Roadtrip Intermezzo #2

Southern California as dry as a bone

Finally, the last episode of our trip before my memory gets too fuzzy. 

We spend most of the time in the car driving through a totally serene and abandoned landscape that could easily be the set of a movie playing on the moon. Strange and alien, amazing rock formations and cacti all around. Death Valley is the most arid and hottest place on earth, next to the Atacama desert in Chile in South America. the Badwater Basin is also the point of lowest elevation, 86 meter below sea level. In the distance you could see Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States. They have rain, if at all, once a year.

It's fascinating to imagine the earliest settlers trying to cross the surrounding mountains and then having to pass through this unfriendly territory. Survival of the fittest at its best, but the only way to get to the coastline of California.

We didn't want to miss Las Vegas, as it was very close by, but in the end the experience there was so bad and overwhelming that we couldn't stand staying there for more than 30 minutes. It's a real freak show, a lot of half naked people dressed in shrill costumes and everything screams at you and wants to suck your money in. At least I got a tasty yet overpriced milkshake before we took flight. I guess the contrast of the quiet landscape all around and then this island of consumerism was a stark contrast which you have to mentally be prepared for.

A short section of the drive through the desert was on the historic Route 66, and it certainly didn't disappoint. It looks very haunted and lost in time, which is what you also see in the movies and documentaries about the period when new interstates were build and the people living there found themselves forgotten and without any possibility to earn a living. The world found ways to turn faster and didn't care about those outside the fast lane.

We stopped at the only gas station around for a coffee, owned by a very nice guy who, to the question how many people lived in the town, responded wholeheartedly: "7 people, 6 too many."
When you have nothing else to do, you resort to quiet particular activities, like shooting signs. As a result, every traffic sign or ad you see along the Route 66 is perforated with bullet holes.

Yoshua Tree National Park, last day in the car and I had to put on new sun blocker every 20 minutes to not get roasted. The Mojave Desert with it's characteristic trees was the most beautiful so far. Fun fact: the rock formations are actually more than 100 million years old and were formed by magma cooling off underneath the surface. 
What a trip! I hope you enjoyed the pictures (the last two in this post were shot by my dad, he has a great eye for beautiful details) and the journey, it was fun to relive the experience while writing about it.

See you next time.

 

Roadtrip Intermezzo #1

Conquering Southern California

Inbetween my studies I had a great 5 days of taking a roadtrip with my father who was visiting California. I will release the whole trip in segmented posts because choosing the right pictures from the giant stack of 1500+ photos takes quite some time and I imagine reading a giant wall of text is not very inviting.
I started from San Diego and took a flight to San Francisco where we began our ride with a great and enjoyable car, the Camaro convertible. Driving top down all the way was a great experience, you feel very close to the blur that is the passing landscape, no boundaries at all. Sunblocker is a must have, for everyone who wants to try it. We drove via the famous Golden Gate Bridge to Muir National Park, our first encounter with the redwood trees the area is so famous for. In Muir the trees are taller than in Yosemite, but no so wide in diameter.
Driving on we entered Yosemite. This place is just pictoresque in every aspect. Waterfalls, great mountain peaks who form a specacular silhouette all around, forests, you name it. Basically you can find a picture book example of how you imagine the wild America to be at every turn. 

After Yosemite we continued towards Sequoia National Park, which has some of the greatest trees, the largest specimen stand as tall as 90m and muscular 12m wide. General Sherman is the biggest of all, but unfortunately we couln´t make it there because of snowy weather conditions and blocked roads. It was quiete a range of very diverse climate zones we passed during the short period of time. Everything from burning 90 degrees to 32 degrees Fahrenheit, desert and snow, 150 feet below ocean level and more than 6000 feet above. 

It was a fantastic place, really impressive to witness all the towering giants who grow there for almost 2000 years after they reach their final size. The root I´m standing next to in the picture above is in the same exact condition for 100 years now, despite the fact that it´s dead. It was used by settlers and gold diggers during that time period who found shelter and warmth in the hollow tree which a historical photo nearby illustrated very well. It´s easy to imagine the mountain lions and bears they tried to hide from. Hard times.

That´s it for the first part, next enroute is a contrary landscape type: desert. Thanks for your time and I hope you follow along and enjoy the ride.

Montreal - hiking and skiing

We didnt´actually see much of the city itself. When we arrived it was already late and we were kindly invitied by Loic, another student at Watts that will be a roommate here in Encinitas shortly. So we just threw our luggage into the hostel room and made our way to the metro. Arriving at Loic´s place we were greeted warmly by his whole family and had a great evening playing german board games and having quite heated discussions about the issue of Anglophones and Frankophones in Quebeq and the later urge to separate and become an autonomous country. It was fascinating to be thrown into this discussions and witnessing very passionate and opinionated people debating, I guess you learn a lot about the different mindsets that exist in a country that way.
Not wanting to spend time in a city that appeared to be very similar to Toronto we headed to Mont Tremblant to stay there for a night and go hiking and skiing. Mont Tremblant is just a comfortable one and a half hour drive away from Montreal so we were able to go for an extended hike that very day and then bought ourselves groceries for a very nice meal. The salmon in Canada is unbelievable fresh and tasty, so I us salmon steak with sweat potatoes and beans. In the evening there is just something very special going in hostels. You have very like-minded people who share the interest of traveling and most of them, myself excluded, have been around the globe and spend considerable amounts of time being on the road. So atmosphere was great, sitting in a very charming little chamber with a fireplace, burning marshmallows on a stick and drinking dark beer while listening to music and people around telling about their adventures. Very romantic.

Skiing the next day was amazing, it was terribly cold, -30 degrees celsius, so you wouldn´t be able to be outside longer than 40 minutes unless you wanted to risk freezer burn. And that is being completeley equipped in ski clothing. In these temperatures I tried to take a couple of pictures and had to take my gloves off to be able to operate my phone and regretted it immediately. I didn´t feel my hands for 10 minutes. Anyways, we had fresh and considerable amounts of snow, clear and sunny day and not many people on the slopes. Perfect for skiing.
By the way, I was still not able to get any money from my credit card. The guys at my bank in Germany were in holidays and I wasn´t able to reach anyone. So until this point Matt paid for everything, which is why we jokingly nichnamed him "my dutch wallet".