November 25 -
Anuj and I started our road trip from Glendale at around 4pm and plan was to reach Lake Tahoe by midnight. Everything was going as per the plan for first couple of hours. It was dark by the time we were on US395 north and about an hour away from alone pine. It got really cold with darkness and Car's tire pressure light came up. Also we thought that car was giving really poor gas mileage. So we decided to take a break at a chevron gas station about 30 mins south of lone pine to fill up gas and check pressure. Tires looked okay, so we decided to ignore check tire pressure light - assuming that it was probably due to sudden change in temperature. By 8pm we reached Lone pine - about 1/3rd way to Lake Tahoe in ideal weather conditions.
We continued further north on US395 and reached Bishop at around 10.15pm. By this time we realized that the mountain pass has a lot of snow and ice as we could see the moon light reflecting from that ice. We were thrill but also little bit scared about what was ahead of us.
As we started heading further north, it started snowing and we hit a point where there was a checkpoint. Only cars with snow chains were allowed past that point. Anuj stopped the car and we stepped out, and we couldn't stand properly on that road. It was very icy and slippery. Reality had hit us. We were almost stuck there at mountain pass. We had no other option but to turn around and go back to bishop. After carefully driving at 20mph on that icy road we returned to bishop at about 12.30am. It was a sigh of relief to be away from mountains at that point. We booked a motel on the go and stayed there for that night. We decided to skip Lake Tahoe plan for 11/26 at this point.
Indeed it was a memorable drive!
November 26 -
After grabbing breakfast at Denny's on thanksgiving day, we started heading up north again to tackle the same mountain pass in daylight. It was a bright and sunny day. Being thanksgiving day, we couldn't find any mechanic store open to buy chains. Luckily we got tire chains at a shell gas station on highway. We headed up and again reached the checkpoint. This time we had chains and we started to put the chains on the tires. It was sunny, but still very chilly. After fighting for about 40 mins, we finally installed chains on the front tires!
US 395 goes back and forth between California and Nevada a couple of times and eventually reaches Reno, Nevada.
We grabbed lunch at Reno and continued further north towards Klamath Falls, Oregon - our stay for the night. At Susanville, CA we took exit from US 395 and took CA 139 North. The view on CA 139 was just surreal.
The road got icy after sunset so we drove slowly again - much below speed limit. We were running tight on gas and there was no sign of civilization once we left Susanville. For about 2 hours all we came across was about 5 cars. Finally at 7pm we reached Klamath Fall, Oregon.
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| Morning view from Bishop, CA - 11/26/2015 |
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| Mountain Pass north of Bishop CA on US 395 North |
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| Gas station in Nevada. Looks like they trust their customers a lot! |
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| US 395 North - North of Reno Nevada |
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| CA 139 North - Modoc National Forest, California |
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| CA 139 North - Modoc National Forest - Border of California and Oregon |
November 27th - Crater Lake National Park
It was a sunny but cold morning. It took us about an hour to reach to Crater Lake from our hotel. The road was icy inside the park, but we were experts in driving on icy roads by this time. There were hardly 20 people in the park and most of them had snowshoes. We wanted to go to the highest point in the park, but the access road was closed for the season. This meant we had to walk 12 miles in knee deep snow to reach just trailhead. We decided to skip that plan. We didn't have snowshoes, but we still decided to explore the rim in knee deep snow around the lake. We got unobstructed views of the lake.
After hiking about 2.5 miles in knee deep snow, we called it a day.
We stayed at the same hotel in Klamath Falls.
November 28 - Drive to Sacramento
Another sunny morning. What more can we ask for.
We started driving south and merged on I5 south. We could see Mount Shasta right after we left Klamath Falls. This active statavolcano dominates the landscape of Southern Oregon and Northern California. Mount Shasta is southernmost point of Cascade volcanic mountain range and stands tall at 14,180 feet.
We decided to explore the views of mountain from Lake Siskiyou near Weed, California.
After a short hike around the lake, we started driving towards Sacramento.
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| View of Mount Shasta from I-5 South |
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| Mount Shasta from Lake Siskiyou |
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| Lake Siskiyou |
November 29th - Drive to home
Left Sacramento early to make home in time. Reached Gelndale California at 8pm.
Realized my car battery was dead and had to call the mechanic to get it jump started.
After getting it fixed, finally reached my home at 10pm.
This was end of an eventful road trip!
