Day 12 Tuesday Death Valley to Bakersfield

  Bakersfield, California
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Well, getting up for sunrise was more in hope than expectation. We did waken at 5.15am but as sunrise is about 5.30 there was no point cos it would be over by the time we got there. So we had a long lie till 8am instead! Full cooked breakfast, prepared everything for leaving and stopped in at the Chevron petrol/gas station just outside of the Ranch. It is $3.47 a gallon here (note these prices I give are for 89 octane, the mid-range of the 3 unleaded petrol/gas types available), we topped up with $66 to get us out of the Valley and back into civilisation where hopefully the price would be $1 less. And a note for others, I could use my UK credit card to pay at the pump OK, some other places require a Zip code and hence we cannot use, but it was fine here. 
  
We passed through Stovepipe Wells and turned off to the left on the graded gravel road to Mosaic Canyon. We had to drop our speed down to 10MPH for the 2.5 mile drive to the start of the Canyon as it was so bumpy. When we got there there were 3 other cars there already (no RVs funnily enough!) 
  
We got our water, applied our SPF30 and headed on in. There was a school field trip of Geologists just at the start discussing the various rocks - oh the exciting life of a Geo! It was 10am and the sun was partially covered with cloud luckily. The first part of the Canyon is very narrow and full of layers of different types of rock, some if it was obviously mud and stones, others were a strange smooth granite type. We walked through the canyon up about a mile or so. The temperatures were getting up and the clouds disappeared, so we headed back down to the RV for much coolness and a shower!  
  
We bumped and shoogled our way back down at 10MPH and went back to Stovepipe Wells for an ice cream. I looked at the RV parking there, it appears to e a bunch of lots out the back of the General Store with no shade or cover at all. We didn't bother going to the sand dunes by Stovepipe - I've spent 4 years working in Egypt and seen so much better!  
 
Off we went west on the 190, it was a slow haul uphill passing the 1000,2000, 3000 and 4000 foot marks till we peaked at 4956 at Town Pass. The sign at the start says to switch off your AC to stop your vehicle overheating, but we took a steady 35-40MPH over and had no problems. It was a fair hike over the Cottonwood Mountains, I had to drop to 2nd gear on the way down over some spectacular views.
 
We got to Panamint Springs Resort the other side of the valley about 1pm, the use of the word Resort is stretching the truth quite a lot! The RV park is a scrubland with a toilet block. The "resort" may boast selling 130 different beers but it's a one horse town, basically consisting of the hotel and a fuel station (which is even more expensive than Furnace Creek!). I had made a reservation for here but we decided that as it was still early in the day we should just push on to get closer to Sequoia Canyon, we decided to aim for Bakersfield. Panamint Springs has free Wifi via their satellite; it is very slow, but at least free. We used it look up some RV parks in Bakersfield.
 
We continued west, over the top of Argus range of mountains, stopping at Father Crowley point for some photos. Here, I did my good deed for the day for a tourist, Dutch I think, who could not get his car started. He had left it in Drive, so the ignition wouldn't turn over, was fine once I shifted it to Park. Again, going down the slope I had to downshift to 2nd gear for some of the way as it was quite steep. It was strange to see a snow plough drive past us! I'm not sure what he was going to plough, maybe they use it to clear rocks from the road in summer. 
  
We carried on, joining the 395 at Olancha and carried on south. We had our first view of the east side of the Sierras as we approached here, still some snow on top and rain clouds abound, even had a few splashes of rain! 
  
We turned down I-14 and then turned off onto the 178 towards Lake Isabella. On the way there just as we approached Mountain Mesa, we noticed a big fire off to our left. At first we thought it was some kind of controlled burning of the land, but the black smoke coming off it showed it was something more serious. A dozen or so fire trucks passed us as we continued towards Isabella over the next 30 minutes. A news item on it is at http://www.kvsun.com/articles/2009/05/26/news/doc4a19ae6280d2d896849301.txt.
  
We got to Isabella about 4pm, as we hadn't had any lunch we stopped at the local MacDonalds for an Angus n fries. Note that when you buy a Meal here, this does not include the drinks as it doesn't in the UK. Any sodas you buy, however, include refills.
 
We carried on down towards Bakersfield, while we went down by the side of the Kern River, the road here was very narrow and winding.
 
We arrived in Bakersfield about 6pm and used TomTom to direct us to the Bakersfield Palms RV Resort. It was $27 all in for the night which includes full hookup for water, electrics (up to 50A), sewer, even cable TV if you want. They also have free WiFi access (but you need a code from them), which was very good and fast. Fast enough to download a couple of tv programmes for us to watch tomorrow. The park also has a small pool and hot tub, laundry etc. It is, however, only a few hundred yards away from a railway line, we did hear 2 or 3 trains rumble on by horns a blaring, we will see how bad it is overnight.
 
Catriona caught up on the laundry while I caught up on the travel blog and uploading photos. This evenings food was frozen pizza slices which were to be done in the over, but buggered if I could get it to light. Something else to add to the snagging list for when we return the RV.
 
Tomorrow is onwards to Sequoia Canyon.