Day 12: Tonopah, NV to Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite NP, CA

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Ben

After stops for gas and groceries in Tonopah, as well as a quick tour of the mining museum, we headed West towards Yosemite. We dropped down to 1st gear for the climb out of Benton Crossing into the Inyo National forest. On our way to Lee Vining and Yosemite, we stopped on the southern shore or Mono Lake to admire the Tufa formations, formerly underwater structures formed when underwater springs injected calcium rich water into Mono Lake’s carbonate rich water, forming calcium carbonate towers. As the water level receded, thanks to diversion of inlet streams to San Francisco, the tufa structures became exposed.

Mono Lake has no outlet, so the water is very mineral rich and twice as salty as ocean water. The black line below is Alkali flies on the water, one of the few creatures than can survive in these salty waters:

We also saw brine shrimp blooms underwater. The shrimp and flies support the bird population that call Mono Lake home:

After leaving the tufa site, we visited the Inyo National Forest visitor center where we learned about the lake and the kids received their Junior Ranger patches. We could see a wildfire burning near Bodie in the distance. Permits are available to kayak out to and camp on some of the islands on Mono Lake, something we would like to try in the future.

Leaving Mono Lake we ascended the 6 miles of 9 percent grade to Toiga Pass, the eastern gateway to Yosemite. It was 1st gear all the way at 30 miles an hour. I once pulled over to allows cars by, and was barely able to get my engine RPMs enough to get going again. Lesson learned!

We pulled in to the campground shortly before dark. Tomorrow, our adventures in Yosemite begin!

We drove 155 miles today. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 10 and 11: Las Vegas, NV to Tonopah, NV

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Ben

Shabbos was wonderful as expected. It was really nice to spend the day with my parents.

This morning I went for a quick ride. It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve been on the bike, the longest hiatus from riding in years. And I felt really lousy when climbing the hills, as if I hadn’t been on the bike for 2 weeks. I could tell I was out of place, as all the joggers and cyclists I encountered had a skin tone that, were it a crayon, would be called “edge of pie crust”. Anyway, here’s the ride:

I could see downtown Las Vegas in the distance:

I rode to the end of Horizon Ridge Boulevard and back:

It was 109 degrees on Shabbos, and it was similarly hot today. After having a third old tire replaced on the RV and stopping at Lowe’s, we headed North towards Yosemite. We stopped for lunch at the ghost town of Rhyolite, just a few miles East of Death Valley:

The famous bottle house, built around the turn of the last century out of bottles and mortar, is well preserved:

It was really hard to turn our backs on Death Valley, but we will be back in a couple months when it’s cooler. We continued North to Tonopah, where we’re staying in the Banc Club Casino parking lot. The drive was windy and wet with a good bit of lightning as well. Thankfully, it’s much cooler here than in Las Vegas, it’s probably in the mid-60s right now. Tomorrow we will drive into Yosemite!

We drove about 240 miles today. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 9: Cedar City, UT to Las Vegas, NV

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Ben

Today we arrived at my parent’s house in the early afternoon after a major shopping stop at REI to pick up a tent and packs and sleeping bags for the kids in anticipation of some serious backpacking in our near future. We will spend Shabbos here and head North on Sunday to our first long-term destination, Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 8: BLM land near Sinclair, WY to Cedar City, UT

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Ben

Waking up this morning at the BLM campground felt like a real homecoming. We are back in the west! The air was cold and crisp in the morning, and the smell of sage was in the air:

The kids did a bit of fishing and whittling:

We left the campground pretty early, and managed to drive all the way to Cedar City, Utah. We stayed at the Walmart there. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 7: North Platte, NE to BLM land near Sinclair, WY

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Ben

This morning, I called a couple shops in town and found the part that I needed to replace to restore our turn signals and running lights. Here I am doing auto surgery in the parts store parking lot:

To avoid the high passes of the Rocky Mountains, we decided to head North through Wyoming. It added 50 miles to our route, but I figured it would be a lot less stressful.

The most amazing part of today’s drive was how quickly we transitioned from the Midwest to the West. Once we crossed the 9000 foot pass into Wyoming’s high country, it was clear we had left the word of Corn behind. We queued up the John Denver as we drove into the sunset, marveling at the rugged landscape before us.

Eager to kickoff our entry into the west with a more meaningful overnight location than a Walmart, we use the Allstays app to find a BLM campground on the North Platte river a few miles north of Sinclair, Wyoming. It only has 5 sites, each 200 yards apart, and it’s free! We pulled in and there was serious solitude and wonderful dark skies.

It’s nice to be home!