As I was packing to leave, Lucy, my old cat, decided to sit in my suitcase. It's usually Ellie who has to be IN things, but this time Lucy tried it, perhaps an attempt to keep me from filling the suitcase and leaving. Big Bear is at about 7200 feet elevation. The air is crisp and clear with none of the smog we get. But, the trade-off is that the area is a tourist haven in all respects. Traffic is awful, fast and aggressive, waitresses and waiters can be surly, and gift shops are everywhere. A great place to visit; no way I'd live there.
Clean skies, white clouds and pine trees. Lovely.
We took the ski lift to the top of Snow Summit, just over 8000' elevation, where you can look down on Big Bear Lake. Hikers and mountain-bikers take the lift to the top and either hike or bike back down. I could not recommend the area for skiing - runs are very short - but for summer hiking, it's nice.
As we hiked down, storm clouds started coming in. We didn't get rain below, but it may have happened up above.
Heading down, one moves quickly from mountain to high desert. From here on the photos are taken from my car, mostly through the windshield, so please forgive the photo quality in some shots.
Heading north on Route 18, the road is narrow and very steep - a 16% grade in many areas! Looking out gives a view of what's to come and the start of dirty air.
The road here is much steeper than it looks in this shot. See the next one.
This is what you have right next to you on the side of the road. If you miss a turn, survival is pretty iffy.
Arriving safely at the bottom, you have high desert landscape with Joshua Trees (the large cactus-looking things) and scrub. It's very empty.
After a while you get on 395 North. We used to travel this route to hike on the East side of the Sierra Nevada. It's a long, boring, narrow road. For some reason this area where power lines of all sizes, descriptions and ages has always seemed incredibly lonely to me.
And, this is the landscape. I can't imagine living here, but signs for cheap land abound! It's dry, desolate and unfriendly looking.
From 395, one takes 58 across the state (got your map out?) via the Tehachapi pass. Here you find a wind farm. This picture is from a distance, out the windshield, at 75 + mph, and traveling a curvy and often steep road. These are giant windmills. On my way to Big Bear, I met a semi carrying one replacement blade. The blade took up the entire semi-trailer bed and stuck out over the back!
After Tehachapi you move into cattle country. Now, it may not look like that to folks from the midwest, but out here, this is cattle country. The color in this does not do it justice. The grasses are the color of ripe wheat and just lovely. But, it's obviously dormant season here.
At Bakersfield you catch the 99 North - are you with me? This is not my favorite part of the trip. Traffic is heavy, it's boring landscape, and just plain dull. I elected to take the short route, 65 North rather than the freeway. 
On 65, it's citrus groves and oil wells and not much else. Traffic can be nasty. It's 2-lane and often not safe for passing - yet people do, double yellow lines be damned. I don't drive this road at dusk.
We've come across the state from East to West and arrived in the foothills on the opposite side of the Sierra, still a long way from the ocean.This is Lake Kaweah, right outside of Three Rivers. It's full right now thanks to spring snow melt, but the water level will soon start drawing down to serve the citrus groves below.
So, I'm home. 5 1/2 hours one way. And, covering only a small part of this state.
No comments:
Post a Comment