US Trip -2016.
On Friday the 5th of August we went to Los Angeles to visit Pomona College as part of the effort to screen institutions for admission for Neil, our grandson,next year for graduate programme. Pomona college is the founding member of the Claremont Consortium of 5 colleges and 2 graduate schools on neighbouring campuses. This is a private institution of repute in Pasadena in Los Angeles. We were taken around with other similar visitors after a short briefing by a professor in a beautiful music hall. Smart students from previous batches were assigned for every group of 10 visitors to be taken around the campus. The college we visited, limit each batches of classes to 15 or 20. The students can also choose to join new areas of study, art, music etc. according to their taste and available time. The air conditioned multi storey residential building was well appointed, with 2 kitchens to serve food 12 hours every day.We also were taken to some of the fWe were very impressed with the facilities. Being a private institute it is expensive. We stayed overnight in LA.
Kings Canyon National Park.California.
The next day we visited Kings Canyon National Parks, in Sierra Mountains in California. It was a 6 hour drive with ½ hour break for lunch at Bakersfield. The drive was through some fine 4 and 6 lane roads. From around Bakersfield, the drive was through the great western valley with the largest and the best agricultural farms of fruits, nuts, large dairy and cattle farms. We were driving through 2 lane roads through farms for another hour till we reached the Sierra mountain foothills. Endless fields of orange, apple, plum, peaches,olives, pomegranates, lemons, avocados, almonds, pistachio farms, on either side were all on drip irrigation with fertigation facility and trained for mechanical harvesting. I was told that more than ½ the world's production of Pistachios are from USA.
The 2 lane mountain road for the last 50 miles were also excellent and drivers were all well disciplined. As we reached the top,there were tall cedar trees including the 3rd tallest tree in the world. There were very large number of visitors on the weekend and the parking areas were crowded. You could use the free shuttle service to go to different locations to reduce the traffic on the roads. We decided to use the car as we wanted to go to the great Cedar Grove far down the great KIngs River Canyon. We got very late and could get back to an agricultural town called Visalia in the valey by only 10pm for our night stay. We were driving nearly 9 hours on the road from 9 am.
Sequoia National Park.California.
Sunday morning we left for the Sequoia National park, again through some fine farming areas and climbed the Sierra mountains through excellent mountain roads from the southern side. The national park had many visitors being a Sunday and we had to use free shuttle service to reach key locations. The Giant Sequoia forest was on our way. We passed through the road going between 2 large sequoia trees on our way up and another 2 trees on our way back next to the first two. The large sequoia trees grow only on the western slopes of Sierra mountains. We had to take a shuttle to see the largest tree in the world, a giant Sequoia tree called General Grant Tree. It has the largest mass of 1300 m tons, It has lost its top and is still 165 ft tall now and is growing in girth. It is about 24 ft around at middle. One branch from top fell off in 2007 which no one could witness. There are some tall fallen tree trunks with 10ft wide hollow through which people could walk 100 feet or more and come out on the other side. We had to leave the park by 5pm as we had a 6 hour drive back to Las Vegas. We were driving through fine farms for almost 2 hours before we reached the mountain pass to the east of Sierra mountains. We reached home in LV by 11/30 with a short break for food on our way back.
I was most impressed by the way the large National Parks of about 600 to 1000 sq kms of forest areas, are maintained with excellent road system.There are many visitor centres with toilets, food, information including video shows and exhibits.There is a large Forest Museum for the visitors. There are many parking lots at important locations. The National park area, particularly the Kings Canyon, has hundreds of picnic and camping sites with access to water and sanitation. Frequent free shuttle service is available to important locations from 7 am to 6 pm each day. The large number of visitors and campers keep the place tidy and use the many garbage disposal bins which are Bear proof.You can not see any litter around. This is an exemplary lesson for us to learn how to make use and manage a natural resource,make it available for public to enjoy and cherish.
This was an unforgettable once a lifetime experience to see some wonderful places on our Earth with our son Sunil, Preethi his wife and Neil his young son. I consider it a great Blessing an amazing grace by God to see the beautiful nature and appreciate it's glory.
The Great Basin National Park. 12 to 14/08/2016.
We left by road for visiting the The Great Basin National Park in north Nevada near a small town called Ely about 240 miles north of Las Vegas through some very fine highways in a valley often going up and down from 3000 ft to 7000 ft. It takes only 4 hours of driving.
The Cathedral Gorge State Park. 12/08/2016.
On our way we stopped near a small farming town called Pioche, about 150 miles away, to see the Cathedral Gorge State Park. It is a large gorge formed by erosion over a very long period, in the form of church spires and many caves. It is a wonderful site and can be viewed from different points of the park. In all such parks they have provided camping, picnic facilities with rest rooms, car parking and look out points for visitors.
The Town Of Ely. 12/08/2016.
The town of Ely was an old copper mining centre and at present serve as a launch pad for tourists visiting the Great Basin National Park, about 60 miles away. The beautiful town has broad roads, many motels, small hotels and different kinds of restaurants. It maintains a short rail line with a station, and a rail museum. Admission fee is US $ 8/- per adult. A few steam and diesel engines, one A/c chair car and a goods wagon, all of which are about 100 years old are maintained in good working condition. These are used for regular rides of 1 ½ hours at a fee of $31- per adult . It can also be hired by groups for a trip or for specific events in time periods. The evening trip of 14 miles and return includes Italian dinner at a cost of US $59/-per adult. A ride with the engineer in the cabin will cost about $800-.
The Great Basin.
The Hydrographic Great Basin is a 2,00,000 sq mile area with all the water drained within the basin. No water flows out into any sea. It is formed by geological forces pushing up the earth`s crust forming many north south mountains with a very large valleys or basins with elevations ranging from 2500 ft to 7000 ft with some mountain peaks of 13000 ft .The Great Basin is between California's Sierra Nevada Mountains and Utah`s Wasatch Mountains. It has a wide range of plant, animal and geological features as the elevation change. The basin had more water and was used a long time back by nomadic natives rearing sheep, cattle and hunting. In the near past some 700 years ago, American indian natives called Fremont's, and later Shoshone and Paiutes lived until recently near the springs and water sources near present small towns called Baker and Garrison, near the Snake Range east of the Wheeler Peak (13063 ft). This is near the well preserved Lehman Caves near Baker creek. This area has the wide variety of plants, animals, cliffs, creeks and mountains and is where the Great Basin National Park is located. This Great Basin is the only cold desert in the North American Continent.
Visit to the Great Basin National Park.
The day we arrived the National Park had two raging forest fires near the main Wheeler Peak Overlook and Mather Overlook and the paved roads were blocked for public from the Lower Lehman Creek. We could watch from a distance three Helicopters, dozens of Fire engines and 100s of fire fighters and rangers trying to control the fire. We had to be content with visits to the Great Basin Visitor Centre, Lehman Cave Visitor Centre and later long drive through paved and unpaved snake creek and Baker creeks. These creeks have many picnic and camping facilities from where many trekking trails lead you to many parts of the park and scenic spots inaccessible by vehicles. The closed boxes with paper and pad kept for trekkers, should be used for recording the details of people going in and out of each trails.Most campers come in their RVs (Trailer Homes) or camping tents, gears and adequate water.There are only limited availability of water and toilets (Restroom) facilities in the more remote areas of this Park compared to the ones we visited earlier. We had lunch at the Lehman Cave Visitor Centre, where all facilities are available. We could also learn much about the Great Basin from the displays and movies at the Great Basin Visitor Centre. We could not go up to see the 4000 to 5000 years old live Bristlecone Pines growing at above 10000 ft altitude . We could see a young one growing near the Visitor Centre. They grow among crevices of rocks, very slowly at high altitude in short growing season, with limited soil and water. Their needle leaf lives up to 40 years. They can stand around for around 1000 years even after they die, due to high gum content and cold climate. Proof of the one of it's kind Great Basin Glacier could be seen. The snake range became an island surrounded by desert, it`s elevation giving temperate climate dwellers cooler refuge.The desert basins were rigid barriers and isolated species developed unique adaptations like in ocean islands.
The Lehman Caves. 14/08/2016.
We had booked for a conducted tour of the Lehman Caves in the National Park. The caves are just behind the Visitor Centre near the small town of Baker near the Great Basin National Park in the Snake Range. It is a quarter mile underground tunnel into the limestone and marble that flank the mountains. It is named after the rancher Mr.Lehman who first explored it in 1885. There is evidence of its being used by american indian natives long before. It is well preserved now and many batches of visitors are taken in small batches each day by trained rangers. The narrow and mainly dark tunnel with many naturally formed stone galleries goes down and up underground at different levels. It is now paved and lit. The formation of sediments over many many years of slow action of minerals in water are in many amazing shapes,colors and sizes. Water is dripping slowly even in the dry season now and is more when there is more moisture in the soil above. It is cold underground and you need warm clothing. There are many places with built in steps, ladders and hand railings( the metal railings are very cold). It takes about one hour to go from one end and exit at the other end. There are few openings to the outside through narrow long tunnels which allow very little natural light inside. The bats enter and exit through them and use the tunnels as their residence. We also learned that a firefighter from Las Vegas was killed in the forest fire fighting effort the previous day and the National Flag was at half mast.
Spring Creek Rearing Station.
We made a short visit to the Trout Rearing Station at Spring Creek and was able to see how very large number of fingerlings of Bonneville Cutthroat Trouts were being reared for release in the Snake Range. This mountain range includes Mt.Moriah in the north and Mt.Wheeler in the south with 40 miles of perennial streams and one alpine lake. This species is native to this area and has the best chance for survival at different water conditions in these creeks. This is done to facilitate recreational fishing in the Snake Range. This breeding centre use many long metal tanks side by side with water flowing down to the next level in a long series of tanks. They sanitise the creeks by clearing them of invasive species of fishes by closing the creeks to the public for 2 days(15th and 16th Aug.) before they introduce the fingerlings of trouts.
Pahranagat National Wildlife refuge.
We stopped briefly at a roadside wildlife refuge on our way back about 100 miles before Las Vegas near a small town called Alamo. It is mainly a bird sanctuary with picnic areas, hiking trails, boating and limited hunting, around a lake. We stopped mainly to use the restrooms and was impressed by the clean facilities .
We returned home by 7/30 pm on Sunday evening and enjoyed the 3 days of travel through some fine roads and National Park facilities.
IKEA Show Room Las Vegas.
The Swedish company selling furniture, household goods and appliances in many countries around the world has large, well designed very large show rooms displaying new designs and ideas. We visited one of their show rooms in Las Vegas. They display new ideas and concepts about home furnishing with models of homes and bed rooms, drawing rooms, KItchen, work areas etc of various sizes and designs, which customers can walk through and handle. The products are all in prepacked cartons in knocked down conditions, which can be assembled at home. Wide variety of furnishings and most building materials are also available. It takes at least half day to go around the showroom. Your orders will be delivered in pre packed cartons, if they are large.Most people take them in their own vehicles and some with very large consignments make use of their delivery service at a small cost. Added attraction is a restaurant with reasonable variety of food inside the showroom and most people eat there as the prices are reasonable.We spent half day and had lunch there. This was a new experience for us. I understand that this company is opening such show rooms also in India.
Red Rock Canyon-Las Vegas.
We made a short trip to the Red Rock Canyon ,about half hour drive from Las Vegas. This is a small mountain with beautiful red rock formation with a one way road drive with many lookout points, walking trails and cycling tracks. The area has wild horses, donkeys called Burroughs, deer, coyotes,rabbits and some wild birds. Being hot season with 100 f temperature it is difficult for us to spend much time during day time There are many people using this facility all day by road in vehicles, bikes or hiking into the mountain trails which are well marked but difficult to walk.
We went for a hike one evening after 4/30pm when it was still warm. We could only walk an hour and half on a trail into the mountain and decided to return without completing the 2 ½ hour hike through a rocky path, as it was getting dark at 7/30pm. It was a difficult walk but was very enjoyable through the mountain path enjoying the beautiful sceneries and nature.
Henderson Bird Preserve.
We visited a well maintained bird preserve, maintained by the Henderson Water Authority in the middle of the City next to their water recycling plant. All the used water of the city is collected and recycled in this plant and reused. Eight tanks with bunds with walkways, viewing galleries and vegetation provide shelter for mostly water birds like wild ducks, many kinds of storks, some land birds like partridges, quails and wild rabbits. It has vegetation both land and water plants in and around the ponds.There is a visitor centre with pictures and information on the local birds and animals with preserved models of many. They also provide pictorial leaflets with maps to guide the visitors. Though it was a hot morning we could see many birds and enjoyed the visit.
We enjoyed visiting some of these National Parks and well maintained tourist attractions during our short 40 days stay in Las Vegas from end of July 2016 to beginning of September.
Our visit was for the wedding of our second son Isaac George (Sajay) end of July. It was another amazing grace, finding a suitable 42 year old partner at age 47 from our own community, and to conduct the wedding in a beautiful resort in Malayalam in Mar Thoma Syrian Christian order of worship ,followed by a grand reception for about 150 persons.
We are grateful to almighty God for all the Amazing Grace that was granted to us. A more detailed narrative is recorded of the wedding elsewhere.
K.George John, Tiruvalla. 2016
Editted 10/2018
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