Up again too early, checked out & on the road north by eight. Was driving north to get to the east entrance to Yosemite National Park. Was great driving up the side of the Sierras – I was surprised to see snow still up there, but I suppose they are reasonably high – they are quite spectacular in places. Once again tried taking photos out the car window (which are now a lot filthier after all those great gravel roads over the weekend)

Started the long & winding road up to Tioga Pass & almost got to ten-thousand feet again. As I opened the window to pay to get in (I’ve now been to so many National Parks in the last week, that it was cheaper to upgrade to an annual pass – although what exactly I’m going to do with it now, I’m not sure) I was attacked by also sorts of horrible biting insects. So on the next few stops at picturesque lakes I covered myself in repellent & stunk for the rest of the day. The drive from the east of the park to the west (where Yosemite Valley is & where most of the tourist & vacationers go) was absolutely beautiful – nice Sequoia forests, reflective lakes, impressive granite peaks. By now I was up amongst a little snow – not something I was expecting from my Californian summer road trip.

There were plenty of cars parked on various verges & lots – many people going for quite a few days hiking in Yosemite & I can see why. Joined the masses driving in to the valley & then the masses already there. Another shuttle system here to enable so many people to move around. Unlike Zion, there were plenty of people staying here in lodges or tents & having an extended stay – also saw a lot of people hiring small inflatable rafts & floating down the river. Took a small walk up to Mirror Lake – after the small mountain lakes I had seen on Tioga Pass it was rather disappointing. All the waterfalls in the park come from snowmelt – so at the start of summer they are still going. Yosemite Falls are the fifth highest in the wall & the largest in North America.

I had to take a photo of this little guy because I keep forgetting to say that I have seen so many squirrels scurrying off the singletrack on my rides – this one must have been used to people as I walked right past him & he hardly flinched. The granite cliffs were spectacular (although I preferred the rock at Zion) & the largest granite monolith in the world is in Yosemite.

Yosemite is the number one big wall destination for climbers in the States & apparently if you looked closely you could see them up there camping out half way up the El Capitan (1000 m) – I can’t have looked closely enough.

Rest of the day spent driving two hundred miles to stay with a friend of Anna-Marie’s in Berkeley. It got nice & warm (110 oF) driving from Yosemite (funny to think I had just been in snow), but I was surprised as how much cooler it was in San Francisco. But apparently the place is known for not having the weather I’m used to in San Diego & other southern California places.

Up nice & early for the 450 mile drive to Kernville to go camping & riding for the weekend. On the road shortly after seven & soon I was in Arizona & it was back to half past six. Rather than go as far as I could on the I-15 & through Las Vegas again, I decided to skirt around LV & then head west so I could go through my third National Park in as many days – Death Valley. It added only twenty or so miles to my trip, but the roads were slower than the interstate. Pulled in to another small town, Beatty (pronouced Bate-ie by the only person I heard say the word) & it was getting hot at 9.30 & I was tired from the big day before & driving too much. Had a nice nap in the car waiting for the town museum to open at 10 – only to find that it was temporarily closed.

Into Death Valley & I took a small side road up to Rhyolite – a dead set ghost town. It was a big mine town in the 1900s (peaked at 10000 people), but funding for mine expansion dried up near the end of the decade & now the town looks like this:

This is one of the best preserved bottle houses in the world.

A few hundred yards down the road there was quite a few outdoor sculptures – this of course was my favourite:

It was back on the road to head in to Death Valley – the lowest, hottest & driest place in North America (curiously, it is only just over 100 km from Mt Whitney – the highest place in the continental States). The roads were a lot of this:

But over those hills, I descended to look out at the low spot:

Naturally, it was getting quite hot (about 110) & I eventually made it down to sea level, before starting another big climb over another pass (the poor Dodge has done a fair bit of climbing over the last week – & more to come).

Once out of Death Valley & climbing another pass, I passed veritable forest of Joshua Trees – strange looking things, they were everywhere.

I made it to Kernville, the camping rendezvous, about two & a half hours early – lounged around on the village green (found free Wi-Fi), went to the local museum & so on.  Irmina & Bill turned up, it was off over the road to another microbrewery for good food & beer & get to know each other a bit.  We pushed off for the campsite at about eight.  Apparently, we were trying to get to pitch tents before night fall – that turned out to be a bit hopeful.  As I followed the others in the Dodge, it became apparent that it was forty miles away & a few more thousand feet of climbing on windy, gravel roads.  I watched with increasing nervousness as the fuel gauge dropped, the light came on & the needle continued its plunge.  Night fell & we twisted around more & more turns as we climbed to the stars.  It was much relief that we pulled in to a vacant campsite (who else would drive this far?).  As we pitched tents, I was surprised as to how cold it was (it dropped to about 40 that night ~ 5 Celsius) & it was great that I had brought my Fairydown sleeping bag all the way to the middle of nowhere in the Californian summer.  The stars were out in full force – easily the best I have seen in the northern hemisphere – & I went to sleep listening to the stream running down to Big Meadow.

Taking some time out from driving & doing anything really – sitting in a small park in the centre of a small town with a nice breeze blowing through the trees waiting for some more mountain bike buddies to show up for a weekend camping. Anyway, back to Wednesday.

It was up to early again, breakfast, car packed & gassed up & on the I-15 North shortly after eight. LV was going for another scorcher & it was already in the high-nineties by nine o’clock. Probably because there isn’t any at home, I still find desert mildly interesting – I’m sure this will wear off after a thousand miles or so. There was plenty to look at – mostly hills & mountains of various sizes & rather large mining & quarrying operations sort of in the middle of nowhere, but close to the freeway all the same. As I was driving by myself & on the freeway, any time I saw anything worthwhile I got to practice my point, don’t look & shoot photography technique. As I had forgotten to clean the windshield when I last filled up, there was little success.

Quite a bit of climbing through a gorge & it was back in to Arizona & then in to Utah. Here the mesas were becoming more pronounced & spectacular – & also a lot redder in colour. Got to Hurricane (SW Utah), where I was due to spend the next two nights at about ten, found the local museum & information centre – the charming old guy in there pointed me around the corner to the local bike shop. Here I met the first person yet to guess I was from Australia – she had just got back from there (which is better than the cop on the mugging night who commended me on my ability to speak English – “you speak English good” – shudder) – & got some good tips on what rides I might do the following day. Enough of that, it was time to hit the road again.

Crossed back in to Arizona (I later found out that I had changed time zones without realising it – Utah doesn’t do daylight savings) & the next hour or so of highway was lined with more spectacular mesas.

The road then hit the hills & climbed up to six thousand feet & I was soon in the Kaibab National Forest (designated so by Theodore Roosevelt, who used to hunt around there a lot). As the road got higher (7000 ft+) the forest turned really pretty & then opened up a bit in to big meadows. The superb road curved its way through these meadows & trees – I’m not sure I have done a prettier or more enjoyable drive for quite some time.

It was straight from Kaibab in to Grand Canyon National Park. I was visiting the North Rim – the less visited side of the canyon (it only gets fifteen percent of the visitors) – as it fitted better with going to Utah & my time constraints & dislike of large crowds. I was surprised at just how many trees were around the top of the canyon – probably because most photos I have seen are from South Rim – the reason for all the trees is that it is getting up towards nine-thousand feet high, so isn’t really desert like the North Rim. Of course the views were breathtaking & all the different layers in the rocks fascinating. I won’t wax lyrical, although I could, but put some photos from my puny camera up instead. I took a short walk down part way in to the canyon (got passed by three mule trains – very dusty & smelly) to get a slightly different perspective. I only went down twenty minutes; on the way got chatting to some guy who was making hard work of the last bit of the climb to the rim. It turned out that he had started walking at four-thirty that morning from the South Rim, walked along the bottom & was almost at the top of the North Rim. What’s more, he was planning on doing it all again tomorrow in reverse – crazy old guy! Feeling sickened by that, I promptly got back to the car & took off back to Hurricane (not before fixing the trunk lid that wouldn’t close; the car is quite good for cruising on the highway & carrying all my gear – but the build quality is awful, for a two year old car there are so many buttons that stick or don’t work first time & the vents are all stuck in the same position & so on). Crashed back at the motel – did just over four-hundred miles that day, was quite tired. What a great day though – what different scenery I had seen – desert, rocky mesas, forests, & the Grand Canyon.<