Our family loves road trips, long or short. They are a great way to see new places, and we can stop to eat, relax, or enjoy some special place any time we want. Most of the time, we like to travel in a comfortable SUV, big enough that it can carry whatever luggage (and cameras) we want, without feeling crowded.
So, when Hyundai USA recently offered us the chance to test drive its all-new 2020 Palisade, we gladly accepted! The Palisade is a big (three rows of seats, 8 passenger capacity), luxurious SUV, with all the bells and whistles we could want. We decided it would be perfect to drive on a road trip into the eastern High Sierra mountains to visit Mono Lake and Bodie, an old gold mining ghost town in a state of “arrested decay.” It was a perfect way to check out the Palisade, about a 700-mile round trip into mountains, forests, dirt roads, with a chance of snow!
When the Palisade was delivered to us, the first thing we did was check out its major features, looks, and comfort. It is a big vehicle, with a strong and attractive style; ours came in dark blue, with ivory leather interior. It looked elegant, and the seats were very comfortable, with excellent support – a pretty important consideration on a road trip! The seats also have both warmers and coolers in them, so they can be adjusted exactly how you like. We all admired the styling, both inside and outside – nothing too wild, but all very modern and tasteful. The instruments, climate, and entertainment system controls are all within reach of the front seat occupants, and are easy to figure out. The center console has two good, secure cup holders, which fits our style well – we love to “drink and drive,” but it is always coffee, tea, or juice, never alcohol!
When it came to loading the Palisade with our luggage for the trip, it was so easy. The rear cargo area opens with a touch of the remote, and the third row of seating lies flat with the push of a button, for maximum cargo space – Red Bear loved making it go down and up. That’s how we traveled; with only 3 of us in the vehicle, we did not need a third row of seats, but we did need a bunch of cargo area.
The trip began when we picked Red Bear up from his middle school, and headed straight out on the road into the High Desert north of Los Angeles. We wanted to beat the infamous Friday “rush hour” traffic, and almost succeeded! We planned to stop Friday night in Bishop, a small town that is the gateway to the High Sierras. It is about 250 miles from Los Angeles, and has plenty of hotels and motels and coffee shops. It also has a bakery famous for its sheepherder’s bread (a variation of sourdough bread), but it was closed before we arrived.
On the drive to Bishop, we came to appreciate some of the Palisade’s safety features. It has good blind spot monitors that display an orange light if there is a car in the blind spot on either side, as well as a warning “beep” if you drift out of your lane. I could almost swear my husband used that “beep” on purpose to wake me up a couple times, but it really is a good safety feature. Whenever you indicate for a lane change, the Palisade uses some of its many cameras to show exactly what is in the lane next to you; my husband really liked that, because it gave a better view than all the head-turning on Earth could do. When backing up, sensors check on each side, and in a parking lot, warned us of a car driving too fast from one side, and tapped the brakes for us.
We stayed that first night in a modest hotel, but it sufficed for our plans – sleep, shower, and leave early in the morning. And leave early we did, heading through the mountain forest toward Mono Lake.
What I wore:
Trench Coat(here)
Pants(here)
Boots(here)
Cami(old, from here)
Maison Michel Hat (Similar here)
U.S. 395 is the major road that goes through the eastern Sierras, and it is almost a freeway, smooth and fast in good weather like we had. The drive is beautiful up there, going through volcanic mountains covered with trees, and there are turn-offs here and there to go to various lakes and ski areas. The Palisade just ate up the road, smoothly and comfortably – we were traveling in luxury! It even has a “quiet mode,” that turns down the stereo speakers in the rear seats, which was very useful when Red Bear took a nap back there.
Our major destination for this trip was Mono Lake, which we reached in just about an hour after we left Bishop. Mono Lake is a unique and wondrous place! It is an ancient lake that is fed from 4 rivers, but over millennia, it has become 2 ½ times more salty than the ocean, and it has a very high content of alkali. Through a natural process, the salt and alkali interact to form “tufa,” formations that look like statues. The tufa are all over, in the lake and on its shores – it is a fascinating scene, almost like being on a strange planet! And as hostile as the chemistry of the lake water is, life forms have adapted to live in it, including brine shrimp.
We enjoyed a nice hike at Mono Lake, exploring the beach and surrounding area in the fresh mountain air. We could see snow on the nearby mountain tops, but it did not get down to our level.
When we finished our exploration at Mono Lake, we continued our trip to the town of Bridgeport, where we spent the night. Bridgeport is a small town that was founded around the time of the Civil War, and for a while, both Nevada and California claimed it! It is in the middle of great fishing and hunting grounds, so it does big business supplying those activities. We stayed at the Ruby Inn, which I liked for its pink doors; it also turned out to be a very clean, well-maintained motel, with very pleasant owners.
What I Wore: Denim Jacket(here)//Jeans(here) // Sneakers(similar here)// Maison Michel Hat(similar here)//Bag(here)
A few miles from Bridgeport is the second planned destination of our road trip, Bodie State Historic Park. It is a “ghost town” located about 13 miles down a mostly unpaved road. On that drive, the Palisade’s “all-wheel drive” proved its worth as it prevented any slipping, skidding, or loss of safe control along the winding, dirt and sand road. We are big fans of all-wheel drive for safety, whether on dirt roads or in rain or snow.
Bodie started as a gold mining camp before the Civil War, but it did not boom until 1876, when a profitable vein of gold was discovered. Bodie boomed, and built up into a significant town almost overnight, with a school, 4 fire companies, bank, redlight district, and everything else a mining town could need. But the boom did not last long, and in 1880, people started to abandon the town, some of them heading to other gold strikes in other states. By 1881, the town was almost empty!
California preserves (but did not restore) the town as a State Historic Park, and it was so interesting to walk through the ghostly streets and check out the many buildings still standing there, in various states of collapse. It is obvious people left quickly, and many left everything behind – furniture, books, curtains, and so on. The State runs a video about Bodie all day long in one of the buildings, and it is worth watching. It helps you imagine what life was life there when the town was alive, and how it was abandoned so quickly.
On this road trip, it seemed that every place we stopped to dine, I chose steak, which is infrequent for me, and every restaurant also offered veggie burgers and other vegan options – we were pleasantly surprised! Our dinner in Bridgeport was at the Rhino Inn, a pleasant place almost right across the street from our motel.
Next morning we headed back toward home, but not before trying our best to wash the Palisade – it got so covered with white dust when we drove on the road to Bodie! Alas, there was no car wash in Bridgeport. On the drive home, we stopped again in Bishop, hoping to dine at the bakery restaurant with the famous sheepherder’s bread, but this time it was too busy, with a long wait and no parking. Fate was against us.
But we did dine in Bishop, at Schat’s Roadhouse. This time I enjoyed a rotisserie chicken, and my vegans had veggie burgers – again.
After dinner, next stop was home, so Red Bear could get enough sleep for school the next day.
I had never been in the eastern High Sierras before, and really enjoyed how beautiful those mountains and forests are, and not too long a drive from our home. We will return there again soon, I hope. I want to see Mammoth Lakes in summer and winter both, and to explore a place called Devils Postpile, a weird natural formation of basalt columns formed by a volcano, and Red Bear wants to ride horses in the forests there.
We really enjoyed this road trip, as well as our test drive of the 2020 Hyundai Palisade, which we feel is a very well-designed, powerful, luxury SUV – it will be a big hit with SUV buyers this year, and deservedly so!
Such a fantastique experience … love ♥️it!
🍂🌸🍁ROSES FOR FRIDAYS 🍂🌸🍁 | by mia | A Creative Lifestyle Blog
Yes, it really was a great trip. We forgot to mention one Palisade feature I personally liked — it has a “heads up” display, that seems to project your speed (and the local speed limit) right in front of the driver’s eyes. Never need to move your eyes from the road to know how fast you are going; it was handy going through the mountains, where the speed limit drops quickly from 65 mph to maybe 35 mph when going through a little village.