Las Vegas & Yosemite

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Driving to Los Angeles took about 4 hours and we encountered mile upon mile of three lane highways, hugh trucks with two or three trailers and 87 degrees of sun and glorious blue sky. We stayed a couple of days here as there was a Drag Racing event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a chance to see how America stages this type of event compared to UK. We paid $20 each which was cheap for second day of practice and qualifying and sat in the stands by the start line. Well, it was noisy with top fuel dragsters and top American modified car screaming down the 1/4 mile. Americans can certainly put on a show. That evening we stayed in a RV park on the east of the Vegas strip. When we booked in we got talking to a couple of professional RVers who travel over the USA for approx 6 months each year. In the morning Fran went to have a shower, placed her things in the shower cubical and then decided to go to the loo. When in the loo Fran heard a woman come in saying " this is not right you cannot do this " and when Fran came out of the loo the woman had moved Frans things and was in Fran's shower, leaving two other showers empty. Fran had the right hump and picked up her stuff and left the shower room.

The next day we headed for Hoover Dam and saw this marvellous construction. Security was tight as we had our camper van check in case we had items that could damage the environment. We drove across the dam and also walked over the new road which provided an excellent view of dam and its surroundings from a high point. In my opinion the dam looked small compared to its photos that I had seen but up close it was a hugh feat of engineering.

Our next destination was Yosemite National Park so we headed north through vast open plains and saw a hugh solar farm catching the sun. Finally reached the park entrance, paid the entrance fee and drove into the park. We headed for the centre complex where we visited the museum, saw several camping grounds that could accommodate RVs and tents so people could camp in this part of the park. We took a free shuttle bus around the site and saw some wonderful scenery and high waterfalls. We tried to visit the sequoia trees but due to road works, forestry management and rain we had to give this a miss.

We then decided to head north west out of the National Park and head for a campsite for the night. The road out of the park has great views over the vast pine forests. The road wound its way up the side of the forest valley and was flanked on one side by hugh rock faces and steep drops on the other. This was certainly one of the memorable roads we have travelled on as it changed from tarmac to gravel half way along, from wide to narrow lane then up high over the mountain and dropped down alongside the river.

Tomorrow we will be heading back to Los Angeles via Highway 101 which runs parallel to the Pacific ocean.

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Photos

Las Vegas Drag Strip
Part of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway complex