FIRE AND WATER

Even the best laid plans can be thrown into disarray by the forces of nature. As we left Lake Tahoe, thin cloud seemed to have crept over the lake. Driving north, the mist seemed to thicken slightly. We had a picnic by a lake formed by the building of an earth dam. Behind Pat is a control tower ... you can see the mist in the background. We headed further north towards Mount Lassen; noticing that one of the main highways had been closed down. Searching for accommodation near Mount Lassen was a fruitless exercise. We sighted the famous volcano in the distance - a rather disappointing, ugly, snub-nosed rock pile. Eventually we discovered a wayside inn and enquired about staying for the night. The proprietor resembled grandpa from the Munsters! He said we could stay but there was no electricity, no water, no food, in fact nothing other than the buildings which looked as if they had not been used for several years. We drove on. Eventually we got to a small town called Red Bluff (famed for being the hotest place in California). There we discovered that we had driven around four huge forest fires and the mist that we had been experiencing for the past 250 miles was smoke that also reached 200 miles north to Portland! The receptionist had to leave quickly as her home along with many others was being evacuated. After the long drive the first thing we did was to get into the swimming pool, the coolest place in Red Bluff.

The next day we headed north and soon sighted the elegant contours of Mount Shasta. This was on the way to the promised excitement of a steam train journey from a town called Yreka. After the disappointment of Mount Lassen, the steam train journey was going to make up for it. We slept overnight in Yreka so as to relish a full day on the old, restored Pacific Railroad locomotive. When we arrived at the station we were told it was out of service and the carriage was pulled at a stately 10mph by a nondescript diesel. The volunteers running the service tried to make up for the absence of the star of the show but this was another disappointment.

The next day we took the winding road east to Klamath Falls. Truth be told, this was not a town to which we are likely to return. From there we ventured down to the Lava Beds National Park where the caves formed by volcanic lava are called Lave Tubes. They are very cold, very dark, and very dusty. We preferred the flora and fauna on the surface to the "attractions" underground. We also visited the rock carvings (petraglyphs) chiselled by the Mohoc indians when the current scrub land used to be a giant lake. The carvings are small and naive although they may have symbolic significance whose meaning is now unknown.

Carrying on northwards, we soon discovered that mosquitoes in Oregon were more formidable than those we have encountered in California. The countryside was full of cattle and horses. Fortunately the hospitality of Jo's Motel was excellent in Fort Klamath.

Next day, as we climbed towards the Crater Lake National Park, snow was piled around us up to 20ft high. Yet the sunshine kept us warm all day.

We reached the spot where Mount Manzama had erupted long ago, allowing the top of the mountain to sink into the space where the magma had once been. Over the centuries since then, snow and rain has filled the basin with the clearest, cleanest, bluest, deepest water imaginable. All the disappointments of the past few days were swept aside by the astonishing beauty of Crater Lake.

Within the Lake, a later, smaller eruption formed Wizard Island.

We continued north and had lunch at the side of Diamond Lake.

We tried taking photos from places where mosquitoes were more scarce - but they usually found us!

Driving west to Roseburg, we passed the many waterfalls of the Umpqua River. This photo was taken whilst both of us were surrounded by legions of Oregon born mosquitoes! We are now recovering in Roseburg.

LAKE TAHOE

We have spent a fascinating few days around Lake Tahoe. This is the highest, largest lake in the USA. We drove right around its 75 mile perimeter enjoying many spectacular views. This one is of Emerald Bay from which we could distinguish at least half a dozen different hues of blue. I took this photo of Ray as he sat with his back to Emerald Bay. Suddenly he pointed to the sky behind me and said "have you ever seen an effect like that?" I looked up as did other sightseers and we were all surprised with the strange appearance in the sky.

No one had ever seen this effect before. One tourist immediately said "are these aliens coming?" We think it more likely to have been moisture projecting a prismatic effect across part of the sky: but it was not a rainbow. We tried to capture this on film, even using the lens of Ray's sunglasses as a filter. This is the best we could get.

Across the border into Nevada, we were impressed by the size and relative low cost of property! We didn't want to take photos of the houses we looked at as we didn't want to appear to be estate agents. However, on the way to and visiting Washoe Lake we were lucky enough to see a Red Tailed Hawk carrying a snake in its talons (sorry no picture) and six American White Pelicans. Two settled on the lake and I managed to snap them.

It was Midsummer Day and, unbeknowst to us, Lake Tahoe has an annual, official open day (although it is clear that the Lake has been "open" for several hundred thousand years). Consequently, we were stuck in our first American traffic jam for two hours and twenty minutes travelling the final four miles bck to our hotel! Ah well! You can't expect to have a great time all the time, can you?

SIERRA NEVADA

As we left the desert surrounding Las Vegas, the heat kept the highway and surrounding countryside in a constant shimmer. We stopped overnight in Ridgecrest, a military town: then continued north skirting Death Valley until we began to see the landscape change. To the east it was still scrubland over sand whilst in the west the mountains around Mount Whitney crept into view. And whilst we still experienced temperatures in the high 30s (centigrade), the mountains had snow on the ridges.

We noticed a signpost to Keough Hot Springs and turned off to investigate. Down the tiny road we discovered a huge swimming pool (Olympic size) constructed just to hold free-flowing hot water from the spring. We spent most of the day there; swimming around in warm, mineral water!

Further north isthe ghost town of Bodie. This wa a boom town in the 1870s when gold attracted thousands to this out-of-the-way location. It was so far away from anywhere (but so busy) that this became the first place on earth where electricity was supplied from a distance. The poles carrying the electricity were constructed across the hills in a straight line as no-one knew whether electricity could travel around bends!

All that remains of the town (about 5% of the original) is preserved: this is a photo taken from the nearby hill containing the interesting cemetery.

Examples of original houses:

... and early transport with fuel supply

and one of the many unusual gravestones to be found in the cemetery

Near Bodie is the amazing, surreal, 700,000 year old Lake Mono. The water there tastes of salt and baking powder! We REALLY liked it here ... very quiet and a totally unique and isolated eco-system. On the southern end of the lake are a huge display of tufas. These are calcium towers that have grown up as gas escapes through the water.

They are HUGE! As the lake was partially drained (to feed the Los Angeles water supply) many of the tufas now stand on dry land.Here is an entire curtain of these strange structures.

We stayed a few days in Mammoth Lakes where skiing was taking place on the mountainside whilst we stood, only a few hundred feet away, in shorts and tee-shirt because of the sun's heat. The landscape around Mammoth Lakes is beautiful. We hiked around for about 5 miles:

and visited the Devil's Postpile: an extraodinary display of volcanic rocks

... and here you can see the rocks that have broken away and look just like children's building bricks.

Further on the hike we came across an area that had been subjected to a forest fire. These are not unusual (frequently started by lightining strikes on trees that have seen no rain for a long time). Another surreal landscape!

Near the end of our hike we came to Rainbow Falls ... easy to see why it has its name.

After Mammoth Lakes, we travelled into Yosemite National Park. Here the landscape is dominated by imposing granite edifices surrounding attractive valleys.

Here in the Bridalveil Falls .... spectacular heights from which these waters tumble...

.. and Sentinal Falls.

After leaving Yosemite, we stayed in the quaint town of Groveland before continiung north into Redwood country again. Of course this time we were inland, so the redwoods are sequoias that do not grown quite as high as their coastal cousins ... but tend to have much thicker trunks.

We continued north and visited an extraordinary cavern: massive stalagmites, stalactites and every possible calcified structure one could image (sorry, no photos) and are currently staying overnight in a near-deserted ski lodge (Bear Valley). We will definitely move on tomorrow.

FROM COAST TO DESERT

After leaving San Francisco, we stayed overnight in Monterey: then continued down the scenic coast. Pat spotted the beach where Elephant Seals congregate to have their pups and generally chill out.
Here a bull elephant seal announces he is boss! They are REALLY big!

Still further down the coast we came to the extraordinary estate built by the media tycoon, William Randolph Hearst.

The swimming pool is more for admiring than for swimming now: and the architecture around it is also for show as it has no function other than to present the pool!

Much of the architecture by Julia Morgan shows great originality - despite its need to mimic renaissance Italian designs. Of course 16th century builders did not need to use steel and concrete to avoid earthquake destruction. Here is the indoor pool:

Leaving the coast, we started our journey towards Las Vegas. Overnight stop in Bakersfield did not deserve photographs except here we saw the first train with well over 100 trucks being pulled and pushed by 5 locomotives!

Once in the desert, you are struck by the sheer expanse of rough shrub-covered sand: and these unique 'Joshua trees' (so named by the Mormon settlers in the early 19th century).

and by the hundreds of electricity-producing windmills lining the mountain tops!

What else is around Las Vegas? We took a helicopter trip over the Hoover Dam

... and here the Colorado River deposits its brown sands from the sandstone canyon into Lake Mead:

Then there is the Grand Canyon itself: fantastic strata showing millions of years of geological time:

Here you could see how the Colorado River had cut out the canyon:

But the days we spent in Las Vegas were memorable: not always for the reasons you would expect when reading the publicity for the city. Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip) is a stunning road. On both sides there are enormous casino hotels attracting millions of visitors every year. At night, the boulevard flashes with a carbon footprint larger than some nation states. The place reminds me of many developing countries where large flows of cash prompt massive building projects. All through the day and night, massive cranes silently swing above sky-high steel and concrete structures – skeletons of the next generation of apartments, casinos and hotels.

More glass seems to be used in the most recent constructions as they reflect along the convex and concave edifices the contours of neighbouring towers. On the strip itself we are approached by people who remind us of our holiday in Turkey. They press us to take free tickets to shows, discounted rates for trips and meals. Unlike Turkey, there are squat men (and women) who wear tee shirts declaring that they can deliver a girl to any punter within twenty minutes. We escape into the famous attractions:

Monte Carlo: 2 big statues outside make it look like a potentially swish place. On entry, however, you are just met with hundreds of electronic gambling machines and the hotel lobby. So the nearest this place gets to southern France is the thermometer showing a high Mediterranean temperature outside.

Excalibur: now this you really need to take your 5-year old to! That is if he or she likes coastal town fairground attractions like throwing things or shooting at rather pathetic targets – like model knights in armour. The castellation inside and outside has as much to do with Arthurian Britain as a plastic Christmas tree has to do with the New Testament. Kitsch would be too complimentary to this “attraction”.

Luxor: the giant model of the sphinx outside the pyramid-shaped casino brings to mind the original riddle “what has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?” The answer is probably the average Luxor punter (needs the extra legs when not in bed sleeping it off!) The hoped-for sight of the largest man-made enclosed space in the world (that’s the ad for the pyramid) is not to be seen as the place is totally filled with other constructions, gambling equipment and partition walls. Great disappointment!

Mandalay: the approach through spectacularly-displayed waterfalls and statuary is pleasantly shaded. The entry promises a beach and wild animals: we didn’t go and see the sharks and the beach is only open to hotel guests. Ah well, you can’t win them all!

New York New York. Now this is more like it. This is Americans building a set that is American. And they know how to do that … the street with various restaurants and cafés is well done and the film set quality of the place is not out of keeping with the tone of the entire set of buildings. Outside, the mock-up Statue of Liberty fronts a well thought-out fake skyline of the big apple – including a nice Empire State building etched into the permanently blue sky.

Paris. Oh mon dieu! Peut-être les Americains aiment cette burlesque: mais un vrai français va rire. The bottom sections of the fake Eiffel Tower stick through a picture of the sky so when you look up, all you see is a poor replica of the sky outside. Quelle domage!

Venetian: The false sky in Venetian is far more convincing. It stretches all the way along the restaurant and shop-lined canal where gondoliers sing to their passengers whilst punting through the attraction. Very swank shops (with swank prices) inhabit this place with architectural features that mimic the Italian city inspiration. The whole place is amusing and pleasant … and nicely ridiculous. It’s the only resort/casino that is NOT owned by a big corporation: and Mr. Goldstein’s good taste actually breaks through the mock-Venetian façade.

Planet Hollywood. Now here I am heavily biased as the buffet downstairs (the Spice Market) serves a huge selection of food and drink at £15 per head. You can eat and drink as much as you like and the quality of the cuisine is excellent! So who cares about the hundreds of people upstairs staring at the electronic gambling machines as they sit, alone, watching their money disappear? We went upstairs and also watched some very quick-handed young women and men with gaudy waistcoats dealing cards to groups of punters who were happy to see the house take their cash.

Tropicana seems to have a pseudo-waterfall of descending light at night .. or perhaps it is not meant to be a waterfall. Inside there are good exhibitions: we saw the one entitled BODY which features a huge range of anatomical presentations from real human bodies and embryos captured in a silicon process. A more artistic version was shown in London where some people protested at the contents.

Circus Circus has free circus acts every half hour. Great fun … although of course they only do a couple at a time so as not to distract punters from the serious business of cash extraction.

Treasure Island has a model galleon outside and has sirens presenting themselves in a nightly show. We missed the show as we were eating in Planet Hollywood over the road.

Bellagio has the best night-time fountain display: we liked to watch that too much to tear ourselves away to go inside. Not to be too picky (but why not as this is meant to be where everything is miles-over-the-top place) but the fountain displays in the Tunisian resort of Porto El Kantouai were far more spectacular using multi-coloured lighting and music! Come on Bellagio, catch up!

Mirage looks impressive and has Cirque Du Soleil shows. We did not go inside although we saw they were building a new active volcano outside that is due to erupt by the end of the year.

Caesar’s Palace is not really a palace – more a reasonable-sized town. It took about a quarter of an hour just to walk past it! The place is beset with Roman-style statuary and columned architecture. If the giant amphitheatre were used for the original types of show, the lions would be harder to come by than the plentiful supply of victims in the USA!

MGM. Massive statues of golden lions outside and a live one in an enclosure inside with two men sitting beside it! (Was the lion drugged?) The hotel concierge quickly sorted out our tickets to Ka, the Cirque Du Soleil performance in the MGM theatre. Fantastic show! Definitely the high point of our days in Las Vegas.