Day 34

States: Nevada and California
Total Miles: 8200 miles
Time Zones: 1, 4 total

 

Today was the last push into California and in particular the Sierra Nevada part. I got up early and headed up the western side of Nevada and then dropped into California and Death Valley National Park. I've always wondered why this was a National Park because my perception was that this was a big strip of sandy desert that got really really hot. Why would anyone want to play around in this park? It didn't take long for the image in my head of what Death Valley should look like got blown out of the water. Why I never put 1 and 1 together I don't know, but this was actually a valley, I could see both mountainous walls as I dropped down into it. It was overcast, hilly, rocky, and not very hot; nothing like I was expecting. There was even a creek running through it, Furnace Creek.

After driving through Death Valley, I headed up Owen's Valley which has my Sierra Nevada Mountains as it's western wall. It was not originally in my plan, but I decided to drive through Yosemite to get to the other side of the Sierras. I was going to come back here sometime over the summer so I hadn't put it in my plans until the last minute. When I got to Tioga Pass, it was just starting to snow at around 9950ft. Quite a difference from a few hours ago when it was 80 degrees at -200ft. Walking into the visitor center in sandals, shorts, and a t-shirt got me a few looks.

After driving through Yosemite, I drove up old Rt. 49 on a whim. I had no idea it was the trail of the old 1849'ers and went through such historic places as Calaveras County and Angel's Camp (home of the frog jumping championships of Mark Twain fame). Sometime in the late afternoon, I arrived at my mother's house in Sacramento. I was to stay there a couple days until the weekend when I'd drive 2.5 hours to my final summer destination, beautiful Graeagle California.

 

Not flat, not overly sandy, and not really that hot:

Oooh, I'm at sea level:

Hmm, Furnace Creek at -190 ft:

Just a short dig to China from here:

Like I said, not that hot. Granted it was only about 10am:

The trip would not be complete without atleast one more day of precipitation. This was about 50 miles outside Death Valley. You can kind of see my Sierra Nevada Mountains on the left:

Ahhhh, getting closer:

Yosemite in the distance:

Tioga Pass. No idea but I don't imagine the pass has been open for too long:

Elevation 9945ft. It started snowing when I got to the entrance booth:

Yosemite, full of amazing views, which I'll come back to later this summer:

 

I have arrived in Sacramento, 8200 miles of dead bugs (2 car washes got about half of them off):

Coming Soon - Graeagle California in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

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