Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

After leaving Death Valley, we traveled north on the eastern side of the Sierras. It’s a beautiful drive. We made a short stop in Bishop mid-day to see the Galen Rowell’s gallery called Mountain Light. Some truly amazing photographs – highly recommended if you’re in the area. That night we set up camp at our site in Lee Vining, CA, the town closest to Mono Lake and the main town on the eastern entrance to Yosemite. We spent the next two sunsets and sunrises at Mono Lake. The Lake is a well known destination for photographers for two reasons: the high salinity of the water gives it a very viscous look that makes for good reflections and the “tufa towers” which are fragile formations caused by freshwater springs entering the lake from below and reacting with the highly salty water.

After setting up our tent, we drove down to the area of the lake with the tufa towers to “scout it out.” I wanted to see what it was like so that I knew where to go for sunrise the next morning. When we showed up, it was just after sunset and twilight was just starting to show a pink cloud from one edge of the sky to the other. I walked down to the lake without my camera because mentally I was in “scouting” mode. After the 10 minute walk down to the shoreline though, the pink cloud was now intensely red. It made the tufa towers and the shore glow pink and also the water was perfectly still like a mirror. I had seen so many pictures of Mono Lake looking like this that I figured it would look like this the whole time we were there so I didn’t go back to the car to get my camera. Big mistake. Several of the shots I thought would be great just didn’t exist for the rest of the time we were there. I think I made the best of it while we were there (and that’s not to say that conditions weren’t pretty good most of the time) but lesson learned: always be prepared to take a shot at the moment. Here are a few shots from various sunrises/sunsets at Mono Lake:

Above: A tufa tower at sunrise

Above: tufa formations and Mono Lake at sunrise

Above: twilight after sunset at Mono Lake with tufa towers in the foreground and the Eastern Sierras behind them.

– Dave

Here is the view from our tent at our campground in Lee Vining, CA, near Mono Lake in the eastern Sierras:

We stayed for two nights – what a pretty region!

– Meredith

There is an area within Death Valley NP called The Racetrack. It’s an old lake bed, long ago dried up, that has large rocks scattered around its surface. A phenomenon occurs there where the rocks slide in various directions around the mud, leaving a groove behind them (no one has ever seen it actually happen – the prevailing theory is that rains wet the dried mud and then strong winds move the rocks). Many people have seen pictures of this area without knowing its name. Click here for a good example by Phil Kember who runs Death Valley Photo (I took a workshop from Phil 4 years ago that was excellent). It’s called the Racetrack as a small joke because sometimes it looks like the rocks are “racing” each other.

I didn’t get a chance to photograph the Racetrack last time I was here because it’s away from the commonly visited part of the park and takes a long time to get to on a really bad road that’s 27 miles long. Meredith and I had originally planned to spend only two nights in Death Valley but we added a third to allow time to be at the Racetrack by sunset one day.

There’s plenty to read about the road to the Racetrack. Horror stories about the rutted, washboarded roads with rocks so sharp they slice the sidewalls of your tires. People getting stranded out there without enough water to last the night and trying to walk back in the heat. Some people have died trying to drive a regular 2-wheel-drive sedan out there. And so on. I decided to take the democratic approach so I stopped into 3 different ranger stations to get their respective opinions on the road conditions and whether I should attempt it in our rental SUV. One said I’d be ok but to be careful and allow 3 hours of driving each way. The second tried to talk me out of it as much as she could. At this point though, I was pretty convinced I was going to attempt it in spite of the warnings. We had tons of provisions and I was comfortable with the driving. I just wasn’t sure if our car was up to it. The third ranger was the most helpful with advice. She said I’d have no problem if I went really slowly but since the odds were good that I might get a flat, I should first make sure that I had a full-size spare – not one of those doughnut spares many cars have. Fair enough. I decided that would be the deciding factor. If we had a doughnut spare, we wouldn’t go.

We drove to the parking lot closest to the start of the road to the Racetrack. As we parked, we noticed a car up on jacks with a wheel missing. There was a guy on a lawn chair sitting in the car’s shadow. I wandered over and asked if everything was ok. He said he was fine and that he was waiting for his friend. Long story short: he and a friend drove back from the Racetrack that morning and he got two flats along the way. His friend was off in another car getting those tires repaired. Hmmm, this did not bode well at all.

I went back to our SUV and looked underneath to see what size spare we had. It was a doughnut spare. We turned around and left. Next time, I’ll rent a Hummer.

The guy in the parking lot waiting for his friend to return. Notice the missing front right tire and the doughnut spare on the right rear.

– Dave

Death Valley is one of the few places on this trip that Dave has been to, but I have not.  When I was 7, my family took a big summer trip out west and we visited lots of places in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and California.  But we didn’t go to Death Valley because it’s not really the place one goes to in the summer – especially in 1980 when there was no AC in the car!

Even in late October, it was between 90 and 100 degrees during the day.  But, as they say, it’s a dry heat.

It’s pretty hot everywhere here, but the lowest point at Badwater Basin is a scorcher!

Death Valley is quite different from other national parks in many ways.  The one that struck me first is the sheer size of it – it’s the largest national park outside of Alaska, and is 1.5 times the size of the state of Delaware!

This is a picture of just one of several large park areas, taken from a lookout more than 5,000 feet above

We had to prioritize the areas we wanted to see and do more planning than usual, because it’s not possible to see everything in 3 days.  With that said, I don’t think I needed to spend more time here.  Death Valley is beautiful, but in a stark, lonely and desolate way.  It’s great to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here (in fact, it seems it was quite difficult to even travel through this place historically, hence the name, Death Valley).  But many people have lived here and did so gladly.  The area is dotted with old ghost towns from gold, silver, lead and borax mining days.

When mines go bust, the supporting town fades away.  Rhyolite, NV boomed from 0 to 10,000 residents between 1904 and 1910, but was abandoned by 1919

This is an old mine and post office from Leadfield, a ghost town we saw on one of our drives through the park

On the wildlife front, the park has coyotes, kit foxes, rodents, ravens and lizards (all of which we saw, but sorry, no pictures).  It also has bighorn sheep, bobcats, various snakes, scorpions and tarantulas (none of which we saw).  Like many of the parks, some of the animals get food from people, either directly or through their trash.  I can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen people feeding animals that should be fending for themselves but instead have learned to depend on people.  Unfortunately, that puts the animals in great danger.  Visitors speeding in cars also puts the animals in danger.  We saw a coyote crossing the road at night, limping because of a completely lame paw – he probably had been hit by a car at some point.  Sad.

On the scenery front, I’ll let Dave’s pictures do the talking.  Enjoy!

Sunrise at Zabriskie Point

The "Artist’s Palette" shows off some colorful geology

What desert environment is complete without sand dunes?  Death Valley NP has ’em!

– Meredith

Here is the view from our tent in Death Valley NP, where we’re staying for 3 nights:

We’re in a little NP "Village" called Stovepipe Wells, which is at sea level.  The campground looks like a parking lot for RVs except for the row of tent spots up against a sandy area with creosote bushes that eventually lead out to some sand dunes, which is quite nice. 

FYI, our Death Valley guide book says that the best place to find (or avoid, depending on your point of view) Mojave Rattlesnakes and sidewinders is in areas of scrubby growth, like creosote bushes (the sidewinders especially like the bushes near sand dunes).  Haven’t seen any…yet.  😉

– Meredith

We left my cousin’s place in Southern California to drive to Death Valley.  We left Friday at noon, which I now know is when people are driving to Vegas for the weekend.  The traffic didn’t bother me so much, but these Southern California drivers are CRAZY.  Apparently, these people just couldn’t wait to get to the casinos.  I’m used to Boston drivers, but these people around LA take aggression to new heights.  Everyone weaves – totally unpredictable.

Anyway.  We clearly survived.  😉

Imaginactment of someone we saw driving while on "The 15"

– Meredith

We stayed two nights with my cousin Pam in Laguna Niguel, CA, but we forgot to take a picture from our window.

We do have a picture of me and Pam on the beach though:

Happy cousins

We had a wonderful time with Pam and the family she lives with (a mom and dad, two adorable boys and two miniature pinschers).  Mostly, we chilled out, replenished some camping supplies and groceries, took advantage of the shower and washer and dryer, and got some quality time with my cousin.  We also went to a really nice wine tasting at a local wine shop – I highly recommend it if you’re in the area – it’s called From the Vine Wine Boutique.  It’s run by a mother and daughter team and they hold three tastings a week.

By the way, Pam is such a sweetheart, but I’m convinced she’s ruining things for the rest of the folks in my family on our "tier", because she does such a tremendous job of keeping in touch with everyone one and two tiers up in the hierarchy.  So, I’ll just give a shout out to aunts, uncles and grandmas right now.  Hi and I love you all!  🙂

– Meredith

Zion National Park is probably one of the most scenic parks we’ve been to on this trip.  It’s not the largest park, but it has a huge variety of scenery, due to its range in elevation and lots of water.  The main part of the park is a 6-mile stretch of Zion Canyon, a massive canyon carved by the Virgin River.  Most people only see this section of the park, although there are a couple other sections that are more remote, but doable by car (we drove the East entrance road, and the Kolob Canyon and Kolob Terrace roads).  There are also miles and miles of backcountry hiking trails that we didn’t explore on this trip but we’d love to at some point in the future.

Unlike many of the parks we’ve been to on this trip, Zion has the right conditions for trees, both evergreen and deciduous.  The fall colors were just coming out when we were there, so it made the park that much more special.  There was also a good diversity of wildlife in the park.  While we were there, we saw mule deer, bighorn sheep, squirrels, all sorts of birds, etc.

The scale of Zion Canyon’s walls are so great, it has inspired many artists and photographers to try to capture that grandiosity.  I think Zion is one of those places, however, that looks better in person, even though pictures can be really well done.  With that said, Dave got some good ones, so, enjoy!

"Towers of the Virgin" at Sunrise (lots of Biblical names at Zion)

A view of the waterfall above "Lower Emerald Pool" (supposedly there’s a lot more water in springtime)

"The Watchman" at sunset

Gorgeous fall colors

More fall colors in a dry wash on the Eastern side of the park

This desert environment is right near all those deciduous trees

Late afternoon sun on the eastern side of the park

– Meredith

Here is the view from our tent at the campground just outside Zion NP, where we stayed 3 nights:

Not too shabby!

– Meredith

There is an overlook at Bryce Canyon NP named Sunset Point and a trail down into the canyon named Navajo Loop begins there. As we stood there at sunset taking a few pictures, we noticed a guy pushing a stroller up the trail. Here’s the long view of him on the trail. He’s roughly in the center:

It’s a packed dirt trail but far from smooth. There are definitely lots of pebbles and rocks along the way. Here’s a close up of the guy working it:

That kid got a sweet ride. I wonder if daddy will do that again.

– Dave