(9) On the way to Death Valley: Lone Pine and Mount Whitney

The straight and empty road took us to the east along route 120 towards Lee Vining. The view reminded me of western movies, and this association never changed till the end of my peregrinations in the American West. On the left you can see the waters of Mono Lake (S).

The picture below hopefully gives you an idea of how free (and lonely) one may feel on an American road - an easy ride, no speeding, a vast undulating area around and the mountains on the horizon. I began to realize then how huge the Sierra Nevada Mountains must be:

This journey in the American West was a constant surprise for me. The view captured in the picture below was very eye-opening: this is also America. This may have been a local shop; now it only marks a dead center of a non-existent settlement. (S):

Western American roads take you across territories which are inhabited by Native Americans. The majority of native settlements that I passed by were in Navajo territories. It was there that I finally understood the idea of an Indian reservation and what living in a ghetto must feel like. The building in the picture might be a God-forsaken tourist attraction, why else would it be standing there decorated like this? (S):

Seeing the view below, I tried to come up with the most appropriate caption for the picture. Here are some ideas that I jotted down in my notebook: "America - a land of contrasts"; "Man's failed attempt to subdue Nature";-). When I look at my notes now, they do not seem such brilliant ideas at all. But since they are a genuine reflection of my reactions and emotions to what I saw then - bright or not bright - I will sometimes quote entries from the diary. This can mean only one thing: more fun to come;) Or maybe the Readers of this blog can come up with ideas as to what caption would be best for the picture below?:

Another remnant of a settlement - those ghost towns are solid evidence of American people's mobility and the country's economic progress;)

On highway 395 near Bishop - you'll always know where you are: the first is the flag of California.

Finally, Lone Pine - this is where we will spend the night before visiting Death Valley. The town itself is a surprise - spectacularly located at the foot of the highest mountain in continental America, beautifully designed, Lone Pine looks like a town from a western movie. No wonder that many films were shot here.

Walking along the fabulous streets of Lone Pine (S):
The beautiful mountains seen in the setting sun - what an end of the day (S):

And here is Mount Whitney - 4,421 m high, hiding in the afternoon mist. Clicking on the picture is heartily recommended (S):

Driving to Mount Whitney: on the way to the highest mountain we drove through Alabama Hills, which we recognized from westerns: the area is a popular location for movie production.

Looks familiar? - click on it, you'll surely recognize the spot from tv:

Someone has given the rock a face: a dog? a dragon? a crocodile?

Here is a spectacular view on the beautiful Owens Valley from the mountain. From then on this was for me a typical "American vista". Standing there I felt like shouting after Bridget Jones's Daniel Cleaver: "I am the king of the world". Well, I didn't know then that there would be so many more occasions for such an exclamation;). From here it was only 122 kilometers to Death Valley, which will come next on the blog.

(1) By way of introduction: To name the things that have brought me joy...

It was probably early summer last year when I bought myself the first (and only) guidebook of the Gazeta Wyborcza "Dream Journeys" series, which accompanied the paper's Saturday issue - it was The National Parks of the American West and it only cost PLN 5,00. It never dawned on me then that it was the beginning of an adventure: I started reading the book immediately after coming home and did not stop until (well, a short break for sleep) late Sunday afternoon. It was then that a dream was born: to visit the American West, especially California - possibly go to San Francisco and then the national parks: Yosemite, Death Valley, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and, ideally, Mojave Desert.

The chances for my California dreaming come true were at that time, well, slim: given that my prospective traveling companion, who has at least a 50% vote in matters such as vacation plans, would not hear of a trip to the U.S. until they stopped the humiliating procedure of mercifully granting us visas, I could count on making my dream tour... in retirement.

And then the unexpected happens - In February and then in April 2008 HE HAS TO GO TO THE U.S., which he does, and he loves it, and he says we have to go there together, stay longer, see more.

Lucky me, lucky, lucky, lucky me.

Due to the scarcity of guidebooks about America on the local book market, I discovered the merits of Wikipedia in my preparations for the journey. Every time I went on Wikipedia, my appetite grew. I so hoped that this U.S. trip of mine was not happening too soon, because a dream that comes true that easily somehow loses its quality of a dream. And we want to "dream on" - like Gatsby;). A propos Gatsby - delaying the trip too much might have produced a disaster as well - the dream could have grown so huge that the reality would never possibly match it, as has often happened with those dreams of America;). I was surely at a loss...

As it turned out, timing was just right. I spent three weeks in August in San Francisco and its environs (well, we made 5,100 miles, which makes up 8 thousand kilometers or so), I traveled through 6 states: California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona (to be precise, I also set foot in Idaho and New Mexico - but that's only for the record). Here are MAP 1 and Map 2 of the journey (a little patience is needed for the maps to load, sorry).

The subsequent entries in this blog-memoir will contain pictures. There will be two types of pictures: very-nice ones, (marked (S)), taken by Simon, who traveled with me and M for some time, and not-so-very-nice-but-hopefully-nice-as-well ones taken by myself. Sometimes I will add a map or an illustration downloaded from Google's Images, but those will be obvious.

P.S. I'm writing this blog to name the things that have brought me joy - not my words, unfortunately;) But does it matter, if the sentiment is mine?