Lynn's 3rd message: Death Valley
Before I start, i should say that I have a lot of pictures, but I don't know how to use this computer, so they'll probably have to wait until we get home. I am finding just writing this message quite challenging.
Love, Lynn (lkirby39@gmail.com or lskirby@charter.net)o
We left Vegas 7:45 and our first stop was a grocery store to go to the bathroom and buy food (in that order).
Today we were scheduled to go to Death Valley but only if the temperature would be under 115. The reason for that is that the bus would overheat on the climb out of the park and we would be stranded in the heat and in a place where there is no cell phone service. But the forecast was for only 110, so we were going. I was pretty pumped about getting there.
We got to Death Valley National Park about 10, and we stopped at an overlook for pictures. It felt pretty hot, but it was only in the upper 90's. A little later we stopped at Furnace Creek, which was at a lower elevation, and so it was hotter there. The lower the elevation, the hotter it is, and Death Valley is a few hundred feet below sea level. Getting out of it one has to climb 2 - 3,000 feet.
We stayed at Furnace Creek about an hour and a half for lunch and sightseeing. The restaurant was so crowded and service so slow, I worried about having time to view the remains of the borax mining they did there in the 1880s. But I did get to go outside, and as soon as I did, I wanted to go back in. It was 112, and no, I mean NO shade. I took a quick picture or two and got back in the bus. One more stop was at the Sand Dunes. I got out to take a few pictures (not many people did), and the bus driver told me to empty my shoes before getting back on the bus. They were actually pretty full.
Death Valley's geology is interesting--sedimentary rocks and sands moved around by shifts of tectonic plates, wind, and volcanic activity in the past. There are many colors in the rocks and many different sorts of rock formations. The vegetation changes as you go from place to place; there is very little at the lower points of the park, mostly a few stunted Joshua trees and what is probably tumbleweed. Most of the wildlife is nocturnal (smart of them!) so we saw none. I heard a sound that may have been a very unmusical bird and saw one buzzard circling in the sky. Mostly what we saw was rocks, sand, and mountains with many subtle colors--white, green, black, red, yellow.
I'm glad we went there, but I don't think I'll ever return. After we left we were headed to Bakersfield, CA, but the shortest route we could have taken had a road that had been washed out by rain (it's so dry here, when it does rain it floods). So we drove north along the eastern side of Owens Lake. The water from that lake is all but gone--it looks more like a plain than a lake. Its water was used for years by Los Angeles, and a moratorium has recently been called on that. Now there are just what appeared from a distance to be just puddles.
We stopped in Lone Pine, CA for a look at Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48 states, just 85 miles from the lowest point (in Death Valley). It was hot there, too, but a sign in the visitor's center said that today's temps were: Lone Pine 93, Mount Whitney 54, Mammoth Lakes 78, and Furnace Creek 112. The high today in Bakersfield was 99. I'm appreciating Wisconsin.
Much of the way to Bakersfield we passed miles and miles and miles of wind farms, and in the area of Tehachapi, miles and miles of trains all standing still. We did a lot of speculating about that on the bus.
Our motel tonight is a Hampton Inn, which is nice but far different than The Golden Nugget, and the best restaurant nearby is Denny's. We had a good dinner and now we're resting up for tomorrow's adventures.
