(Note: I now have a decent wifi connection, so I have been able to add photos to previous posts)
Today was a long driving day, about 400 miles. We said goodbye to DVNP (we had a great stay there!) and headed west up and over the Panamint Mountains and down to Panamint Springs for a gas and coffee stop. This is wilderness, folks! Very cool view at the Father Crowley Overlook. Then up and over the Coso Range and down to Rt 395, the main North/South route along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada Range.
At Freeman Junction we picked up Rt 178, a windy, slow but very scenic route over the southern end of the Sierra Nevada range. We saw our first example of the CA drought. There's a big reservoir called Lake Isabella, which used to have a thriving tourist trade, was almost completely empty. Very sad.
We continued on down the mountain to Bakersfield in California's "Central Valley", passing some vineyards and various agricultural enterprises along the way. We saw lots of beautiful Almond orchards and oil rigs here and there. Chevron has a huge oil and gas operation here.
From Bakersfield its back up into the hills on windy, slow secondary Rt 58. Again, great road and very scenic but lots of twists and turns. We were impressed by the area of solar farms - California Valley Solar Ranch and Topaz Solar Farm. Thousands of solar arrays arranged on the valley floor.
We finally met US Rt 101 and headed north just a few miles to Atascadero and a flea bag motel for the night. Coming down from the heights, we could see a fog bank in the distance, so not sure about tomorrow!
 |
| Leaving Death Valley |
 |
| Father Crowley "Padre of the Desert" Viewpoint |
 |
| Father Crowley view |
 |
| Lake Isabella |
 |
| Almonds |
 |
| Solar Farm |
 |
| Fog Bank on the coast?? |
No comments:
Post a Comment