Day 20 – Tuesday 11th June

We left Yosemite Pines RV Resort at 11am as we weren’t in any hurry today. We had about 179 kms / 110 miles to drive so it wasn’t an especially long way, but no major highways and still lots of ups and downs as we travel across the mountains, and winding roads to contend with, so those 179 kilometers did end up taking most of the day.

As well as still enjoying some nice scenery, we drove through a few a few old gold rush towns. Assuming they were original, there were plenty of ‘Western’ style buildings that would have all been saloons back in the days of the gold rush. Unfortunately, as the towns were so small we didn’t really think to stop, but it would have been nice to take some photos.

We stopped for lunch in a slightly larger town, were we eventually found a park with parking that we could fit into. Since we came inland, the temperatures haven’t let up much, and when we stopped for lunch the dashboard thermometer said it was over 100F (38C) so Al heated up very fast.

After this it was yet more mountain roads, several wrong turns because Müfit hadn’t had any data on his phone for a while and hadn’t checked the route, and slow inclines as we made our way up hills trying not to strain Al’s engine too much.

Eventually we made it to our overnight stop. It was a place we had cased out on Google maps and streetview just off the highway, called Iron Mountain Sno Park. There is a parking area here which said that permits are required from November to May 30th for people using the slopes for sledding etc, but we hadn’t realised that it was actually an abandoned ski area. So, we parked up – it’s a lay-by/turnout, not an actual parking lot – then went for a walk and explored the area. It had three ski lifts and several abandoned and falling down buildings, and there was still quite a lot of snow here!

Charlie, in particular, seemed to love being on the snow again! He was running around and rolling in it like a little puppy!

Although we were pretty high up the mountain by now, the temperature was still warm, it was mid-20’s when we arrived. We sat outside for a bit, then had dinner and got a relatively early night. It was a very quiet spot – just the odd truck going past on the highway, and nobody else joined us. We didn’t have any hook-ups or wifi, but it was nice to be up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere! Felt like home 🙂