Coasting Back

I love living at the beach. However, there are times when you have to venture inland to visit other places and people. 

Recently I was in Utah to visit friends and daily for ten days. Although we had a wonderful time, it was lovely to get back to that moist coastal air again.

As you might have guessed by now, I also love sunsets and these are two stunning ones I saw from our room.

 As always after a trip, there is a lot to catch up on but I am also working on some ideas for future paintings.

Road Trip 3

After heading out of Bodie we drive up to Highway 108 which took us back over the Sierra's. Although this road did not take us up quite as high as Tioga Pass did (around 9,300 feet compared with 9,943 feet) the climb was much steeper on Highway 108 which as a 26% grade.

We drove to Columbia where the the gold rush era buildings in the town are a State Park. All the buildings have been preserved and restored compared with Bodie Ghost Town.

This part of the town is pedestrian only so visitors can stroll along focusing on the buildings rather than the traffic.

 We booked to stay in one of the two hotels within the State Park area so we could wander around the streets after the day visitors had left for the day.

As well as museum exhibits, there are real shops open and run by people in period dress.

We stayed at the Fallon Hotel which has recently been rennovated.

 The lobby.

The corridor to our room.

The following day we drove up Highway 49 to another old town that was built around the place where gold was actually discovered at the Marshall Gold Discovery Site State Park Visitors Centre.

Here is a representation of the event.

A replica of Sutter's Mill which was near the discovery site.

This is the place where the discovery of gold set off the California Gold Rush.

Road Trip 2

Last time you left us headed towards Tioga Pass. 

It had been very warm down in the valley but at almost 10,000 feet, it was quite chilly.

About one-third of the way up the photograph below is the road we were headed for.

Here we are on the road.

Our first view of Mono Lake.

Our hotel at Lee Vining, the nearest town to Mono Lake. Lee Vining is a town of 300 people which consists mostly of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. It was a nice town.

The hotel was old but clean and had character.

Our room. Not fancy but the bed was comfortable and clean my top priorities.

We ate at Bodie Mike's. Good food and service. I don't usually eat at BBQ restaurants but they had a veggie burger.

The next day we drove to Mono Lake to look at the tufa formations. 

A tufa monster.

From Mono Lake we head north to an old Ghost Town called Bodie. The last part of the journey was via a dirt road.

Bodie is a State Park and only the minimum is being done to preserve the town.

I love the textures of old buildings.

An outhouse.

This was my favourite item in the museum.

Road Trip

I have just returned from a road trip around California seeing some very beautiful scenery and old buildings associated with the California gold rush.

Part of our route was determined by the location of friends we wanted to see along the way. 

This is a shopping mall we passed as we drove through Los Angeles. It reminds me of something you'd see in Las Vegas.

After visiting friends our next stop was...

We saw many changes of landscape during our trip. This flat farm land soon gave way to mountains.

And trees. Lots and lots of trees. 

There are a lot of deer in this area but you have to concentrate to spot them among all the trees. This curious youngster co-operated so I could get this picture.

The scene at some of the vista points was hazy because of a wildfire burning across the way.

We could see a lot of waterfalls from our vantage point.

We didn't see any but there are bears in them there hills so all the rubbish bins have to be bear proof.

There are dramatic views around every corner (and since the roads are very winding, there are lots of corners).

The wildfire causing all the haze.

A view from Glacier Point down to Yosemite Village. The GPS says it is only 1.8 mile away from here but that is as the crow flies. By road it was 30 miles away.

Half dome which people can hike to and climb (not by me).

Did I mention there were lots of trees?

Down in the valley was this beautiful lake and view of another lovely waterfall.

It was time for a hike.

Sorry about the out of focus picture but these blue jays don't stay still for long enough to get a good picture.

After a very steep hike we arrived at Vernal Falls.

It was time to move on. The section most visitors see of Yosemite is a relatively small area in the south-west of the National Park. Since there are few roads through the Park, we headed to Tioga Road which runs east to west.

We traveled east eventually rising to almost 10,000 feet at Tioga Pass.