Our USA Adventure - Days 25 to 29 - Joshua Tree, Lone Pine, Alabama Hills, Manzanar & Willow Springs

A very happy Brian having led the climb Upper Right Ski Track at Joshua Tree

Friday was a great day, we woke early so got up and went to Joshua Tree park. Intersection Rock and a climb called Upper Right Ski Track. Great climb, Brian led it, found it easy (but so it should have been) but great exposure, good gear placements, and if that’s all the climbing we do, it was worth bringing the gear. We followed this with a short, sharp hike up Ryan Mountain, 3ish miles and a height of 5458’ or 1664m (See our Relive video with more photos of our hike: click here). Joe had said 07.00 or 16.45 , so 10.55 wasn’t either of those, but we were fine. Stopped off for a small bite of lunch at the hotel, then continued to Pioneer Town, a living film set. Interesting to wander around, but disappointing they weren’t filming anything.

On top of Ryan Mountain, 5458 feet. A classic climb followed by a mountain peak and it was still before lunch!

Thai meal for dinner, reviews were half good, half bad. They were both right, the waitress was shocking, but the food was great. Brian wanted a jungle curry, usually the hottest thing on a Thai menu, and you could pick your heat, between 0 and 10, but she wouldn’t let him go above a 2. I had my Panang curry at a 1 and we waited to see. They were both delicious but certainly wouldn’t have wanted them any hotter! What is the point in 0-10 if 2 s the limit probably for 90% of people?

Great views from the top of Ryan Mountain too

Death Valley had been our next plan, but Joe has persuaded us to do it at the end of the trip, so up the US395 which has been recommended by all sorts of people including complete strangers. We’d had a weather warning for wind and we could see the clouds as we headed NW. On going north we missed the worst of it, but not all. We arrived in Lone Pine where it was still very windy. We occasionally got views of the summit of Mt Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous US at 14505 feet. Very popular, relatively easy, just high. You have to enter a lottery for a permit to climb, 100 day hikers and 60 doing it with an overnight, don’t think many summitted today! We had time to visit the visitor centre and the movie museum, before completely getting blown away.

Pioneertown, built as a western filmset but also with accommodation for staff during filming, it is now a permanent settlement with shops and bars and people living there permanently

I’d arrived in shorts and sandals, with a cardigan as a nod to the wind, but overnight the cold weather warning came into force, so Sunday was jumpers and down jackets as we explored the Alabama Hills. This small park was used in countless western movies and series, in Tremors in the ‘80s and more recently in IronMan and Django Unchained. In the past it has also been India in Gunga Din and Greece in Gladiator. Great to drive round, but now we’ve got lots of movies to watch to see if we can recognise the landscape. We finished off by going up Whitney Portal Road, to the trailhead of the walk. It was beautiful, little lake, ice forming on the waterfall, no sign of the bears that apparently frequent the area, and a campsite and shop!

Lone Pine, the Alabama Hills and the truly spectacular Sierra Nevada mountains and Mount Whitney

Lone Pine hadn’t been on Brian’s original list, but it was a really good stop, we just had time to look at the memorial to those who died in an earthquake in 1872 and to see the oak tree, grown from an acorn from Sherwood Forest. We didn’t have time for Manzanar, just up the road, so we’ve done that this morning.

The Alabama Hills were the setting for many films, old westerns such as Bonanza and Rawhide and many others. This site, our leaflet told us was the setting for The Lone Ranger

Manzanar was a Japanese relocation camp where 10000 American citizens of Japanese origin were put in 1942 after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. One of ten such camps. It’s a sobering place, full of racism and mistrust, but still with some optimism, they had a hospital and schooling, laundry’s and mess stations. The latrines however had no internal walls so toileting and showering had no privacy. They built gardens and grew crops and made lives, they just couldn’t leave. When they were ‘let out’ in 1945 many of them found it hard to go back into everyday life, where they were abused and had struggles.

Here they filmed a bridge scene for Gunga Din

After a quick stop in Bishop for Schats German bakery, as recommended by Joe, we continued to our stop for the night, Via a very pretty scenic drive, the June Lake loop. Virginia Creek Settlement sounded weird on bookings.com, and it’s not really where we wanted to be, but choices were limited. Having arrived though, it’s fabulous, a little cabin, the river, and a cat, on my lap, as I type. Apart from a bear on the rocks the other side of the river I couldn’t want for anything else.

As well as all those film locations (of which there are many), Alabama Hills is also famous for it's rock arches. This one, beautifully framing Mount Whitney is called Mobius Arch

Heart Arch

Eye of Alabama Hills Arch

And by climbing up and round the back I could, again, frame Mount Whitney through it

This is Mount Whitney, 14505 feet. Usually climbed in a day, taking about 22 hours round trip, its a non-technical peak so you just need fitness, stamina and be fully acclimatised. I got quite excited about it talking to all the people getting ready to do it. Maybe one day!

But there is another story I wanted to tell you about this high altitude remote community on the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains and it concerns Los Angeles, situated 200 miles away on the other side of the mountain range. The Owens River runs through this valley and into the Owens Lake and has long supported communities here, but that changed in 1905 when the new city of Los Angeles, that has no natural water supply, decided to build a man-made waterway to take the water from the Owens River all the way to the new city. Over the course of the following 20 years Owens Lake dried up and the farming communities lost their harvests. Owens Lake was a salt water lake and, after it dried up the frequent strong winds here whipped up the dried salt and sand making life very unpleasant. This photo is the canal full of water on its way to LA. The locals rebelled and damaged the waterway in 1924 and, eventually LA were forced to make some concessions and allow the area to keep some of their water. The dried bed of Owens Lake is now crisscrossed with water jets that spray water onto the salt and sand keeping it moist to prevent the wind picking it up. A sad situation and all to provide water to the second largest city in the USA that is only there as this upland community had its water stolen from it

I took this photo up at the Mount Whitney trailhead. Isn't he the cutest!

It is mandatory when hiking Mount Whitney to take your poop out with you and this little box here at the start allows you to take a plastic bag to put it in and the instructions shows you how to store it and bring it out with you 

The oak tree behind apparently came from Sherwood Forest in England and is doing very nicely here in the desert (with a hosepipe permanently watering it!)

We went on to Manzanar just up the road from Lone Pine to the site of a dark past in American history. Just after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor hysteria in the US towards anyone who even looked Japanese, even if they were US citizens and were born here, meant that more than 100,000 of them were rounded up and put into 10 internment camps around the country. This, at Manzanar was one of them. Over 10,000 people of Japanese origin living in the US, running businesses, fishermen, shopkeepers and the like were uprooted and taken here to live in huts like this one, surrounded by barbed wire, watchtowers and Military Police. They lost everything except that which they could carry 

This is a model of the camp. Each one of those rectangles is a wooden hut like the one in the photo above. 10,000 people lived here for three years

This is a re-creation, but this is how they would have lived

Another re-creation, but this is their toilet block. No panels between them, they just sat side by side. Whilst here they had schools and children were taught about American values and democracy. Ironic as these American citizens were locked up, how do you reconcile American values and democracy in a situation like that?

People lived and died here and this is the cemetery, subject now to an annual pilgrimage here on Memorial Day

We'd carried on up the US395 now and this photo is in the town of Bishop, where we visited Eric Schatts bakery to buy some lunch. The shop is as good as we'd heard, but I took this photo as I was struck by the grass. We've been in the desert for quite a while now and this little well watered park has lovely green grass and it seemed so odd and out of place. We had to walk on it and feel it beneath our feet.  Funny how something so common in the UK is suddenly revered in a place like this

We're up in the high mountains now and this is on the June Lake Loop, near the top of the Tioga Pass that leads down onto the western side of the mountains into Yosemite. There's a ski area here in the winter, it's not open yet (and it's not that big either, probably not worth us coming back up to try to ski)

And here's our nice little cabin in the mountains for two nights. We've got a fire pit and chairs overlooking a mountain stream and a mountain to look at, plus, Jackie has found a friendly cat! Rather than air-con we have a heater as it's pretty cold at this altitude. Jumpers and warm coats are out until we head down back into the heat on the western side of the mountains on Wednesday

Our USA Adventure - Days 19 to 25 - Gila Bend, Lake Havasu City (London Bridge), Palm Springs and Joshua Tree

An actual piece of girder from the Twin Towers in the 9/11 Memorial Park in Gila Bend. Apparently towns all over the USA were offered the chance of having a piece of the Twin Towers for their town to create a Memorial Garden for all those that lost their lives. Little Gila Bend asked for one and a local took his truck on the 5000 mile round trip to collect it

Gila Bend was nothing, just extremely hot, so we used the pool, walked to the 9/11 memorial, and had dinner in the Italian Prince Harry ate in when training for Afghanistan, yes, it was that hot! So now we’ve slept in the same bed as him in South Africa and eaten in the same restaurant as him, though we didn’t have ‘his’ pizza.

Prince Harry  was here! In the Little Italy restaurant in Gila Bend, a town with a population of less than 2000. Who can blame them for making the most of it

Lake Havasu City and London Bridge

Our real destination was Lake Havasu City, to see London Bridge. It was auctioned off to save it sinking in the mud. Each block was cleaned, numbered and shipped over to rebuild the bridge, in the desert. A channel was then dug to allow the lake to flow under the bridge! It looks fabulous, and just for us, it hammered down with rain, just to make us feel at home! Saturday we explored the island, created by the bridge, lots of scale models of lighthouses! No idea why, and lots and lots of money. There we lots of very expensive speed boats that don’t come cheap, and not does the fuel to power them, but that didn't stop them powering over the lake and, in one corner an organised speedboat race was underway. A taxi boat ride took us to the Casino, the other side of the river in Indian territory, in California. Most of the casinos are Indian owned, they don’t pay the same taxes! For us it was just an excuse to go out on a boat. Before going back to the hotel to see if we had any water. We’d popped in at lunchtime to be told it was going to be turned off when the plumber arrived and may or may not be back on! That’s one step worse than no hot water, but fortunately all was well!

Bought in 1968 and opened in 1973, it was built in the middle of the desert and a canal made to allow water from Lake Havasu (which was created when the Parker Dam further downstream on the Colorado River was built between 1934 and 1938) to flow through. It was built to be the same width as the River Thames in London. All the facing blocks you see were shipped over from London, through the Panama Canal and to here. The internal structure is of reinforced concrete to withstand the extremes of temperatures seen here. The old bridge wasn't built for summer temperatures in the 40C!

A nice memorial to Queen Elizabeth II

From Lake Havasu, we headed to Palm Springs to meet up with Victor and Gregg. Victor we met on the repositioning cruise in 2017, and Gregg we’d met with him when they docked in Edinburgh on another cruise. We couldn’t fit in their RV with them, but they’d found one on the park for nightly rent, more than we normally pay, but quite an experience to be in one of these huge 5th wheel things. Wouldn’t want to drive it, but very comfortable to stay in! It was great to spend some real time with the guys. They took us into Palm Springs which is a very happening place, on Monday evening, and then to Joshua Tree National Park on Tuesday. It was great to be taken there, we really got our bearings, so when we left them and came back to stay we could focus on the climbing, having seen most of the park, the lookout over the San Andreas Fault, and read all the information boards. We left them, but hopefully not for good, it looks like we’ll be able to catch up with Gregg at their home in Oakland (Victor will be on ANOTHER cruise) and we’ll be able to explore San Francisco.

You didn't get this view from London Bridge when it was in London

So we are now in Joshua Tree, we arrived yesterday and went to the local climbing shop, Nomad Sports. We’ve had good success on previous trips visiting the local climbing shop, and this was no exception. Joe was fabulous, we got so much information from him, not just about JT, but Yosemite and places in between.

Nor was it lit up at night like this

So today, up relatively early, to try and beat some of the heat, though it’s not nearly as hot as Palm Springs, it’s warmer in the park than in Yucca Valley where we are staying. We did a couple of short, easy routes to try and get our heads back into it. We’ve not done any trad climbing in at least 18 months, probably longer than that, and this is ‘weird rock’. Very grippy for the feet, but not such good handholds. So lots of ‘headology’. We watched a guide take someone up one of the routes Joe had recommended, and Brian thinks it looks ok, so I think we’ll give that a go tomorrow.

Some of the scale models of lighthouses on the island. This one is a third scale of Split Rock lighthouse at Two Harbors, Minnesota

So people here seem to either zoom round on the water in these things...

Race about off-road in these things...

Fly around in these things...

Or catch fish like this in the lake

But the wildlife just carries on whilst all this goes on around. I venture this is a Belted Kingfisher, but I stand to be corrected

This is another view of the same bird

Art?

We went into the Visitor Centre which has the history of the bridge. Here it was under construction in the middle of the desert

And this was after the canal was cut, but the city was yet to develop

Here's a photo of the bridge from 1914 when still in London

They seem to like all things British here, which is lovely. Even down to the 'City of London' signs as you come in. Just as a point of interest (for those that read  this far): did you know that there is another London with a river Thames flowing through it? It's in Ontario in Canada. They even have an Oxford Street and a Blackfriars Bridge. Think we need to go there sometime

Anyway, it was time to leave and head off into California and to Palm Springs and a stay in our luxury fifth wheeler on our friends Victor and Gregg's very posh resort

Just look at this inside, it's huge and very well appointed

And with an outdoor BBQ kitchen area. There's even another fridge out here

There's a golf course on here too

Victor and Gregg have a golf trolley for getting around the resort so I had to have a go in it!

Here's Victor preparing lunch at their RV just around the corner. It's not a bad life is it!

They took us out into Palm Springs for the evening, so we had to have a photo under this huge statue of Marilyn Monroe

Here's the view from the back

Gregg and Victor with Jackie

Palm Springs, like Hollywood has it's own Walk of Fame. Many of the people we didn't know, but here's one we did! 

Definitely knew this one

Frank Sinatra was well known to have frequented Palm Springs over his years, along with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr, and when Gregg mentioned Frank Sinatra is buried in the cemetery here we just had to go and see his grave. Have to say, we were really surprised how simple the grave is. We expected a huge memorial to him, but no, just a simple stone on the ground. Alongside him are his last wife, his mother, uncles, grandparents. Sonny Bono is also in the cemetery too

Off we went for a drive through Joshua Tree with V & G. Saw this handsome chap in a tree. Helen S tells me it's a Phainopepia (she'd not heard of one either!). Thanks Helen

These are Cholla cactus and you don't touch these. Even a brush against them and those spines will stick in you and make life very unpleasant

Think these must be what were flowers. Look at those spikes!

A trip to Joshua Tree wouldn't be complete without a photo of.... a Joshua Tree. They only grow here in the Mojave Desert and at this altitude. In this relatively small area there are thousands of them, but they grow nowhere else

Wandering around Joshua Tree with Gregg and Victor

Split Rock

Skull Rock

And this is not just any old view, this is a viewpoint in Joshua Tree NP called Keys View and there are a couple of things of note. See the tallest peak there? Just below it is Palm Springs. Just in front of it, can you see a brown line running left to right? That is the San Andreas fault and it's the junction of two of the earths giant plates that rub against one another. The side we're standing on is on the Atlantic Plate and is moving slowly towards the left. Those mountains and Palm Springs on the other side, are on the Pacific Plate and they are slowly moving to the right. The San Andreas fault has caused many earthquakes over the years and was responsible for virtually destroying San Francisco in about 1906. Victor and Gregg's main house is in Oakland, a suburb of San Francisco and they told us they regularly feel quakes. One took a bridge out a few years back that Gregg was about to cross over on a bus, so didn't make it home that night. Victor observed the road ahead of him just moving up and down in a rippling motion just after he had gone over the bridge

This is not a cactus and those are leaves (but I can't remember what it's called) Gregg has informed me it's an Ocotillo. Thanks Gregg

We've left Gregg and Victor now, but we haven't moved too far. We're staying in a motel at Yucca Valley, which is on the NW side of Joshua Tree. It gives us easy access to the main climbing areas of the park and, since we've brought of climbing gear all the way here, it was time to use it. Here we are at the top of our first climb. Handy with the car park at the bottom! The crag is called Trashcan Crag - not a very attractive name, but it's fabulous

We only did a couple of climbs as our nerves got frazzled. Not only have we not climbed much recently, but this rock takes some getting used to. It's granite and it's wind worn, which means everything is very round, with few sharp edges to give good hand or foot holds. The friction is superb, but you just have to believe and put your foot of a sloping surface with just the hint of an indent and pull up with your hands on a pebble. It does work but it plays havoc with the nerves! It's mainly trad climbing, which means you place your own gear rather than use fixed bolts. Fortunately there are plenty of cracks that take the gear, but beware of the flaring crack which might make the gear pop out in the event of a fall! Instead we went on a shortish hike through some interesting crags, past the many other rock climbers here   

It is just fabulous scenery and, with Joshua Trees, unique

All the time, of course, we were keeping a sharp lookout for rattlesnakes and  other nasties (and niceties). You can view a short video of our little walk showing our route, including a few more photos taken on the way. To see it click here

I was very tempted to lead a climb on this crag, Intersection Crag in Hidden Valley. See the leftward sloping crack in the centre? That's called Upper Right Ski Track, you can see someone on the top, he's a guide and he's belaying his client up, whose in the crack in this photo. Once at the top they clip their rope into fixed gear and abseil (rappel) down to the halfway ledge and then scramble down. I waited until they got down to ask how long their rope was. We have a 60m rope with us, which means the maximum we can abseil is 30m, as the rope is doubled to allow it to be pulled through when down. It looked more than 30m to us which would have meant we couldn't do it. When I asked the guide he said his rope is 60m too, so it means we can do it. I'm really tempted to do it tomorrow. It looks really exposed, but it's a 3 star classic and it is within the grade we should be able to do (except for the scary rock here!). They said it has plenty of holds and is OK. If we're feeling bold tomorrow we might get up there and I might lead it! Watch this space!