“Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Ain't No Valley Low Enough...”

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Time to leave Death Valley! We drove up out of the valley on the west side of the park. We came in on the east side. We had to climb the Panamint Mountains, go down in the Panamint Valley and then over another range before we reached the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. After lots of steep climbs and long downhills we were near the fork in the road where we would determine whether we traveled north or south. Shortly before we got there, we saw smoke and then a converted bus on fire on the side of the road! Someone's RV was on fire! Another couple had stopped and was taking pictures. We stopped to ask them if the people got out okay. They didn't really know. They thought the people that they passed on the side of the road when they drove from the other direction must be them. We decided we better go check on them, but as we started to drive over the sheriff came roaring in, so we left. We passed two fire engines later that still had a half hour to go to get there. I'm sure the bus had burned to the ground by then. We felt bad for the two young men we had seen on the side of the road.

At Owens Dry Lake Bed, that looked like a frozen lake at the foot of the snow covered Sierra Nevadas, but were salt flats, we stopped for lunch. We finally had a cell connection and checked the weather report. We wanted to travel north up the east side of the range, but discovered that they were predicting snow in a few days. Once we committed, there were only a few routes over the mountains to go west, and we would have to go all the way up to Lake Tahoe if we couldn't get across. So- ski resort? Sounds snowy there, too. So, south we went. We decided to go across the lower southern end of the range and over to the west side. Then we could go see the giant sequoia trees east of Fresno.

The day was sunny and warm. After the drive south down the valley we climbed west towards Lake Isabella. We started seeing trees again, first Joshua trees and then evergreens. When we reached the lake it was extremely low, as all the southwestern lakes and reservoirs have been. We turned west on the road that would take us over the crest of the mountains and were surprised by very steep climbing and hairpins turns, for miles and miles! We finally reached the summit, with snow banks and a ski resort! We guessed that we were at 7,000' elevation. Wow, from below sea level and desert, to high elevation and snow within hours was amazing! It was equally “fun” coming down the other side. The afternoon was progressing, and all the twists and turns had slowed our progress. So, we rethought where we were going to stay the night.

As we came down into the foothills of the Central Valley, we saw grass growing on the otherwise bare hillsides, and cattle grazing. Fresh new Spring grass was like water to our thirsty eyes after the dry beiges of the desert. But, we also glimpsed a layer of smog! We were surprised to see it this far north of LA. We finally descended into the flatlands of the Central Valley and were greeted by orange groves and trees heavy with citrus ready to be harvested.

At dusk we found the Deer Creek RV Park in Porterville, CA. We pulled into a site with trees, a nice change, and proceeded to have happy hour after the stressful drive! Greg handled the RV masterfully. Little did we know that it was just a practice run for the next day!