California Dreamin'

The last three weeks have been pretty full on and as Mark has already commented, little or no phone or data signals. It was quite refreshing.

From the red rocks of Arches and Moab, we took the scenic byway 12 to Escalante. Before we got to Escalante, we decided to unhook the car prior to driving along the Razorback ridge, as with a 12% grade, lots of sharp turns and drops on both sides of the road, we didn’t want to fry the brakes again.  The views were fantastic.

From Escalante, we parked Badger and took the car for a drive along Hell’s Backbone. The road was built in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps in order to link the towns of Boulder and Escalante. The bridge spanning Death’s Hollow has an 800ft drop and that stretch of the road was known as the “Poison Road” . The original bridge was replaced in 1960 (which can still be seen underneath) and again in 2005 to make it wider and stronger.

Onward to Red Canyon and more red rocks

Then down to Grand Canyon North Rim. The photos just can’t capture the scale of such an amazing place

We had a couple of visitors to our campsite the next morning

Then we found the Reynolds family and it was great to catch up. After a few days at the Grand Canyon, we passed through Las Vegas, Mojave, then on to Yosemite, where we swapped red rocks for grey ones, and spent more quality time with Lee, Lisa and the kids.

We then went on to Sequoia National Park. The campground was an interesting one and we were the biggest vehicle there, especially as most sites were occupied by tents. Our site wasn’t completely level, so Badger had both wheels on the drivers side clear of the ground by at least 4 inches

The migrating tarantulas at dusk had me hiding in the bus a few times until I got the all clear from Mark

The drive up from the campground (in the foothills) was an interesting one, with many hairpin bends (switch backs), 10mph signs and not many barriers. Again, the views were fantastic

and there were lots of big trees

and a couple of bears just off the walking trails, more interested in their lunch than us

From Sequoia, we headed down to Lake Casitas which was about 20 miles inland from Ventura on the coast. I won't comment anymore as Mark has already blogged about our time there, but we did enjoy catching up with friends.

We're now in Santa Maria for just over a week. Wine tasting, whale watching, missions and a few other things are on our list, so watch this space.