Note
the two vehicles on the road at bottom of hill.We had driven to here from Nisca's home in Hot Springs, Montana. We went from Montana through Idaho and Washington into Oregon; four states in one day.
W drove here from the other end of the Columbia Gorge. The Gorge was incredibly beautiful. The waterfalls were the highest I had ever seen. Oregon is such a beautiful state.
Note
the two vehicles on the road at bottom of hill.
Horsetail
Falls, 176 feet
WOW!
Portland,
OR
Cannon Beach is the site of "Haystack Rock". When we got to the beach on the evening of the 18th, it was just as the sun was going down. We had traveled five weeks and 5,791 miles to get to the Pacific coast, and we just had to touch the water!
We got up early this morning to see the coast in the early light.
We stayed in a "yurt" at this campsite. It had a bunk bed, couch, table, two chairs, and a heater. Outside it had a picnic table.
Gray
whale
Lighthouses along the Oregon coast.
Only later in the year would we learn the real significance of this sign. They were located all along the coast of Oregon.
We drove from here to Crater Lake. There had just been a snowstorm there a few days before we got there. This is the bluest water I have ever seen!
Can
you guess how this sign is used in the winter?
We spent the night under Redwoods in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in California.
We drove along Rt. 101 and then Rt. 1 down the coast of California. The towns of Eureka and Ferndale had a lot of Victorian homes.
We stayed under the Redwoods here too. From here, we drove down past San
We went into San Francisco to Golden Gate Park, one of my favorite places in the city. We saw lawn bowling, street hockey, the Conservatory of Flowers, World Vegetarian Day, Berkeley, and an exhibit on "Futuristics" at the Berkeley library (where one of the exhibits mentioned West Virginia University's PRT).
We stayed with Art and Sarah for a few days. It was good to be able to crash here because we were both starting to feel sick. Art and Sarah drove us around to see some sites, like the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory. Everyone had to wear masks to keep their hair out of the pots where the chocolate was being made.
On the 29th, we started out driving to Yosemite National Park. We went through Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world. We stopped at Casa de Fruta, a huge produce stand. And we saw fields of cotton.
Yosemite was an incredible experience. The granite walls of the canyon are incredible, rising more than 3000 feet up from the floor of the valley. Bears are a big problem in the park. We had to take out every piece of food from our vehicle, along with anything that had even the slightest scent. We filled up three of the bear-proof lockers! We stayed in a "tent cabin" that night in what is called Curry Village in Yosemite.
We ate breakfast here after sleeping in the tent cabin.
The next morning we looked around the valley floor.
See
how the glaciers scratched the granite walls in the canyon.
Look
at the side of this wall - El Capitan. See anything?
This
is a climber that was on the wall in the previous picture! My camera's 12x
optical & 3x digital zoom lens caught it.
When we left the valley that day, we drove up into the mountains to around 9000 feet. The road is called the Tioga Pass. There was granite everywhere we went, with a smattering of trees in the crevices of the rock.
That's
snow on the windshield - October 1st!
Mono
Lake is at the eastern side of Yosemite National Park.
We
went through Death Valley during the night. We saw numerous coyotes, rabbits,
and mice along the road into and through Death Valley. We met very few other
people along the way.
Long drive from Yosemite down to Las Vegas - we didn't get there until early in the morning. We stayed with Judy and Norman Elrod in Las Vegas. They gave us a tour of the downtown area, the strip, and nearby Red Rock Canyon.
Previous: Wyoming to Montana
Current: Oregon to Arizona
Next: Arizona to home
All pictures Copyright © 2004, Jack Stansbury