Outdoors with Don Q: Escaping Carson City in the wintertime

For several years, Elaine and I have fled Carson City for a short time in the month of January or February to escape the cold, snow and ice of our area in the wintertime. This year was no exception, except, sadly, there is no snow.

We had been invited to be guests at the home of my cousin Lorraine and her husband Bob Scholes of Dayton, who spend the winter months in Indio, Calif.
If you, too, would like to temporarily escape winter in Carson City for the next couple of months, here is what we did:

Carson City to Lone Pine:
On Tuesday, January 14, we loaded up our vehicle and took off for Indio. Our first stop was at the restaurant at the Topaz Lodge and Casino at Topaz Lake, where (in my less-than-humble opinion) they have the world's best steak and eggs breakfast, bar none, anywhere at any time. Try it, you won't go wrong. Then after breakfast we drove toward our overnight destination of Lone Pine.

At Bridgeport, if you needed gasoline, it was an eye-popping $4.79 a gallon! Special Note: On our trips south, we fill up in Carson City and gas up in Lone Pine and Kramer Jct. Coming home, we gas up in Indio, Kramer Jct. and Lone Pine.

On this trip, the Sierra Nevada Mountains contained only a tiny amount of snow (19% of normal), due to our current drought conditions, rather than their normal deep, smooth-looking snowfields. Even the north end of the June Lake Loop Highway was open, which is highly unusual for this time of the year.

At Sherwin Summit, we dropped into the warmer Owens Valley and, wow, what a change. Things were green and it was delightfully warm. Finally, after an uneventful drive, we arrived in Lone Pine at about 2:30 p.m.

On our eight-hour trips to Southern California, we always plan to go half-way to Lone Pine, spend the night and then leisurely coast in the following morning.

That way we avoid arriving in the San Bernardino, Palm Springs and Indio areas at the height of their afternoon rush hour traffic. It can be hectic! In Lone Pine, we stay at the Dow Villa Motel where the rooms are comfortable and reasonably priced.

Then, we take a short walk down the street to the "Merry Go Round" Chinese Restaurant for a great dinner (my favorite is sweet and sour pork with fried rice). The next morning before leaving Lone Pine, we walk across the street to the Alabama Hills Cafe and Bakery for a cup of coffee and a giant cinnamon roll.

If you do stay in Lone Pine, be sure to take the short drive to the west on the street that leads into the Alabama Hills for a spectacular view of the Sierra Nevada featuring Mt. Whitney (14,497').

Lone Pine to Indio:
Once we were back on the road, it was smooth sailing to Indio with clear weather all the way, although it was windy. Some of the highlights of this section of our trip were:

Virtually no traffic on U.S. 395 between Lone Pine and Kramer's Junction.
The mind-boggling number of big semis traveling through Kramer's on SR-58.
All of the stop-and-go traffic signals as you drive through the Adelanto area.
The increasingly heavier and heavier traffic, the further south you drive.
The countless wind turbines on the hillsides near Palm Springs.
Merging from U.S. 395 to I-15, from I-15 to I-215, from I-215 to I-10 (in very heavy traffic) and finally exiting on Jefferson Street in Indo.
Yahoo! We finally arrived after a total of eight hours of driving in two days.

In Indio:
The Scholes have a very comfortable home, overlooking the 16th tee of the golf course at their gated community known as Heritage Palms. We spent Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday with them, before reluctantly returning to Carson City on Sunday.
Some of the highlights of those days included:

Warm Weather features:
It was 75 degrees at 5:30 the night we arrived, and one day it got up to 88 degrees.
It was fun to wear hiking shorts, short socks and summer shirts every day.
Eating breakfast, lunch and dinner on the back patio, every evening.
Try that in Carson City at this time of the year.

Golfers at the 16th tee:
It was interesting to watch some of the golfers reactions when they hit their ball.
Some would hi-five each other when they hit a good drive, others would shake their heads when they sliced or hooked their drives, and one poor duffer sprayed his ball all over as he slowly hacked his way toward the 16th green.

Birds:
Many tiny hummingbirds constantly flitting around or fighting with each other at the feeder on the back patio. I had one hover right in front of my camera lens while I was taking photos of the golfers out on the course.
One roadrunner was a daily visitor to the back patio, looking for handouts, and Elaine got some great photos of him before he left. Wow, could he run.

Salton Sea:
On Thursday, the four of us took a sightseeing ride around the gigantic Salton Sea, which is just south of the Indio area. The Salton Sea is actually a shallow, saline lake (with an area of some 500 square miles, it is California's largest lake), at an elevation of 226 feet below sea level.
It is huge but slowly decreasing in size due to a shortage of incoming water.
Most interesting, its salinity is greater than the water in the Pacific Ocean.
On that ride, we took a drive through what is left of the community of Bombay Beach, which consists of mostly abandoned or run-down dwellings. Very sad.

Palm Springs Follies:
On Friday, we had reserved seats at the three-hour Palm Springs Follies, which should be high on everyone's "Bucket List," if you ever visit the Palm Springs area.
Sadly, this is the 23rd and final season of the Follies, which is held in the historic Plaza Theatre in downtown Palm Springs. Its final performance will be May 18.
It features Impresario Riff Markowitz, who has NEVER missed one of the 4,655 performances, and a cast of great singers and dancers, who, this year, range in age from a youngster of 54 to the oldest at 84. They are elderly but AWESOME!
The costumes, music, singing and dancing are spectacular.

Palm Springs Tram:
We took this ride last year and it is well worth the time and cost. The tram ride takes you from the Valley Station at an elevation of 2,643 feet all the way up to the Mountain Station at 8,516 feet. The capacity of each tram car is 80 people plus the operator, and each car slowly rotates 360 degrees twice during each ascent and descent during the 12,708 foot-long trip. Great photo ops!

The Mountain Station offers a gift shop, park visitor center, adventure center, Peaks Restaurant, Pines Café, the Lookout Lounge and Chino Canyon Balcony with spectacular views of the valley below.
For information call (888) 515-Tram or (760) 325-1391 or go here.

Finally:
Plan to take a short vacation trip to that Indio/Palm Springs area this year, before the heat of the summer arrives, you won't regret it. And, if you only have time for one special activity, plan to see the Palm Springs Follies, before their final show on May 18.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you the most unusual thing about our trip.
If he grins and says, "Don having fun picking grapefruit and lemons off trees to take home to relatives and friends," he could be someone who received the fruit.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com