Route 395

It’s a LONG drive up and down Route 395, five hours at the minimum – add a few stops for leg stretching and lunch and it turns into seven very easily. I usually plug in my book on CD, and enjoy the sights. Some would say that it’s a bleak drive, but just the opposite is true for me. I enjoy everything from the mountains, desert, power lines, solar panels, historic sites, towns (nearly deserted mining towns: are there really people living in those shacks?) So far, I’ve been hesitant about stopping at these towns, they really are scrubby looking. I stopped at just a few places and snapped some pics recently. During one of my future trips, I will have to allow myself all the time I need to stop and snap. Part of the problem is the road itself. When starting the trip from the south, it starts on freeways: the 15, goes into the 215, then back to the 15, then 395 (for some reason it’s not called ‘the’ 395). I have found a back way to San Bernardino that’s lovely, and may bypass the freeway entirely next time. You can’t stop on the freeway (unless you want to jeopardize your life). Going through the Cajon Pass though has such beauty – marred in my eyes by the 10 and 12 lanes of traffic going through it. But even with the traffic, what a photo it would make. Then when you get onto 395, it is sometimes a four-lane highway, but also a two lane with no shoulders.

I left early Sunday on Deep Springs time, thinking I was getting a nice early start. Then I remembered when I got into the car, that California time is an hour later. I took several photos while going through the pass to get to 395, this one shows the snow-capped Sierras peeking through from the other side of the Owens Valley – miles and miles away.

At Lone Pine:

Diaz Lake sits right beside the road. There were several families enjoying the sunshine and lack of wind (an almost constant in the Owens Valley).

Look for another post coming about Manzanar (also right beside 395) Take 2.