the end of the day that we felt cool. So we were very pleased that we had had the a/c fixed so promptly. We drove down the coast a little way further until we reached Reedsport, a town with an old main street like several small towns we have passed through; it had the air of a wild west town in its main streetscape that had been overtaken by time. The old lampposts complemented the many wooden shop fronts.
Our delightful day really began as we left Reedsport and began to follow the Umpqua River upstream. This is a large, multi-tributary river valley system that delights the eye at almost every curve. Just outside of Reedsport there is a 2 mile stretch of parallel road set aside for elk watching. It is well set up but, unfortunately, elk know how to read! Wherever they put a sign “elk”, the elk vanish although locals tell us this is not so. A tourist gimmick?
The Umpqua River, once the domain of the Umpqua Indians is a wide river taking up, at this point, about one third of the valley floor while conifer forests cover the valley sides. From time to time rapids appear on the river increasing in frequency as you travel further up the river and its many tributaries. None of our maps had this area marked as scenic but what a hidden gem. In the state forest section between Reedsport and Scottsburg, the large river takes up almost 90% of the narrowing valley floor leaving room for a 2 lane road and some houses scattered along its banks.
Later, we saw our first sheep and passed by some wineries developing a reputation apparently but they were not open until later or, in some cases, until July so we failed to sample any of the local vino.
Did you know there is a town called Drain (we didn’t go there) and another called Kellog (has just a few farm houses)?
Roseburg, the main town of Douglas County is a very attractive city of 21,000 people set in a green valley and rolling hills. The tourist information centre was well laid out and there they were, like all Americans we have met, very polite. Apparently, it is a friendly, caring town and its situation is superb. It is about 70 miles south of the twin cities of Springfield (Doh!) and Eugene on the I 5; 57 miles from the beaches of the Oregon coast; has access to dozens of lakes for fishing; has the scenic drives along numerous tributaries of the Umpqua River; has over 79 miles of hiking trails in the Upper Umpqua River network alone; Oregon’s only national park (Crater Lake – a lake inside the crater of an old volcano that we will see tomorrow); mountain climbing on at least 2 mountains over 8,000 feet; kayaking, white water rafting; skiing; wineries etc etc. What a spot! It’s climate is described as mild and you can experience all the joys of 4 very distinct seasons so, if the USA is calling you, then you should consider delightful Roseburg in Douglas Country, Oregon especially if you are an outdoors type.
From Roseburg, we made our way up the Upper Umpqua River stopping first at the Colliding rivers, the confluence of 2 rivers that have been forced into narrow channels by the hardness of the volcanic rocks. While not spectacular, it was an interesting spot to have lunch and it was cooler out in the shade than in our van with the a/c off.
We had seen one covered bridge at Rochester, just before Roseburg, so did not bother to investigate several others in the area. We’ll see more later on in our trip. So we chose waterfalls to concentrate on in our drive up to Diamond Lake where we planned to stay for the night. The first, a little way off the road was more like a rapid; the next was closed, unfortunately, because of winter storm damage but the third was a beauty. To access Watson Falls (altitude 3,000 feet), you have a moderately difficult hike of about half a mile up hill from the car park but it was well worth it. The fall plunges about 272 feet over a sheer barren cliff face and then cascades around huge boulders and fallen trees as it rushes passed you down deeper into the valley near the car park. We were disappointed that the remaining 2 falls were also closed; this time because the snow had not been removed from the access roads. But, our compensation for the late heavy snow this year was to arrive at Diamond Lake and find it still frozen. Our first frozen lake! The day was still sunny and warm yet the lake was a plain of white ice, melting just a little around the edges. Diamond Lake lies between 2 very different mountains. Mt Thielsen is rugged with a jagged summit while Mt Bailey has a cone top. Both were still covered in snowy capes. We were amused to see a boat still on its trailer with an outboard motor running, at the boat ramp stirring up the little segment of water where the ice had actually melted. The purpose of this exercise is beyond us foreigners but it seemed ironic to be firing up your motor on the edge of a frozen lake.
By this time we realised that we were unlikely to find our proposed camping ground open. Snow had still not be cleared form the local road that linked the resort and boat ramp to the camping ground although the main road was open. So we stopped at the petrol station where our fears were confirmed. We either had to free camp the night or go further on, down more into the next valley and return the next morning. We, and another couple, decided to stay and were directed to large dirt parking areas behind the service station. Our spot is in a large forest clearing surrounded by piled up snow. In the middle of the clearing are numerous large shipping containers storing unknown items. Several utes came by to apparently check the containers but left again. David made his own inukshuk out of snow but it soon melted. It is a cheap night of free camping but we are set up ready for a quick get away should the need arise. We have hot water, gas, a toilet and shower as well as food so we can be independent on nights like this.
14th May, 2008 Canon Beach, Oregon, USA
As we have been enjoying some marvellous sights as well as travelling longer distances, the blog has been neglected so this entry will cover the last 3 days.
A bright sunny morning greeted us for a change as we left the Lake Quinalt resort on the morning of the 12th, before stopping for a photo of the Biggest Spruce . It was supposed to be 190’ but appeared to have lost its top, possibly in the dreadful storm I mentioned in the last entry.
They seem to suffer from the “big disease” around here, like the Big Merino, the Big Lobster and the Big Banana, only here it is the biggest Douglas fir, the Biggest Spruce, the Biggest Western Hemlock etc. In the fine print they do acknowledge that, naturally, they do not measure up to the giant redwoods further south that we will be visiting soon. Nevertheless they are impressive and make one feel insignificant.
Next we stopped outside the resort for a photo from our dinner spot of the night before. Venturing, then, only as far as the Visitors Information Centre, I found out that the flower I had so admired was called a trillium, which didn’t surprise me at all, but that it started out as white and faded to deep purple, rather than have different colours, did.
We made our way through unimpressive countryside and towns to Aberdeen where we picked up petrol and again ventured into Safeways. Do you know that they don’t know what custard powder is? A shop assistant and a local both tried to help but said that custard was an old fashioned dessert no one made anymore but this made me smile since on the shelf were jelly, tapioca pudding and rice pud! If it has the word “pudding” attached it seems to be much desired! There were a lot of pre-made puddings sitting on the shelf but the local warned us off them saying they didn’t taste at all like a pudding should. It will be interesting to see if puddings are as popular further south where winters aren’t as cold. According to the local, it has been the coldest, wettest spring in 30 years.
On our way out of Aberdeen, we noticed a sign on a chiropractor’s “ Please call in before you crawl in”, which gave us a laugh.
On arrival at Centralia we ventured into the antiques and collectible section of town where supposedly there are 300 dealers. They are not all in the one street (there were a lot of empty shops too) but we saw enough to be sick of antique shops. Mostly they were what we would call bric-a-brac but we did see several black mamas and black papas as salt and pepper shakers, money boxes etc that are now so politically incorrect in Aust. that they stood out like sore thumbs to us.
We had parked near the railway line so David was delighted to discover that this was a busy rail town. An Amtrak passenger train was followed by several goods trains. One train had five matching engines and went for ages. We both regretted not counting all the wagons. Later David was surprised to see shipping containers, one perched on top of another, on other goods trains. Naturally, David took several photos!
From Centralis, we drove towards and along the Chehalis River Valley. From here on the countryside has been beautiful as it is not so flat and the hills not so distant and flowering yellow broom is scattered along the roadsides.
Mt St Helen’s Visitor Centre was our final stop for the day but the mountain was largely in view, the weather forecast was not looking so good and the sun was at the right angle for photographs so we left the centre quickly deciding to do the 2 hour trip up and back and leave the centre for the next morning. What a great decision!
Although the road was still not fully opened because of the snow of winter, the cloud across the tip of the summit lifted as we got closer and the sun tried valiantly to shine so that we ended up with a perfect view of the crater created by the famous eruption of May 18 1980. The once beautiful cone shaped mounted had suffered first earthquakes, avalanches on it north face, creation of a crater at the top, blowing its top and then horrendous mudslides all of which killed about 57 people, silted up the Columbia River and threatened towns and shipping. Millions of trees were destroyed or flattened and Silver Lake was changed and enlarged dramatically. The lady at the camping ground said locals still feel alienated from the new shape of the mountain and valley. The original cone has been replaced with a gapping crater open to the north so that one summit ridge is covered in pristine snow while the other has snow interspersed with black rocks. This gives greater definition to the crater walls. A new cone is already growing in the centre. This may eventually rebuild the missing cone but also plug the lava tube causing another explosion in the future. It appears to erupt fairly regularly but with warnings.
To repair the damage 13 new bridges and a dam had to be built. Interestingly, people in the town just 10 miles away didn’t hear the explosion but those in Seattle did! We were very privileged to see the mountain so clearly as in the morning it had been shrouded in fog and the next morning you could not see it from the Visitors Centre because of rain and low cloud. What’s more we were lucky to see it under snow as it looks so desolate and barren in the summer. Unfortunately, we saw no elk although we were told they were on the road but the circles where the snow had melted around each conifer were so lovely. The valley and hillsides are well recovered with treees now and melted snow has created new streams in the valley washing away a lot of the ash which apparently stops revegetation. This is a case of erosion being a good thing!
It was late when we arrived at the RV park for the night and all seemed fine there until the next morning when I decided my hair was unbearable and ventured to have another lovely cheap shower (50c lasted for about 10 mins here). There was no water despite my 50 c! Again I was not too happy but the laundry was so cheap, just 75c a load and 75c for 45 mins for the dryer, we decided to do our weekly laundry (sheets, towels etc) there. The weather was so poor there was not much point in sight seeing.
So the 13th turned into a mainly washing and shopping day although the cloud lifted by the time we got near Portland at the end of our day. After the laundry and a belated hair washing, we went back to the Mt St Helen’s Visitor Centre. Inside the wonderful western red cedar building it was warm and we thoroughly enjoyed the short movie and the excellent displays.
Interestingly, the mountain erupted in 1790 and the Indians thought the world was ending. However, one chief told them not to worry as new men would come form the east and they would bring a book with them that would explain everything. After that the world would end! From a Christian perspective this is very interesting although other interpretations are possible. Did he mean the end of their world or the entire earth? What book? It reminded me of the old movie of the novel on time travel by George Orwell where the central male figure returns to get a book off the shelf to take into the future to help the people in distress that he had met there. Which book did he take?
After this we ventured onto the main road, the Interstate 5, again and headed for Longview and Kelso, twin towns just before the border with Oregon. These towns are noted for their shopping centres, at least 5 of them! They proved to be open air, single story affairs with huge parking lots around them. The traffic was extremely heavy but we managed to get into a craft shop, a bit like Spotlight without the homewares section. I was a little disappointed as the main crafts appear to be: beading, cake decorating, floral arranging, scrapbooking and quilting, not quilling or knitting. Their yarn section was extremely poor but their stamps and stencils are much cheaper than home. I talked myself out of buying a couple and now wish I hadn’t!
As we reached Vancouver (Washington, not Canada) and its twin city of Portland (Oregon) on the other side of the Columbia River, the traffic was extremely heavy as it was now peak hour. We managed to find our way over the river with its double-decker bridges with up to seven fly overs going in all directions and make our way east about 10 miles to Fairhaven RV park for the night. What a change. Mt St Helens had been acceptable and clean but this was a different class of park altogether. Not only were there free showers and internet connection (where we sent our last blog from) but it was set in beautifully maintained gardens including large-leafed maples, rhododendrons, azaleas and roses getting ready to bloom. For the first time there were proper concrete pitches to park on and each sight was marked by round white light shades marked with a site number, which really lit up the park at night. We were sort of placed in the far corner near the main road. Were we an embarrassment in our little oldish van? This site had over 400 pitches and was well patronised mostly by huge new rigs and a sign at the entrance states that any vehicles over 10 years old will not be admitted without inspection by the site manager and tents are totally forbidden. They had a club room, so we exchange our novels, and a pool which no one was bothering with in the chill. One the other hand, we have not seen an ironing board in any park. They seem to fold up their clothes on a large table as they come out of the driers but what do they do with clothes that say, “Do not tumble dry”. There are no clotheslines and you are not allowed to put up your own outside.
The large rigs are amazing. They have 3 or 4 slide out sections widening the vans on site and one even had 10 roll-out awnings! One had a push our bay window!
After our warmest night so far (I was back in summer pjs), we woke today to drizzling rain but fortunately it cleared before we set off about 9. Our first stop was to the Leatherman factory nearby where we got a couple of items half the price of back home. I treated myself to a wonderfully clever pair of new gardening secateurs with all those handy extra bits Leatherman is noted for. We also had a 20% discount voucher from the van park, which made it even cheaper.
Then for the treat of the day, Portland’s Japanese Gardens. Portland is a sister city to Sapporo, in Japan, and much of this garden was given to the city in recognition of this. It is designed by a Japanese designer and considered one of the best outside Japan. Nestled into a valley in the huge Washington Park, it is wonderfully framed by huge conifers and alders that were left around its edges and overlooks the city itself. We could hardly stop taking photos of streams, waterfalls, flowering spring plants, paths, cranes and many wonderful stone bowls and lanterns. The garden had a typical gravel garden contemplated from a classic pavilion and a small teahouse. On one side was a dry stone & gravel garden so that almost all of the features of a Japanese Garden, right down to the huge koi fish, are on display. With the azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons out, it was stunning. It also had the distinction of the smallest gif shop seen at any tourist site but I found a lovely small incense bowl there which will always remind us of a serene and breathtaking garden.
The Rose Garden nearby is a test garden and would also be stunning with ove 500 varieties on display but we would have to be there in summer to see it. The roses, however, were in beautiful condition, without a spot of disease and full of leaf and buds.
Trying to find the gardens and getting out of them proved a challenge but being lost in the narrow, winding streets around Washington Park is not trial. The houses and their gardens were gorgeous, like Shaughnesy in Vancouver but on the side of a mountain! This is millionaire territory: beautiful, within close access to the park and close to the city centre but not as good as Shaughnesy in your old age!
From Portland we drove west to the Pacific coast. It is not that there aren’t lots of things to do and see in Portland, a lovely looking city, but that we have chosen to focus on the natural environment and national parks since you can’t see everything. The Japanese Gardens get one of the highest ratings in Portland.
Again we travelled through very attractive countryside where fruit growing seemed to be popular and, for once, RVs parked next to houses not so popular! Then we climbed through the conifer forests of Tillamook State Forest to 1642 feet before beginning our descent through the Clatsop State Forest to the ocean and the very touristy town of Canon Beach, which must be a nightmare in summer when it is crawling with tourists. The main feature here is that all buildings must adhere to a very strict building code so that all the shops (mostly art galleries and gift shops) are build in timber in the style of the 1920s. It is very pleasant but I think I have already had enough of crawling through galleries and gift shops when we cannot buy things and do not want to pay to have them shipped home. There has been some stunning glassware but most of the stuff is not to our taste or not suited to our simple home. American decorating is far busier than ours.
We caught a glimpseon our way to our campsite of the off shore rocks we plan to visit tomorrow morning. This was another Good Sam Park, like at Portland, Bellington and St Helens and they have all be very clean and good. This one is cut into the surrounding bush and had shaded sites, no gardens. Again we were put in a far corner but that is fine. There are few big rigs here although there is nothing to stop them getting here as it is only 300 feet from the main road. With the cars they tow behind them for everyday transport, the owners of these big rigs could access this area but they seem to confine themselves to major cities where they stay for a month and then move on. Here there are a couple of 5th wheelers of shorter lengths, many more caravans and we would be the smallest van.
Today we saw our first Stellar jay, a blue-winged bird with a black triangular topknot on its head. So our education is continuing. We know our firs from our spruces from our hemlocks; we know our Oregon oxalis from our trilliums and skunk cabbage; we know our robins from our hummingbirds, ravens and jays and our chipmunks from our squirrels and weasels!
Lastly, a few things that have caught our eye include petrol priced at 3.88 9/10, which means three point eight eight and nine tenth cents a gallon. Why not just make it 3.89c?
Rest areas seem not to exist off the interstate highways (we have only seen one on a minor road) but those on the I 5 are magnificent park-like affairs, which are also internet hotspots! Unfortunately, we were not ready to use any of them as we reached them. They appear to be about 40 miles apart.
Thankfully, with our own kitchen and toilet we are not dependent on rest areas.
There are a lot more older cars on the road in Canada and the US than at home but we have seen very few ”Yank Tanks”, which are mostly old cars while the newer cars are smaller, often imported, vehicles except for the large utes. But Cadillacs and Dodges are increasing in number as we head south. In Hawaii, we even saw a stretched Hummer!
In Portland, we saw a sign advertising “Condos for your RV”! Basically, it is garaging space for your recreational vehicles since many people in the city would not have storage at home for their big rigs. Interestingly, a lot of these storage places seem to have bright orange doors, just like Kennards Storage at home!
They have “wildfires” here, not bushfires. Signs tell you it is “unlawful” to do something, not “illegal”. One day we must ask someone what the road sign “Sunken grade” means. We thought we knew but then the same phenomenon kept on happening but the signs did not reappear.
Tomorrow it is down the west coast before we make our way inland to Glacier National Park.
As we have been enjoying some marvellous sights as well as travelling longer distances, the blog has been neglected so this entry will cover the last 3 days.
A bright sunny morning greeted us for a change as we left the Lake Quinalt resort on the morning of the 12th, before stopping for a photo of the Biggest Spruce . It was supposed to be 190’ but appeared to have lost its top, possibly in the dreadful storm I mentioned in the last entry.
They seem to suffer from the “big disease” around here, like the Big Merino, the Big Lobster and the Big Banana, only here it is the biggest Douglas fir, the Biggest Spruce, the Biggest Western Hemlock etc. In the fine print they do acknowledge that, naturally, they do not measure up to the giant redwoods further south that we will be visiting soon. Nevertheless they are impressive and make one feel insignificant.
Next we stopped outside the resort for a photo from our dinner spot of the night before. Venturing, then, only as far as the Visitors Information Centre, I found out that the flower I had so admired was called a trillium, which didn’t surprise me at all, but that it started out as white and faded to deep purple, rather than have different colours, did.
We made our way through unimpressive countryside and towns to Aberdeen where we picked up petrol and again ventured into Safeways. Do you know that they don’t know what custard powder is? A shop assistant and a local both tried to help but said that custard was an old fashioned dessert no one made anymore but this made me smile since on the shelf were jelly, tapioca pudding and rice pud! If it has the word “pudding” attached it seems to be much desired! There were a lot of pre-made puddings sitting on the shelf but the local warned us off them saying they didn’t taste at all like a pudding should. It will be interesting to see if puddings are as popular further south where winters aren’t as cold. According to the local, it has been the coldest, wettest spring in 30 years.
On our way out of Aberdeen, we noticed a sign on a chiropractor’s “ Please call in before you crawl in”, which gave us a laugh.
On arrival at Centralia we ventured into the antiques and collectible section of town where supposedly there are 300 dealers. They are not all in the one street (there were a lot of empty shops too) but we saw enough to be sick of antique shops. Mostly they were what we would call bric-a-brac but we did see several black mamas and black papas as salt and pepper shakers, money boxes etc that are now so politically incorrect in Aust. that they stood out like sore thumbs to us.
We had parked near the railway line so David was delighted to discover that this was a busy rail town. An Amtrak passenger train was followed by several goods trains. One train had five matching engines and went for ages. We both regretted not counting all the wagons. Later David was surprised to see shipping containers, one perched on top of another, on other goods trains. Naturally, David took several photos!
From Centralis, we drove towards and along the Chehalis River Valley. From here on the countryside has been beautiful as it is not so flat and the hills not so distant and flowering yellow broom is scattered along the roadsides.
Mt St Helen’s Visitor Centre was our final stop for the day but the mountain was largely in view, the weather forecast was not looking so good and the sun was at the right angle for photographs so we left the centre quickly deciding to do the 2 hour trip up and back and leave the centre for the next morning. What a great decision!
Although the road was still not fully opened because of the snow of winter, the cloud across the tip of the summit lifted as we got closer and the sun tried valiantly to shine so that we ended up with a perfect view of the crater created by the famous eruption of May 18 1980. The once beautiful cone shaped mounted had suffered first earthquakes, avalanches on it north face, creation of a crater at the top, blowing its top and then horrendous mudslides all of which killed about 57 people, silted up the Columbia River and threatened towns and shipping. Millions of trees were destroyed or flattened and Silver Lake was changed and enlarged dramatically. The lady at the camping ground said locals still feel alienated from the new shape of the mountain and valley. The original cone has been replaced with a gapping crater open to the north so that one summit ridge is covered in pristine snow while the other has snow interspersed with black rocks. This gives greater definition to the crater walls. A new cone is already growing in the centre. This may eventually rebuild the missing cone but also plug the lava tube causing another explosion in the future. It appears to erupt fairly regularly but with warnings.
To repair the damage 13 new bridges and a dam had to be built. Interestingly, people in the town just 10 miles away didn’t hear the explosion but those in Seattle did! We were very privileged to see the mountain so clearly as in the morning it had been shrouded in fog and the next morning you could not see it from the Visitors Centre because of rain and low cloud. What’s more we were lucky to see it under snow as it looks so desolate and barren in the summer. Unfortunately, we saw no elk although we were told they were on the road but the circles where the snow had melted around each conifer were so lovely. The valley and hillsides are well recovered with treees now and melted snow has created new streams in the valley washing away a lot of the ash which apparently stops revegetation. This is a case of erosion being a good thing!
It was late when we arrived at the RV park for the night and all seemed fine there until the next morning when I decided my hair was unbearable and ventured to have another lovely cheap shower (50c lasted for about 10 mins here). There was no water despite my 50 c! Again I was not too happy but the laundry was so cheap, just 75c a load and 75c for 45 mins for the dryer, we decided to do our weekly laundry (sheets, towels etc) there. The weather was so poor there was not much point in sight seeing.
So the 13th turned into a mainly washing and shopping day although the cloud lifted by the time we got near Portland at the end of our day. After the laundry and a belated hair washing, we went back to the Mt St Helen’s Visitor Centre. Inside the wonderful western red cedar building it was warm and we thoroughly enjoyed the short movie and the excellent displays.
Interestingly, the mountain erupted in 1790 and the Indians thought the world was ending. However, one chief told them not to worry as new men would come form the east and they would bring a book with them that would explain everything. After that the world would end! From a Christian perspective this is very interesting although other interpretations are possible. Did he mean the end of their world or the entire earth? What book? It reminded me of the old movie of the novel on time travel by George Orwell where the central male figure returns to get a book off the shelf to take into the future to help the people in distress that he had met there. Which book did he take?
After this we ventured onto the main road, the Interstate 5, again and headed for Longview and Kelso, twin towns just before the border with Oregon. These towns are noted for their shopping centres, at least 5 of them! They proved to be open air, single story affairs with huge parking lots around them. The traffic was extremely heavy but we managed to get into a craft shop, a bit like Spotlight without the homewares section. I was a little disappointed as the main crafts appear to be: beading, cake decorating, floral arranging, scrapbooking and quilting, not quilling or knitting. Their yarn section was extremely poor but their stamps and stencils are much cheaper than home. I talked myself out of buying a couple and now wish I hadn’t!
As we reached Vancouver (Washington, not Canada) and its twin city of Portland (Oregon) on the other side of the Columbia River, the traffic was extremely heavy as it was now peak hour. We managed to find our way over the river with its double-decker bridges with up to seven fly overs going in all directions and make our way east about 10 miles to Fairhaven RV park for the night. What a change. Mt St Helens had been acceptable and clean but this was a different class of park altogether. Not only were there free showers and internet connection (where we sent our last blog from) but it was set in beautifully maintained gardens including large-leafed maples, rhododendrons, azaleas and roses getting ready to bloom. For the first time there were proper concrete pitches to park on and each sight was marked by round white light shades marked with a site number, which really lit up the park at night. We were sort of placed in the far corner near the main road. Were we an embarrassment in our little oldish van? This site had over 400 pitches and was well patronised mostly by huge new rigs and a sign at the entrance states that any vehicles over 10 years old will not be admitted without inspection by the site manager and tents are totally forbidden. They had a club room, so we exchange our novels, and a pool which no one was bothering with in the chill. One the other hand, we have not seen an ironing board in any park. They seem to fold up their clothes on a large table as they come out of the driers but what do they do with clothes that say, “Do not tumble dry”. There are no clotheslines and you are not allowed to put up your own outside.
The large rigs are amazing. They have 3 or 4 slide out sections widening the vans on site and one even had 10 roll-out awnings! One had a push our bay window!
After our warmest night so far (I was back in summer pjs), we woke today to drizzling rain but fortunately it cleared before we set off about 9. Our first stop was to the Leatherman factory nearby where we got a couple of items half the price of back home. I treated myself to a wonderfully clever pair of new gardening secateurs with all those handy extra bits Leatherman is noted for. We also had a 20% discount voucher from the van park, which made it even cheaper.
Then for the treat of the day, Portland’s Japanese Gardens. Portland is a sister city to Sapporo, in Japan, and much of this garden was given to the city in recognition of this. It is designed by a Japanese designer and considered one of the best outside Japan. Nestled into a valley in the huge Washington Park, it is wonderfully framed by huge conifers and alders that were left around its edges and overlooks the city itself. We could hardly stop taking photos of streams, waterfalls, flowering spring plants, paths, cranes and many wonderful stone bowls and lanterns. The garden had a typical gravel garden contemplated from a classic pavilion and a small teahouse. On one side was a dry stone & gravel garden so that almost all of the features of a Japanese Garden, right down to the huge koi fish, are on display. With the azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons out, it was stunning. It also had the distinction of the smallest gif shop seen at any tourist site but I found a lovely small incense bowl there which will always remind us of a serene and breathtaking garden.
The Rose Garden nearby is a test garden and would also be stunning with ove 500 varieties on display but we would have to be there in summer to see it. The roses, however, were in beautiful condition, without a spot of disease and full of leaf and buds.
Trying to find the gardens and getting out of them proved a challenge but being lost in the narrow, winding streets around Washington Park is not trial. The houses and their gardens were gorgeous, like Shaughnesy in Vancouver but on the side of a mountain! This is millionaire territory: beautiful, within close access to the park and close to the city centre but not as good as Shaughnesy in your old age!
From Portland we drove west to the Pacific coast. It is not that there aren’t lots of things to do and see in Portland, a lovely looking city, but that we have chosen to focus on the natural environment and national parks since you can’t see everything. The Japanese Gardens get one of the highest ratings in Portland.
Again we travelled through very attractive countryside where fruit growing seemed to be popular and, for once, RVs parked next to houses not so popular! Then we climbed through the conifer forests of Tillamook State Forest to 1642 feet before beginning our descent through the Clatsop State Forest to the ocean and the very touristy town of Canon Beach, which must be a nightmare in summer when it is crawling with tourists. The main feature here is that all buildings must adhere to a very strict building code so that all the shops (mostly art galleries and gift shops) are build in timber in the style of the 1920s. It is very pleasant but I think I have already had enough of crawling through galleries and gift shops when we cannot buy things and do not want to pay to have them shipped home. There has been some stunning glassware but most of the stuff is not to our taste or not suited to our simple home. American decorating is far busier than ours.
We caught a glimpseon our way to our campsite of the off shore rocks we plan to visit tomorrow morning. This was another Good Sam Park, like at Portland, Bellington and St Helens and they have all be very clean and good. This one is cut into the surrounding bush and had shaded sites, no gardens. Again we were put in a far corner but that is fine. There are few big rigs here although there is nothing to stop them getting here as it is only 300 feet from the main road. With the cars they tow behind them for everyday transport, the owners of these big rigs could access this area but they seem to confine themselves to major cities where they stay for a month and then move on. Here there are a couple of 5th wheelers of shorter lengths, many more caravans and we would be the smallest van.
Today we saw our first Stellar jay, a blue-winged bird with a black triangular topknot on its head. So our education is continuing. We know our firs from our spruces from our hemlocks; we know our Oregon oxalis from our trilliums and skunk cabbage; we know our robins from our hummingbirds, ravens and jays and our chipmunks from our squirrels and weasels!
Lastly, a few things that have caught our eye include petrol priced at 3.88 9/10, which means three point eight eight and nine tenth cents a gallon. Why not just make it 3.89c?
Rest areas seem not to exist off the interstate highways (we have only seen one on a minor road) but those on the I 5 are magnificent park-like affairs, which are also internet hotspots! Unfortunately, we were not ready to use any of them as we reached them. They appear to be about 40 miles apart.
Thankfully, with our own kitchen and toilet we are not dependent on rest areas.
There are a lot more older cars on the road in Canada and the US than at home but we have seen very few ”Yank Tanks”, which are mostly old cars while the newer cars are smaller, often imported, vehicles except for the large utes. But Cadillacs and Dodges are increasing in number as we head south. In Hawaii, we even saw a stretched Hummer!
In Portland, we saw a sign advertising “Condos for your RV”! Basically, it is garaging space for your recreational vehicles since many people in the city would not have storage at home for their big rigs. Interestingly, a lot of these storage places seem to have bright orange doors, just like Kennards Storage at home!
They have “wildfires” here, not bushfires. Signs tell you it is “unlawful” to do something, not “illegal”. One day we must ask someone what the road sign “Sunken grade” means. We thought we knew but then the same phenomenon kept on happening but the signs did not reappear.
Tomorrow it is down the west coast before we make our way inland to Glacier National Park.
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
11th May, 2008 Lake Quinault (south shore), Washington, USA
Note - Read earlier blogs first.
We have just had a Mother’s Day dinner at the Salmon House restaurant, a very nice meal of scallops wrapped in bacon followed by beautifully cooked salmon, while looking out the large windows over rolling lawns to the lake and the Olympic Mts National Park to the west. It was a very pleasant end to a day of mixed fortunes. The meals are not overly big, despite warnings to that effect before we left home, it is the extras fries, salad or soup that come with your meal that are the problem. In future we will return to our policy of 1 course and choose the soup maybe instead of the salad so it forms a first course.
This morning (and last night were very wet) so we decided not to venture further onto trails in the Hoh area but as soon as we left the weather improved so that it was sunny when we reached the west coast beaches around Kalaloch. On our way out we smiled at the road sign which said “Congested Zone”, which I guess is the equivalent of a built up area. The village of Minnie Petersen (Yes, it is the name of a village, not a person.) had 1 general store, 1 petrol pump, 3 houses and a works depot! Some congestion!
It was still cold especially the wind so we needed our jackets, hoods up, as we ventured onto Ruby Beach, the northern of the Kalaloch beaches which stretch for about 7 miles.
Ruby Beach is rugged with headland remnants of hard rock that are the basalt equivalents of the 12 Apostles in Victoria only fewer in no. and not as grand. The beach of grey sand is littered with piles of dead trees and masses of large well-rounded pebbles. Obviously this spot takes a beating form both the weather and the sea. Of interest, we noted the tsunami warning signs on all the beaches. The west coast lies along a fault zone right down to California so you are told that if an earthquake occurs to drop to the ground and then make your way inland and to higher ground! This was very unsettling but we managed not to be there when the next earthquake hit.
After Ruby Beach, the beaches are wide, flat and sandy (grey sand still) although driftwood debris still lies at the higher parts of the beaches. There seemed to be a lot of camping areas around Kalaloch so we guess it is favoured in summer for summer holidays but there was no one there at this time.
We then entered our final part of Olympic National Park on the north shore of Lake Quinault. The road in was very narrow but there were only a couple of other vehicles on the road, probably locals as there were cottages on the lake’s shore inside the park. However, all the camping grounds and the National Park Visitor Centre were still closed. Nevertheless, we ventured on a short walk to the Glade of the Maples, which was nicer than the Hall of Mosses in Hoh, as there was a real feeling of a peaceful glade and the water in the form of wetlands and tiny rivulets gave the area a further sense of tranquillity. The yellow skunk lilies here had developed huge leaves as they obviously enjoy growing right in the water. Western red cedar trees now joined the Douglas fir and the spruce and hemlocks as an important species.
After lunch and the glade, we moved on to the South Shore of the lake. This was more like what we expected although obviously still a little off the beaten tourist / holiday-maker track. We spied the Rain Forest Resort with its nice cabins, the beautiful position overlooking the lake and the large general store and PO and decided to come back here for the night.
First, however, we decide to find the tourist information office (it was closed on a Sunday) and take a short circular trail of about 1.6 miles to the Cascade Falls. This was an excellent substitute for the walk we had been unable to take at Hoh in the morning. Warning signs along the track told of heavy damage resulting from winter storms and snow of the 1st & 2nd Dec when winds reached 132 miles per hour and everywhere it was evident as hundreds and hundreds of trees, many huge, had been felled. As they fell, their root balls tore up the ground often ripping away sections of the track so that little detours had to be made where the path had disappeared. Where the trees had fallen across the path, they had been cut through with chain saws and the offending section just dumped by the side of the track. All that beautiful timber just wasted, well, not really, as it forms wonderful habitats for small plants and animals. (All apart of the cycle of nature). Maples are even more dominant here than at Hoh and the western red cedar is too. The Cascade Falls on the Cascade Creek that runs into Falls Creek and thence the lake was very pretty and I spied some lovely lilies, I think, in shades from white to deep purple. They will be lovely ones to quill when I get home. There were 3 lovely petals with 5 internal bracts and three backing slim leaves. Further down the stems were three large leaves balancing the three small leaves and the three petals. I hope to find out the name of this plant tomorrow but I am not too hopeful. Every time we ask a question, no one seems to know the answer or care much. It has been the same since Vancouver, where the hotel receptionists couldn’t tell us much more than where the nearest IPA supermarket was. Here for example, I went into the general store, less than 20 feet from their Laundromat, to ask for quarters for the machines but the girl didn’t know how many I’d need. After all, they only own the building, she said, the machines are the property of the company renting the tiny premises!
This was just one of the flaws with this idyllic spot. You are not allowed onto the site until you have booked in and then you discover the poor amenities. They don’t measure up to some of our national parks! The toilet block needed painting and the door was cracked and peeling. The hinges were so rusted inside that you could not lock the shower door and one of the 2 cisterns was broken. The floor was bare concrete, no tiles. When I went to have my hot shower at 25c for 2 and a half minutes, the tap wouldn’t work so I had to get dressed and, freezing cold, go walk up to the general store where I demanded my 25c back. I was so livid! Luckily, they have showers for day-trippers next to the store as well. They are 25c for 1 minute, which meant half a minute as you were paying for the freezing water to get warm before you could stand under it. So after half a minute, the hot water cut out but I was wet enough to finish soaping my hair and body before putting in my second 25c to rinse off. I was determined not to give them another 25 c! I informed the lady at the general store that we very not happy nor impressed. David had managed to get water in his park shower but only luke warm on a freezing day and we had to move our van when we discovered the electricity on our chosen site did not work! But the lady in the store wasn’t concerned although she agreed to return my lost 25c!
Overall, we are surprised at the poor quality of van parks and we guess they don’t have to offer decent facilities as most travellers have these huge rigs so that they use their own toilets and showers. But may be it is the other way around. The people buy large rigs because the facilities are poor. We are hoping this does not continue for another 10 weeks or that we find facilities like Bellingham in more parks.
We have also seen two more ‘resorts’. Obviously, a resort is something quite different here. It seems to mean tiny timber cabins and a lodge building that usually has a restaurant, not the plush places we label resorts.
Well, it is nearly time for bed although I am still not sleeping well. I have managed to soften the bed, stop myself freezing down both sides but I am still fluctuating between hot and cold adjusting blankets etc all night. David meanwhile sleeps reasonably well! We are, however, well settled into our temporary new life now.
We have finished seeing our first national park. Only 19 more to go, David tells me! In the last three days we have seen 4 very different ecosystems from the alpine of Hurricane Ridge to the snowed valley of Sol Doc to the temperate rainforests of Hoh and Lake Quinault and finally the beaches of the west coast, all within the one park. It is a very special place.
Note - Read earlier blogs first.
We have just had a Mother’s Day dinner at the Salmon House restaurant, a very nice meal of scallops wrapped in bacon followed by beautifully cooked salmon, while looking out the large windows over rolling lawns to the lake and the Olympic Mts National Park to the west. It was a very pleasant end to a day of mixed fortunes. The meals are not overly big, despite warnings to that effect before we left home, it is the extras fries, salad or soup that come with your meal that are the problem. In future we will return to our policy of 1 course and choose the soup maybe instead of the salad so it forms a first course.
This morning (and last night were very wet) so we decided not to venture further onto trails in the Hoh area but as soon as we left the weather improved so that it was sunny when we reached the west coast beaches around Kalaloch. On our way out we smiled at the road sign which said “Congested Zone”, which I guess is the equivalent of a built up area. The village of Minnie Petersen (Yes, it is the name of a village, not a person.) had 1 general store, 1 petrol pump, 3 houses and a works depot! Some congestion!
It was still cold especially the wind so we needed our jackets, hoods up, as we ventured onto Ruby Beach, the northern of the Kalaloch beaches which stretch for about 7 miles.
Ruby Beach is rugged with headland remnants of hard rock that are the basalt equivalents of the 12 Apostles in Victoria only fewer in no. and not as grand. The beach of grey sand is littered with piles of dead trees and masses of large well-rounded pebbles. Obviously this spot takes a beating form both the weather and the sea. Of interest, we noted the tsunami warning signs on all the beaches. The west coast lies along a fault zone right down to California so you are told that if an earthquake occurs to drop to the ground and then make your way inland and to higher ground! This was very unsettling but we managed not to be there when the next earthquake hit.
After Ruby Beach, the beaches are wide, flat and sandy (grey sand still) although driftwood debris still lies at the higher parts of the beaches. There seemed to be a lot of camping areas around Kalaloch so we guess it is favoured in summer for summer holidays but there was no one there at this time.
We then entered our final part of Olympic National Park on the north shore of Lake Quinault. The road in was very narrow but there were only a couple of other vehicles on the road, probably locals as there were cottages on the lake’s shore inside the park. However, all the camping grounds and the National Park Visitor Centre were still closed. Nevertheless, we ventured on a short walk to the Glade of the Maples, which was nicer than the Hall of Mosses in Hoh, as there was a real feeling of a peaceful glade and the water in the form of wetlands and tiny rivulets gave the area a further sense of tranquillity. The yellow skunk lilies here had developed huge leaves as they obviously enjoy growing right in the water. Western red cedar trees now joined the Douglas fir and the spruce and hemlocks as an important species.
After lunch and the glade, we moved on to the South Shore of the lake. This was more like what we expected although obviously still a little off the beaten tourist / holiday-maker track. We spied the Rain Forest Resort with its nice cabins, the beautiful position overlooking the lake and the large general store and PO and decided to come back here for the night.
First, however, we decide to find the tourist information office (it was closed on a Sunday) and take a short circular trail of about 1.6 miles to the Cascade Falls. This was an excellent substitute for the walk we had been unable to take at Hoh in the morning. Warning signs along the track told of heavy damage resulting from winter storms and snow of the 1st & 2nd Dec when winds reached 132 miles per hour and everywhere it was evident as hundreds and hundreds of trees, many huge, had been felled. As they fell, their root balls tore up the ground often ripping away sections of the track so that little detours had to be made where the path had disappeared. Where the trees had fallen across the path, they had been cut through with chain saws and the offending section just dumped by the side of the track. All that beautiful timber just wasted, well, not really, as it forms wonderful habitats for small plants and animals. (All apart of the cycle of nature). Maples are even more dominant here than at Hoh and the western red cedar is too. The Cascade Falls on the Cascade Creek that runs into Falls Creek and thence the lake was very pretty and I spied some lovely lilies, I think, in shades from white to deep purple. They will be lovely ones to quill when I get home. There were 3 lovely petals with 5 internal bracts and three backing slim leaves. Further down the stems were three large leaves balancing the three small leaves and the three petals. I hope to find out the name of this plant tomorrow but I am not too hopeful. Every time we ask a question, no one seems to know the answer or care much. It has been the same since Vancouver, where the hotel receptionists couldn’t tell us much more than where the nearest IPA supermarket was. Here for example, I went into the general store, less than 20 feet from their Laundromat, to ask for quarters for the machines but the girl didn’t know how many I’d need. After all, they only own the building, she said, the machines are the property of the company renting the tiny premises!
This was just one of the flaws with this idyllic spot. You are not allowed onto the site until you have booked in and then you discover the poor amenities. They don’t measure up to some of our national parks! The toilet block needed painting and the door was cracked and peeling. The hinges were so rusted inside that you could not lock the shower door and one of the 2 cisterns was broken. The floor was bare concrete, no tiles. When I went to have my hot shower at 25c for 2 and a half minutes, the tap wouldn’t work so I had to get dressed and, freezing cold, go walk up to the general store where I demanded my 25c back. I was so livid! Luckily, they have showers for day-trippers next to the store as well. They are 25c for 1 minute, which meant half a minute as you were paying for the freezing water to get warm before you could stand under it. So after half a minute, the hot water cut out but I was wet enough to finish soaping my hair and body before putting in my second 25c to rinse off. I was determined not to give them another 25 c! I informed the lady at the general store that we very not happy nor impressed. David had managed to get water in his park shower but only luke warm on a freezing day and we had to move our van when we discovered the electricity on our chosen site did not work! But the lady in the store wasn’t concerned although she agreed to return my lost 25c!
Overall, we are surprised at the poor quality of van parks and we guess they don’t have to offer decent facilities as most travellers have these huge rigs so that they use their own toilets and showers. But may be it is the other way around. The people buy large rigs because the facilities are poor. We are hoping this does not continue for another 10 weeks or that we find facilities like Bellingham in more parks.
We have also seen two more ‘resorts’. Obviously, a resort is something quite different here. It seems to mean tiny timber cabins and a lodge building that usually has a restaurant, not the plush places we label resorts.
Well, it is nearly time for bed although I am still not sleeping well. I have managed to soften the bed, stop myself freezing down both sides but I am still fluctuating between hot and cold adjusting blankets etc all night. David meanwhile sleeps reasonably well! We are, however, well settled into our temporary new life now.
We have finished seeing our first national park. Only 19 more to go, David tells me! In the last three days we have seen 4 very different ecosystems from the alpine of Hurricane Ridge to the snowed valley of Sol Doc to the temperate rainforests of Hoh and Lake Quinault and finally the beaches of the west coast, all within the one park. It is a very special place.
