WA, OR, CA trip

[Tom Wallis]

I don't know if you're still planning a stop in Lone Pine since it's only a couple of hours down the road.but it's a fun interesting place and I would recommend it. There's a nice RV park just south of town called Boulder Creek. If you don't mind dry camping for a night there's some really nice dispersed camping in the Alabama Hills. Even if you don't camp in the Alabama Hills I recommend driving through and having a look. There are some very interesting rocks and lots of movies were made there. And if you have time the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine is worth a look.

I don't know if you're still planning a stop in Lone Pine since it's only a couple of hours down the road.but it's a fun interesting place and I would recommend it. There's a nice RV park just south of town called Boulder Creek. If you don't mind dry camping for a night there's some really nice dispersed camping in the Alabama Hills. Even if you don't camp in the Alabama Hills I recommend driving through and having a look. There are some very interesting rocks and lots of movies were made there. And if you have time the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine is worth a look.

[jacwjames]

So I decided to take a little bit of a down day.  Did search for things to do near Lee Vining and found there was an old abandoned mining ghost town not that far away so took a drive to explore.   Since I had a career in mining I decided to take the ~35 mile drive. 

The name of the place is Bodie State Park, cost $8 to get in. 

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=509

I was surprised at how many people were there after driving ~13 miles of the hwy with the last 3 on dirt.  Asked the attendant at the entry gate and he said in the summer they get ~1000 people a day. 

Also surprised at how well preserved most of the structures were considering it was abandoned ~150 years ago.  A lot of the buildings had stuff in them and it looked like the people just got up and left.   During the summer months they do give tours of the processing plant but I had to just get a distant view. 

There was a 30 minute video describing the town & history and I spent a couple hours just walking a round. 

 

 Came back to the camp ground and am going to relax before I hit the road.  After looking at the map I am going to make a stop at Death Valley NP on my way south.  I'll just improvise on a place to stay after I leave there.   I moved my stay back one day at the Three Rivers Campground, I called and they said "NO PROBLEM". 

 

 

[jacwjames]

So I drove down 395 south toward Death Valley NP.   The drive was very scenic and mostly down hill, for a change. 

Stopped at a visitor center on the road going to Death Valley and asked about access.  You can do it in a larger DP but looking at the roads I decided to drive to RidgeCrest, a small town off 395 and found a small campground not too far off the interstate. 

Parked and plugged in, unhooked the Jeep and headed toward Death Valley, it was a ~120 mile trip but I'm glad I didn't take the coach, I would have to had crossed 2 mountain ridges systems and the one going into Death Valley was steep, sign coming back down said 9% for 10 miles and I believe it.  I did see several large RV's driving the road but I think taking the Jeep in/out was the way to go since I had to go up and down twice over the two mountain ranges. 

Death Valley is well named, pretty desolate, as I was driving I checked my phone and it showed I was at -230' elevation, the deepest part is -280'.  Temp was 93F, but it's a dry heat😄

Headed to Sequoia tomorrow. 

[Debra Gaylord-Thomas]

We live in Pahrump, Nevada and some of the roads in Death Valley washed out last winter, so be sure to confirm that the roads are passable. 

[jacwjames]

Thanks, I checked the NP site and looked at advisories.

I also use Google Maps to check routes on elevation changes.  That's why I decided to find an RV site off 395 in Ridgecrest and drive to the park.  The route was OK for a Jeep but would have been interesting in my Windsor.  I'm sure I could have done it but not knowing if a camping site might be available convinced me to play it safe.  Glad I did.

[jacwjames]

So left Ridgecrest and headed toward the Three Rivers Hideaway Campground close to both Sequoia & Kings Canyon NP's

The Garmin & Iphone, both started me on the same route, that's always good.  But then my Garmin had me routed on 128 to Isabela Lake and my Iphone had me going a different path.  When there was a difference I always reverted to the Garmin since it has my rig & toad programmed in.

128 was the windiest narrow road with steep drop off on passenger side (with no guard rail most of the time) that I'd ever been on.  I real white knuckle experience that I'll have dreams about tonight I'm sure.  So just a word of wisdom, if you are trying to travel from Ridgecrest toward the NP's on the other side DO NOT TAKE 128. 

I think the Iphone route was ~7 miles longer, which is nothing considering the total distance.  Probably shortened my life by a year. 

 

But I made it Three Rivers Hideaway and got set up.  It is very close to the park. I could probably drive up there today but I'm going to kick back and partake in a beverage to calm my nerves😅

[jacwjames]

Took a drive up to the the two parks today.  The campground is at ~1000 ft elevation and I drove up to ~7500 ft elevations.  The road into the park was pretty much switchbacks soon after passing through the gates of the park.  Very scenic. 

The the large Sequoia trees were isolated to a specific elevation so as you drove through the stands it was pretty amazing to see them.  At one point the road split and the road going in passed two close large Sequoias.  There was a large tree they called the Sentinel and then the Sherman tree which is the largest tree by volume in the world.  Very impressive, trip was worth it just for that but there were dozens of large Sequoias as you drove. 

Made to King Canyon visitor center, driving through part of the park with nice scenery, one of the overlooks provided a great view of the Canyon.  I did not do the scenic drive into the Canyon, it was one way in/out and I pretty much had my fill of "scenic" canyon drives. 

The two parks are fairly close to large metropolitan areas so they get a lot of traffic.  I left fairly early, not much traffic, but while coming back down it was busy on the windy road.  Plus they are doing road work prior to the park and they stop traffic and use a lead car to shuffle groups through.  Probably the only option to work on the roads.