2024 Summer Road Trip

June 28, 2024   Mileage   Start:  27496  End:  27808  Total:  Day/Trip  312/5097 We spent the morning in Joshua Tree before hitting the road to Gila Bend, AZ. Reminiscent of Death Valley, with a little more and different vegetation, but desert just the same. We found out you actually transition from one desert, the Mojave, to the Colorado Desert, part of the Sonoran, as you travel through the park from north to south. Slightly higher and drier, the Mojave contains the Joshua Trees, which are absent by the time you leave the Park in the south, where there is (slightly) more and different vegetation.  OK, a couple more things. Joshua Trees are the same as yucca trees and Spanish Bayonet trees. We never knew. Also, the name Joshua Tree came from the Mormons, who said the branches reminded them of Joshua's arms, uplifted to the Lord in the desert. Didn't know that one, either. And it was U2's 5th album.  Joshua Trees and a backgrou...

 June 27, 2024   Mileage   Start:  27252   End:  27496  Total:  Day/Trip  244/4785 We hopped in the car and drove to the Channel Islands Visitors Center, about 15 minutes away at Ventura Beach. We didn't want to commit a day to go - you have to go by  authorized boat carriers, reserve (well) in advance, and once there all land transportation is by foot - but were still willing to stop and learn at the Visitor's Center - and got this shot from their observation deck of sailboats in the harbor: We traveled on down the PCH to Leo Carrillo State Park outside Malibu. There were dozens of state park and state beaches on our drives on the PCH; they've done an impressive job, for the most part, of keeping development off the waterfront so it can be enjoyed by all. The first shot is beachfront, the rocky outcrops create these 20-50 foot wide sandy beach areas between.   The next shot shows the main beach area, which inclu...

 June 26, 2024   Mileage   Start:  26938   End:  27252   Total:  Day/Trip  314/4547 Set out from Monterey; the plan a year ago was to drive the Pacific Coast Highway south...then landslides happened. Shifted gears and drove inland to take the 101 south, making a quick stop at the Laguna Seca road course. A nice lady let us make a "slow, wide U-turn" at the top of a hill and snap a few pictures.  Traveled south until we could cut back to the coast - over 100 miles. Flatter at the coastline here. And look closely in the 2nd picture...see the dots? Surfers! I swear! Like the picture above, the photo below is from Morro Rock. And that big dot? Not a surfer,,,an otter! I swear! Anyway, we saw a few of them "fishing" here. Morro Rock, in the bay but attached to the land. It had it's own little cloud mass hanging around it. A picture of Ventura Beach from the Ventura Pier taken after dinner, and a plant we're wondering wheth...

 June 25, 2024   Mileage   Start:  26822   End:  26938   Total:  Day/Trip  116/4233 A nice, lazy morning, then on the road about 10:30 to the "17 Mile Drive", a toll road that tours the Monterey Peninsula - rocky shorelines, cool trees, golf courses (Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and more), beautiful properties - an amazing tour. We finished the drive about 2:30 and headed south along the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at various pullouts and making it as far south as the Bixby Bridge, a famous landmark. Unfortunately, the PCH is only open another 8-10 miles south of there, then closed due to a slide. Rocky shorelines, intermittent sandy beaches, fields of wildflowers, gnarled, big, and old trees, mule deer, sea lions, otters...we saw a lot. Unfortunately, the wildlife was far enough away we couldn't get a good picture (see that dot? No, THAT dot. That's a sea lion!). But...got a lot of good pics anyway. Decided to put the...

  June 24, 2024  Mileage   Start:  26492  End:  26822  Total: Day/Time  330/4117 Got up in Squaw Valley (not that Squaw Valley, a tiny one east of Fresno) and drove to King's Canyon National Park. Not nearly as crowded as Sequoia, but with plenty of huge trees and a beautiful, steep-walled canyon. Rugged country, it took about an hour of driving over serious 2-lane mountain roads to get there, going up about 6000 feet from Squaw valley, then going down almost 3000 into the canyon. First, a shot of the canyon from on high: Some pretty shots from the canyon floor. I got the money shot (at least for geologists!) along the highway, had to hike back up the road to get it. It's not marked on maps or mentioned anywhere, because there's no place to stop or pull off in front of it, but I saw a picture of it and started looking...and saw it on the way out. Those are chevron folds caused by compressional tectonic forces...and it just looks cool. The dri...

 June 23, 2024  Mileage   Start:  26369 End:  26492  Total: Day/Time  123/3787 About an hour drive out of Tulare east and up to Sequoia National Park. The first half hour was grove after grove - pistachios, tangerines, avocados, and olives. The second half hour climbed through the foothills into Sequoia National Park, a part of the Sierra Nevada range. The scenery was spectacular, and the trees - especially the Redwoods - were amazing, through Sequoia and on into King's Canyon National Park, adjacent to it. Their size, for a tree, is nearly incomprehensible. The General Grant Tree is one of the 3 largest in the world (measured by trunk volume), 268 feet tall, with a base 40 feet wide at one point and a circumference (distance around, rusty mathematicians) of 108 feet and a volume of 46,600 cubic feet. 7 of the 10 largest trees in the world are found in the 2 parks. And you'll see, it's interesting - they reach a height and can't grow any higher, s...

 June 22, 2024   Mileage   Start:  25996   End:  26369   Total  Day/Trip:  373/3664 Woke up in Death Valley. How'd your day start? Anyway, only 89 outside, Didn't mention it was 112 when were driving around at 8 p.m. last night. It's not the heat...yes it is. Anyway, a lazy morning allowed me to catch up. Spent the morning in Death Valley, then a nearly 5 hour drive to Tulare. Our takeaways from DV: dry, desolate, hot, empty, but beautiful in areas. Upon leaving Death Valley, you drive west until you see the Sierra Nevada mountains, including Mount Whitney. You drive down (south) the eastern side, around the bottom, then head back north for a few hours through the San Joaquin Valley. Major, major agriculture, fields and groves miles long; we passed 6 trailers full of garlic bulbs! Salt structures  Badwater Basin, lowest point in U.S. (a giant, white, blinding salt flat). 1/4 mile out and back, 1/2 mile in 108 degree h...