We started the day with a wonderful visit with Wayne’s step brother-in-law. It had been a few years since last visiting so it was nice to catch up.
Unfortunately our timing was off and we won’t be able to visit with an old classmate from UW days (way back when), so we decided to go to Las Vegas via Death Valley instead of taking the direct route. We experienced mostly blue skies and a very brief rain shower and some snow flurries at the higher elevations.
The scenery as we headed down CA 70 and east across CA 20 was so pretty with gently rolling green hills and mountains in the distance. Later, as CA 20 started up the Sierra Nevada mountains, the road got real windy and traffic was extremely slow until we finally merged onto I80 near Donner Pass. Here the temperature dropped to 27 deg. and there was a bit of snow. I80 goes in to Reno, NV.
From Reno, we went south on US 395 which goes through a number of mountain passes including Devil’s Gate Summit (elevation 7519 feet) and Deadman Summit (elevation 8041 feet). (Peggy was wondering the wisdom of our chosen route when she saw that name on the map.) As we drove through the Sierra Nevada Mountains on US 395 the scenery was SPECTACULAR!!! The mountains were mostly snow covered (happily the roads were not) and just beautiful.
Since it was dark, we decided to spend the night in Bishop, CA and tomorrow we will see what Death Valley National Park has to offer us.
Cheers,
Wayne & Peggy