Day 19. Wed 10/9/19. Furnace Creek Death Valley
Desk bound and working at the Ranch of Death Valley hotel, I am directly in front of the air conditioner blasting cold air for 9 hours. I take to wearing a down jacket though it is stifling hot 4 feet from my desk and 90 something outside with a blustery hot desert wind. Francesca periodically brings me food stuffs while I stay riveted to the computer.
While I was huddled in the hotel, we learned of weather mayhem - high winds forcing us to stay another day here instead of traveling to Mammoth Lakes and a terrible fire at Yosemite forces us to abandon a much anticipated last leg of our trip. We will need to go a more hospitable time. Meanwhile, life continues to play havoc. PGE is shutting off power in Sonoma County. It is clear that we need to improvise the rest of the trip and navigate through wind and fire to get back to the waterside.
For now, we hunker down at the resort, eat expensive sub-par food and then I torture myself by watching the Dodger’s game. My only consolation is an excited little kid in the next room who squeals happily whenever true blue does something “good”. At the end, there is nothing but another lost season of unfulfilled promises and heartache as we lose game five to the Nationals.
Day 20. Thu 10/10/19. Furnace Creek Death Valley
After a sunrise as Zabriskie Point where we jockeyed with other photographers and Instagram “stars”, we drove to the Bad Water Basin Salt Flats – the lowest point in North America. Large expanses of dirt and rocks yield to shimmers of white. There is an ancient lake here which still pools water. Amazingly, the water doesn’t completely evaporate. Awhile back, an old pioneer tried to get his mule to drink the water. When the mule refused, the pioneer wrote Bad Water on the map and the name stuck. Beyond the pond is an ominous stop sign warning tourists not to walk onto the flats after 10 am lest they become a crispy critter or worse, meet their end in Death Valley.
The land here is separating – geological forces pushing the basin from the distant mountain ranges. At first, walking to the flats, the ground is a bit spongy but it hardens soon enough and then salt veins start to cross loosely and then tighter and ever tighter. It is like a circulatory system. There is a salt ridden capillary, vein and artery network all intermingling and sustaining the beast we call earth.
People have made their mark here. Literally, there are carved names. To Mark, Luis and K&K, knock it off! Stop vandalizing the earth’s artwork.
Like many others, we walk taking care not to disturb the salt ridges. It is beautiful here. At 9:15 am, we start to head back to Tiny. We do not want to be a statistic. We get back to the parking lot just before 10 am and see others heading out into the salt flats amidst the heat and ignoring all warning signs.
A short drive later, a lunar landscape gives way to large, fantastic sandstone rocks of varying colors. Not content with beige, red and brown, there are greens and peaches. We are at Artists’s Palette. Some 5 million years ago, geologic compression and off-gassing created different minerals like red hematite and green chorine. It’s as if a giant used a big water color brush to paint the rocks. It is random and spectacular. Beyond the painted rocks were large black igneous rocks – the result of volcanic activity so many millions of years ago. Some of the rocks looked like modern busts, others are large spherical orbs and boulders. They are all the dark, dark color of the earth’s core. It seems the earth is sharing it’s soul when these rocks are in view.
In the evening, we went to the see the stars which were not particularly bright because the moon was quite full. Still we went out, ate sandwiches and talked while we waited for astronomical twilight to wane and night to officially announce itself at 7:44 pm. After a few photographs, we drove “home” as the sky was a bit too bright. At the door to our hotel room, we tried our keys which no longer worked. Drive to the front desk, chat with clerk, re-key cards, drive back, get into room. A few moments after arrive, we realized the refrigerator in Tiny was not plugged to the generator. I went out to get this fixed. Push buttons, no lights, go to room, get more instructions, repeat and repeat again. Thankfully, Francesca was able to get it fixed.
Some nights you can’t get the perfect shot, can’t get the hotel key to work and can’t get the appliance to work. Note to self – be happy anyway. Life is short.
Day 21. Fri 10/11/19. Furnace Creek Death Valley to Mammoth Lakes – 197 miles
We drive out of sea level to other elevations with a vague idea of where might want to stay. En route, we pass cracked skins of earth with its dry itchiness. We spend the morning at Mesquite Dunes where we filled our shoes with sand after only a few feet of walking. We continued to walk into the expanse of wind swept dunes. Along the way, we saw small burrows in the sand and dragon skin patches of unfired clay. Life affirming scrub dotted the moving hills. Snake tracks, a lizard slipping into it’s lair and a large burrow entrance were all the evidence of desert life we witnessed. This is an unforgiving inhospitable place with long stretches of sinuous dunes stretching across the basin and the hills beyond. Sometimes the dunes give way as though it was liquid. Other times, it is hard and compacted. Unpredictable, the dunes are mercurial and deadly.
On the drive out of the valley, we see groups of bicyclists pedaling toward Death Valley. There are piles of black, red and white rocks on the narrow roads of 190W. On the right, a cliff’s edge promises mayhem to the unskilled. White granite with layers of horizontal bands of green rock greet us. Other times, the green rock have deep bands of red running through it. All these mismatched colors like someone went wild with earth colored play dough which was then baked into place.
One of the first towns out of Death Valley is the near dead town of Keeler in the Owens Valley. From the road, it is a series of ramshackle buildings and cars which have seen better days many decades ago. It is on its last leg. There are streets like Dolomite Loop nearby which profess to a heyday moment of prosperity. In 2010, there were 66 people who lived there. I suspect many wished they were anywhere else. This is a town whose residents live a bit in our “normal” world but I think mostly, they live in a wilder land where there are no rules. They are on the edges of society. We see an older woman throwing pieces of timber from a vehicle onto her property. There are stacks and stacks of wood. We drive past a post office and see the clerk walking to his car as if to drive away from this forsaken place. There are old ramshackle buildings - a depot, an automotive repair shop, a bar, a grocery store – all in varying states of dilapidation. It is a dystopian scene where Rod Serling would feel at home.
We drive through curious towns, cute kitschy towns with charming neon signs, sprawling towns and end up finding a campground in Mammoth Lakes. Elevation 7881. We go to bed right after dinner. It will be 17 degrees tonight.
Day 22. Sat 10/12/19. Mammoth Lakes to Truckee – 173 miles
It is 30 degrees in the morning when we wake up. We survived our last night of camping. To celebrate, we go to Starbucks, drink bitter coffee and eat hot food stuffs. We spend time at Twin Lakes with its beautiful placid lake and meandering creeks. We drive on 395 towards Truckee where we will be seeing our friends Lesley and Michael. We drive the highway abutting the beautiful Walker River which meanders through the changing landscape and nourishes us – water! Soon enough we are in Truckee. Our evening is spent catching up, eating and drinking. I go to bed tired and content.
Day 23. Sun 10/13/19. Truckee to Jenner – 220 miles
We say our goodbyes to friends and meander down the road. Driving home, the valleys are all steeped in a sickly gray smoke. The sun penetrates the haze casting a hue that one can get used to but shouldn’t. The air does not clear until we get to the coast. Soon enough we are home - some 4000 miles after we started our hearts are full. Tonight the moon will be full too.