California Rte 74 travels from Palm
Desert at an altitude of 220ft
above sea level to the village of Idyllwild
at 5413ft, in a driving distance of 37 miles.
Much of the drive is through the Santa Rosa
and San Jacinto Mountains
National Monument, which was
established by Act of Congress in 2000 as a result of a community partnership,
to preserve the area for future generations.
We start at the Visitor
Center, viewing a movie that
explains why, and how the Monument was created.
National Park videos have been know to put me to sleep, but this one,
although 40 minutes long, is fascinating and I see all of it. There are many hiking trails that would be
fun to take, but for today we decide to drive the Palms to Pines
Highway, as Rte 74 is known.
We start in the Mohave Desert,
surrounded by cacti and succulents, but soon after leaving the Visitor
Center we drive (the car) around a
series of switchbacks, quickly gaining altitude. We stop a few times, sometimes to enjoy
breathtaking vistas, other times to let people who for some reason want to race
along, do so. Soon the vegetation starts
to change. First some Pinon pines, then
juniper and finally into the ponderosa pine country.
At one point we take a 20 mile round trip detour as a result
of a very confusing road sign, passing through the small community (and valley)
of Anza. Fortunately I realize our
mistake before we reach I-15 which would take us to San
Diego! So we
get to see Anza twice, which is quite enough for one lifetime. The detour was scenic, though.
Back on the correct road we finally reach Idyllwild and stop
at the first restaurant we see to get some lunch. Unfortunately it has just closed, but we're
out of the car long enough to realize that in traveling from 220ft above sea
level to over 5400ft, there's a considerable temperature drop, and shorts and a
polo shirt are no longer appropriate!
We drive into Idyllwild, which turns out to be a cute little
"alpine" town and pop into a coffee shop whose kind owner asks us
what we want for lunch and offers to direct us to the appropriate place. We opt for burgers and end up with a chilly
walk of a few blocks to the Lumber Mill, only number 9 on Trip Advisor but
number 1 for us. An unpretentious dining
room with friendly waitresses and a menu featuring 20 different burgers
including the "Paul Bunyan", featuring 5 lbs of meat. ($55, or free
if you can eat it all in 45 minutes!)
I settle for the Ortega, cooked medium rare as ordered, and
featuring Ortega chilies and pepper jack cheese along with grilled onions,
served with a lettuce wrap instead of a bun (at my request) and accompanied by
a huge helping of crispy french fries.
Vicky chooses the San Francisco,
also with pepper jack cheese along with avocado, lettuce and tomato, on a
sourdough bun, along with a decent side salad.
A tent card on the table advertises a luscious sounding
creme brulee type dessert which we choose to share, and it lives up to the description. Thus fortified, we brave the mountain air one
more time to return to the car.
Idyllwild is also home to a Thousand Trials campground which
Vicky chose not to visit as it looks to be in the greater Los
Angeles area on the map. Since we're here, we drop in and take a drive
around. We conclude that it would be a
great place to spend a couple of weeks, but there are two caveats. None of the sites would be easy to get into
with our motor home, and we definitely wouldn't want to drive the RV over the
switchbacks we traversed coming up from Palm
Desert (although clearly people
do!).
Rather than retrace our route we opt for the slightly longer
but much faster road, down to Banning and then along I-10 back to the RV
park. This is a little more RV friendly
but, as the lady in the resort put it, however you get to Idyllwild you have to
rise 5000 feet in 30 or 40 miles so it's going to be steep and twisty. Vicky is convinced we shouldn't attempt it
and she's probably right, but I have a feeing, based on our detour through
Anza, that coming from that direction would be less hairy.
Anyway we get back to the cats with no problem and heed
their pleas for sustenance, That is, we
feed them!
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