The last great desert run

Me and the Joshua Tree. As one with the desert.
see all photos »

Leaving Las Vegas..   After spending a couple of frenetic hours in an outlet shopping mall (atoning for my sins of leaving a wife behind at home) we got back on the road.  It was baking hot again, probably over 100 degrees in the old money.  The blowing southerly desert wind was still piping, so we elected to stick to my original plan of following Higway 95 north of Las Vegas and crossing the Inyo Mountains north of Death Valley (my version 1 plans had us going through Death Valley, but the RV rental mob said 'not if you want to keep your deposit'.)   I was a bit hesitant as I could see on the map, there was only three towns, and my experience of towns in the Mojave desert is that 5 mobile homes pushed together is enough to qualify as a town.  And the allowable number of those without a roof or signs of habitation is two.

So we set off up Highway 95, and what-do-you-know but it's a 4 lane, smooth as a table top road with wide shoulders, good signage and engaging, if not inspiring, views.  Add to that a good 20-30 mph tailwind and we were singing along making great time.  Ol' Shep was humming along happy as a lawn mower on a bowling green.   I couldn't work out why there was such a good road, especially compared to the cratered, choppy and downright frightening stretches of interstate we had been on at various points.  And then I worked it out - not only does this stretch of road service two Air Force bases, it also serves the Yucca mountain Nuclear waste facility (or toxic dump, to use the vernacular).   Your Tax dollars at work!

How many mountains must a man cross to escape the Mojave?

Eventually the good times had to stop, and stop they did when we turned off the Federally funded road onto nevada state road 266.  This choppy old bumpy stretch of road crossed the desert in a straight line, heading straight for the mountains.  This was also the loneliest road we travelled-  stopping partway along for some Joshua tree photography and gentlemans relief stop (well I figured cactii like a drink, no matter what the source).   In all that time not one single vehicle went past us.  Although a slow-moving RV threatened to until we all bailed into our own steed and roared off up the road before they got past.

The road climbed up, then down, then up, then.. well you get it.  And then two things happened as we hit the California state border - 1) the road instantly got better and 2) irrigated farmland appeared again.   Any stretch of flat land in California that looks like it will grow a crop is irrigated until it does so - even in the middle of nowhere (in this case, the Fish Lake valley).

Finally we approached our final mountain pass for the day - the 2300m Westgard pass through Inyo National Forest.  And then we descended into the comparitively lush Owens valley, and up the US 395 until we reached Bishop.  There awaited a cool Oasis of a town, with the RV park having a little stream with swimming ducks, emerald green grass and a cool breeze descending from the looming Sierra Nevada.  All was good with the world.