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Published: April 30th 2016
Napa Valley, Yosemite and Mono Lake
22nd April
We had booked a wine tour and a very fancy van arrived to pick us up, there were 8 of us altogether, 3 ladies and one of their husbands, originally from Taiwan but lived here for years, all retired, the women were nurses and he was a doctor and another couple from Baton Rouge in Louisiana, don't you just love that name. The 3 ladies and gent were out for a good time, the ladies hardly drank but he was going to make up for all of them, he started off as a quiet reserved chap who smiled a lot and liked a little joke, but turned into party animal as he got stuck into the wine, he always went for the more expensive tasting option but made them fill the glass up to the top. We had difficulty understanding him anyway, but a few looseners meant we did a lot of smiling and nodding not having a clue what he was on about but he thought everything was great fun and hilarious! He was still in good form by lunchtime but that was his lot, he fell asleep,
waking if the limo van jerked with a lovely little smile then nodding off again, no more wine for him today.
We were light weights compared to him, starting on a selection of fizz at 11am was a bit early but we tried our best. The way these places work is that you pay usually $20 / $30 and that gives you 4 or 5 to taste. The first place was too busy, you just got your wine and that was it, no information or details and not exactly a pleasurable experience so we took our fizz outside and a young couple were out there with their puppy which was cute and we got chatting to them about the dog which was a cross American Pit Bull (!). Anyway, when it was time for us to go back to our limo van, we went to pay and the young puppy owner said, don't worry, I will put that on my account, so not sure who he was but he made the start better, really nice of him.
There are now more than 500 winery's in Napa and our next stop was one of a
handful that are still family owned. We really enjoyed this one, there was an interesting selection and when we had been through the four, she carried on with more! She explained the wines really well and we ended up buying a small selection which we will enjoy here rather than lug back home. The weather swung all day between raining cats and dogs and lovely warm sunshine, for our picnic lunch which was part of the deal, it chose cats and dogs but, fortunately, there was cover.
The third winery was a beautiful place owned by Francis Ford Coppola, he has 2 in the region, we went to Inglenook. It was laid out beautifully, small atmospheric tasting rooms, private dining and wine caves cut into the hills behind. There was also a little museum connected to his film career. The last stop was Yountville which is called the culinary capital of the area with a number of famous chefs and restaurants, pretty place, we had a wander around as we had given up on the vino by this time, as I said, light weights! A good day.
23rd April
Happy St George's Day!
We left Napa for Yosemite, it was quite a long drive and turned out to be a bit of a hairy scary ride as we were up and down mountains on very narrow roads with the camber switching from one side to the other all the time. Most of the time we were on the edge, in more ways than one and there was absolutely nothing between us and several hundred feet below. Just before we started this drive, Sal took over for the first time??
We looked at the map and decided Stockton would be a good place to stop for breakfast, not a good decision, most of Stockton seemed to be derelict and anything else was closed. We pressed on and found nothing, really needing a coffee we ended up stopping at a petrol station and buying our normal standby of Oreo biscuits! Col had found Copporopolis during his research of the route and this was a weird place. We had driven for 30 minutes since the gas station, miles of flat farmland, orange trees and some vines as well, then we see an elaborate sign for Copporopolis and pulled in. It was like
a brand new film set, smart, clean, new buildings positioned around a landscaped square, spotlessly clean, Neil Diamond coming out of speakers somewhere and not a soul around. We sat in the car for a while just taking it in, wondering if we had walked into some weird experiment and we were going to be their latest Guinea pigs. We walked around the square and went into a shop selling beautiful handmade pieces for your home. We asked the lady who said this was the town provided by the developer for a housing estate which was nearby though we couldn't see it. It was completed about 8 years ago but because of the financial downturn meant that most of the retail units remained empty for a long time but she hoped it was now starting to pick up and at least the essentials were there now like hairdresser, nail place, coffee shop and ice cream parlour, so yes, the essentials.
We went on to Angel Camp, along with nearby Chinese Camp and Coulterville, are referred to as ghost towns. Towns that were at their height in the gold rush days then deserted and now inhabited again with
the original Wild West looking buildings, loved it and they had a very good Italian restaurant which we took advantage of and it was delicious! We stopped for a view of a bridge over a wide lake and met Mrs Fruitcake and her rasta dog Scooter. Mrs Fruitcake whose real name was Alice was probably about 97 but with the help of a few nips and tucks, looked 60 from a distance and boy, could she talk, we were reeling as we got back into the car, she covered most subjects in 15 minutes, from her dogs dreadlocks, to the Chinese buying the local goldmine to the cost of her foundation cream (maybe that was quantity) to the fact that she didn't really like anchovies on her pizza...... Phew!
Our hotel for the next couple of nights was at the entrance to Yosemite National Park. The hotel is a huge sprawling motel type place and absolutely heaving with people. We took advantage of the onsite laundry, always fascinating people to be met in these places!
24th April
The park is more than 3 million acres within the Sierra Nevada. Towering granite cliffs often
with powerful waterfalls thundering over the top are spectacular. Each time you go around the corner, there is a more spectacular waterfall than before, the amount of water changes with the season but still plenty of snow up high, so huge quantities of water coming down creating fast moving rivers tumbling over huge rocks and trees. The weather changed constantly, we had grey and dull, brilliant sunshine and warm, drizzle, thunder and hail all added to amazing views.
Our room at the hotel had a little kitchen so we bought fresh soup and sourdough and had a night in which we really enjoyed.
25th April
Today was going to be a mess, we knew it but there was little we could do about it except get on with it. We got up early to get going as we had a lot of driving to do, so, after fuelling up with probably the most expensive 'gas' in America because it was in the park, we were off. Our next stop was Mammoth Lakes, neither of us are owning up to selecting this on our itinerary and though Col had done research, it didn't go
as far as realising the scenic drive through Yosemite was closed so we needed an alternative route. Looking at the map there were 3 roads north of the park route all forming sort of ever increasing arches over the park route. We spoke to the park rangers who told us that due to unprecedented late snow fall the first two roads were closed and they were unsure about the third but they strongly recommended we didn't go that way and even if we did, we would almost certainly have to have snow chains. Not much choice then, we had to take the southern route which was something like a 500 mile diversion but we were not prepared to take the risk of the northern route. Look on it as an adventure said Mr Half Glass Full. The start was mountainous again so slow progress and later we discovered that satnav was trying to take us back to the northern route so in fact, for a while we were going in the wrong direction agh! Of course, Mr Half Glass Full said how lucky were we to take in scenery we would otherwise have missed. We realised why California is called
Mammoth lake
The only bit open!the food supply state as we drove past enormous ranches with 100's, maybe 1000's of cattle and then miles of fruit trees, peaches, oranges, almonds and much more. We would drive for miles with huge changing landscapes, most of them stunning, but no signs of life, then you would come to a little spot where a few trailers had set up home, surrounded by their rubbish, old car, oil drums and the rest of their trash and then nobody and nothing for miles, God knows what it is like to live in the middle of nowhere. The weather on the whole was kind until in the late afternoon, we joined the road to take us north, Sal driving and as we joined the freeway, we could both feel the wind buffeting the car and within yards, there was a truck on its side and a short distance later another - OMG! We thought about just staying where we were and continue in the morning, but Mr Half Glass Full said it would be fine! We plodded on, the police were filtering traffic, anything other than a family car was being taken off the road, so parked up were loads and
loads of trucks. It seems this area often suffers from windy conditions (don't we all!) and we passed a small town that had been completely deserted, more recently than the ones deserted after the gold rush as the derelict diner looked more 70's, must have been a tough place to live and they obviously gave up. The Romans must have been here as the road was straight though the wind made it less straight but it just went on and on and on and on and on......... We had eaten junk all day just grabbing stuff quickly so that we could press on. It was 12 hours later that we eventually arrived ....... In a ski resort....... Still neither of us owning up to selecting this place, our skiing days were over long ago. As we pulled in, feeling exhausted and car weary, Mr Bloody Half Glass Full said, that wasn't so bad was it... Grrrrrrrrrrr!
On the bright side we were staying in a very nice and extremely comfortable apartment, we just fell into bed. We have 3 nights here to brush up on our skiing and of course to go and visit Mammoth lakes. There
is plenty of snow about but this is obviously a very affluent resort and there is a snow plough on every street corner, so the roads are clear...... except the road to the lakes which is impassable, so, all this effort and all we can see is the far end of one bloody lake!!
Oh well, time for a bit of R and R and this was the ideal spot.
28th April
The real reason we had stayed at Mammoth lakes was because we wanted to visit Mono Lake, had the road through Yosemite been open this would have made perfect sense...... Anyway, we were back on track and drove up to Mono Lake. As we left Mammoth it was snowing, a couple of miles down the road it was brilliant blue sky and warm sunshine, a couple of miles further on again, we were driving blindly in a foggy misty white out, keeps you on your toes. Sitting at the foot of the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains, the lake looked stunning as we came towards it with all colours of blue but mostly a greeny turquoise. It covers more than 70 square
miles and has no fish but is home to trillions of teeny weeny brine shrimp and a particular type of fly which attract 1000's of migrating birds each year.
What makes it interesting are the tufa towers which are odd shape limestone rocks that rise above the waters surface and line parts of the shore, it looks a bit like a grey Bryce canyon with water, but they really are unusual.
Also interesting is that for 50 years until 1990 Los Angeles water authorities, diverted enormous amounts of water for their city's needs and the lake lost half its volume and deteriorated in other ways too. A small group of people, one man in particular, realised in 1970's the damage that was being done and after years of legal action and going through the courts, the lake now has to be up to a certain height before anything can be taken out - nice for the little town to win over the big city.
We carried on North and wanted to visit an abandoned town from the gold rush days which is now a state park with the town and mine
left as it was but not maintained either so not a Disneyland park, they call it in a 'state of arrested decay'. We took this narrow turn towards it and followed the narrow road, it said it was 10 miles with warnings of snow and snow chains required but it seemed OK. After the 10 miles, the Tarmac disappeared into an unmade road and then that turned into a sludgy muddy mess and though we were going slowly, mud was spraying everywhere and was making the wipers stick! 3 miles of this until we got to Bodie, the abandoned town. Arriving in the car park, there was only a handful of cars but we couldn't work out why none of them was in the state that ours was, we were smothered in mud and they weren't, there was only one way in and out so that was a bit of a mystery.
1859, William Bodey (don't know why they changed the spelling) discovered gold in them there hills and the town started to grow. It started with 20 miners and by 1880 had 10,000 living there. It was a mix of robbers, miners, gun fighters, prostitutes, 65
saloons, brothels, gambling halls and opium dens with families trying to live amongst all this. Much of the town was destroyed by fire in 1930s when it was already in decline with the last mine closing down in 1940's. Only a small part of the town survives with interiors left as they were and the church still with alter, pews and organ. It fascinating to walk about though it was freezing cold with a howling wind.
We got back on the soggy muddy track and it was now snowing and blowing a gale. A light came on the dashboard to tell us low pressure in one back tyre, we got out, it wasn't flat which was fine by Sal and even if it was flat that was also fine as there was no way we were going to be getting our suitcases and other assorted bags out of the boot to look for the spare and then be messing about in the mud trying to change it, but, Col was obviously thinking this was what we were going to do! Noooooooo! Just drive and we will sort it out when we are not on a winding, narrow,
muddy track. It turned out a bit if air at the next gas station did the trick.
Lake Tahoe was our destination for the next 4 nights and another drive through spectacular mountain scenery brought us to the lake.
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Lyn [Cooke]
non-member comment
Thank you for making me laugh!!
Wow, again! Amazing photos and a brilliant blog. Made me laugh out loud [which worried the dogs as they don't hear that too often!!]. You are an extremely entertaining writer Sally so thank you and I hope you carry on having a great time and find more amenable roads!! xxx