Craig's big road trip

Day 5 - Oakdale to Tehachapi
Home
The starting point
Day 1 - Seattle to Yakima
Day 2 - Yakima to Bend
Day 3 - Bend to Mt. Shasta
Day 4 - Mt. Shasta to Oakdale
Day 5 - Oakdale to Tehachapi
Yosemite National Park
Day 6 - Tehachapi to Las Vegas
Day 7-10 in Las Vegas
Day 11 - Las Vegas to Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon N.P.
Day 12 - Grand Canyon to Kayenta
Day 13 - Monument Valley
Day 14 - Kayenta to Telluride
Day 15 - Telluride
Day 16 - Telluride to Glenwood Springs
Day 17 - Glenwood Springs to Idaho Springs
Day 18 - Idaho Springs to Golden
Day 19 - Golden to Amarillo
Day 20 - Amarillo to Tyler
Day 21 - Tyler to Lake Charles
Day 22 - Lake Charles to Waveland
Day 24 - Waveland to Pensacola
Day 25 - Pensacola to Gainesville
Day 26 - Gainesville to Titusville
Day 27 - Kennedy Space Center
Day 28 - Titusville to Clearwater
The finishing point

Saturday April 5, 2003.
 
While my friends were sleeping in Asia, I was driving through heaven.  Motoring heaven, that is.  Highway 120 from Oakdale to Yosemite National Park is one of the best driving experiences of my life.  Perfectly smooth and winding mountain roads under blue skies with fluffy white clouds.  And I encountered almost no other traffic.
 
The scenery is breathtaking, and the grandeur of Yosemite National Park is awesome.  From Highway 120 inside the park, I continued on to Highway 41 which leads down the mountain towards Fresno and back to Highway 99 South.
 
The drive from Oakdale and up to Yosemite left such a deep impression on me, that I didn't want to spoil it by driving immediately into the urban ugliness of the highway between Fresno and Bakersfield.  So I stopped for dinner soon after I came down from the heights of Yosemite, and waited for night to fall.  Then I could make a night drive through the urban wilderness of highway 99 south of Fresno, and make it all the way to Tehachapi on Highwy 58 East, on the way to Las Vegas, and well out of the city area.
 
I put the pictures of Yosemite on a separate page.  Below here are the scenes on the way up to Yosemite.
 
Miles covered today: 320
Total miles travelled since Seattle:  1305

All images on this page copyright Craig Norris.  All rights reserved.