China Lake, Barstow, and Las Vegas
Most of today was spent in the car. The morning was spent on an excitingly scenic highway (CA 178) eastward out of Bakersfield. A short stay in China Lake touring the Museum and we were back on the highway (US 395 this time) heading toward Las Vegas
We made an early departure from the hotel in Bakersfield and drove through McDonald’s to get breakfast sandwiches, then hopped onto California 178. The Rand-McNally atlas designates this as a "scenic" drive and it surely is. As we approached Walker Pass, I noticed all the semi-trucks and motor homes were pulled off on one side of the road. They appeared to be waiting for something. As we started through the pass, I could see why those big (tall?) vehicles might not just charge merrily up the highway. The road passed very close to rock outcroppings which seemed to lean toward the roadway about 8 feet up. I wonder if they get an escort through the pass and all oncoming traffic held back so that they don’t have to worry about staying in the one lane. Maybe I’ll do some research on that.
The first 20 miles or so was only 2 lanes wide. The Kern River was to our left and the rock face close upon our right shoulder. We used the turnouts a couple of times to let impatient drivers come around and kept to a most sensible pace along the winding road.
"Scenic" is an understatement. The river ran swiftly along across an extremely rocky bed. The mountains were rocky — not with sharp edges like the Colorado Rocky Mountains, but well-worn rounded rocks jutting out. The mountains were so rocky that there was little in the way of vegetation covering them. Some grasses and wildflowers, but no larger plants — bushes and trees.
At one overlook, I noticed a dam (probably earthen) across the river. So, I grabbed the camera and snapped off a couple of shots. 
I didn’t notice until later that the dam was in the shadow of the cliff. It was still pretty early in the morning.
Toward the end of the road, we came to the Lake Isabella area.
