22 - BISHOP, CA AND THE TRIP HOME

We are heading North, toward Oregon, which means going up through Northern California. 


We are spending the night in Bishop, California. We have gone through here many times over the years. It always brings back memories.

The High Sierras are always spectacular. On this day there is a mix of clouds and fog.


This time we are looking for petroglyphs in the area that we 
have only recently heard about. Surprising, after all the visits to this area, why have we never heard about them before? 


We got "sort of " directions to three petroglyph sites. It seems like directions to petroglyphs always come with "sort of" instructions. So after parking the RV, we headed outside of town per the "directions."


We found the first location on our own.

This rock, along with several others were totally covered with drawings.

There was a a lot of geometric art in this area. Then we went on down the road a way to try to find the next one. It was much further away than per our "directions." (Once again, "sort of" directions.)


Here we found other cars already at this location. We soon found that it was a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) archaeologist and a group of docents from the Paiute Cultural Center in Bishop. 

The drawing on the left here made me think of a Jeep doing some serious off road driving. 


However, the archaeologist at the site, assured me it was an actual ancient drawing. He confirmed what we had heard previously that nobody knows what the petroglyphs really mean.


It was fortunate to come upon this archaeologist because he was very knowledgeable of the local petroglyphs and the history of all of them. He also directed us on to other rock art sites. 


He had also been to Rock Art Ranch in Arizona where we were a few days ago so it was fun comparing notes on that location. 


The next location down the road was one where recently a couple local "Rocket Scientists" had decided to use concrete saws to cut some petroglyphs off the rocks and sell them. By the way, this is a Federal Offense...big time!  


The crime was advertised and made public locally. 


The perpetrators quickly realized they weren't going to get away with selling the petroglyphs as they had planned, so sent a note to the authorities about where the stolen art work could be found and dropped them off at a public location (probably very late at night). 


Although the rock art has been retrieved, the bad guys still have not been apprehended. 


We were amazed at how many individual drawings were at the next location. 

This area had lots of drawing on the rocks with the beautiful Sierra mountains in the background.


There were literally hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of drawings in this area. Obviously there was a large population of natives here over time.

 We saw several places where petroglyphs had been cut off the rock.

Here, it looked like someone had poured paint over the rock. Such a waste!


There were hundreds more drawings in this area. 


The archaeologist had told us about another area down a road with a short 4-wheel drive area on the way. 


We were game and headed out. It was SERIOUS four wheel driving, which we found to be fun. 

It wasn't really hard, just slow.

We were told this "road" would connect with the highway. I was beginning to question...which highway, which state???

Then there was some pretty scenery and finally, we did find the highway and our way back to the RV, but never to that petroglyph location. Oh, well. Something for next time.


Don's brother, Dave came down from his home further up the mountains to meet us for dinner. It was the first time we have seen him in a year or more. Dave's wife Melinda, was visiting family in Ohio, so we missed seeing her this trip. 


The guys made plans to meet the next morning near Crowley Lake, on our way home.  Dave had an antique desk from the family he wanted to give Don.


Crowley Lake is near Mammoth Lakes for you who have been in that part of the world.


Crowley Lake is about a half hour or so north of Bishop. There was a big wildfire recently about halfway up the mountain that you may have heard about on the news. Forty homes were lost. Sadly, Dave told us one of his friends had lost their home and everything in it.

The black area in the distance is burn. (Pretend you don't see the orange snow pole in the foreground. That's what you get driving 55 mph up the freeway in the mountains.)

Dave and Melinda live in a cabin up high in this forested canyon. It is directly above Crowley Lake. 

From their house you can see the lake, but from the lake it's hard to see their house which is hidden in the trees.

The guys loaded the desk into our Jeep.

Dave and Don. When you've seen one Foster, you've seen them all.

After leaving Dave, we traveled further north through the tiny town of Bridgeport. Don and his Dad spent lots of memorable hours here fishing near here over the years. This is the old courthouse in the middle of town. (Darn trees got in my way!)

Then it was Mono Lake. It is a salt water lake with many of these "Hoo Doos" in the water.

The wind was blowing like crazy at this point. There are several wind socks going up the long curving highway to the top of the summit. They all looked like this one, meaning the wind is blowing really hard!


Don hung on to the steering wheel tight and we made it through the strong wind that was blowing in a few different locations.

Amazingly, we saw brilliant rainbows about six times on the way home from the light rain and all the wind.


The drive on from here was pretty stressful for Don. There was intermittent high winds and rain off and on. High winds are always stressful to drive in with a big rig but we made it, stopping in Alturas, California for the night. 


We heard that a big rig truck and a RV had been blown over by the high winds a couple days before in Southern Oregon on the road we were on.

We came upon them trying to right and haul off the semi truck. The RV was already gone.

When snow-topped Mt. Bachelor was in sight, we knew home was right around the corner.

As usual, it's always good to see home again.


We had left here two months ago, planning to get out of the ice and snow. There was only one snow shortly after we left, then the weather was in the 40's and 50's almost all the time. Very unusual for this time of year. Normally it would be much colder with more snow.

 

I was shocked to see that my bulbs think it is Spring!


Jonquils, Giant Allium and fall blooming crocus are all up through the ground. I even have one pansy left over from last summer that now has a bud on it. I'm concerned that if we get a hard freeze, it will be the end of them. Well, that's out of my hands.

This morning we were greeted with a vibrant sunrise. OK, so now we really ARE home!


Thanks for traveling along with us these last two months. You were good traveling companions, quiet and you didn't eat up all the snacks. See you next time.
 

21-GRAND CANYON

We've spent the last two days at the Grand Canyon. We haven't been there in many, many years and I had forgotten how beautiful it is. 


I've decided it was best to just let the pictures do most of the talking. What can I say. It is just breathtaking!

 

In addition to standing at the canyon edge with our mouths hanging open, we did see a few other things.


There was a movie about the Grand Canyon at the Visitor Center. 

They had an old boat there that was originally used to float the Colorado River through rough rapids many years ago. It weighed 900 pounds and carried five men. 


Don's Dad and a buddy of his used to fish the Colorado River around Glen Canyon Dam. They did this well into their late 80's. Fortunately there boat was lighter than this one. Anyway this reminded us of Dad and his adventures on the river.


Most of the "Trading Posts" at the Grand Canyon are filled with tourist-y junk...except this one that was called Hopi House.

It is an old stone building built many years ago and modeled after the houses in Old Oraibi, Third Mesa, where we went a couple days ago. 


Unfortunately, the outside is totally under construction. Inside are beautiful arts and crafts made by Hopi and Navajo and a couple other tribes.

 

On all the corners of the building sits an actual pot. I enjoyed that little piece of detail.

We visited the Desert View area. It was very different from the rest of the Visitor Centers.

The Watch Tower sits on the edge of the canyon. It was built there many years ago and it appears as if constructed by natives. However, it was designed by a lady, Mrs. Coulter, an architect who was instrumental in building and designing several other buildings at the Grand Canyon.


The Tower, while looking quite frail, has in fact, a steel framework between the rocks and the inside of the building. 


It has been built to look like it has been there forever, with many designs and paintings that refer to the natives who were the first residents of the canyon.

The Tower is a four story building. The room in the first floor is a large round room with a ceiling that is made of these timbers. There is a hole in the middle that goes all the way to the ceiling on the fourth floor. It is made to be reminiscent of a Tribal Kiva.

There are huge pieces of "native" art work painted on the walls in all the round rooms on each floor. High above that, on the ceiling, is painted a large grouping of "petroglyphs."

The ceiling is completely covered with paintings of Indian designs, petroglyphs, pictographs and more.

Views from out the windows in the Tower were even more impressive.

Each floor was encircled with lights inside what appeared to be real Indian pottery with an Indian design painting above it.

There were long stairways between the floors. The steps were pieces of stone and the railing was completely wrapped with sinew.


Outside there was a sign near the Tower that told the sad story of an overhead plane collision in 1956 between a United Airlines plane and a TWA plane. 

The wreckage landed on two buttes out in the middle of the canyon that are pointed out on this sign. All 129 passengers plus crew were lost. I don't know how they ever got to the site as it is very remote. 


It was the deadliest crash in aviation history up until that time. Only 15 bodies were identified and the rest buried in a mass grave in Flagstaff.


The day before, I had overheard a tour guide telling some people that now no airplanes of any kind are allowed to fly at any altitude over the Grand Canyon. Actually, commercial airlines can fly in certain areas at 18,000 feet.


I didn't know why, but I'm sure this contributed to that decision. I also remember a number of years ago when a helicopter crashed, landing at the bottom of the canyon.


The guide was saying before the ban, the noise of planes and helicopters overhead was deafening and endless for Park visitors. 

 
Well there is none of that noise now. It is beautiful, quiet and very peaceful.


Next post, Heading Home. I'll post that in about three or so days.