Those are the words of Chris Selwood, event director at the World Solar Challenge, while he was explaining the changing landscapes along the Stuart Highway in Australia. His words were apt to describe the surroundings I entered after leaving Los Angeles: what a desolate place, and what enormous views across desert valleys.
As I described earlier my days in Los Angeles were not very interesting. The very first day I arrived at the airport at the end of the afternoon: too little time (and sleep) to pick the van up, so I had booked a motel nearby the airport and the van pickup for just one night. The following morning I went to the 'Escape' office to hand over a lot of (digital) cash in exchange for two months of camper van use. It's a nice old beast, equipped with (almost) everything you need. She reminded me of Hardboards 'da Bull' a little bit. Also handpainted, with a rumbling old engine, rusty in some places, and panels that work like a 'drum' when you slam the doors shut: good feeling, especially as I never had my driver's license while da Bull was around.
The first drive on sunday is to a nearby campground, in Pomona, north of LA (this is also where the above pictures were taken). This is cheaper than a motel, and one of the few campgrounds around LA that are not crazily expensive. Actually it is an RV park, a typical American thing, where there's maybe 10 sites to put up a tent (at the maximum distance from the bathrooms) and a 100+ places where you can drive-through your immense American RV thing. Kind of a strange place. Normally on a camping you immediately have contact with your neighbors, but here everyone is locked up in his box. The staff was friendly enough, but on the next morning I didn't even get a response to a cheerful 'good morning'.... strange! For the rest it was like a typical camping: hearing your neighbors with their dead marriage arguing half the night, etc.
I use the two nights at the campsite to get supplies for the van, get a few more showers while I still can. Ofcourse I also draw up a general plan for the trip + a little more detail for the first leg: sending out couchsurf requests, booking a hotel in Las Vegas, etc. All in all this takes quite some time, especially with all the driving around looking for various places to buy stuff. The US brands are now becoming more familiar: favorite for groceries so far: Vons or Albertsons (Walmart sometimes), general supplies and cheap warm-up meals: 99ct stores or general dollar stores.
The rough trip plan is to do a circle of a lot of the Western USA's national parks: Grand Canyon, Bryce, Arches, Monument Valley, Death Valley, Zion, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and perhaps a few more. Besides these of course San Fransisco should be visited, and the 1 highway along the coast between SF and LA. Saltlake city and its Bonneville saltflat are also on the list, and while studying I've also added Arizona: Montezuma's castle and perhaps the Tucson airplane graveyards. I could make this loop clockwise, or counter-clockwise, and due to the season I decide to first head for the desert (and the east). Sequoia national park was also on the list, but there were heavy snowstorms predicted for the coming days, with mandatory snowchains and stuff like that... didn't really sound like a good plan.
So after 3 nights in LA it is finally time to head off: into the desert! I'll leave you with some pictures of the route, and also of my first outback camping spot. The full selection on Picasa will have to wait until there's wifi again, instead of 2G.
As I described earlier my days in Los Angeles were not very interesting. The very first day I arrived at the airport at the end of the afternoon: too little time (and sleep) to pick the van up, so I had booked a motel nearby the airport and the van pickup for just one night. The following morning I went to the 'Escape' office to hand over a lot of (digital) cash in exchange for two months of camper van use. It's a nice old beast, equipped with (almost) everything you need. She reminded me of Hardboards 'da Bull' a little bit. Also handpainted, with a rumbling old engine, rusty in some places, and panels that work like a 'drum' when you slam the doors shut: good feeling, especially as I never had my driver's license while da Bull was around.
This is the sitting arrangement, you have seen it as a bed already
Fridge and sink in the back. I will have to do without/improvise shower and toilet
The first drive on sunday is to a nearby campground, in Pomona, north of LA (this is also where the above pictures were taken). This is cheaper than a motel, and one of the few campgrounds around LA that are not crazily expensive. Actually it is an RV park, a typical American thing, where there's maybe 10 sites to put up a tent (at the maximum distance from the bathrooms) and a 100+ places where you can drive-through your immense American RV thing. Kind of a strange place. Normally on a camping you immediately have contact with your neighbors, but here everyone is locked up in his box. The staff was friendly enough, but on the next morning I didn't even get a response to a cheerful 'good morning'.... strange! For the rest it was like a typical camping: hearing your neighbors with their dead marriage arguing half the night, etc.
I use the two nights at the campsite to get supplies for the van, get a few more showers while I still can. Ofcourse I also draw up a general plan for the trip + a little more detail for the first leg: sending out couchsurf requests, booking a hotel in Las Vegas, etc. All in all this takes quite some time, especially with all the driving around looking for various places to buy stuff. The US brands are now becoming more familiar: favorite for groceries so far: Vons or Albertsons (Walmart sometimes), general supplies and cheap warm-up meals: 99ct stores or general dollar stores.
The rough trip plan is to do a circle of a lot of the Western USA's national parks: Grand Canyon, Bryce, Arches, Monument Valley, Death Valley, Zion, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and perhaps a few more. Besides these of course San Fransisco should be visited, and the 1 highway along the coast between SF and LA. Saltlake city and its Bonneville saltflat are also on the list, and while studying I've also added Arizona: Montezuma's castle and perhaps the Tucson airplane graveyards. I could make this loop clockwise, or counter-clockwise, and due to the season I decide to first head for the desert (and the east). Sequoia national park was also on the list, but there were heavy snowstorms predicted for the coming days, with mandatory snowchains and stuff like that... didn't really sound like a good plan.
So after 3 nights in LA it is finally time to head off: into the desert! I'll leave you with some pictures of the route, and also of my first outback camping spot. The full selection on Picasa will have to wait until there's wifi again, instead of 2G.
Another sight that resembles Australia: huge cargo trains snaking their way through the desert
A portrait of the van, with a proper background
This seemed like a good view for my first night in the outback
Dinner getting ready just before sunset
It was kind of exciting to set up for my first night of camping: if anything would happen I would have no insurance because I was on a dirt road, and I have also heard too many stories about mountain lion (Poema) attacks (statistics, I know ;-)). Anyway, it felt good to cook dinner and find out that I had not forgotten anything essential. It felt even better eating it, and enjoying the sunset and amazing views with a glass plastic cup of wine.
For the next day I wanted to get as close to Death Valley, or already into it, as possible, because the night after I had already booked a hotel in Las Vegas. I had also sent out a couchsurf request to a host in Ridgecrest, one of the last cities before Death Valley, but since I camped in the outback, I had no way of knowing if it was accepted or not. Before leaving I climbed the nearby hill to enjoy the view around my first night's camping site one last time.
Find the Van
Driving time: off to Ridgecrest, as I expect to find some wifi there. Along the way I keep getting emergency SMS's on my new US mobile: sandstorm warning in your area: do not travel... wtf?! When I pass the last mountain to Ridgecrest and can see into the valley it becomes clear that indeed there's something strange going on: it's all hazy and dusty.
Snowstorms behind (above the Sierra's: Sequioa National park)
Duststorm ahead
Actually I slept quite badly the night before due to the high winds rocking the van back and forth. I thought this was due to the location on the mountain, but apparently the weather was just being crazy (and stirring up a lot of dust in the neighboring valley). In Ridgecrest I also received a message from my couchsurf host: she had actually asked me to call here yesterday if I still wanted to stay... I tried reaching her, but got voicemail. Instead of waiting around in Ridgecrest I headed on, guessing that in Trona, the next town, I could get reception and try phoning again.
The roadtrip to Trona was interesting: lots of contrasts: rocks straight from Lucky Luke comic books, a salt lake, an industrial plant processing the salt from the salt lake, and endless desert roads. However, when reaching Trona I had no reception... my only choice was to head back to Ridgecrest and check there. Luckily enough I got a message from my couchsurf host that it would be possible to stay. That meant waiting around in Ridgecrest for another 3 hours though...
I did some more shopping, lots of coffee drinking and I already sorted some photos. When I headed off for the adress she provided me I ended up kind of out of town, on a dirt road, heading into a kind of trailer camp: interesting! There was no light at the trailer with her number on the mailbox, but lots of it, at the trailer next door. I parked the van, and a big dog came out barking and jumping angrily... behind the dog came Melinda however, so I had found the right place. Two more dogs joined in, but as Melinda didn't say attack, and I was not afraid I could just greet the dogs, and drive the van onto the property to park safely.
Melinda turned out to be actually working at the salt processing plant that I saw today. That, and the airforce base where her boyfriend works are the largest employers in the region. Kind of amazing, as we are really, really in the middle of nowhere: there's desert all around and then this salt lake, and a huge military base. The military base is actually the larges US R&D center for the army, during the second world war, this was the place with the highest concentration of PhD's on the whole planet (they were inventing the atomic bomb amongst others).
We had a nice dinner together and I learned a lot about the region, we talked about the for dogs, Melinda's diving adventures (on her first open water dive, someone else died), and how her boyfriend (him being a Russian) ended up working for the US military. We said goodbye in the evening, as the couple would go to work really early and were ok with me closing the gate behind me. The next morning I got up early because the drive to Las Vegas and through Death Valley was gonna be looooong. When I wanted to pack my bags into the van I saw one of Melinda's dog's outside the gate... with a wound on her front leg as well... I had hear the dogs fighting in the night, so maybe she escaped and got hurt. I let her back in, left a note for Melinda and headed off for Death Valley.
For now I will just leave you with some pictures of the (loooooong) trip to Las Vegas, perhaps I'll talk about it a little more in a next post. The full picture set will have to wait for the next post as well because I'm on a very slow connection.
Good to finally get some physical exercise again after all this driving: climbing a small hill with beautiful rocks and the road snaking through the valley below
The actual change in landscape only occurs after you pass the mountain range
The mountain range on the west side of Death Valley, this, together with the Sierra's ensure that almost no rain arrives in the valley
You'd think that nothing would live in 'Death' valley
Inside the valley proper: this looks more like it: endless horizon of nothingness
Death valley is also the lowest point in the USA
(and Garmin sucks, but more about that later)
'Devils Golf range': an endless field of salt (re)crystallizing
A view from the south end of the valley looking North, with the van included to show scale... this place is immense
Hoi Coen
ReplyDeleteVeel plezier in Vegas en bedenk overdag slapen en 's avonds naar de strip!
groetjes C&A