Minden, Nevada

We stayed last night at an RV park just south of Carson City last night. We've stayed here many times before. It's a nice park just off 395 and the owner/operator is an Elvis impersonator. He's also kind of a jerk or I'd ask to take his picture. In any case, he's been here each time we've stayed.
So anyway...here we are, having driven for what seemed like years yesterday. Fortunately, I'm guessing it's one of the more scenic drives in the entire country, up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains on US 395.

First, some final pictures of Death Valley as we drove out the west entrance toward Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs.

Near Stovepipe Wells are the Mesquite Dunes, a popular hiking spot. Offroad vehicles are prohibited.

It's a long and winding road over a high pass. As my mother liked to say, "There goes the road!"

After about an hour, we got our first glimpse of the mountains.

Eventually, we reached US 395. The mountains accompanied us the rest of the way. This range extends on and on and on, and it is beautiful.

We passed by Manzanar, which was a Japanese internment camp during World War II, one of the more shameful periods in our country's history. Several of my good friends urged us to stop. Although we were sorely tempted, we really had a long drive yesterday, and we didn't want to take the time. We will surely pass this way again in the not-too-distant future, and we will make time then.

Here's what you can see from the road. 

The rest stops were some of the prettiest places we saw along the way yesterday. These next two images were taken at the same rest stop. There was a pretty view of the mountains.

And I hope you can see what I saw here...I believe that's a hummingbird's nest in this tree. There were quite a few nests showing in the leafless trees here, but the hummingbird's nest was the most interesting. You can see that there is some blue yarn or thread in the mix.

At another rest stop, there was enough snow that folks were there unloading snowmobiles and heading off into the woods. There were kids throwing snowballs just outside the left side of the frame in this image. I just liked it because it reminded me of my four fabric forests. Maybe I need one done in blues and whites.

We were awed by the beauty of this road, and let me just tell you, it was far better than our recent drive south on Interstate 5 and California Hwy 99.

We drove past Mono Lake in Lee Vining, which is at the east end of Tioga Pass through Yosemite National Park, routinely closed at this time of year because of snow. Mono Lake is a fascinating place, and I would encourage you to click on the link I've given you back there and read a little bit about it.

And not too long after that, we crossed the state line and arrived at our stopping place for the night. It was a long day of driving, let me tell you.

Today's drive will be equally long. We'll be heading toward Medford, Oregon, via Klamath Falls. The last time we drove through here, our son Matthew was still a student at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, and we always stopped there for the night to spend an evening with him. Now he's a graduated engineer and a working person living in Portland, and so on we go to Medford this time around. It'll be a short drive (if 257 miles can be called short) to home tomorrow.