The scenery doesn't abate until you are past Gardnerville and into the expanding urban sprawl of the

Apparently most Americans recall Route 66 fondly, but I'm not one of them. I was a Route 66 baby. With divorced parents living in Chicago and Santa Fe, then Los Angeles, I spent summers doing shuttling along Route 66. To me it was a series of speed traps, tourist traps, fly traps, greasy spoons, and feeling ready-to-heave-nauseous in the back of a series of family wagons crawling across a mostly boring, flat landscape. When the arrival of interstate highways turned Route 66 into a two-day trip (Santa cheap tickets to hawaii Fe to Chicago) and disconnected the drive from the little towns that did everything they could to divert you to spend money, I viewed the change as a huge leap forward.
The more remote and much lesser-known #151but much more scenic cheap tickets to hawaii #151road that intrigued me was U.S. 395, which ran north-south through eastern California, Oregon, and Washington states, dipping into western Nevada near Reno along the way. Unlike Route 66, which ran to the west, Highway 395 ran through the west #151and a pretty remote section of it. I was first introduced to Highway 395 in the early 1950s, when my mother spent six weeks in Reno to establish Nevada residency for a quickie divorce. We took overnight trips down to Yosemite cheap tickets to hawaii and up into Oregon (which, I later realized, meant the divorce was never actually legal, since my mother left Nevada and didn't actually meet the legal requirements for the residency required to get that divorce).
On those trips I discovered cheap tickets to hawaii a road that was fun to travel, even from the back seat of a smoke-filled Ford wagon. The scenery on the area we traveled was spectacular, with soaring, rugged mountains, cheap tickets to hawaii roaring rivers, lakes, and fresh-smelling pine forests. Except perhaps for the area around Reno, I don't recall much traffic cheap tickets to hawaii or tourist attractions.
I ride 395 between Los Angeles and Reno fairly frequently, but I had never followed the road north beyond the Nevada stretch. Looking at a map, which showed the northern section running through remote areas, it seemed like it was time to do that.
Before I hit the road, I did a little research. I remembered 395 running from San Diego up past San Bernadino (east of Los Angeles). These days that southern section has been overrun by interstate 15 after being realigned a few times. ( Cameron Kaiser has a website that traces the history and changes of this southern section of the now defunct southern section of 395.) I spent a day exploring the remnants of this former 395. It's a tangled series of streets cheap tickets to hawaii from its original southern cheap tickets to hawaii terminus in downtown San Diego, but once out of town, it is sometimes a nice alternative to the interstate, which it criss-crosses, sometimes above, sometimes below, like my dog when we go for a walk in the hills.
These days U.S. 395 starts north from Hesperia, northeast of LA at I-15. It heads off north across the Mojave desert, past various military airfields—George AFB, Edwards AFB, and the China Lake Naval Weapons Testing Center. If you ride this section, watch the skies for some the exotic military aircraft in the area, because this 100 miles or so desert landscape is pretty dull. But also keep your eyes open for traffic on this section of two-lane, which has a bad history of fatal accidents because you often can't see approaching traffic. Don't give up though, the scenery improves cheap tickets to hawaii quickly north of where 395 intersects California 14 coming up from the southwest. After passing the Hubcap Capital of the World, Pearsonville , you enter the Owens Valley, the deepest valley in North America and one of the most scenic places in the state. To the west the Sierra Nevada range forms a nearly impassable barrier. Your next chance to cross it comes about 150 miles north at Yosemite. There are more ways to cross the Whites, the range that forms the east wall of the Owens Valley, roads that take you to Death Valley and Nevada.
The Owens Valley is one of California's cheap tickets to hawaii playgrounds. My mother preferred mountains to beaches, so we came up here many weekends after we moved to Los Angeles. Back then, 395 was all two lanes. Now much of the road south of Yosemite is four lanes. The attractions of the Owens Valley are the same as then: fishing in the lakes and creeks, snow sports, hiking, camping, off-roading, or just looking at the scenery. cheap tickets to hawaii Coming from the south, you can get a sense of the Valley's history as you come upon the huge Owens Dry Lake . Less than a century ago, it was a real lake, but then Los Angeles tapped the Valley as a source of water, and sucked the lake dry. Recently a program to cut down the dust blowing from the dry lake has forced cheap tickets to hawaii the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to use some its precious water to keep the lake bed moist.
The Valley was cut by the Owens River, which is fed by streams running out of the mountains, most from the west. Each creek has a meandering road that follows it up to a trailhead, with campsites, fishing holes, and head-turning along the way. Many of these creeks also gave rise to small towns along 395. If you spend the night in the area, ride up one of these roads after dark, and find a dark place to discover a few hundred thousand more stars than you are probably used to seeing.
The first real town you come to is Lone Pine. In the early to mid 20th century, the area around Lone Pine, particularly the Alabama Hills, which lie between the highway and the Sierra range, was a popular setting for western movies. It's still used occasionally for contemporary, and the Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum cheap tickets to hawaii of Lone Pine Film History holds a film festival every fall. West of town you can see Mount Whitney, which at 14,494 feet, is the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states. If you want to spend most of the day, there is a trailhead west of town at Whitney Portal and the trail will take you to the top—if it doesn't literally take your breath away.
If you want another opportunity to feel insignificant, ride east out of Big Pine on route 168 to the crest of the Whites and visit the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest . There you'll meet the oldest living things on the planet, gnarled cheap tickets to hawaii little prehistoric pines, some almost 50 centuries old. Even if you don't want to ponder your own impermanence, the winding, plunging road is a sure way to feel very alive.
Bishop is the unofficial capital of the Owens Valley, the biggest town on Highway 395 south of Reno (with the only motorcycle shops ). At about 4000 feet altitude, Bishop is accessible from the south by motorcycle almost all year, with just a few days when snow sticks during the winter. But 20 minutes west of town, you can be at 9000 feet, to escape from the high desert's summer heat. Erick Schat's Bakkery is a favorite snacking or lunch spot here. For dinner, Whiskey Creek is a favorite for elegant fare.
For many Southern Californians, Bishop cheap tickets to hawaii is just a wide, slow place in the road that goes to Mammoth Lakes . Mammoth is a ski and outdoor-sports town about 45 miles north of and over 3000 feet above Bishop. If you have been sweltering in the desert heat, as I was in August, the climb will deliver you to cooler air. You should probably gas up before leaving Bishop, unless you plan on taking the short side trip to Mammoth, since the next gas actually on 395 is over 55 miles away. In fact, between here and Washington, you'll frequently encounter long stretches with no gas, and if you have a bike with less than 150 miles range, you might want to carry a jug of gas.
If you prefer roads that wind, consider taking the back way up the hill to Mammoth. Hang a left at the Rovana sign just before you start up the long hill, then make an immediate right on to the old, winding road through Paradise and along Rock Creek. It returns to 395 before you reach Crowley Lake , former home of some record-size cheap tickets to hawaii trout, which lies just east of the highway. Shortly after that you may want to take a brief detour cheap tickets to hawaii left to take a gander at jewel-like Convict Lake, though the lakes of Mammoth Lakes, a couple cheap tickets to hawaii of miles further up 395, offer some spectacles of their own. Like Bishop, Mammoth has distraction that can occupy you for a day or two if you want to stay. If you have a dual=purpose bike, you could fill an entire week riding in the Owens Valley.
A bit north of Mammoth you'll come to the turnoff for the June Lake Loop , which will add about 10 minutes and a lot of awe to your ride. I strongly recommend this side trip, which offers spectacular vistas and brings you back to 395 just in time to catch your first glimpse of Mono Lake , another natural wonder. ("Mono" means "beautiful" in Piute.) cheap tickets to hawaii As you reach the lake's south shore at Lee Vining, you also come to Route 120, the turn-off for Yosemite National Park , a great ride even if you don't go into the park. If you do, allow at least a day.
My ride wasn't really about stopping cheap tickets to hawaii to smell the roses, though. I just wanted to keep moving through the stunning scenery and great scents. And, after the Yosemite turnoff, traffic thinned out further.
Continuing on up 395, around Mono Lake, you climb to another 8100-foot ridge, which offers a great view back to the Mono basin before starting back down past the turn-off for Bodie , a well preserved, photogenic ghost town that's worth a visit if you don't mind a few miles on a gravel road. The last real town before your reach Nevada is Bridgeport, the Mono county seat. I'm told that it was once the seat of a different county—in Nevada #151before the original surveying was checked. It is not the only example of confusion caused by surveying along 395. There are chances to turn both east and west around Bridgeport, and after Route 108 (leading to Sonora Pass, another cheap tickets to hawaii fun road) sucks some more traffic away, the road is nearly deserted as it meanders along the Walker cheap tickets to hawaii River toward Nevada. You cross into Nevada about 50 miles after Bridgeport. Aptly named Topaz Lake covers the state line next to the highway as you cross.
The scenery doesn't abate until you are past Gardnerville and into the expanding urban sprawl of the Carson Cit