Palo Alto--Death Valley--Las Vegas

NOTE:  This was the original plan, but the actual trip diverged from it quite a bit due to time constraints, knee problems, temperatures and winds.  The actual trip went down the central valley to Bakersfield, and a shorter route through Death Valley as well.  Once again I've failed in my goal to visit Kings Canyon.  Some day I'll try to put up something of my own trip report here, but for now you can look at Mike's report here.

Late March or early April, 2000. 700+ miles.

This is a rough plan for a week-long trip with Mike Vermeulen to be done Spring of 2000. The main attraction of the trip is Death Valley, and continuing a theme started with the 1999 Reno trip we'll end at Las Vegas. We want to go early enough so that it isn't too hot in Death Valley, which means by mid-April. However the earlier we go the greater the chance of cold and rain in other places. Also we might run into snow in some of the higher elevations.

I had originally wanted to go through Fresno and Kings Canyon on the Reno trip, but there wasn't enough time to start that far south. So I wanted to make sure to include them this time, and also go through Sequoia National Park. However the trip through Sequoia in particular (the bump near the 240 mile mark on the elevation profile) will probably be impossible as I'd guess there'd be snow at the elevations that road reaches. We may still be able to visit the tiny Grant Grove portion of Kings Canyon, but we'll probably have to bypass Sequoia. So right now this is sort of a fantasy idealized plan. We may also have to go further south, around Bakersfield, rather than past Isabella Lake. The planned dates and segments below are completely arbitrary and will doubtless change. We intend to just ride as far as comfortable each day without a specific destination, although from Lone Pine to Las Vegas might have to be more carefully planned as we'll probably need to make a reservation in Stovepipe Wells or Furnace Creek.

As the trip gets closer this information will be updated.

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