A State of Contrast

Even though we have been in California for over 3 months, I am still amazed at the contrasts within the state. We had started out in the overwhelming city of Los Angeles and went next to the delightful little town of Morro Bay, a friendly community with absolutely no pretensions, snuggled right on the water.

And just recently we left the warm, dry climate of Death Valley with its dust and deserts and in the same day, on the way home, drove through the snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains.







Now that we have seen much of the southern portion of the state, we have taken a few days to drive north before loading up the trailer and moving on. We crossed a valley with arrow-straight roads bordering farmland and then went up a mountain road that winds through the redwoods as if someone had built a slalom course around the trees.

In retrospect, that road through the forest was merely a practising ground for our drive down the coast.

Hwy 1 north of San Francisco is an interesting, but very narrow, road that clings to the edge of the mountains high over the shores and beaches of the Pacific Ocean. The highest part even had us in the clouds, looking down on the soaring vultures - who were obviously waiting for a distracted driver to come around the next barrier-free curve. Yeah, I was a little nervous. Especially as I was in the passenger seat and therefore inches away from the drop-off side of the road.

Hubby made several stops along the way to loosen me up, thankfully, and we walked some of the headlands along the coast. We saw many, many seagulls and other seabirds and even got to see the spouts of whales that were migrating up the coast. We also saw succulents and other flowering groundcover growing right on the side of the cliffs by the water. As the headlands are solid rock, I don't know what holds them on.

The first day back, we took the bay ferry to San Francisco. It was kinda like taking a plane, turbulence and all. We took one of the early ferries with the commuters, but we were on our way to enjoy the Golden Gate Park delights.

The Japanese Tea Garden was our first destination. Instead of taking the tour bus, we hopped on a city bus like natives - or rather like the cheap tourists we really were. The Tea Garden was lovely, the cherry trees were starting to blossom and they had ponds with koi fish and streams with stepping stones. We went downtown and walked through Chinatown and were amazed when we crossed one street and it suddenly became Little Italy. No gentle transition between the two, just a huge contrast in lifestyles between one side of the street and the other.

But the biggest contrast now seems to be in our own "neighbourhood". The trailer park we are staying in is a friendly, quiet oasis in downtown Vallejo. Many evenings we have heard sirens and helicopters foretelling of a crisis merely a few blocks away, but our little spot seemed unaffected. And then one morning we came out to find our locked bikes missing.

W

A Desert of Rocks

We packed for Death Valley expecting to see this.

And while we obviously saw this part of the valley, there was so much more! We certainly didn't expect to spend the most of our time trekking through canyons, gazing down into craters, and staring in awe at the amazing colours on the mountainsides. And although dust was everywhere, so were the rocks.



First of all, I hadn't realized that Death Valley was 225km (140 miles) long north to south. All of our adventures started with a drive. The temperature was comfortable, from coolish nights in the north end to lovely warm days in the south. But this was why we came in the winter - summers can be unbearable.

We started out in the northern area, camping with two other couples. Our methods of camping were dissimilar. One couple was in a truck camper with all the amenities, the other had a conversion van to sleep in. We, of course, tented. No bears in Death Valley - I checked. The gusting wind had a great time playing with our tent and fly. The ground is so rocky and hard that tent pegs are useless. I had to jump into the tent to hold it down until hubby secured us with large rock and boulders. Assured that our tent would still be there when we returned, we went off on our first off-pavement adventure.

We bounced down 40km of gravel road and washboards towards a dry lakebed. It's about 2 miles long, but at one end there are rocks on the cracked dirt that move, leaving an obvious trail behind them. No one has seen these rocks move, nor can they totally explain how it happens. Some of these rocks are over 100 lbs. You certainly can't push them. Check out this phenomenon on Wikipedia under "sailing stones".


On the way back to camp, we passed a large crater, 1 km wide, that was perfectly round and went straight down for 500 feet. It was too late in the day to do much more than look at it, but I understand you can walk all around the top, or hike down it (not gonna happen!). As we drove back to the campsite for dinner, there was an ominous grinding noise from the front end of the truck on the turns. The next morning we headed off for another long off-pavement drive. The truck only made it to the summit of Daylight Pass before the brake and stabilizer warning lights came on. There was smoke and a burning smell coming from the front. It took an hour for our emergency road service to find a tow truck willing to come and get us - and another two hours before they came. Hubby volunteered to go with the injured party to Pahrump, Nevada - the closest repair shop, while I continued on with our friends to Titus Canyon. I wasn't too envious of him having to spend a night in a casino, waiting for repairs, because I figured I would have a nice drive along the bottom of an amazing canyon. I didn't actually think this through. I didn't follow the logic that to get to the bottom of a canyon, one has to drive over a mountain first.

And, of course, to get to an isolated, remote canyon, one has to drive over rough, narrow, very winding roads that barely cling to the outside of that mountain. The good thing is that the canyon was worth it. The flat bottom of the canyon was just wide enough for a one lane gravel road to twist between the tall rock walls. We were even lucky enough to see a bighorn sheep at the bottom looking for dinner. I wasn't lucky enough to get a picture.

Hubby made it back by noon the next day, showered and refreshed, giving us enough time to enjoy the southern end of the valley. It was a whole lot warmer there. A very salty lake sits 282 feet below sea level. This is not sea salt. It is so dry here that the lake water dries up very quickly leaving the salt and minerals from the rocks behind.

We hiked to a natural rock bridge and drove to the Artists' Palette, an amazing mix of colours on the mountain. The next day was our last full day, and in the morning we hiked to Golden Canyon from the back. This is not a remote location, a parking lot sits out front. But from the back, we still had to trek over the top of very high hills, single file along winding trails. Our afternoon walk was beside Salt Creek. I didn't know Death Valley had any water at all, and then I'm shown a creek of running water with fish in it! Unfortunately for us, they are not good for fishing. These are specialized dense-salt fish that are less than an inch long. You get enough of them all runnning in the same direction in shallow water though, and they create a wave!

Death Valley was an adventure with stunning vistas and clear starry night skies. Good friends, good food, good wine. Glad we didn't miss it.

W

Fun in the Sun

So the next 7 days were spent re-shingling the roof, with one day off to visit the Orchid Expo in downtown San Francisco.

That was a fun day, and the flowers were spectacular. We saw thousands of orchids and some amazing displays in this long waterfront warehouse that had a wine bar inside at one end and a food court that offered wine and cheese at the other.






Wine just seems to be everywhere here in California. Costco has an entire corner devoted to it, it is sold in every grocery store, and it's available at most events. So even if I'm not under a palm tree on a beach, you can be sure that most evenings I have a wine glass in hand!

Can't complain about the weather here, for sure. The sun was out for the entire week we worked on the roof, and several of those days saw afternoon temperatures warm enough to make the shingles too soft to walk on. The day after the roof work was done it rained for a little more than 24 hours, just enough to test for leaks. And then the sun came out again. It's pretty easy to put up with these conditions.

The downside of so little rain means that the clay soil is rock hard. Not such a good thing when our next job was to level out the backyard below the retaining wall. The ground had to be dug up (occasionally with a pickax) to even out the slopes and dips before we could rake topsoil on it. Now the yard is prepared and all that is left is the spreading of grass seed.



But that will have to wait until next week. We have the opportunity to visit Death Valley National Park in the company of friends who have been there before and know how to camp in the desert. This will be a completely new adventure for us. No place to launch the canoe (we'll leave it behind) and bandanas that are used to keep the dust out of our mouths instead of bugs! We will be tenting for this trip - back to basics again after the luxury of a 34' trailer with a fridge, stove and IKEA mattress.

Wouldn't be good for us to get too soft.

W