Monday 13th September
Before setting off for San Francisco I decided to go in the other direction entirely and take a look over at Mono Lake. It was about a two hour drive over the Tioga Pass and East along the 120.
I found the visitor centre which is right by the lake. It's huge, and the basin is so flat you can see right across it. Inside I saw the 20 minute film about the history of the lake. The big problem is that while there is no outlet for the water it evaporates, and when the inlet water was diverted to supply LA in the '40s the level dropped threatening the wildlife and causing big clouds of newly exposed alkaline dust to get blown around. Now the water level is controlled, although it's still lower than it once was.
In a way this is good news though, because it has exposed the lakes main attraction. Where the carbonate from the fresh water springs feeding the lake meets the calcium in the salt water (or is it the other way around?), large and fascinating tufa structures have formed. The actually grow as the springwater feeds up inside them.
I drove further East along the 120 to reach the South Tufa Reserve. The ranger there took my $3 and I noticed she was reading Atlas Shrugged. She said she read it first 30 years ago and that it was, "a great book". That's the second encounter I've had with Ayn Rand in two days. I think she's a lot more popular here than in Europe.
I explored along the mile long trail that runs by the lake through the towering tufas, trying to take artistic photos. Right by the edge of the lake, what looked like a black scum on the rocks on closer inspection turned out to be the flies I'd seen in the movie. As I stepped over to photograph them they swarmed around (though thankfully never more than a few inches above the ground), probably thinking I was a giant gull. These flies attract nearly all of California's gulls to the lake each nesting season.
I couldn't see the tiny brine shrimp this close to the edge, but I'd seen them in a tank in the visitor centre. It's best exhbit, they look more like miniscule jellyfish than shrimp, with flapping tendrils that propel them along.
Having seen the lake, I got back in my car and headed West along the 108. This road runs to the North of Yosemite and also crosses the mountains. It is steep and twisty, and I was having great fun driving along it until I came up behind the local Sheriff -- I could hardly overtake him even if the road was straight enough.
Once over the mountains the road became faster, periodically widening to two lanes, and also periodically passing through small towns. I fell off the route, so to speak, a couple of times. The trouble with American routes is they're just numbers, not tied to any particular road, and sometimes take turns with minimal signage. It's disconcerting to find onesself in a narrow back street having previously been following a route, and since this often happens even *on* a route, several minutes of uncertainty and looking for one of the infrequent route confirmation signs ensue.
So it was that I rocked up into the town of Modesto just East of SF at about 8pm. Modesto is where the George Lucas movie American Grafiti is set. Unfortunately cruising was banned here in the '90s (sure enough there are signs up along some streets that say "cruising prohibited") but even as I type this someone is doing a burnout in the street outside! As I approached the town I saw a big multiplex movie theater, so once I found a place to stay I returned there and saw the thriller Cellular. It was gripping, often funny and thoroughly enjoyable. As an added bonus and featured the Santa Monica pier where I was just over a week ago -- oddly there were more beatiful girls in skimpier bikinis in the movie than I remember seeing in real life...
Now I'm back at the Tropics Motel. It's okay for $45, way better than the place I stayed at in Santa Monica which is by far the worst value accomodation I've had on this trip.