When you enter California, the golden state, from the Sierra Nevada mountain range most time of the year there is a real winter wonderland to see. Lake Tahoe shines like an emerald within the glittering icicles of the mountains. A closer look gives you the opportunity to notice ski lifts and block huts within deep snow covered woods. In the valley below there are lots of hotels, motels and appartements which looks a bit like a conglomerate between an old western town and the City of Las Vegas. Here you are allowed to gamble day and night and the hotels are not expensive at all.
On the way south the landscape becomes more arid, the roads are covered with dust and several ghost towns lie at your way. Mono Lake is one of the natural wonders to explore. The treks to the west which in former times discovered this lake were terribly gutted, because the water is unswallowable due to the bitter salts. Only during summer you can travel from Lee Vining into Yosemite National Park because the snow in the Sierra is so high that most of the passes are blocked until May ore June. Yosemite is worth to spend month within. Many a time this valley has been used as scenery for motion picture. A must for an overnight stay is the Ahwahnee, a world-class lodging experience which has hosted many celebrities as well as the Queen of England. The big redwood trees are not only to be found in Yosemite, but the biggest one is located not far away in Mariposa National Park. Further in the west you have to cross the Sacramento Joaquin Valley, a huge orchard with orange, lemon, grapefruit and peach trees. The crossing of the Coast Range seems to be a trip through the dessert and the past. Abandoned houses and rolling bushes over the road are very spooky in the solitude of this grassland before you reach the Pacific Ocean on its most marvellous site - Monterey Bay. The deep blue and cold water with extraordinary animals like sea otters and whales is a refreshment of its own.
