Back to L.A.

The last day…

Map of the day:

We go back to LA, to arrive at around 10PM at the airport. We decide to push forward on the West coast, Malibu, Oxnard, Santa Barbara. It looks much like the French Riviera, so after all the wonderful deserts, mountains, forests views we had this past few days it seems a bit tasteless.

The Malibu coast:

Nevertheless we spend a good day looking at the sea, and hills in the area. We enjoy a last good dinner in a classy restaurant in Malibu, overlooking the sunset on the ocean.

It is time to go back to LA, we give back the car, full of dust! The guy in the rental company is amazed, 3500 miles in 2 weeks!

Last night in a Super 8 motel near the airport, before leaving early in the morning.

San Diego

We start with a beautiful part of the Mojave desert. We are heading towards the Salton Sea near the Mexican border, but we decide to go through Joshua again.

Map of the day:

The road towards the Salton Sea is so desertic that it’s quite frightening, the temperature are already reaching 90°F, and we are just in February…

We manage to find the only restaurant open in the area. At the begining we are a bit afraid to go in, but if firefighters and policemen are eating there, it’s probably not so bad… Surprise, the burger was on the simple but decent side!

Anza Borrego Desert State Wilderness… Wild and Desert for sure… Anyway we do a small hike, careful as ever about rattlesnakes… The hike leads us towards a ruin where a familly tried to subside from the desert after the great crisis of 29. They lasted 10 years and eventually had to leave the place, it was too harsh.

The rangers in Anza told us that Julian might be a nice town to spend the night. It is… but every inn is full, so we decide to go to San Diego. San Diego is a pretty city unlike LA or SF. Nice city center full of cool restaurants and bars.

We eat a burger in a real burger restaurant, at last!!! And we end the evening in a pub nearby! The end of the trip is getting closer and closer unfortunately…

Deserts

Waking up with the sun to enjoy a big day, we soon are on the road, tank full, coffee cups full as well!

Map of the day – for some reason google doesn’t want me to embed this one…

First stop, the Giant Sequoias in Sequoia Natl Park. Giant they are!

There is too much snow to go on to the South through King Canyon Natl Park so we head West again to Porterville. We buy some beef jerky to sustain us during day, a bit chewy! However instead of going South to Bakersfield we cut to the East through the Sierra Alta. Desertic road! Even oil wells!

Then lake Isabella! So strange a lake in such a desertic landscape!

We cross the Mojave desert again, we enjoy the wild scenaries as much as on the first time.

On our way find cross Randsburg & Johannesburg. The time stoped in the 20’s, we take only one picture as we are quite scared by the poverty of the area and expect to have some outlaws coming right at us to strip us of everything…

We make a little break to enjoy the sunset. Sunset in the desert is something to kill for! There is a written message in the sand about the gods and so on… what a place to write such kind of message…

We arrive at Barstow at around 7PM, just in time to find a crappy motel room. The room doesn’t even lock from the outside! Anyway the room is still better than the meal at Danny’s. Stay away from those disgusting dinners!