Day 19 / 9/21/2012 / West Yellowstone, MT - Pocatello, ID - Twin Falls, ID [Shoshone Falls] - Jerome, ID
After a night in a very comfortable bed, it was time to get back on the road. The wake-up wasn't as good as we would've hoped, as they started to vacuum the rooms 8 in the morning, it's just how they do it in West Yellowstone... We drove across the state border from Montana to Idaho and stopped at Pocatello where we had a really good steak lunch at Green T Bar and Grill. After finding out that Pocatello's old town wasn't as nice as we had hoped and after buying a camping mattress for me, we continued westward.
Our next campground was in Jerome, Idaho. Nearby is a really nice canyon and a couple of decent waterfalls to see called Shoshone Falls. Other than that we didn't use much time there and instead decided to have another movie night in the tent. What we noticed during our stay in Jerome is that there is a lot of flies, a lot. Since Jerome was our only stop in Idaho we got the feeling that Idaho is full of flies which I hope is not the case ;)
Day 20 / 9/22/2012 / Jerome, ID - South Lake Tahoe, CA
We wanted to drive as close as possible to our next big stop, San Francisco, so day 20 was driving day. We managed to drive about 500 miles mostly through desolate sceneries passing lonely towns while wondering what do the people there do because we couldn't even see stores in the towns and they are in the middle of nowhere. Still the area is beautiful and it was great to see it. Too bad the pictures won't do justice to the place. Also as an upside, I-80 is pretty fast to drive through.
We stopped at a larger city in Nevada called Winnemucca. It was clear that we had arrived to Nevada. There were casinos everywhere. We fought the urge to start gambling and instead just ate at Jack in the Box and did some shopping in Walmart. We kept driving and enjoyed another great sunset. The great thing about driving from east to west is the sunsets. The colors are great and you can enjoy them longer as you are driving towards them.
After dark we drove off the Interstate and had a pretty close call. In the middle of the road was standing a wild horse. There was a herd of maybe about 10 horses crossing the road. Most had gone over but one was standing on the road and one was behind it. Luckily we spotted the horse standing on the road early enough to break and it was great seeing them.
When we arrived to South Lake Tahoe, it was pretty late. We were also surprised of the whole place. We had been expecting a nice quiet place by the lake with a lot of cabins, instead we found a busy city with lots of hotels and even more young people partying. It's clearly a place where young people go to party when they want to go to a lake but doesn't want to rough it out without TVs, internet, comfortable beds, Starbucks, and other people.
We were disappointed on the tent sites in the KOA campground we had planned to go. We didn't want pay over $40 for them, which is a lot of money compared to other KOA campgrounds. Instead we went to Campground by the Lake which was only about $24 although after seeing the restroom we understood why it was so cheap.
Day 21 / 9/23/2012 / South Lake Tahoe, CA - Carson Valley, CA - Virginia City, NV - Carson City, NV - Minden, NV - Topaz Lake, NV
Since the restrooms in the campground were so bad we used our GPS to find a swimming hall where we could use the shower. We found one close by and went there. The area around South Lake Tahoe is filled with hills and curvy roads, after dark they are a challenge to drive but in sunlight it's pretty fun.
Virginia City on the Nevada side was the reason we had stayed in the area. It's an old wild west style town and is worth a stop. There are lots of nice historic buildings like old hotels and restaurants and an old saloon called Bucket of Blood which has been in service since 1876, too bad I was driving. There was also a biker meeting happening in the town called Street Vibrations so the town was probably more crowded than normal. On the positive side we saw some really nice bikes.
After visiting Yellowstone, we had decided to also go to Yosemite. The problem was that there had been recent cases of hantavirus in the park, a couple of people had even died. So instead of camping in Yosemite and waking up there we decided to just spend time in Carson Valley and Carson City gambling a little and driving through the night along the Nevada/California border, and arriving in Yosemite in the morning. This way we could have the whole day in Yosemite and we could minimize the risk of ruining the rest of our trip.
It was a good decision and we had a lot of fun gambling and driving to the next casino to gamble some more. The drive went well and thanks to some energy drinks we made it to Topaz Lake, right next to the California border and not far from Yosemite. There we had to sleep for a few hours.
Day 22 / 9/24/2012 / Topaz Lake, NV - [Yosemite, CA] - West Sacramento, CA
After a well rested night, well at least after the night, we started driving the road from Topaz Lake to Yosemite, 395. The view is great just after Topaz Lake and I don't know if we could have picked a better route to enter Yosemite. Also we had the happiest park ranger selling the entrance ticket. You just couldn't be sad after talking to that guy.
Yosemite is somehow grander compared to Yellowstone with its great mountains and vertical differences. But still we both liked Yellowstone better as it was somehow more unique. Yosemite didn't have as well organized parking places and stops to admire the views. Of course the mountain roads are more challenging to build but the problem was everywhere, even on flat ground. There clearly wasn't enough parking places to the trails starting from next to the roads. Still I liked Yosemite a lot even though Yellowstone was clearly better. I got the feeling that I might have liked Yosemite much more if I could have spent more time on the trails.
We spent most of the day in the park, going to the valley and seeing maybe the biggest thing in Yosemite: the Tunnel View. El Capitan does look great and all the mountains made me wish that I was a climber.
Afterwards we started driving the road 120, another great road with a lot to see although it was a little hard to concentrate on those things after a short night and a day in Yosemite. Still I had fun driving a very, very curvy road downhill. Liisa didn't have so much fun as she got a little car sick with my downhill driving but it was the first time on the trip.
-Riku
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