Christmas Road Trip: Vegas to JTree

Day 1: Vegas!

So, after a few hours of short sport climbing at Red Rocks our big plans to spend a wild night in Vegas end up as passing out in our clothes on top of the sheets at the hotel lol.

Day 2: Death Valley

The road through Death Valley

The next morning we start our drive through Death Valley....miles and miles of road with nothing around but sand. Very cool!

Day 3 Bakersfield

Not much to say. Small town USA. Oilfields. This video says it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9knZxN4vUo

We drive to Sequoia National Park but are turned away at the gate. Apparently the roads were very unsafe due to avalanches ("the mountains comin' down!") and flooding. The ranger tells us that we could try driving 3 hours to another gate whose roads werent closed "YET," but that we wouldnt be allowed in unless we got snow chains. After some discussion we decide to cut our losses and head to LA.

Day 4: Castaic

We arrived in LA last night...drove to the Hollywood sign (which was turned off? boo!) and check out some of the million dollar homes then took a stroll down Hollywood Blvd and the Walk of Fame. The Walk of Fame stretches for miles, from nice, touristy areas to sketchy, ghetto areas. Sucks to be a celebrity with a star that a homeless person sleeps on....Did you know Lassie has its own Star?

The thing that most impressed me about Hollywood was all the different flavours of yogurt in the grocery store! Seriously: cinnamon bun, black forest cake, boston cream pie, apple turnover...I stocked up then we booked it out of LA to find a reasonably priced motel....which took us to Castaic, CA! 

Nothing to see here folks: Castaic consists of a strip of motels and trucker food stops.

Day 5-- Santa Monica and Joshua Tree

Today we head to the coast, checked out the beach and Santa Monica pier, then we swing around back towards LA and off to Joshua Tree National Park.

Looks like a sunny day :)