Gloria's Travel Blog

http://www.gloria305travels.com/google68e958dd14763a9e.html .

GPS are a great tool to add to your car, specially if you are on vacation or traveling on business away from home. We tried several ones and then purchase a Garmin unit. I think they are great, but as with any tool, you need to get to know it’s capabilities or it may get you into trouble like it happened to us.

This blog is for all of those, who like us, feel safe because they carry a GPS. We were at ”Ave of the Giant”, in northern California coast, and we needed to go to Yreka, California (about 100 miles north of Redding). We had calculated about a 4 hours trip, but my husband decided to follow the GPS route instead, in order to get there faster. We took hwy 299 east and then hwy 96 north for about 60 miles and then a detour called “Salmon Road”, it seemed strange that the road was so narrow, with poor maintenance, and that no one else was on the road, but the GPS kept showing this road and that the “ETA” was on target. We continue on this dangerous, narrow, steep, rundown, but beautiful road, and after having driven over 45 miles risking our life, and supposedly 15 miles away from the hotel, it began to snow, and after a while we got stuck in the middle of no where and no cell signal.

After getting unstuck we had to drove back back over 100 miles to the main road (Hwy 299). It took us a total of 13 hours to to do a 4 hr. trip and reach the hotel, but thankfully we arrived safely.

MORAL: When you don’t know the area or the road conditions, stick to the main roads and don’t take GPS shortcuts since it may take you longer and you can get hurt easily. Here are some photos of this beautiful but dangerous area.

Principio de la carretera