Journey up the 395! Part 1

[aggienaut]

July 12th - "It's desert noir" I commented, as I snapped a photo of a ramshackle falling-down old house with junk around it, with Mt Whitney rising up behind it. Somewhere near the Manzanar internment camp.

   I'd only arrived in the states just the day before and already we were on an epic roadtrip! My uncle was getting (re)married in a small (tiny) town north of Lake Tahoe, which would have been probably a 10 hour direct drive up "the five" through the middle of California, but we decided to take two days to go up the east side of the Sierras. In fact this plan was a major selling point for me to come to California rather than go back to Africa at this time. Also my cousin Kateri would be joining us, I wasn't quite sure why, but maybe she liked the roadtrip idea as well!



   Because Kateri was coming from a different direction (Santa Barbara) we came up from Orange County to fetch her from a train station in the northern LA suburb of Van Nuys. This trip took us on different highways than we usually take and we actually found ourselves driving right through the middle of the cluster of skyscrapers at Los Angeles' dark heart. It took two or three hours to get through LA and we ended up arriving at the train station nearly an hour late... but by a stunning coincidence her train was also running about an hour late and we actually pulled up with just enough time to park and walk to the platform and greet her coming out!

   We ate at a nearby In-N-Out and then proceeded through the foothills that surround Los Angeles to the north and east. This route on the 14 through the hills I haven't taken in recent memory and its a much broader less dramatic valley than Tejon Pass which the 5 passes through. On the far side is the low flat town of Lancaster baking in the desert sun, and a little later amid the sage and yucca plants of the high desert there's a boeing facility, which looks like a huge international airport in the middle of nowhere, in terms of hte number of large jetliners parked there. Somewhere around there is also Mojave Spaceport. Then the 14 joins up with the 395 and as we head north the Sierras begin to rise up on our left. By and by we see more extinct cindercones and other evidence of ancient volcanic activity.


Kateri and mom at Fossil Falls

   Kateri, by the way, had just recently graduated from UC Santa Barbara as an English major. She's quite into writing, so we enjoyed talking about books and writing. I'm not quite sure why she has neglected to appear on livejournal, haunt of aspiring writers that it is! She quite prefers Young Adult books and writing, which is not quite exactly my favorite genre but still we had a lot to talk about.


Picturesque parking situation at Fossil Falls

   When I was wee we used to drive up this way to Mammoth every summer but I haven't made the drive since then, so it was fun to see the barely remembered sights along the way. At the base of a memorable large red cindercone we turned off on a turnoff for "Fossil Falls," to do a little sightseeing along the way. After a five minute little drive we parked at the trailhead and amid baking 100+ degree weather (which I was loving as I was still trying to thaw my bones from Australia) we took a short hike to fossil falls -- which is a formerly dramatic waterfall through very artistic looking curvy volcanic rocks. Formerly because now the water that fed it is entirely rerouted to supply Los Angeles.


Dad gazes into the abyss

   After about half an hour clambering about we were happy to get back in the air conditioned car and continue the journey. We passed the red cindercone (Which, melodramatically, had a large dust tornado in front of it as we went past), and despite the oven heat of moments earlier, soon rain was splattering across our windshield. A strange thing then happened: all of our phones suddenly started making an unusual alarmed warbling noise at once. Looking at my phone I saw I had "an emergency alert system alert" and it was a flash flood warning in our vicinity. Never had that happen before! Good to know the alert system works! We stopped in at the Mt Whitney visitor center at Lone Pine, it wasn't raining but clouds obscured Mt Whitney itself. Passed the Manzanar Internment Camp visitor center and it occurred to me that we've never stopped there and the present political climate makes it seem very apropos. Maybe next time.


just across the river

   At Independence, a tiny little town just up the road from the bigger Lone Pine, we checked into a small motel my parents have apparently made a habit of stopping at (Thanksiving apparently has often these last few years been at my uncle's place we were now headed towards, and my parents have been going up this 395 route to get there). This little town apparently has no restaurants except a semi-permanent mexican food truck (it was actually semi integrated into an old gas station), so we walked over there and I procured a delicious authentic burrito (exciting being as, despite everything that had happened in the previous 24 hours, I still had only just arrived from Australia and not yet had a decent burrito in a year!)
   After we ate we walked to a little park where there had been a steam locomotive, but it was gone, replaced by a sign noting it has been taken off somewhere else for repairs. By now it was evening and a pleasant temperature. A very pleasant babbling brook ran through the park and, crossing the river with a cute wooden bridge, a trail meandered out among the low sage that stretched out to the sheer wall of mountains. By the bridge there was a notice sign saying it could be dangerous around the river at times of flash flood and I noted that it was such a time -- we were in the dangerous intersection of the venn diagram. Needless to say we crossed the bridge and proceeded ti walk up the trail. There was that amazingly beautiful smell of fresh rain over sage desert. Even in the city the smell of fresh rain is famously delightful, but among the sage in the desert I think it's arguably one of the best smells in the world. Sure enough it was soon sprinkling, and the rain quickly got a bit heavier so we were thinking of turning back. I happened to glance behind me, and noticed a wall of grey obscuring the mountains approaching us. "uh, guys, look what's coming out way!" I pointed out the wall of heavy rain approaching to the rest of the family. We then more or less ran back down the trail, and it was coming down heavily already by the time we crossed the bridge. Spent the later evening sitting under the eaves of the motel reading my book as rain poured down around us, and the temperature still pleasant enough to be not wearing a jacket!


The wall of water approaches (on right!) also very slightly different version

::TO BE CONTINUED!::

Comments

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Hah! I bet she knows (of) my friend Chris Newfield who teaches English at UCSB.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

She says she did her senior seminar with him and inquires how you know him (:

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

We were close friends in grad school, long ago now. Haven't talked to him in a few years.

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous photos.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (:

[suzanna-o.livejournal.com]

I love travelogues. Thanks for sharing your desert journey.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Me toooo! (:

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

It looks so dry in these pictures. No wonder we have so many fires going in California. If you ever come back, visit in February. I guarantee the scenery will look much different.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I don't THINK there were wildfires on our way up but on the way back we drove through the smoke of at least three major fires!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I love off the main road trips like this. In our cross-country travels I've seen a few walls of water like that approach across the western states. It's pretty dramatic.
The 5 is often very slow going and a lot more boring in many areas than the route you took.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

When I loved in subtropical Queensland, Australia, there'd be isolated clouds cruising across the landscape dragging walls of water like a giant broom, but they were always so small it was just a quick shower and if you were off its track it would miss you entirely. This one here was a lot bigger!!

[fluttershy.livejournal.com]

Seeing these pictures really brought me home. Love brought me to Brisbane, but longing will bring me home. Have a great time!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh how is Brisbane? I lived there for like two months and really quite liked it.

[recursivewords.livejournal.com]

Fantastic photos! I love the one of the city skyline.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (:

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

That is a huge dirt devil! I've never seen one that large.

I've spent a lot of time driving in downtown LA, back in my days of freelancing. Seeing the photo of the traffic headed in to the skyscrapers brought back many memories.

I have a good friend who lives in Aliso Viejo, which I think is south of where you started.

Pat climbed 3/4s of Mt. Whitney a few years ago. (He began having altitude sickness and had to abandon summiting.)

I've never taken that route north. Now I want to do it. (sigh) It's making me all kind of homesick for California.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I had neglected this route for years but I've rediscovered it to be well worth the drive!

And yeah the dust devil was really huge!

[aerodrome1.livejournal.com]

I love that last photo--- the mountains and the oncoming storm.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah me tooooo. The small size it appears here doesn't really do it justice

[richaarde.livejournal.com]

I’ve been to Los Angeles and the surrounding areas a few times now, since my brother has lived there the last 5-6 years. The landscape is absolutely stunning. On one of the last trips over there we went to the Joshua Tree National Forest, out in the desert. Surreal, sun-baked landscape everywhere you looked.

On that trip my mom called us to see what we were doing. We said we were in the desert. She said, “What are you doing in the desert?!! Get out of there!” That had to have been one of the best Mom moments ever. (We love our mother dearly, even if she’s kind of clueless sometimes.)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha to some people the desert is just empty, but I love all the insects and wildflowers (:

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

I particularly like that last panorama, and its companion - the world split in two.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah I'm really pleased with them (:

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

That's an awesome photo of LA's skyline. I also love the last photo, with the rainstorm visibly approaching. Looking forward to Part 2!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm quite pleased with that photo myself (: thanks!

[kagomeshuko.livejournal.com]

Do you like In N Out lots? I found them to be extremely overrated. I'll take Burger King over them.

Anyway, great pictures . . .but yeah, looks VERY dry!


You'll have to let me know if you come down to Lake Charles, Louisiana! People treat it like a glorified traffic stop, but honestly, there's SO MUCH that I could show you or at least tell you to visit in nearby towns if not in the town itself. But, can definitely show you some spots in town - there are some historic spots and neighborhoods and definitely some great local restaurants.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I found them to be extremely overrated. I'll take Burger King over them.

What blasphemy!! I loorve In N Out!

As to showing me around Lake Charles, that sounds lovely! I would love to explore more of the far corners of the US some time (:

[kagomeshuko.livejournal.com]

Oh well, to each her own with the Burger King vs. In N Out. My Daddy didn't really care for In N Out, either. If I always had my choice, it wouldn't be fast food most of the time . . .but sometimes quick and cheap is what I need . . . or unfortunately crave because of the memories of the taste of the stuff from when I was young.

Well, definitely let me know if you ever come down to Lake Charles! It's definitely a unique culture - which has different cultures in it as is!

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Woo, you are giving me flashbacks. I used to live in Palmdale and drive into LA for work every day on the 14, many years ago. I bet the traffic is much worse now, it was bad enough back then!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I don't miss the traffic!!