Page 81 - 2015 Travel Guide to California

Francisco; Point Reyes National Seashore;
artsy Mendocino; Redwood National Park.
A few tips: Allow far more time than you
think you need; besides the frequent diver-
sions, the road is so winding in places it’s
hard to average more than 30 miles per
hour. If you’re prone to carsickness, this
isn’t the trip for you. Keep your gas tank
full and your bladder empty. In some areas,
particularly Big Sur, it’s more than 40 miles
between gas stations—and restrooms.
Cowboys & Indians
East of the Sierra Nevada the green, popu-
lated West Coast ends and the brown,
sagebrush-covered West begins. This is
the Old Frontier of our imagination, a
realm of real cowboys and real Indians
(and also, as we shall see, of cinematic
cowboys and Indians.)
Highway 395 hugs the state’s eastern
border, and the 264-mile stretch of high
desert from Reno to Lone Pine, which
passes tumbleweeds, swinging-door
saloons and ghost towns beneath the
breathtakingly sheer eastern wall of the
Sierra Nevada, is one of California’s most
iconic drives.
The northern stretch traverses ranch-
land that was once—and sometimes still
is—the domain of Basque sheepherders,
and in the town of Gardnerville, just over
the border in Nevada, you have your choice
of excellent Basque restaurants. As you
drive south, keep an eye out for cowboys,
although these days they’re as likely to be
riding an all-terrain vehicle as a horse. Far-
ther south, as you approach Mono Lake,
McWAY FALLS in Julia Pfeiffer
Burns State Park, Big Sur, left;
Avenue of the Giants, Redwood
National Park, middle; tufa
formations at Mono Lake, bottom;
17-Mile Drive on the Monterey
Peninsula, opposite.
you’ll probably encounter members of the
Washoe and Paiute tribes.
Highway 395 grazes the shore of enor-
mous Mono Lake, which is so alkaline Mark
Twain once joked he could do his laundry
merely by dragging it behind him in a boat.
In Bishop, the studio of the late photogra-
pher Galen Rowell has become a major
attraction. Stop at Manzanar, just off the
highway, for a poignant visit to the site of a
relocation camp for Americans of Japanese
heritage during World War II. In Lone Pine,
the Indian Trading Post sports autographs
on the wall from Gary Cooper, John Wayne
and other cinematic cowboys who filmed
Westerns in the nearby Alabama Hills.
A few tips: Springtime, when the Sierra
is still clad in snow, is the prettiest time for
the drive, although some side trips may be
limited. For an overnight stop, the town of
Bishop offers the largest selection of
motels and restaurants.
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