Moab (66 - under 71)

Autumn was growing deeper and it was more noticeable in our Moab campground. The remaining leaves on the trees were in their last hues of yellow and orange and the increasing winds ensured the trees would soon be stripped bare.

Moab in the distant valley floor with
the road north to the National Parks

We googled the weather to see what we were likely to have while in Moab and to find out whether Lake Tahoe had received the front that was predicted a few days ago. Our decision to spend only 2 nights in Tahoe had paid off. Lake Tahoe had received over 30 cms of snow and heavier falls were predicted for today and tonight, in all they expected further drops of more than 60 cms during the next 24 hours. Snow was down to the water’s edge where only days ago we had enjoyed a picnic in sunny, clear weather while the girls played in the sand.

Moab was in for a “mixed bag” of weather as some days were to be sunny, some cloudy, some rainy and even light snow showers. Overnight temps would be below freezing, but only just. When looking at the weather and planning our itinerary for Moab, we decided we should see Canyonlands National Park before Arches National Park as Canyonlands was both further away and also at a higher altitude. The forecast was quite good for tomorrow but increasingly colder and more uncomfortable for the days following, and the potential for Canyonlands to be covered in cloud couldn’t be ignored.

The drive to Canyonlands (68) required us to back-track about 25 kms to the turnoff, then drive a further 60 odd kms to the Grand View at the end of the Canyonlands road. The visitor’s centre was located about 8 kms past the turnoff and before arriving there, we stopped about 10 times to take photos of these wonderful red rocks and cliffs. What lay ahead if this looks so good here we pondered?

Once we arrived at the visitor’s centre, we discovered another jewel we needed to see, a place called Dead Horse Point State Park (67) which was only slightly off the road to the Canyonlands Grand View point. The Point sits about 2000 feet above the winding Colorado River and provides breathtaking views of the canyon country.

The neck

The most common legend of how the Point got its name is that cowboys, around the turn into the 20th century used to herds of wild mustangs across the mesa and onto the Point which is connected to the mesa by a thin “neck” only 30 metres wide. By fencing off the neck they could leave the horses in a natural corral. The cowboys then chose the best horses to sell, leaving the rest on the mesa. Either the horses go trapped or the cowboys left the fence in place and the horses died of thirst, leaving their bleached bones behind.

We spent quite a bit of time in the visitor’s centre watching a DVD and looking at various displays explaining times long past, then drove to the Point and walked around trails (some of which came a little too close to the edge for me - I’m not a great one for heights!) gazing at the wonderful views.

Indeed, at one point I was looking down a cliff at least 1,500 feet high watching a small car negotiating a steep, winding gravel road to the bottom and could hear the wheels skidding as they applied their brakes again and again. There is no fencing on this winding road and nothing to break their fall if they went off the road – the sight and sound was enough to give me butterflies in my stomach, and I was just watching.

At another time I was watching a man walk around a 2’ wide ledge the corner of a sandstone butte to get a photo, with nothing for him to grip or hold to secure him from falling 2000 feet to the valley floor. His wife was unsuccessfully yelling at him to not take the risk, but he went anyway. A few minutes after he returned, I was chatting to him when a very, very strong gust of wind nearly knocked both of us off our feet.

Gravel stones were striking us like bullets and drew blood from his legs as he was only wearing shorts.

The wind only lasted a minute or so but I couldn’t help thinking how lucky he was that that wind didn’t come when he walked that narrow ledge around the butte. After I returned to our car, Grace and the girls were nearly in tears as they thought the car was going to be blown over – the girls were apparently screaming during the height of the winds as gravel stones and sticks were hitting the Chev.

In all our stop there lasted almost 2 hours and we still had to drive about 30~40 kms to get to Canyonlands. As we neared the last section of Grand View Point road before the lookout, the road narrowed and became quite twisty. However, once at the Point the views were breathtaking and understandably, the area is often described as “Utah’s Grand Canyon”. It is nowhere near as large but many films have been produced there in the guise of being set in the Grand Canyon. Apparently the smaller scale makes filming less problematic.

Water and gravity is this land’s architect, cutting flat layers of sedimentary rock into hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches and spires. The area has three main sections, partitioned by the Green and Colorado Rivers and they are the Maze on the west, the Needles on the east and where we were standing on the north is called the Island in the Sky.

Our views from the Grand View lookout across canyon after canyon stretched almost 100 miles. Island in the Sky is a broad mesa wedged between both the Green and Colorado rivers and the spot is Canyonland’s observation point. Closest to the mesa’s edge is the White Rim, a nearly continuous sandstone bench about 1,200 feet below. Another 1,000 feet below White Rim are the rivers, shadowed by sheer canyon cliffs – beyond them lie the Maze and the Needles.



The Three Gossips



Late afternoon and the accompanying chill came far too quickly, and as we had a drive of over 80 kms to negotiate, we headed towards home. The weather had been very kind to us once again, some grey clouds had threatened rain but none eventuated, however tonight was expected to bring a nasty, cold change.



Balancing rock



After rising the next day and peeking out the windows we discovered a very cold morning (below zero), but the sun was successfully breaking through trying to make fools of the weather forecasters. We were initially going to have today as a school day, but a quick change of plans was needed to capitalise on our change in fortunes.

We headed off to the Arches National Park and if the weather turned bad, we had quite an easy drive home. The entry fees to all the National Parks had been pre-purchased before leaving Australia (an annual pass), so essentially it didn’t matter how many times we entered the park.

Water and ice, extreme temperatures and underground salt movement are responsible for the sculptured rock scenery of Arches National Park. On a reasonably clear, blue-sky day such as we had today it’s difficult to imagine such violent forces, or the 100 million years of erosion that created this region – one of the world’s greatest densities of natural arches, over 2000 in all ranging in size from a 3-foot opening (the minimum considered an arch) to the longest, Landscape Arch measuring 306 feet from base to base.

The park lies atop of an underground salt bed, thousands of feet thick in places and the salt was deposited across the Colorado Plateau 300 million years ago when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. Over millions of years, residue from floods, winds and the oceans that came and went blanketed the salt bed. The debris was compressed as rock, at one time possibly a mile thick.

Salt under pressure is unstable, and the salt bed lying below Arches was no match for the weight of this thick cover of rock. The salt layer shifted, buckled, liquefied and repositioned itself thrusting the rock layers upward as domes and whole sections fell into the cavities. Over time, water seeped into superficial cracks, joins and folds. Ice formed in the fissures, expanding and pressurising the rocks breaking off bits and pieces.

Wind later cleaned out the loose particles leaving a series of free-standing fins. Wind and water then attacked these fins until the cementing material in some gave way and chunks of rock tumbled out. Many of these damaged fins collapsed. Others, hard enough and balanced, survived despite missing sections and these became the famous arches.

We wandered about these lands and arches, spellbound for hours taking photo after photo. There were many walks and trails to various vista opportunities throughout the park, but you would need to spend days there to do this.

One arch that was of particular interest to us was Delicate Arch. This was Utah’s visual focal point and is featured on most tourist brochures and displayed on Utah’s vehicle registration plates. There are two ways to see the arch, one far more strenuous than the other.

A road leads to a view point on the least strenuous viewing point but you still need to walk several hundred metres along a path and up steps that climb about 80 feet. From there you can see Delicate Arch, but you need a camera with a good zoom as the arch is more than a kilometre away.

Delicate Arch

The more strenuous route requires you to enter from a different location and walk a round trip of about 3 miles (almost 5 kms) - you need to climb over 500 feet in elevation over huge rocky slopes, quite steep in places but not dangerous. We all chose the more difficult route, although Meryla decided to wait it out in the Chev.

Our stamina was certainly tested with the walk, but frankly we all needed the exercise and it took us about 1 ¼ hours to climb the path to see the arch. Rochelle, at 8 years of age and still only 20 kilos fared remarkably well but needed to sit down a few times (none of us disagreed with these breaks – I needed to lower the heart rate down to 200 or so) and vowed to give up, although she didn’t.

The last 100 metres was around a corner of a mountain edge that had a walkway carved into the rock wall, and the strong winds made this feel far more dangerous than it probably was – it certainly made us all cling to the wall and I wasn’t game to look over the edge. Now that I’ve looked at the photos we took at that point, I’m so disappointed that they don’t reflect the danger we felt when negotiating our Everest!

A natural amphitheatre provides an excellent viewing platform for admiring Delicate Arch. Chantelle, Rochelle and I walked around the outer rim to stand beside the arch for a photo. The centre of the amphitheatre sloped down to...as far as...I don’t know! I tried peering down as far as I could see but my nerves got the better of me – all I could imagine was one of the girls slipping or tripping and there was nothing at all to stop their fall to the bottom, wherever that may be. As we slowly made our way round to the arch I was holding them so tightly I probably caused the blood to drain from their hands. Grace took the photos and video and I was a happy man when we were finally heading back down so a safer level – the walk downhill to the car only took us 55 minutes.

We left the park just after sunset and once the sun’s rays have lost direct contact with you, the cold evening air really bites, chilling you to the core. We decided to buy dinner in a restaurant on the way home and found a lovely pub with a roaring fire in Moab.

The next couple of days were spent indoors doing schoolwork, only broken the day before we left by a snow shower. Chantelle and Rochelle got rugged up and had a great deal of fun trying to catch the snowflakes in their mouth and a container they took outside.

Watching the snow falling made me more concerned about the condition of the roads the following day as we headed south to Monument Valley. The campground manager assured me that despite another mountain range to climb, the season was too early for icy roads to be a problem, and that by mid-morning the roads would be fine.

Truckee (63) to Moab (66 – under 71)

Today’s drive to Elko was to be a big one so an early start was required, and thankfully everyone helped; we were away by around 8.35. I know 8.35 is not that early but I’m a little concerned about very early starts due to the road temp and the chance of ice, a slightly later starts gives the ice more of a chance to thaw, particularly assisted by traffic movement.

The first hour or so of driving was downhill most of the way to Reno, very easy driving despite some foggy patches and the declines weren’t too steep. We’d heard Reno had been built by income from casinos and that was obvious as we passed by – quite unattractive multi storey casinos galore on both sides of the road.

Highway 95 turned out to be not much of a challenge at all other than the potential for boredom, and Homer’s display was a reminder of just how far in both time and distance I needed to concentrate before I was required to turn or listen to him – over 500 kms.

From time to time something popped up that was worth a photo, but it was a good day for the girls to do schoolwork. The highway across Nevada comprised both rolling hills and plains and was generally quite flat for the entire day. We passed some natural springs about 1 km from the side of the road and plenty of beautiful autumn coloured trees.

Something that I’ve not commented on but should is the number of casinos in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I have no idea where they their customers would come from – I’m talking about halfway across the Nullarbor stuff, well not really but it sure looks like it, no houses in sight for miles and miles. They must come from passing traffic I suppose.

We arrived in Elko around mid-afternoon, tired but not exhausted with ¾ of Nevada behind us and still plenty of time to relax before an overnight stay. We discovered the Elko campground was right beside a train track and level crossing and almost every hour throughout the night, very loud train horns were sounded as the trains neared the crossing, again as they crossed it, and it seemed one for luck when they were through to ensure that all around were as awake as the train driver.

Despite feeling quite jaded, we left reasonably early bound for Salt Lake City (65) and today’s driving time was expected to be about 2 hours less than yesterday’s. The road for the first 2 ½ hours was as flat as a pancake so we made good time and stopped at a rest area on a small hill for a coffee, toilet break and a photo of just how flat the road was behind us.

As we entered Utah we drove through a number of what could be best described as large hills rather than small mountains, but nothing excessively steep. Having described how little challenge the road was, we were surprised to come across an accident scene with a semi-trailer lying on its side adjacent to the highway.

Actually, we were very lucky because the traffic accident team were in the process of closing the road to use large tow trucks already at the scene to right the semi. Who knows how long we would have had to wait if we were 10 minutes later than we were.

I have no idea of precisely how many kilometres we travelled through salt lakes, but we drove for well over an hour, possibly 1 ½ hours averaging 60 mph (100kms). It wasn’t until we passed a turn off to the Bonneville Speedway that I started to pay more attention – if I’m not mistaken, it’s been the site for numerous world land speed records.

About the only thing I could do to break some of the driving boredom was to look at all the mirages on the road ahead and on both sides of our rig in the salt flats. Grace took a few photos to help relieve her boredom as well. At least some of the time was put to good use. Grace discovered that her camera could take photos with a panoramic view. Lots of fun was had by the girls and Grace experimenting with the new “find”.

We arrived at Salt Lake City around 1pm and although we were only staying one night, had time to disconnect and find a local Walmart to buy some school supplies for school projects. One reminder that we were in Utah, a Mormom state, was that we couldn’t buy wine in Walmart although beer was available.

The city’s appearance is very attractive and reminded us of a much larger version of Colorado Springs. There were many huge, snow capped mountains behind the city and they would look spectacular in winter with snow to ground level.

At various times in our planning, we were going to drive, then fly to the city to experience Xmas there: I’ve mentioned in a previous blog of our desire to have a white Xmas, but that may no longer happen this year because we’re yet to figure out what we need to do about our visas that expire on Feb 19th requiring us to fly out of the USA and return – if we were to do it though, this would be a great place.

After returning to the campground, we had time to give the Chev a much needed “tubs” in an adjacent car wash. Then, much to our disappointment we soon discovered we were again near a train line as we could hear the loud train whistles, not just disturbing the tranquillity, but completely devastating it! We had hoped to have a better night then the previous night, however it wasn’t to be.

Skiing is particularly popular here but as we’re not adept at skiing and broken limbs and sprained bits of the body seem hand-in-hand with the sport, I don’t think we should try that, particularly due to the cost of medical help as an alien in the USA. An example: I need to have a blood test every month for my INR level (more often if it goes out of the acceptable range) and a blood test that is free in Sydney is neither simple nor cheap here. I would have to check myself into a hospital ($800), pay for the test ($20), wait for the result then discharge myself; expected time, a full day. Hence I paid $1000 for a machine that will do the same thing before we left Sydney.

As we left Salt Lake City bound for Moab, suburbs with beautiful houses seemed to go on and on showing us the size of the city. In a way it felt similar to leaving the Sydney or Melbourne CBD and heading out, however for the entire journey until our turnoff (about 40 kms), dwarfing the houses on our left were large, rugged mountains with a sprinkling of snow.

Highway 191 heading SE was quite easy driving and the road soon lost contact with the mountains and became undulating hills. I’m still very happy to drive on roads that, despite being one lane each way, provide no challenge such as ice and snow and the travelling today was in great driving weather, blue skies and around 15°C.

Mountain ranges appeared again as we neared Moab, not the large, rugged, snow-capped kind but beautiful red, orange and white-coloured monoliths carved by nature into rounded shapes of all sizes. On the way into town, we passed turnoffs to the locations we intended to visit and were now very excited to see what they were like – the drive past was almost as if we were watching a preview of what we were soon to discover.

Our campground in Moab was on the south side of town that meant we needed to drive through the small town’s centre. Grace and I scoured the entire town for signs of railroad tracks...and found none!! Yay, we were to enjoy a much needed better night’s sleep. Our site was close to the entrance of the campground and only about 75 metres from the highway south, however truck noises can’t be compared to that of a train whistle. Just what the doctor ordered, a good night’s sleep and time to explore Moab and surrounds for the next few days.

Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay (near 63)

We had only allocated 2 nights in Lake Tahoe because the cold front was on track to arrive on Sunday – today was Wednesday so leaving on Friday still allowed us 2 days grace. We weren’t sure how fast the front was travelling to the east, but we were also still headed east towards Elko, then Salt Lake City and from there south east to Moab. Fingers crossed that we could stay in front of the front, so we just had tomorrow to do some sightseeing.

Following the lack of diesel coming into town we had two priorities, to purchase an emergency fuel tank and see Lake Tahoe. Somewhere along the way we had also picked up a nail in the Chev’s rear right tyre and although it wasn’t losing pressure, I decided we also needed to buy a small air compressor to pump up any deflating or low pressured tyres. We certainly can’t rely on having as much luck as when we shredded a Sierra tyre in Canada.

Lake Tahoe was almost 45 minutes drive from the campsite at Truckee, and as the name suggests there was an auto parts shop in town; the fuel tank had to take priority over sightseeing. Grace and Meryla sat patiently in the Chev outside the auto parts shop/hardware store while Chantelle and Rochelle accompanied me inside, well they sat patiently for the first 30 minutes or so. I really don’t know how long we took inside because there were sooo many things to see.

Anyway, after quite some time we returned to the car with the fuel tank, and an air compressor, and some extra electrical cable and connectors to lengthen the power to the compressor, and a great pair of waterproof gloves (thermal and good to -4°F), and water pipe insulation, and a big roll of duct tape, and.....you get the story, men and hardware shops!!

There was still plenty of time to explore Lake Tahoe and what a beautiful day again. I’ve said a number of times before; we’ve been blessed with good weather for the majority of our journey so far. Following a little research, we discovered the Washoe Indians previously used the lake, although there was no sign of them now (unlike what we were yet to discover with the Navaho in Monument Valley).

Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada range and is at a surface elevation of 6,225 ft (1,897 m). It’s the largest alpine lake in North America and its depth is 1,645 feet (501 m) making it the USA's second-deepest lake, the deepest being Crater Lake in Oregon which is 300 ft (91 m) deeper at 1,945 feet (594 m) deep.

It is known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides. The area surrounding the lake is also referred to as Lake Tahoe, or simply Tahoe. Tahoe is also the 16th deepest lake in the world and the fifth deepest in average depth. It is about 22 mi (35 km) long and 12 mi (19 km) wide and has 72 mi (116 km) of shoreline.

Emerald Bay was a further 22 miles from Tahoe City and it was highly recommended we drive the extra distance around the lake’s shoreline to view it. It became a National Natural Landmark in 1969 and is home to Eagle Falls and Vikingsholm, a 38 room mansion that is apparently one of the finest examples of Scandinavian architecture in the United States.

In 1994, California State Parks included the surrounding water of the bay as a part of the park, making Emerald Bay one of the first underwater parks of its type in the state, protecting the various wrecks and other items on the bay's bottom. During harsh winters, the bay freezes over. The bay is about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) in length, and about two-thirds of a mile (1 km) wide at its widest point.

The road was quite narrow and windy but the view looking down into the bay was certainly worth the drive. We very thankful of the recommendation to visit the area because the natural beauty and geology of this unique bay and island made it one of the highlights of our visit to Lake Tahoe.

To visit Vikingsholm you need to walk down a trail one mile in length and it drops 500 feet in elevation from the car park to the house. As it was nearing dusk, we reluctantly decided not to walk down to have a look, so headed back home in preparation for the drive to Elko.

Although our stay in Tahoe was brief, it was one of those places that, at some future time you really want to return to – it’s difficult to explain precisely why, it was just… special.

Cannon Beach (57) to Truckee (63) - (close to Lake Tahoe)

View of the campground from our
dining table

Following the drama with our “short cut”, we decided to have 2 nights in Cannon Beach instead of our planned single night stay. This allowed us to enjoy a well-earned (and needed) bottle of red wine as I don’t normally have alcohol the night before we travel.

Speaking of wine, it’s ironic that we can buy many Australian red wines cheaper in the USA than in the local stores in Sydney – everything from Lindemans, Rosemount, Eagle Hawk, Banrock etc priced from as low as $5/bottle! I wonder how much they pay from the winery door as I’m sure freight and taxes can’t be too cheap and how much is left for profit for the USA retailer?

I digress – our plan for the trip on the west coast was to travel all the way down highway 101 from Cannon Beach in Oregon to San Diego, right at the bottom of California on the USA/Mexican border. That included lengthy stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles and many identified tourist spots along the way. Once we had finished on the 101, we were to head north east to Las Vegas, then further inland through Nevada to northern Utah, looping back around towards the south to catch many of their National Parks, and finally head south to Arizona to catch a little warmth.

We enjoyed the first night in Cannon Beach and went in search of what to see the following day. The weather wasn’t too inviting as it was raining on and off but on the way into town we saw a large rock in the water called the Haystack, and a couple near it called the Needles.

Off to the beach we went and between showers, walked down the quite large sandy shore to get a few photos. We passed by quite a bit of very long kelp, almost 8 metres long, a couple of dead seagulls and the normal flotsam and jetsam carried by the seas from ships, small Pacific islands and some perhaps all the way from Japan. One thing that also stood out was the large amount of driftwood logs and trees, many of which could be machined up to make some wonderful outdoor furniture.

We ran back towards the car when we saw the rain approaching in an attempt to stay dry, but alas, the rain won the race! To warm up and dry off a little we drove down their quaint main street and found a small but beautiful little coffee shop that also doubled up as a bakery, just what we needed. The girls loved it too as the tables had been designed for kids to draw/scribble on them using chalk.

As Halloween was also fast approaching (October 31st) and it’s such a huge thing here, we needed to plan where we were going to be because Chantelle and Rochelle wanted to do “something” to celebrate. We chose Newport which was only about 160 kilometres further south and they had a campground that was also part of a marina. That would allow us 3 nights in Newport, the last being Sunday night, Halloween.

The drive down was just great – someone during my mid-planning stage advised me that if we were going to drive the 101, make sure we drove from north to south and I’m very glad I paid attention and planned our trip that way. As we are driving on the right hand side of the road, all the pullouts and view points to see the Pacific shoreline were on our side of the road.

I can’t imagine the difficulty we would have had to pull our rig across the road to get to a view point, many times there were double lines that would have meant driving further and doing a U turn, twice. So, please allow me to pass on this little gem to anyone planning a similar trip on the USA west coast.

We travelled through Tillamook and Tillamook Bay, famous here for its cheeses and seafood and they have some pretty good wines as well. Other than at Tillamook Bay, the sea appeared to be quite “angry” as long lines of breakers were crashing to the shore. Obviously this was a little unusual because each place we stopped to take photos, many of the locals were also there taking pictures.

The road was quite hilly in parts but it’s a good, single-lane each way highway that presents no driving problems at all. They always seemed to have an overtaking lane or pullouts on hills for the slower traffic. There were sections of the road that had some sea mist and although it wasn’t too bad when driving, it seems to show up worse in the pictures.

We very nearly ran into (literally) a problem when we arrived in Newport’s campground (58). Upon arrival we duly stopped at the designated stop sign near the registration office and walked to the desk to register. Once the documentation was completed and my wallet was made a little lighter, I walked back to the rig.


I was about to climb in when I saw a couple of guys standing near the registration office looking at us –sort of strange looks too. I called out “Hi” and they walked a little closer but stopped, then looked at the building’s veranda and back to me without saying anything. It was only then that I too looked up and read the clearance was 13’4” – we need 13’10”!!! They commented it looked like it was going to be a tight fit, and I confessed I hadn’t even looked up to see the height and that we weren’t going to fit. I thanked them, chastised myself and vowed I wouldn’t do that again....I hope.



Sunset at the campground/marina & Yaquina bridge

Newport’s campground was great, once I found my way to where we had been allocated. It’s very large and I drove to the wrong section – twice! Not the same wrong section mind you, about 200 metres apart – I just hope my new neighbours weren’t watching!

Being beside a marina was great and we went for a stroll through there the next day. There were commercial fishing vessels mixed with yachts and motor cruisers which caused me to reflect on how the Statesman’s repairs were going.

We visited Cape Blanco lighthouse, a small local lighthouse that was built in the late 1800s, was still in operation and was allegedly haunted by Muriel, the ghost of a 16 year old girl. She had been dropped off in Newport by her father who was a sailing ship captain because Muriel had been very seasick, and he was to return for her in 2~3 weeks on their journey back north.

Apparently she befriended some local youths who wanted to visit the lighthouse at night, had accidently left her handkerchief there when they left and was taken back to the lighthouse to retrieve it. She entered the lighthouse alone, an enormous scream was heard and when her friends went inside, she had disappeared leaving only a few spots of blood on the stairs.

To this day, they have painted the stairs many times but the paint won’t cover the spots where the blood was supposedly seen. It is said that Muriel’s dad strangely never returned to pick her up, even though no-one could find him to tell him of his daughter’s disappearance....oooOOOooo

We went to the local Walmart and purchased Halloween costumes, a mask for Grace (with my wrinkles, grey hair and eye bags I don’t need one), spider’s webs, a large pumpkin and some other Halloween odds and ends. We also found out that local businesses sponsor a “Trick or Treat” event – a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon and into the evening in various locations around Newport and for safety, at least one parent must accompany their child(ren). Every store that was offering gifts had 2 balloons hung outside.

Rochelle and Chantelle tried on their new costumes (Meryla’s too old) and prepared for the next day. We had enough time left that day to visit a small local aquatic zoo that also had a Halloween theme with all staff dressed in various costumes, primarily from Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz. Spider’s webs complete with (plastic) spiders were plentiful among the gardens and trees added to the entertainment. That evening we carved the pumpkin, placed a candle inside and put our own spider’s webs and various things about the Sierra.

The next day the time arrived for the Trick or Treat adventure and at first the girls were quite timid. However, after quite a number of shops in which we had been watching and listening to the American children as well, their confidence grew and by the end of our second location they had their small bag filled with lollies and chocolates.

Off home we went to prepare for tomorrow’s travels, loaded with sufficient sugar to last us another year. On the way we noticed a colony of 200 or so sea lions resting around the docks and piers, completely oblivious of our cameras. I forgot to mention, to add to our sugar hit we had purchased a couple of large bags of small chocolates and lollies in preparation for kids coming to our place – not a single person came :-(

Port Orford (59) was our next destination and this location is almost the furthest west on the mainland of the USA that one can go. On the way down the entire 101 we noticed many signs about the dangers of Tsunamis and where Tsunami evacuation points were located. Seemed fairly obvious to me you'd need to head for higher ground, however, it could be something lawyers here could sue for if people weren't properly advised or warned? 

The Pacific seas continued to pound the shoreline on our way to Port Orford and that sea mist just hung around like, well, sea mist I suppose. We stopped in Yachats to have a look at the Devil's Churn and it sure was churning, however we didn't stop long due to rain showers that were forecast for the day.

The Port Orford campsite was very small and mostly occupied by people who lived there. The chap in charge was very friendly, and although we were only staying the night didn’t mind a chat (or two) and helped us position the rig.

It was during the early evening I pondered the wiseness of my plans to travel through Nevada and Utah in January. When looking at the average temperatures, I found the maximum daily temp was only -1°C and night temps averaged around -12°C. I’m sure I’d looked at these details previously but it was only now that travelling and living in a 5th wheeler at those temperatures sunk in. Snow ploughs are used on interstate highway and most state highways but driving under those conditions worried me.

I searched for both long range and 10 day forecasts for Nevada, Utah and Arizona and they were very good for about the next 8 days. However, a huge cold front was behind the high and they were forecasting temperatures to drop to below average for the year. The long range forecast was suggesting temps colder than average and more snow than usual for the upcoming winter.

Now it was decision time, no windows for procrastination. I planned the new route to go inland immediately and delay our visit to San Francisco and Los Angeles etc. Being pretty nervous about Homer’s choices, I asked the campground manager about the best way for us to head towards Salt Lake City. He suggested taking the I5 and the closest way was for us to backtrack about 50 miles north then inland to meet the I5, then south to Highway 95.

However, he said that it would be a pity if we did because we would miss the Californian Redwood forests and spectacular scenery along the coast. In fact, the scenery was so good that many films and advertisements had been made along the northern section of the 101 in California. Decision made, south on the 101 through the Redwood forests and hopefully as far as Mendocino which meant driving about 8 hours the next day and a few more long drives to come.

The amount of driftwood was amazing

Despite being on a self imposed tight schedule, we still wanted to stop as often as we could to photograph our journey. A major disappointment was the weather; the sea mist was still about and very thick in most places which completely obscured our views of the “beautiful” coastline. From time to time there were clear sections that allowed us small glimpses and we saw the seas were still quite rough.

We were stopped at the Oregon/Californian border which was manned (personned?) by staff who asked to have a visual inspection of our Sierra for fruit and vegetables. I showed the officer all we had and was a little surprised when she said she was happy to find that all our fruit was purchased in the USA. I pondered where else they could expect fruit and veggies to be sourced but said nothing – could there be an illegal supply coming in from Mexico or elsewhere?

Shortly after the border we called in to a visitor’s centre and found out about the Humboldt Redwoods State Park which was only a slight deviation from our day’s journey. Within this park they had the Avenue of the Giants that was explained as a “must see”. We learnt that redwoods are the tallest living things on our planet growing 300-350 feet tall with a diameter of 16-18 feet and the tallest recorded soared to 360 feet.

We’re so happy we chose the path south down 101 instead of backtracking when we saw the first of the Redwood forests, they are magnificent. The beauty of the forests along 101 enticed us to visit the Avenue of the Giants detour. Again with many of the sights we’ve seen, it is difficult to properly describe the beauty. The strong smell of pine, the complete silence, the huge 3D shapes of the bark on their trunks and the lack of undergrowth, I suppose due to the available lack of direct sunlight.

As we were walking about a section quite close to the road, we were approached by a man asking if we were all together. I answered in the affirmative and wondered what we had done wrong. He turned out to be a local and started discussing the forest and trail with us. He gave us a map with a price on the front and said we should see a couple of specific locations within the park, but a little off the normal trail. I offered to pay for the map but he told us “no charge”.

Call me suspicious, but after he left I felt uneasy about this stranger offering us a map with a price tag still attached, not wanting money and suggesting we go off the road to look at his suggestions. I’m more than likely too suspicious as he may just have been a very friendly local, however, I didn’t take him up on his kind suggestion.

The area in which we had been admiring turned out to be a “new growth” area and had only been planted in the 1980s. Nevertheless, these were very large – couldn’t wait to see the old growth trees. We arrived at another turnoff to the Avenue of the Giants only to read a sign that there was a maximum vehicle height of 12’ allowed past the sign. Oh well, we had to try to imagine what those huge old growth redwoods would look like because we were unable to enter as we were towing the Sierra.


We know Homer has misled us
occasionaly, but I'm sure Samoa
can't be reached by road!



We didn’t reach Mendocino that night due to our various stops but found a campground at Garberville (60), about 50 kms south of the state forest. The campground turned out to be very empty and quite close to the 101. There was no-one else near us at all and there was no television reception, no cable, no signal on either our American or Australian phones, indeed, no communication at all. For some reason I sat up most of the night, unable to sleep because the lack of communication, and our vulnerability played on my mind like an endless loop.



The next day was again to be a long day but as we were leaving the 101, we thought there wouldn’t be too many stops for photo opportunities. Points 61 and 62 on our path are only to “force” us to take our chosen path, not some great shortcut! The roads again turned out to be an easy drive and once we left the forests, the scenery became quite monotonous with a few exceptions.

We came as close as 160 miles to San Francisco before heading east just north of Sacramento. Once we passed a town called Auburn we started an enormous climb, from sea level almost till we reached Truckee. The available amount of diesel in the fuel tank started dwindling, at first not too much of a problem but as we neared 6000 feet in elevation, had me more than a little concerned.

Our path seemed to plateau for a while then we started to both descend and climb again. We unsuccessfully tried to buy diesel in 3 places as the tank neared empty, and each time we reached another hill I started to become seriously alarmed.

With about 12 kilometres to go to Truckee I felt a little bit more comfortable but then the fuel gauge changed from showing us we could travel another 15 miles to displaying nothing, other than “fuel very low”. We then started what turned out to be a long descent, sometimes quite steep and with plenty of curves.

Grace must have noticed my anxiety and asked me about my problem. I told her about our lack of diesel and if the engine stops, I could expect almost no braking and very difficult steering. That sure didn’t ease the tension in the Chev, you could feel it. I crawled down the 1000 feet or so as slow as possible and saw in the distance a Conoco fuel station that I know sells diesel. Made it!!!! Turns out we only had about ½ a gallon (2 litres) of diesel left in the tank. Time to buy a portable 5 gallon tank!!