Today's crack of dawn happened at around 10 am or so, after a great lemon pancake breakfast prepared by Kathleen. What a great way to start the day! Sunshine was scarce today: it rained heavily overnight, and breakfast was enjoyed in the company of a rare thunderstorm with fairly serious winds.
After hugging hosts and pets, we left our winter haven and headed north. Instead of heading directly to San Francisco, we headed eastward to visit Death Valley National Park. Carmen took us up Interstate 15 N to Ca 395. At one point, gas stations and villages were getting scarce so we stopped in Ridgecrest for gas and a visit to a tourist centre. They advised a shorter route to the Park, [Ca 178] and felt we might get a room at one of two places in the park: it was only about 90 miles, and we were told that we'd be going up for 12 miles, and down for 18 miles.
The road bed was mainly in the valleys between the mountain ranges, but eventually, we started going up and ended up at 4900' alt. In Ridgecrest, it was 14ºC, at 4900' is was 3ºC and snowing! The snow melted on the road and windshield, but it definitely was worrisome. We were following a snow-plow, something we certainly did not expect.
Then we started going down, the snow turned to rain, and the temperatures went up to 15ºC. I had not expected rain, let alone snow in this desert area. One of the reasons we went to the desert was to see the desert blooms which were supposed to be great this year. We learned the hard way that National Park accommodations are a scarce commodity: there were no rooms available at either hotel, and there wouldn't be until well into April. We should have reserved last Fall...
I made this next picture where you can see the campground on the left, then we turned around and headed back to Ridgecrest where we are now. Again, we followed a snow plow most of the way back up to 4900' alt. There was snow on the ground in the mountains we were climbing, but the road was simply wet.
We stopped a few times along the way back to shoot the mountains which had beautiful markings from centuries of erosion.
While it rained off and on, Joan was able to spot white posts marking mining claims hither and yon on the mountain sides. Sometimes there was a small opening in the mountain side, at other times there were elaborate roofed tunnels with dirt piles nearby.
The valleys were mainly sand with scrub vegetation.
Over the years, strong winds whip up the sand down the valley and at the end of this valley, there was another mountain that would force the wind to drop the sand and stones and create the moving dunes in the picture below. The light area at the base of the mountain is made up of sand dunes which aren't very clear since they are likely more than 10 miles away.
While we didn't get to see the desert blooms, we did have a very interesting drive where everything changed as we drove along further into the mountains. The scrub vegetation followed us everywhere, but its composition changed from blooming yuccas, through a few barrel cacti, and even some stunted pines.
We did see some extremely poor villages where most of the houses were abandoned and in serious state of disrepair. A mile further in the same village, there was a huge processing plant for Trona, an ash product used in making glass. Trona the village may have been awful to look at, and awful smelling, but it is mining 24/7 and ships by rail. Quite an experience to see, the link shows the prettier sides...
Tomorrow, we head South a bit more before heading westward, back to the sea coast. I had not realized that north bound roads nearby don't go much further before they are closed until Spring. All the passes through the mountains going West are also closed for the season. Good thing we aren't rushed.
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