Tag Archives: highway 70

Kennedy Meadows and Sonora Pass

In years past I’ve gone to Silverfork off highway 50 for Memorial Day weekend. That was back when I was younger and didn’t care about sitting in stop-and-go traffic for 8 hours to get home. These days I’m much more likely to stay home on holiday weekends. But Sonora Pass called to me…

Sonora Pass is the second highest highway overpass in the Sierra Nevada. It’s also the last one on my list. Yum and I have traversed highways 120 4 88 50 80 70 and now 108. More red ink for our map of California! (we have a map on our wall at home with red ink tracing all the major roads we’ve traveled together)

First we stopped at Kennedy Meadow Resort. It’s a nice little place tucked away in a corner not far from the main road. There is a general store, a restaurant, a bar and many cabins and campsites by the river. About 15 minutes walk up the trail and over the hill is the huge meadow. The river flows alongside the meadow, and looks to be PERFECT for fly fishing. The water was a little high this trip, but in about four weeks it should be JUST RIGHT! I’ll be back.

Yum and I explored this area for a few hours and then continued our journey up highway 108, ever closer to Sonora Pass. Lightning arced across the sky and thunder BOOMED and echoed across the canyons and mountaintops. It began to rain pretty hard. The road became narrower and windier, and the rain turned to snow. Snow! This close to June? Yes.

It’s always amazing to me how unique and distinguishable the environment changes as I drive one of these highway overpasses. In the central valley it’s flat and hot and you mostly just see weeds and cows and farms. As you get close to the foothills of the Sierras the terrain becomes rocky and flat plateaus scatter the landscape among the plentiful oak trees and black volcanic rocks. As you climb higher you begin to see more pine trees and less oak trees. At around 5,000 feet it’s almost all pine trees and the weeds are long gone. At about 8,000 feet the trees are starting to thin out a bit and that beautiful high Sierra granite can be blinding in places. Above 8,000 feet is my favorite part of the mountains–up here it’s quieter and there are less people and the scenery is the most spectacular. On the way down the eastern side of the Sierras–no matter where it is, it’s extremely steep and jagged–there is a noticeable absence of trees and vegetation in general. As it flattens out again I’m in the high desert, and it’s hot and dry and dusty and… desert-y. And that’s pretty much how each highway goes, from west to east. And I love every inch of it.

So then. Once in the eastern Sierras Yum and I turned north on highway 395. After a quick detour on highway 89 we reached highway 50, where we drove down to Placerville and stopped at the Red Hawk Casino. Yum found $20 on the ground and was so excited she peed her pants. OK, not really. But she was super excited. She’s so cute! I love that little Yum =)

And then we went home.

Click here for pictures from our trip!

Lake Almanor and Deer Creek

Yum does this funny thing with her fingers, “air quotes”, every time the subject of “camping” comes up. She doesn’t think that I camp. Or rather, she doesn’t think that I’ll ever take her camping. So I decided to fix that.

Last Wednesday morning we loaded up the Yaris and left Vacaville along the road to fun.

We drove up 80 and 99 to highway 70. Then we drove all the way up the Feather River canyon on highway 70 to where it intersects with 89. Then we drove along 89, made a quick stop to hike down to Indian Falls, then drove through Indian Valley to the 147 junction, and then to Lake Almanor.

Ahhh, Lake Almanor. The best place in northern California to watch raptors swoop and hunt. Bald Eagles and Osprey can be seen snatching trout in their talons. Or so I’ve been told–didn’t see any this trip. Bald Eagles, that is.

We camped on the northern shore, just a few miles from the city of Chester. Our campsite was *right* on the shoreline. We angled the entrance of our tent to have a beautiful view of Mt Lassen in the morning. Thank you North Shore campground, your facilities are top-notch.

After setting up our tent and sleeping stuffs we drove into Chester for a snack. Chester is the land that time forgot. There are no corporate entities in this town, save for a Chevron and Union 76 gas station. No McDonalds, no WalMart. From all appearances this place hasn’t changed since the ’50s–and that’s a good thing. Chester is one of those quaint little mountain towns where little things like community and helping your neighbor are still important.

Yum and I had a burger and a shake at the Pine Shack Frosty on the main strip. Dee-lish. Then I took Yum to my favorite fishing spot near the intersection of highways 32 and 36.

Yum must have caught 20 fish–way more than I did. I fly fished the entire time. I knocked ’em dead with my dry flies. There was a nice hatch going on, and I was busy slapping my line down on the water and catching nice rainbows–whooping and hollering with every trout I caught. We kept a couple for dinner.

So, Yum decides that she’s just going to throw the fish on the coals to cook them. What? Are you crazy? You’re going to ruin the fish, Yum! I wanted to say that, anyway. I’ll just keep my mouth shut, and when she ruins the fish she’ll learn her lesson and I’ll get to smile and cook them in aluminum foil next time.

But a funny thing happened–the fish came out perfect. Yum lifted those trout off the coals and peeled the crispy skin/scales back off the meat and revealed perfectly cooked and seasoned trout. Crow, oops, I mean trout, never tasted so good.

And now I beg Yum to cook our fish her way. Good ol’ Yum =) But I digress…

After dinner we made S’mores. Yum has never had S’mores! Yum doesn’t know the goodness of S’mores! Poor Yum. All those wasted years…

In the morning we broke camp and headed into town. We had some coffee at a nice little place and checked our email on the free wifi. Then we headed over to the Kopper Kettle for some breakfast. Then we drove back to upper Deer Creek for some more fishing. Yum knocked ’em dead, catching a lot of fish. We kept 3 for dinner–3 big, beautiful rainbow trout.

We took 32 back to Chico. I felt a little homesick as we drove through my old stomping grounds. Ahhh, Chico… good times, good memories.

No trip through Chico is complete without a stop at Burger Hut. And then, sadly, we drove home.

And so here we are, the end of my post. And here are the pictures from our trip =)