In the Spring of 2017 I found myself with alot of time on my hands and did what I usually do when that happens: I travel somewhere new. This time, I got into my car, and set out from my house in Las Vegas. My original plan was to drive the Pacific Coast Highway, but a massive mudslide blocked the road. So plan B was to pass through the interior of California and visit a few national parks.
Over the next month, I was able to sleep for free, with the exception of 2 nights (an Airbnb in Vancouver and a campsite near the Grand Coulee Dam). All other nights I camped out in my tent on public land, or stayed with friends.
I set out in the 2nd half of May where the desert was already hot. The open road with the wide open spaces was my preview into the vastness of the western half of the North American continent. In just over an hour I crossed into California. A short time later and I had reached Death Valley. The hottest, driest, and lowest place in North America. I drove out to an overlook where I could look down into the valley, before descending down into it. (Remember, most of it is below sea level.)
Once on the valley floor, I stopped at the Devil's Golf Course - a course, rugged terrain seemingly devoid of life. Even though it was still Spring, my car registered 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius)! Continuing south along the valley floor took me to Badwater Basin - at 282 ft below sea level, the lowest point in the US. It got its name because of water deposits here - which to the dismay of white explorers, was not fit to drink!
I then turned around and passed to the north, where I saw furnaces used to produce borax in the 19th century, the only thing that was economically extractable. Given how isolated Death Valley is, it was so expensive to carry out raw deposits that it was manufactured in the valley itself and carried out by mule teams. The harsh environment made this a place where I would not want to spend too much time!
Death Valley Borax production
There was more to see in Death Valley that I didn't have a chance to see - like Scotty's Castle - the home named after the guy who defrauded some rich people to settle there, thinking it was a more agreeable place - except they ended up loving it. And the mysterious sailing stones of Racetrack Playa - you'd better have a 4x4 if you want to check that out!
I proceeded west from Death Valley, passing sand dunes and dust clouds swept up by the wind.
Within an hour I started seeing some odd green things growing out of the Earth -- trees! Just a few at first, but gradually as I passed through the Sierra Nevada mountain range and out of the rain shadow that caused desert conditions, eventually gave way to forest. I had dinner in the town of Kernville and found some land to set up my campsite just a few miles north of town.
Desert slowly gives way to forest
From Kernville I drove west into the Central Valley and north, then back east a bit into the mountains at the Sequoia National Park. While the setting up in the mountains offers some scenic views, this park is famous for the giant sequoia trees that grow there. They are so big that they look like they come from a fairy tale! Here is my VW Passat for comparison:
And here is a sequoia growing next to "normal" sized trees:
Sequoia National Park: Giant trees and scenic views
After Sequoia I continued north to one of the most visited national parks in the US, Yosemite. After 4 years of drought, the park had received record rainfall, and the waterfalls were gushing! I visited on the Friday and Saturday before Memorial Day Weekend, and on that Saturday the park was definitely clogged with visitors. I'm glad I got to spend Friday down in the valley when it wasn't a zoo.
Yosemite is a popular park and campsites were full. Since I didn't want to pay for lodging, I found a free campsite just outside the park, off Mt Raymond Road just north of Fish Camp. This is about 30 miles away from the Yosemite Valley. I stopped at the lodge at Wawona where I realized that bathrooms were separate from the guest rooms (it's a very old hotel). So I snuck in with my own towel and used their showers. (Shhhhh.)
Just a few of the gushing waterfalls I saw in the park at Yosemite:
Yosemite's famous "Half Dome" and a waterfall visible from a lookout point south of the valley.
After Yosemite, I was ready to drive to the San Francisco Bay Area where I spent a few days with friends, drove to Lake Tahoe for a couple days, and visited San Francisco.
I stopped at a beach on the road from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, and visited the Santa Cruz Boardwalk with its carnival rides and games.
San Gregorio State Beach, flooded from the rains Santa Cruz Boardwalk
After about 5 days in San Francisco/Lake Tahoe, I was back in my car and back on the road. I stopped in Sacramento to eat a burger at the Squeeze Inn, which I had heard about years earlier. It's famous for its cheddar "cheese skirt" that you can use to wrap the burger or break it off and eat separately! After enjoying dinner, I continued north and camped somewhere north of the town of Lomo.
The Squeeze Inn's Cheese Skirt...Yummy!
My next stop was Lassen Volcanic National Park. This place had several volcanic features, like scalding hot bubbling puddles smelling of sulfur. Unfortunately, despite it being the first week of June, there was so much snow still on the ground that most of the park was nearly impassible! (I was now a good 350+ miles NNW of Death Valley, and world away as far as climate goes.)
Still plenty of snow in June! Boiling spring at Lassen NP
Since I wasn't able to spend much time in Lassen, I headed west through Redding to head to the Pacific Ocean. It was a scenic, but very long 200 miles of driving that took about 4 hours. I then turned north and followed the ocean towards Redwood National Forest. Like the Sequoias, the Redwoods are massive trees that grow hundreds of feet tall! The far north of California was lush, green, sparsely populated, and not very warm. I camped near Crescent City and crossed into Oregon the following day.
Tall redwoods!