Extraterrestrial Highway

August 27 I made it to Nevada and headed to Extraterrestrial Highway in the middle of nowhere.  When the sign said No gas for 160 miles, they weren't kidding.

The best sign so far

I thought it would be cool if a UFO would land somewhere in the area, but it didn't.  The highway starts in a place called Rachel, NV which if I had to guess has a population of about 18 and everyone was at Little Aleinn the only restaurant in the area, some old guy was playing a guitar, which is usually not weird, but it was 8:30 in the morning.

The area is about 30 miles

Area 51 town

I took some photos at the restaurant and headed out, but realized that that was probably Area 51, and I wanted a picture of the sign, so I turned around only about 20 miles this time and the locals told me it was a mile up, and then ten more miles I think east???  It took about 20 minutes to go ten miles since it was a dirt road and could only go 20 miles an hour.  I got up to the base and the only signs were "Restricted area," "No trespassing," and "No photography."  I found out that that's the sign everyone takes a picture of, but I didn't because I didn't want to be shot.

At the restaurant

Drive to Area 51

Museum was closed

They have the best signs in the this area

Yosemite

August 26 I went to Yosemite National Park and of course it was beautiful.  For some odd reason the Visitors Center doesn't open till 9am and the entrance I came in was being worked on, so I didn't actually get a map to the park till I left, four hours later.

Tenaya Lake

There were a lot of hikes and I think we all know I'm not into that.  This is a road trip, not a hiking trip, so there were only a few things to see that I didn't have to walk miles to.  I would like to go back to these parks and do the hikes, but that takes more money than I'm willing to depart with.

Tenaya Lake

I stopped and saw Lembert Dome, Tenaya Lake, and Olmstead Park, which I recommend getting there early for, so you don't have to fight with hundred other cars.

Lembert Dome

There are a lot of bears in the area, but I didn't see any.  I haven't seen much wildlife through the different parks.

Olmstead Park

On the way to my next destination I drove on the best road ever!  CA-120, there are a ton of hills and curves; it feels like you're on a roller coaster.  A few times I had to slam on my breaks because the hills are so high you don't know where the road goes.  I highly recommend anyone who want's an hour of a good time.

On my way out

Lake Tahoe

August 25.  Okay so Lake Tahoe is BEAUTIFUL!!!  GORGEOUS!  EXQUISITE!  SPLENDID!  (Yeah I used a thesaurus).  I loved it there.  It was nice and serene.  I drove around about three quarters of the lake. I already want to go back and do all the outdoors things you can do; swim, kayak, hike, ski, but mainly just be in the area it was so lovely.

Lake Tahoe

Amazing

Awesome

Pier

You have no idea how excited I got when I finally got to an In-n-Out!  Chocolate milk shake                                                                     didn't stand a chance.

Finally

San Francisco

I arrived in San Francisco on August 20 and stayed there for four days with my friend Sarah.  I didn't do much while I was there; went to Fisherman's Wharf and the Pier everyday and her and her fiance showed me around the area a little; mainly restaurants and bars.

Luckily I had to go to the bathroom and got this picture

On the Road

Got me a bread bowl

The day before I left we went to see Sutro Baths for Sarahs birthday.  It was a very interesting place and very beautiful.  It used to be a swimming pool complex, but because of high cost the pool closed and mysteriously burned down shortly after.  All that's left are the concrete walls, passageways, stairs, and a tunnel.  I highly recommend seeing it.

Sutro Baths

The View

Cave

You can carve your name in the sand

Redwoods

August 19th I drove through the Redwoods.  It of course was a beautiful drive.  I didn't stop to do any of the hikes because I really just wanted to see the park.  

I'm back

I did stop at Klamath River Overlook cause you can see grey whales, but it was entirely way to foggy and the sign there said whale season is around November to April.

My drive

 There was a ton of sea lions outside this restaurant around Crescent City and they were mean.  A couple tried to jump up to lay down and they were not having it, they started yelling (sea lion yell) and biting, some made it up and others decided not worth it.

These guys

This is the biggest tree in the park its 304 feet high, 21.6 feet wide, 68 feet around, and about 1500 years old.

Avenue of giants

 There were a ton of Elk just walking around this campsite.  It was really neat.

Walking through town

 I also got to drive through a tree, I did twice since I paid five dollars.  This tree is 315 feet tall, 21 feet wide, and around 2400 years old.

Drove through a tree

North Bend

On August 17, I made it to Washington.  I only went to North Bend because the show Twin Peaks was partially filmed there and I only saw a few things.  The drive was really pretty though.

Cool

The Diner

The High School

Oregon

Craters of the Moon

August 16th; I went to Craters of the Moon.  When I first heard about this place I though it was about meteors, but it turns out it's about Volcanoes, so still cool.  There's a bunch of different walks and hikes you can do around the park.  I ended up seeing Devils Orchard, Inferno Cone, Spatter Cone and Big Craters Area, and the Cave Area.

Sign

Devils Orchard is a Island-like lava fragments stand in the center of cinders.  Here they give information about human impacts on the park and how it is being protected today.  Which is not very much in the spatter cone area they do have a barrier up so you don't walk on the volcanoes, but everywhere else people were walking all over the rocks and ruining them.

The park

 Inferno Cone is a steep walk up, but you can see the whole park from there.  You can see cinder cones lined up along the Great Rift and Big Cinder Butte is one of the worlds largest basaltic cinder cones.

Devils Orchard

 Spatter Cones and Big Craters Area is another steep climb up, but you can see the Big Craters.  At this spot you also get a close view of the inside of volcanoes.

Rock

 Cave Area has four caves; Dewdrop, Boy Scout, Beauty, and Indian Tunnel.  I think I missed Dewdrop, but I did see the other three.  The first one freaked me out because I didn't bring a flashlight and there were a ton of pigeons flapping their wings and screeching so I made a quick pass through that cave.  The second one I'm not even sure how anyone got down into that one, it was really narrow and I didn't see any passage way; also it made me think of the movie The Descent (which if you haven;t seen it you should, basically these women go on a cave expedition and get attacked by mutant humans; it's awesome), so did not go all the way into that cave mainly because of that movie.

View from Spatter Cone

 The third cave was really dark, but luckily there was a couple with a flashlight, so I just stuck close to them. In order to go into the caves you have to get a permit from the park rangers because there is a fungus that is killing off 90% of the bats in that area.  If you have been in a cave or mine shaft since 2005 you had to make sure you had different clothes than what you wore there because washing them doesn't get rid of the fungi.

Spatter Cones

Dinosaur National Monument

On August 15 I went to the Dinosaur National Monument.  The park is in both Utah and Colorado.  You can not start in Utah drive through Colorado and back, the are separate, so I decided to just see the Utah side because that is where the dinosaur fossils are.

Utah

The fossils were discovered in 1909 by Earl Douglass at the Carnegie Quarry, they were then housed in a 80-acre park.  Today the park is 210,000 acres; "you can explore the quarry and the scenic and historic Green and Yampa rivers--their canyons, mountains, basins, and archaeological sites--and 23 colorful rock layers of the Colorado Plateau."

Vernal, UT

 On the Colorado side the street names are all dinosaur names and the city of Vernal had a ton of dinosaur statues.

Wall of Bones

 There are over 1500 dinosaur bones still in the ground and only partially dug up with a building surrounding them.  I asked the park ranger if they were ever going to dig them up completely and he said probably not, they started digging them up and just decided to stop there.

Allosaurus

There is also the Fossil Discovery Trail, it is about a mile and a half.  You can see different fossils on the walk.  Stump Formation: belemnites (squid-like sea creatures), snails, ammonites, and bones of an ichthyosaur (giant marine reptile that resembled a modern dolphin).   Morrison Formation: fossil fragments of dinosaurs including vertebrae, humerus, and a femur.  Mowry Shale: fish scales.

View from the museum

I walked the trail twice and did not see the dinosaur bones or the sea fossils, but they are there because the old guy passing me tried to describe to me where they were.

Rocky Mountains

August 13th, Rocky Mountains.  When I went to Yellowstone I wore pants and it was hot, when I went to the Rocky Mountains I wore shorts and it was cold, and I mean cold.  I guess I don't know directions or how to dress.  When I passed through Yellowstone there wasn't a Wyoming sign, when I passed through Colorado the first time there wasn't a Wyoming sign, so I had to detour a little bit; 80 mile a little bit.

It was

The park was beautiful and as the park ranger  told me it's a place people come to hike, so he was a little confused when I told him I wouldn't be doing any of that.

Sprague Lake

I did do a half mile walk around Sprague Lake, which had some beautiful scenery.  I also went up Rock Cut (a paved path walking up one of the mountains), and Medicine Bow Curve.  Bow Curve is the highest part of the park.

Sprague Lake

Rock Cut

When I was walking down Rock Cut a dad was carrying his I guess about two year old daughter on his shoulders and she started to spit and when she did the spit came back and landed on his face and arm, he said "great you just spit on me" and then she did it again!  He didn't think it was funny, but I sure did.

I'm in the hills

My favorite spot was Medicine Bow Curve, you can see the whole park.

Medicine Bow Curve

This guy