2012/05 Western USA trip - Kern Canyon |
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Monday June 4th
It was a crisp and sunny morning and we were off early on what was going to be largely a driving day. We wanted to get to Death Valley, which was less than fifty miles away if you happen to be a crow, but not if you are in a truck; there is no road across the local mountains. We could either retrace our steps north back to Yosemite’s Tioga Pass or go south to Bakersfield and up the Kern Canyon. We couldn’t even take the southern exit from Sequoia as it has a length limit, so we were leaving the park the way we came in. One advantage of this was that it took us past the fruit stand and we could load up on goodies again.
We joined the 99 and headed south for Bakersfield. The highway was lined with flowers, mainly oleanders, pretty, but we had to ask where the water was coming from as the terrain looked to be mainly desert. There were occasional strips of orchards but the surroundings were dry scrub.
We were looking for a shady spot for lunch, but the rest area we were aiming for was closed for reconstruction. I had the bright idea of going to the nearby Pixley wildlife area and we took the exit for Pixley and drove west ….into more desert. After too many miles, we gave up and had lunch under a tree alongside a cornfield. Eventually we found our way back onto the 99. (I’ve since found out that entry to the refuge is by invitation only. So why have a signpost to it on the major highway?)
We drove into Bakersfield for some shopping, preferably a Walmart, but had to make do with a Target. The air in Bakersfield smelled a bit off, possibly because of the nearby oil wells in Oildale; this area still has the most productive wells in the USA. I stayed out in the parking lot while the others were shopping, and I felt the wind increasing and saw the sky darkening. It looked like a big storm was coming.
We stopped a few miles away for rum and wine, and I got a face full of sand as I came out of the store. This wasn’t a thunderstorm; it was a sand storm!
We were headed for a KOA campground on Lake Isabella. Our route went up the Kern River and we found ourselves driving a narrow, twisty road up the Kern Canyon. It was a scenic drive, with great crags on either side, but what with the wind and sand and the poor visibility we couldn’t enjoy it. It was definitely not friendly to cameras. This fuzzy picture gives an idea of the canyon and the storm.
We wanted the KOA campground for Internet access and to sort out the problems with Edna’s phone. She’d bought it primarily to text to/from Australia but that wasn’t working. On our way to the KOA we passed a public campground down on the lake, but passed it by, a bad mistake as we soon found out.
The KOA had a playground and a pool, so it was expensive. It had also won awards from the KOA association, but our guess was that the then owners had sold it as a going concern and the new people had no idea. The bathrooms were grimy and the showers flooded the whole bathroom; presumably their septic tank was full. Half the lamps were out, making the place dangerous on such a murky evening. The Internet worked OK and we could handle our emails, but we couldn’t solve Edna’s phone problems.