What trip through California could possibly be complete without visiting Apple HQ?
I tried to sneak in through the side door, but even small gnomes like me can’t make it past their security. Oh, well. I’ll just have to wait like everyone else to find out what’s coming next.
After spending the night in a wonderful little bed & breakfast, we journeyed back to view more of the park. First on today’s agenda: Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Hetch Hetchy was described in the past to be as equally stunning as Yosemite Valley. I’d love to have seen what it looked like before the dam was constructed.
After [...]
The next stop along our journey was the famous Yosemite National Park. We chose to enter from the east, driving over the 9945 ft (3031 m) high Tioga Pass.
Next we stopped at Tuolumne Meadows, where we refueled and observed the local wildlife.
Several scenic lakes lie along Tioga Road, including the scenic Tenaya Lake.
Further on, Olmsted [...]
We spent the night in the beautiful town of Lone Pine, then proceeded north to Mono Lake.
This lake contains very unusual formations called Tufa, which almost make it seem like you’re on another planet.
After recovering from my experiences in Las Vegas, we proceeded west to Death Valley, the lowest and (occasionally) hottest place in the United States.
First, we visited the lowest spot in the park, Badwater Basin. The floor of this basin is 282 feet (85.5 meters) below sea level.
Proceeding northwest through the park, I was intrigued by [...]
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…Wh..Where am I?
Oh goodness. How did I get up here?
I think that massive pounding in my head might be a clue. Guess it’s true what they say — what happens here stays here, ’cause you can’t remember a thing!
I appear to have ended up at the top of the Stratosphere Tower at the opposite end [...]
Sin City! It’s every bit as crowded, noisy, and brightly lit as I imagined.
We stayed at the Excalibur hotel, which was nice, but not as extravagant as some of the other resort hotels. Luckily, we got a very good deal on our room.
Well that’s enough talk – it’s time to party! See you later!
After visiting the Grand Canyon, we headed towards Las Vegas, stopping at the impressively massive Hoover Dam.
It’s depressing to see how far the water levels have fallen here, a symptom of the ongoing drought in the Southwest.
Note the light colored banding on the rocks indicating where the waterline used to be.
There’s also a new highway [...]
After visiting Winslow, we decided to reverse direction and head west to Williams, Arizona. There we boarded a train to journey to one of the greatest natural wonders in the world – the Grand Canyon!
My traveling companion upgraded us to seats in the observation car for a better view along the way.
The locals were very [...]
The next stop along the journey brought us to the city of Winslow, Arizona. This town sits along the Historic Route 66, and was a major stop for rail passengers in the golden days of rail travel. We traveled here to visit the La Posada hotel, a recently restored Harvey House which served rail passengers [...]
