Advertisement
Published: September 19th 2014
It's hard to believe that we've only been travelling in the USA for four days so far as so much has happened in that short time. On Friday we caught the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles then set off on a long drive through Washington, which is reminiscent of British Columbia, vast evergreen forests and extensive waterways, into Oregon which is real 'big country'. We passed through one quite large city, Portland, but most of the time we enjoyed wonderful views of vast areas of pictuesque wilderness. En route we stopped at a Gator Sports Bar in Tigard, Oregon which looked like the bar from Coyote Ugly with endless TV screens, each showing a different sport. Our waitress was wearing psychedelic tights with great big holes in them and we were expecting someone to start dancing on the bar to the classic 70's and 80's rock music that was playing. I had to hold Lorna back! Each of the salads we ordered could have fed a family of four - this is America! Our Howard Johnson hotel in Roseburg was very acceptable for an overnight stop. The following morning our destination was Crater Lake, a lake that was formed about
7, 500 years ago when Mount Mazama erupted and the mountain collapsed leaving a massive caldera which has filled with rain and snow over a period of time. As we drove through the entrance of the park there was a notice warning of a fire to the SE of the mountain and the atmosphere was very smokey. When we arrived at the rim of the volcano, about 2000 feet up, visibility was very poor and we could barely see the water, let alone Wizard Island which was formed by a later eruption. We drove around the rim towards the village and the view became clearer on the other side. It is a magnificent setting and we were pleased to eventually see the far side of the lake - I'm sure it's even more spectacular on a clear day. Before we left the park, we drove to see the Pinnacles trail which is a path alongside a river gorge with amazing rock formations caused by volcanic activity.
As if that wasn't enough for one day, we drove through Klamath Falls, which was a bit of a ghost town, and had an 'honoured guest' meal for seniors before we arrived in
California. Here we stopped briefly in a small one horse town called Weed just because of its name. Within seconds a man walked past wearing a huge snake around his neck and a young girl, who reminded us of the girl from the Exorcist, appeared from nowhere carrying a tray but we didn't hang around to find out what she was selling -probably some local produce! We then spent the night at another Howard Johnson hotel in Redding, but this was more like the Bates Motel! It waste about 30 degrees so we went to the local bowling alley for a beer, not exactly a lively bar, so we ended up visiting the liqor store and sitting by the 'pool'. A perfect end to an interesting day!
The following day we passed through vast areas of farmland on our way to Mariposa. The crops, fruit trees and vines went as far as the eye could see with very little housing in evidence. In Coulterville, a small western style town, we stopped for an ice cream in Mary Lou's. There we discovered that the road we were on was about to climb much higher and narrow as well as having 237
bends! Although we felt very safe with Chris driving, Lorna and I both clung on to the edge of our seats and looked the other way when there were sheer drops with no barriers. Mariposa was a lovely 'touristy' town and our hotel was the best so far, 98 degrees today!The next day we visited Yosemite - absolutely breathtaking! Even though the lakes and waterfalls were completely dry the views in the valley are awe inspiring. No bears in evidence but you can't have everything! I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.118s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0596s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Maureen Riley
non-member comment
Thanks for sharing
I am so enjoying reading your blog Jackie. Yosemite looks an absolutely amazing place - your photos are great. It is so strange reading about "Snakeman" and little bars with waitresses in psychedelic tights how is it that we (i.e.. Britain) feels such an affinity with America? It actually sounds like such a culturally foreign place in spite of the common language - a manifestation of our strange imaginings, the fiction of comic books etc made real. It has been an interesting week. So Scotland voted No to independence and one wonders how everything will move forward from here. Dancing began again on Tuesday, new people joined and I think there is a good chance now that the company will continue to grow. Happy travels.