Destination: Los Angeles

A little bit of a different day today, as we had a definite destination in mind and even an approximate time to get there.  But a few things to do before that time and a few miles to travel to get there.

Since we arrived at this campground in the pitch dark, we had no idea what it looked like or even if it was full.  So we adopted the “first available” strategy and took the first empty campsite.  This morning we took a walk around the campground before leaving and saw that there was plenty of available sites farther up the road.  So we really didn’t have to park next to the big Class A diesel with the generator running.

Tuttle Creek is a nice campground next to perhaps the only water in the area and a view of the mountains on both sides.

We drove into the town of Lone Pine and found a parking space in the visitor center as the cell signal was better there.  We then dialed into the gift-opening party for Nate and Abigail held at our house.  Wish we could have been there in-person, but it was good to be able to join remotely.  Happy 2-week anniversary!

Here’s a shout out to Josh and Steph for arranging the party, planning for and obtaining all the food, and taking care of all the details while we were not there.  And, after everyone had left, Josh stuck around and ran the mower over all the many leaves that had fallen.  As I said in an earlier post, I have awesome kids.

After signing off of the video meeting, we headed back into the Alabama Hills area to hike one of the trails and enjoy the beautiful day.  This is an area of fantastic rock formations where quite a few movies are filmed.  It is also a favorite camping spot as there are campsites scattered all over, all of them occupied.  We stopped in a parking area for the Arch Loop Trail, an easy hike which wound through the rock formations.

Since we had a destination and a time in mind, we left there and headed south on US-395, then southwest on State Road 14 towards Los Angeles.  As we neared the city, we could see some of the support systems that feed the city.  Massive solar farms that filled entire valleys.  Thousands of wind turbines covering the lower foothills.  Lots of high tension power lines all headed in the same direction.  The LA Aqueduct carrying water to the city.  It was fascinating and quite instructive.  It takes a lot of land area to support a city that large.

Scott and Karen are dear friends of ours who graciously hosted us for a couple days.  We arrived at their home in the north suburbs of LA at about 5:30pm, just in time for grilled steaks and an evening of catching up.

Miles traveled today: 216