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June 13, 2019

Getting Started - Road Trip 2019

After literally months of planning and making reservations – yes reservations are a fact of RV travel these days - we knew the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park in July, would be popular destinations.  For those parks, reservations were made the day they were available online.

We are travelers and will see what we can – when we can.  When we can arrange a house sitter … we travel!

For the first time we are leaving San Diego on a Sunday morning and it sure made a difference in traffic!

It was an easy drive north on 395 to our usual first night at Fossil Falls.  We stopped in Ridgecrest for gas and a few supplies at Walmart.  BTW – Walmart offers overnight parking if that is needed, but always check ahead! 

Oops when leaving the Walmart lot I whacked the steps on the curb.  They do still go up into the travel position but not all the way down.  I’ll not do anything about it until there is time when we return home.
 
First night is usually Fossil Falls.  It’s on the northbound side of 395 and about the right distance from San Diego at ~200 miles.  The night sky makes for excellent star gazing and it has excellent cell service.

The red rock gravel crew maintain Cinder Road, wish they’d come into the campground, that road is in terrible condition.  Although fresh gravel has been placed on the access to the day use area, the campground itself is pretty bad!


Our spot tucked in, and again the campground is empty.  There is a $6/3 fee to use the campground, but there are also a few boondocking sites beyond the campground toward the Little Lake Overlook.  I’ve been stopping here for decades and even with the fee I’ll stop here, or in one of the boondocking spots.

Looking down over the falls.

I have blogged this area before, as has Gaelyn, the geogypsy HERE.  She covered the site much better than I have.  Well she is a ranger with an inquisitive mind.


The Happy Hour Flag is up.  Stop by for a glass of wine. The flag was a gift from our son and DIL – it’s a wine theme spinnaker.  


Erik Schat's has taken over the building next door to the bakery turning it into a wine and cheese shop. Nice idea – bread, wine and cheese all in one stop shop.  Tastings were not being offered when we stopped by.



But we still go for the world’s best turkey sandwich and enjoy lunch in the park


The baby ducks provide a bit of cuteness to the lunch break.


There’s a big rodeo event going on in Bishop, so we do not spend much time here.  We climb up to the Inyo National Forest where there is still a lot snow in the Sierra


We found a quiet spot in the Inyo National Forest with better than expected cell service!  The high was 82 but a chilly 44 overnight.

An additional testing of my knee on a short 3 mi hike, Fran had time to take a few practice swings.
From here we’ll head over the mountains to Lake Tahoe for a visit.

Certainly we’ve had No Bad Days as we begin our trip, trust your days were great too!

10 comments:

  1. Sure sounds like you are enjoying the journey and hopefully many more miles of safe travels.

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    1. Thanks George! We too are looking forward to 'safe' travels! It feels great to be on the road again!

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  2. It was the planning and making reservations after eight years that finally pushed me over the edge and had me thinking about settling part time. It must have been on omen because we were in Boulder City for our fourth visit when it hit both of us just how much we loved this town.

    I'm not use if you checked our blog for Glacier/Alberta ideas. This was my favorite trip we did in our eight years. We visited the east side of Glacier this time which has the most amazing hikes and so many fewer people. We then went to Waterton, Calgary, Edmonton, followed by 10 days in Japser NP and 10 days in Banff NP. We then returned to Glacier to hike the Iceberg Lake Trail that we missed. Maybe our posts can help you out a little.

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    1. I have followed and will continue to follow your 'part-time' adventures. And yes I have also followed your adventures/travels in the Canadian Rockies and Glacier. We'll not have time you enjoyed, but for sure will have a great adventure of our own.

      Thanks again for your excellent posts of your adventure and helping us define ours.

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  3. We keep missing the 395. Glad to see you journey has started.

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    1. You'll make it sometime! Search your favorite bloggers for Alabama Hills or just 395 to see a few of the reasons why :)
      Thanks for following along

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  4. welcome back to to the road...

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    1. Thanks John! Feels good to be out there again.

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  5. Even though I'm not a drinker, wish I'd been at Fossil Falls to say cheers. I thank you for turning me on to the place. But after one night in the campground I've gone for boondocking since. Now I have to get further north than Independence. Off to a great start. And I'm way behind reading.

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    1. There are boondocking spots on Cinder Road beyond Fossil Falls, but if you have the areas further north are better. For us it's the travel time from San Diego that makes it a great stop with good cell service.

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