The final installment of my wonderful summer journey
The drive leaving Salt Lake City was tough. It was the longest uninterrupted drive of my journey, as well as the most boring. At the same time, I was tired. I had never lived out of a car, let alone for over 30 days. Save for the Bonneville Salt Flats, the drive doesn’t have many other noticeable stops. What I found curious was the number of prisons on this highway. I guess the barren, inhospitable landscape makes it the perfect place to hold prisoners.
On my way to Reno, I stopped for gas in Fernley and made the spontaneous decision to detour to the Black Rock Desert, also known as the Playa. I felt a strong urge to go back to a place where I have built so many pleasant and fond memories with many of my closest friends.
Upon stepping on the dry lake bed, it was as if my tiredness, my worries, my anxieties melted into the ground. I felt great. My mind went blank. I was happy.
I sat on the hood of the car in silence, taking in the vastness of the place. Eventually, a dude showed up in his van and we went for burgers, then drove into the darkness towards the lights. Something was being built! We found a camp and immediately we were received by strangers like we were long lost friends. The hospitality of the Playa knows no bounds.
I spent all night drinking and helping my new friends build their home for the next 10 days. The next morning I woke up at sunrise and drove to see my friends in Reno.
The weekend in Reno was relaxing. I got to catch up with several of my friends, rested, and even got to climb with Dwayne.
Reno was very smoky the entire time. My friends mentioned that the air quality had been bad for over six weeks. It’s sad that they now expect every summer to have this kind of air quality as it is expected that the Sierras will have fires every summer. Many of them grew up in Reno and their surroundings, and none recall having these many summer fires as children.
I left Reno on Monday, picked up Hannah in Sacramento and headed to the Bay Area. We were very lucky with the weather. The Bay Area tends to be very cloudy and foggy, but in late August, we got perfect bluebird summer days!
We drove around its coastal roads and crazy inclines. San Francisco’s landscape is very charming! However, I found it to be my least favorite city of this trip; maybe my least favorite city in America.
It is no secret that San Fransisco is one of the richest cities in America. Yet the inequality you see driving around is overwhelming. Surprisingly, it is not concentrated in one area: I felt it everywhere. Anywhere I tried to park, there were signs saying we shouldn’t leave belongings in the car. I saw car windows broken. Homeless people everywhere. It was hard to ignore. I am not sure what the fix is, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable living in that environment.
Despite the negatives, I really enjoyed the city. I got to see many of its neighborhoods and got to see it at night thanks to Dan. After 24 hours in the Bay Area, we picked up Marion in Sacramento and headed south towards Yosemite National Park.
Due to COVID guidelines, we only had 48 hours in the park. We set up camp, headed to a climbing area called The Cathedrals, and found some long face sport climbs to warm up with.
We watched a magical Yosemite sunset from the base of the wall then scrambled down to the car in the dark.
The next morning we woke up early and headed to Mariposa Grove, a part of the park dotted with Giant Sequoias.
This part of the park was mostly under construction, so we couldn’t walk fully into the grove to see its most iconic trees. Considering the endangered status of these giants, I agree with what the NPS is doing in curating these areas to minimize human impact.
That afternoon, we met up with Camden, and the four of us climbed one of the most popular and iconic routes in the valley: The Nutcracker. This route sits on Manure Pile Buttress: a 180 meter high rock formation beside the famous El Capitan. The Nutcracker is legendary in the climbing world for being the first route ever to be climbed on passive (removable) gear.
The climb was easy and very fun. The whole way up we were laughing and taking in the valley in its splendor. Upon reaching the summit, I felt a sense of awe. Standing 150 meters off the valley floor, I understood why this place is so special to so many people. It is so easy to feel small. Nature carved this giant valley millions of years ago and within its context, a human body is a speck of dust. When I feel that way, my concerns and troubles simply go away. It’s cleansing to be in the presence of such grandness. It’s why I believe being in nature can be so helpful. It’s almost like a reset.
The next morning we drove across The Sierra Nevada back into Nevada. It was a gorgeous day, filled with empty mountain roads. I love driving these roads.
Tuolumne Meadows is the least visited area of the park. Everyone focuses on the valley (including me), yet Tuolumne is devoid of people, vast and dotted with granite domes and gorgeous alpine lakes. Next time I visit the park I am going to make it a point to camp at Tuolumne.
After dropping off Marion and Hannah in Reno, I headed straight back to the Playa to hang out with my friends for the weekend. It was a strange weekend for me. Maybe I was tired, or I wasn’t there long enough, but I didn’t really feel much of the playa magic I typically feel when I head to the desert. That being said, people brought art and camps and I did enjoy my time with my BRCU family. I am very grateful to have strengthened my friendship bonds with Manda, Jen, Dwayne, JJ, and Woj, and to have made new friends like Louise, Teresa and Chris.
After my short stint in the Playa, I drove to Bishop, California for the last days of climbing of the trip. Bishop is a gateway to hiking, climbing, and mountaineering in the Eastern Sierras. Sadly due to the fires, most national forests and other recreation areas were closed, limiting my outdoor options. Luckily I booked two nights at The Hostel California, one of my favorite stays of the trip. The hostel is geared to the outdoors person, primarily the climber. At the hostel I met a group of boulderers from San Fransisco, and with crashpads from the hostel, we headed to Happy Boulders for some night bouldering.
Bouldering at night was fun. The crew brought floodlights, and we climbed until midnight. The next day I relaxed in the Hostel (It is very hot during the day in Bishop) then went for one final solo hike up Tungsten Peak, a small peak with 360 degree views of the valley.
At the summit alone I got to recap what I had just lived through for the past 50+ days. It felt distant the day I left Las Vegas with a rough outline of what I was going to experience. I never considered that I would experience so much life in such a short period of time. I felt so grateful that in half a summer I got to see more of the American West than what most Americans see in their lifetimes. It wasn’t always easy. At times it was rough and I was uncomfortable. But I go back to Teddy Roosevelt and his experiences. Like me, he had a comfortable life full of luxury. Why do we chose to voluntarily go on journeys that are rough, uncomfortable, and dangerous? I do not know the answer.
My final day in America involved a leisure drive in perfect weather through the lowest point in the US and the last national park I would visit, Death Valley.
It was a beautiful, yet a very suffocating place. I was fearful that the Civic would breakdown and I would have a heat stroke. Thankfully, the Civic is a beast and made it to Las Vegas unscathed.
My last day in Las Vegas was very relaxing. I had plenty of time to decompress from this journey, as well as hang out with Diana, Josh and their roommates. I feel incredibly blessed to have friends all over The American West that welcomed me into their homes with open arms and provided me with comfort. I am so lucky that so many people are willing to jump in a car with me and drive into the unknown, simply to experience new things and build memories with me.
To all of you that were a part of this journey: THANK YOU.
