roadtrip '06 - hitting the road (day 1)...

So I'm driving south on 395, a two-lane highway from the get-go and starts from the end of Virginia Street and takes me through what seems to be every rinky-dink town, including Carson City and Gardenerville. As a kid growing up in and around Reno, I thought I knew the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I was wrong. For example, here's Peavine Mountain, just outside of Stead:


[click on pictures to enlarge]

Not bad, not a hill, not Everest, but a mountain. But check out the view from the road, that is 395 South, and see how it looks the further you go:



This one was just south of Carson City, I'm just getting started. I noticed the sky was getting a bit dark as I drove:



and here...



and here...



What's more, the mountains started moving closer to the road:



And then the weather relented:



and the mountains started getting bigger:



I understood later that it was about this time I crossed over into California, although I didn't see any welcoming sign, and I began to see what the big t'do about the Sierra Nevadas was; you drive around any curve or for a mile and a half, and you'd meet up with spectacle:



after spectacle:



Of course, this was before I turned on the Tioga Pass Road, the road that would take me to Yosemite National Park. And as you can see, the view from this road wasn't too shabby either:



and here...



and here:



You see by the last one that I was high up into the mountains. Nephew J. says Yosemite Valley is at about 4,000 feet above sea level, but during the drive I was as high up as 9,000 feet.

From DC to Yosemite in 24 hours, a long and glorious day.