Road tripping: Bishop (16 July 2017)

We flew to Seattle, trained to Sacramento, and are now driving to Yorba Linda (in Orange County). While there are stresses in driving, particularly navigating out of cities you don’t know as you are also getting used to driving on the other side of the road again, we are enjoying the freedom of deciding our own route and our own stopping places. Day one of our road trip turned out to be a very lovely day. We spent most of the day driving through or near three pretty much adjoining national forests of the Sierra Nevada Range, the Eldorado National Forest, the Toiyabe National Forest and the Inyo National Forest. 

Placerville and the Eldorado National Forest

Having found our way out of Sacramento, after a very enjoyable three days, we headed pretty much due east, with the plan being to cross the Sierra Nevadas and then drive on down to Orange County east of the mountains rather than the faster and more usual western route from Sacramento, down through the Central Valley. We knew which was the prettier route and so chose it.

Our first stop – for a much needed cuppa – was Placerville, near the beginning of the El Dorado National Forest. Like many towns in the region it dates back to the Gold Rush days, and was first known as Dry Diggin’s (for the style of gold-mining used in the area). However, in 1849, it attracted its best known historical name, “Hangtown”, because of the many hangings that had occurred there, although, as Wikipedia tells us, the museum says only three hangings occurred there, of three men who had come into town on horseback “with guns ablaze”. 

It was a pretty town, one that seems to have maintained its history, while being a “living” modern place too. We had a gorgeous cuppa – iced tea for me, and cold brew coffee for Len – in a lovely little cafe called Totem.

We spent the morning  gradually climbing, up through 4000ft to an elevation of 7,000ft, along Rte 89, part of which was the Stephanie Marie Frazier Memorial Highway. Being curious we looked her up. She was a young girl, only 20, who was killed in a head-on accident in 2000 when she was only 20. Her sister survived – just. Since then her parents lobbied and worked to improve that road, because a comparatively significant number of accidents had occurred on that road.

Anyhow, it was a lovely drive, much of it along the beautiful South Fork American River.

Lunch and afternoon driving

We lunched at an “all seasons resort” in the middle of the forest, called Sorenson’s. A very pretty place, which reminded us of our summer mountain sojourns in Thredbo. Very different landscape, and a very different place, because this is a “resort”, not a village like Thredbo, but the feeling of summer in the mountains that I love was there! It was warm but, like Thredbo, around 10°C lower than the lower level city temperatures.

In the afternoon, we drove mostly around 6,500 to 8,000 ft which for Australians is a high elevation, given our highest mountain is only around 7,200ft. It was a lovely drive, with the Sierra Nevadas always on our west as we made our way south. The highest point in our drive was Conway summit, which is 8,143ft.

Afternoon cuppa and revisiting the tufa

For our afternoon cuppa we stopped at the historic Bridgeport Inn, in the pretty little town of, yes, Bridgeport. At the lower elevation of 6463ft it was hot, unlike the cool mountains, so we didn’t tarry long there, except to have our break.

The main anticipated treat of the afternoon was Mono Lake, a spot we’d visited around 25 years ago on one of our US family trips. This lake was the centre of a legal battle over Los Angeles’ taking water from the lake for its own needs (from the 1940s), resulting in significant ecological damage. The nearby Owens Lake is now a dry lake (for the same reason). However, the Mono Lake Committee managed to win their case in 1994 and the lake level is being maintained (though drought does challenge this.)

Besides being a lovely lake, and a wonderful bird habitat, Mono Lake is famous for its tufa. On our last visit we saw the more jagged pointy southern lake tufa, but on this trip we stopped at the boardwalk a little more north of those, and were surprised to see more rounded forms. Tufa is a form of limestone (and you can read more about it on the link.) It was a glorious time to see the tufa (albeit pretty hot walking out there on the boardwalk) and just topped off what had been a lovely day.

Dinner at a Bowling Alley

Strange but true! One of the recommended eating places in Bishop, our stop for the night, is the Back Alley restaurant in its bowling alley. The food was traditional American dining – soup or salad (with choice of dressings) to start, followed by a meat dish with choice of potato or rice. Nothing innovative here, but nicely cooked food. My Ahi Tuna was just what I needed, and Len enjoyed his buttery shrimp. And, we barely heard the sound of skittles at all!

We walked a meagre 4kms or so today!

Today’s trivia

Roman Polanksi’s 1974 film Chinatown was inspired by the early California Water Wars when Los Angeles gained its water rights in the Owens Valley. (But you probably all knew that one!)

Today’s images

Still

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Moving

El Dorado National Park Panorama…

 

Tufa in Mona Lake…