Part 4 of 9
Thursday October 11. I left Vegas and made my way thru Pahrump, then thru the incredible
Death Valley National Park (#5 on the trip). It was amazing! The temps were 85 degrees, but it felt a LOT hotter for some reason.. the driest most intense 85 degrees I've ever experienced. I can't imagine what it would be like in the Summer. Fighter jets flew overhead at times which was neat. I took the scenic roads thru the park, visited
Bad Water, just really enjoyed the roads and vistas. The area reminded me alot of
Trail Ridge road thru
Rocky Mountain National Park of all places (which I didn't get to visit this trip). One is the highest road in the country, the other the lowest.. but both have in common such extreme conditions that nothing grows there, an alien landscape... I loved it! I stopped for lunch at Stovepipe Wells, afterwards took a nap on a lounge chair under a tree, more fighter jets buzzing overhead. When it was time to move on I made my way West to Olancha, then South to Ridgecrest where I stayed that night. A great day of riding! Death Valley totally exceeded all my expectations!
Friday morning I headed West over to Isabella Lake, then up the Kernville valley. It was really pretty! Stopped to have lunch and watched some guys fly fishing in the beautiful river. I took a very twisty road over to Springville, and unfortunately it started raining. Alot of first and second gear shifting, braking, being very cautious on the slick roads.. I eventually got to the Three Rivers area just outside Sequoia National Park, and called it a day, lotsa rain in the area, cold... That night in the hotel I decided to unload all the great pics I took from my digital camera to my notebook computer. Oh no, the horror! When I dropped my camera in Alb it messed something up, and I ended up with 200+ pics of total blackness! Dammit! Such great shots all along the way, all the Death Valley stuff, everything.. I was pissed! Every picture you've seen so far in this report came from Jeff's camera. Good thing I brought him along [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] The next day I would be riding thru Sequoia and Kings Canyon without a camera. This was pretty sucky, but what can you do. Oh well...
Saturday morning I entered
Sequoia National Park (#6), and saw the amazing giant redwood trees, but not much else cause it was raining and foggy and I had to ride slow. I next made my way up to Kings Canyon National Park (#7), which is right next to Sequoia. I thought about camping there but again it was just too cold, foggy, misty, couldn't see anything. Lotsa tight twisties thru the forest, going real slow, slick roads.. Not the best way to visit these two beautiful national parks. I didn't even bother going down the Kings Canyon scenic highway.. I'll have to return someday. I decided instead to head East and get out of the clouds. I made my way to the Walmart in Fresno and bought another camera, then rode all the way up to Oakhurst and spent the night there, just outside Yosemite. My new camera worked great, and the weather improved. The next day would be awesome!
Sunday October 14, I entered the renowned
Yosemite National Park (#8 on the trip), which certainly lived up to all expectations. On the advice of a fellow BMW rider I made my way up to Glacier's Point, which had some incredible vistas! I got to put my new camera to work.
After that I rode all thru Yosemite valley, such epic scenery. I managed to get a campsite in the valley, did a little hiking, relaxed. It had been a great day. I drank this wine that night.
Monday morning I wanted to stay another night, do some serious hiking.. But it looked like the weather might get bad again, and I really wanted to ride over Tioga Pass in the park, so I packed everything up and hit the road. Turned out to be a very nice day. The Sierra mountains are incredibly beautiful! I really enjoyed this ride.
Mono Lake, East of Yosemite
I then headed up North on 395, thinking I would cut back West on 108 or 4, but the weather was looking bad that afternoon, dark clouds everywhere, and I felt like I had been on enough mountain roads for one day.
Lake Tahoe wasn't too much farther North of me, a warm bed and more poker could be found there. My decision was easy. South Lake Tahoe was beautiful, would love to return there someday on a snow skiing trip. Tuesday morning I got up early and rode around the West side of the lake.
At this point I had to decide where to go next.. Would I make my way further North into CA, perhaps the wine country? The "apex" of my journey tho was always going to be the
Golden Gate Bridge.. That was the ultimate goal... once I rode across it I felt like the trip would be half way over, everything else afterwards would be heading back South and East to get me home. And I didn't want to be rushed getting back. Heading down from Tahoe it was raining pretty hard and very cold. I decided to make a beeline around the North side of San Francisco Bay and go see the bridge. The time was right!
to be continued....