Most Impressive Drive

Last night I studied Google maps to find the least obvious way to get to Fresno and I think I did pretty well. We only went 316 mi. but it took us 10 hours...an average of 31.6 mph for you non-engineers. We started out going back up Mount Rose Road and crossing over to Lake Tahoe. It was foggy, snowing and windy at the top of Mount Rose and did not clear until we were almost at the lake.

We were really excited about the possibility of driving in the snow today. Yeah, we know that's a crazy notion, but we find it to be so much fun. Afterall we do have a 4 wheel drive vehicle that hasn't had an awful lot of chance to use it's capability...gotta a chance to test it today. It passed!







What we could see of Lake Tahoe through the snow squalls was gorgeous and the 30-50 mph winds coming across the lake towards us created waves 2-3' high.








After we crossed into CA, we listened to the road condition radio and found out that the passes we intended to take across the Sierra Nevada mountains (Luther's Pass and Carson Pass) both required 4WD or chains. We've got 4WD and the chains so we stuck to Plan A and headed out for what we hoped would be an adventurous drive. Man it snows a lot up there. Going up the east side of the mountain the snow along the road was 12-18" deep and it was snowing pretty good, but the road was clear of snow...darn. We proceeded. Between Luther's Pass and Carson Pass there is a high plateau that was just plain beautiful. There were lots of places to go cross country skiing or snowshoeing. Too bad we were on a tight schedule...yeah I said it we had an actual schedule today.

We did see a dog sled and stopped for a few pictures as they were getting harnessed. We had no idea how excited these dogs were to start running. They were barking and jumping around like crazy until they took off and then they were all just running flat out with a sled hooked to them. The musher and her 'cargo' of people must have had to hang on for dear life.







As we approached Carson Pass on the west side of the plateau the snow along the road kept getting deeper, it kept snowing harder and the road got covered pretty well. It was slow going, but great fun.

Even watching the snow plows work was great entertainment.

Kind of deep isn't it? No idea how it stays up on the hillside and not on top of us.










It was really pretty, but I ain't stopp'n....






By the time we got down off the mountain it was 60F and sunny. What a difference a few thousand feet makes. After lunch, Cindi took over driving and we followed a series of large reservoirs (New Melones, New Don Pedro and McClure) along the base of the Sierra Nevada's until the road headed west over to Fresno. The reservoirs are built in REALLY DEEP valleys and the road is barely hanging on the edge of the mountains. In the direction we were headed we were almost always on the outside edge and once again there was a 12" wide shoulder with NO guard rail...Cindi loves that...well not really. It was pretty spooky and Cindi spent half her time on the other side of the yellow line trying to keep away from the edge. I just tried not to look down. The scenery was spectacular though.

The road was already narrow, but sure enough it got narrower.

All the reservoirs were way below full (about 170' below full). Overall, CA reservoirs are about 65% of normal. I suspect that southern California is in for a water shortage this summer. Seeing these reservoirs also gave me some insight into what the environmental wacko's out here are looking at. There are so many reservoirs and they are so big that they capture almost all of the free-flowing water coming out of the Sierra Nevada's and redirect it to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. In one place, we were driving along the river downstream from one of these reservoirs and the river bed was all-but dry. I can't remember which one, but McClure for example has 1,500 cubic feet per sec coming in and they are releasing only 47 cfs. Whatever normally would use the water downstream (both people and/or wildlife) are in big trouble.



The four pipelines from one of the reservoirs heading up the mountainside towards Southern California.

You can see where the water would be if the reservoir was full. That small patch of blue in the lower left is the actual water level.

There is a frog jumping contest May, but we didn't see any frogs. I guess it's too early.



Once out of the mountains, we actually saw our first signs of Spring...green grass and some wild flowers. Tomorrow it's back up to the mountains in Sequoia National Park to see some really big trees...hopefully drive/walk through General Sherman.



I heard that CA drivers were wild, but this is ridiculous!







From snow to palms in five hours. Amazing isn't it?