| We camped just to the north of Reno. The city is at a high
altitude and is surrounded by mountains which are even higher. As with many
mid-sized US cities, it has its collection of skyscrapers. Also as with many
cities the main road bypasses the city but there is an alternative route
which was the I395 Bus, short for business . This goes right through the middle. |  |
 | Reno is most famous
for its gambling and the main road threads its way between a number of hotels
and associated casinos. They all assure you that you are only moments away
from winning a $1million. This is not really our scene but it is obviously
appealing to some people. The car in front of us was one of the many
stretched limos we saw around. Actually the hold up here was caused by a slowly moving
freight train which goes right through the middle (just in front of the Reno
arch) and with the length of their trains it certainly held up the traffic for
ages. |
| The lanes are quite narrow and you are bombarded with
advertisement signs. I suppose this is what we believe American cities to be
like. Each of the casinos had a shuttle bus to bring you in and even at
0900hrs in the morning, they were open (or perhaps they hadn't closed).
Out the other side we found a number of malls with dozens of shops. But we
didn't find anything new. |  |
 | So we headed south
and then veered off to the west and climbed up over the Sierra Nevada range towards Lake Tahoe. This was an amazing road climbing to almost 9000ft. It is
a continuous climb at about an 8% grade for 17 miles. And I think the road
down to Lake Tahoe (itself at over 6000ft) is almost steeper. The views are
spectacular, and would have extended far further if the atmospheric conditions
had
allowed. |
| Lake Tahoe is huge and is almost completely surrounded by more
mountains. This is the view from the north-east over Incline village hidden
down amongst the trees. The area gets about 8 inches of rain each year, AND
218 inches of snow. This is very much a snow sports centre and looks both
expensive and wealthy. The green patches are golf courses. |  |
 | There is a beach to
the lake here and it is fronted by holiday condominiums. There were also hundreds
of boats and water skiers. We didn't see any public beach and even the private
houses had guards on the gates. I doubt that many people live here year
round. The lady in the visitor centre told us she has had to tunnel into
her house through the snow more than once. |
| The western side of the lake is in California so is presumably
even more expensive to live in. We headed down the east side past another
bay full of boats and water sports enthusiasts. The water was so clear and
an amazing shade of blue.. |  |
 | About halfway down
the east side, the road starts to climb and moves eastwards away from the
coast to meet the I50 (the Loneliest Road). Note the mountains in the
distance. This was an easier road out than the one we came in on. |
| We climbed away from Lake Tahoe and joined the I50 heading east
back towards the I395 which we had left just outside Reno. We were now heading down
towards Yosemite National Park. The land was mainly desert but with
mountains both to the west and the east of us. This is probably the Wassuk
range with Lake Topaz in the foreground, again on the Nevada/California border. |  |
 | With so many
mountains and so much snow it is inevitable that you will have hundreds of
rivers. They are often quite fast flowing which makes them glint in the
sunlight and look very attractive. This is the Walker river which parallels
the I395 as it travels down the eastern side of California. |
| Most of these mountain ranges rise quite abruptly from what is
usually a glacial valley. This leads to frequent rockfalls so there are
frequent areas of repair work. We also passed a nasty accident where a
truck had slipped off the road and hit the cliff face. The roads are rarely
closed, traffic is guided through with pilot cars, one direction at a time.
You may end up waiting half an hour for a convoy. |  |
 | All the way down,
the western side is dominated by the Sierra Nevada towering over the plain
until.... |
| ... suddenly you come over a crest and find Mono Lake laid out
in front of you. This is a truly amazing sight. It is an alkaline lake which
has streams coming in but none leaving. All water loss is by evaporation.
Over time the salts are concentrated and eventually the lake becomes very
alkaline. It does mean that the ducks float much higher in the water (just as
you would in the Dead Sea). The
situation here was made worse here when LA started extracting water from the
feeder streams. The water level fell dramatically and the birds who used to
stop here, to stock up on the brine shrimp which abound in this lake, ceased
coming. Now
they are trying to do something to reverse the damage. |  |
|