For Spring Break, Morgan and I had originally pre-planned and made reservations to go camping at Sunset Beach, CA, just south of Santa Cruz. Of course, with our luck, the forecast was showing that it would be raining the entire time. After a few hours of trying to figure out where else we could go where it wouldn't be raining, my bright husband suggested, "Death Valley!!" I just laughed and then thought about it for a second. We were really getting desperate. We checked the weather forecast and it looked great. Death Valley can be very pretty, especially around this time of year. So within a day we had our 4 day vacation rearranged to where we would be staying at a Comfort Inn in Lone Pine, CA which is 104 miles west of Death Valley.
We left on Wednesday, April 8th. It took about 5 1/2 hrs to get to Lone Pine, CA. It was a beautiful drive with rain, snow, & sunshine. It was great. We saw lots and lots of mountains and I had to take pictures of all of them! It was so pretty.
We spotted a few dust devils on the way down to Lone Pine and throughout the trip. Later in the trip we actually just missed one on the road, or it just missed us.
More pretty mountains.
The view of the mountains from our hotel window on the morning of April 9th.
Same view but zoomed out.
After a night of rest, we wanted to get up close and personal with those beautiful mountains. One of them in particular is called Mt. Whitney. It's the jaggedy looking one in the middle of the picture below. Mt. Whitney is the highest point in the lower 48 states.
We stopped a lot on our drive up to the mountains. We kept thinking it couldn't get any better than this, but it did!
Morgan sporting his Coca-Cola. He's so handsome!
The view of Owens Valley. The large white area is Owens Lake which is now just a dry lake bed. In 1913 the water from Owens Lake was diverted to feed the Los Angeles Aqueduct. On the map it still shows that there's an actual lake there so we thought we'd be fishing in it.
On our drive back down from the mountains, we stopped at the Alabama Hills. The area was named by miners who were southern sympathizers during the Civil War. In 1864 they had heard a Confederate Cruiser named the Alabama had sunk many federal ships. In celebration, they named the area where they had many claims, the Alabama Hills.
Do you see the funny faces in the rocks?
Another interesting fact about Alabama Hills is that there is a road within the hills which is called "Movie Rd". This is where the opening scenes of "Iron Man" were filmed because it looked a lot like Afghanistan. Also a lot of old western films were filmed out there like "High Sierra" with Humphrey Bogart, "Tycoon" with John Wayne, "How the West Was Won", and "Maverick" with Mel Gibson was even filmed out there (along wiht a number of other old films). We just thought that was so cool.
These pictures kind of show you how big these rocks actually were! They didn't look that big until you sat on em'. Can you see lil' bitty Morgan in these pictures?
You should see me juggle these huge rocks!
We just had to get our picture with Jabba the Hut! (At least that is what we think it looks like.)
We then went to find the arches that are also amongst the Alabama Hills. There is a small one in the picture below. Can you find it?
During our search for arches we found an abandoned mine. It was so cool! It was barred off though. There were quite a few abandoned mines that were no longer in use because of danger reasons.
The Heart Arch in the Alabama Hills.
A desert wildflower.
We hiked a small distance to this arch. I'm unsure of the name but it was pretty neat.
Wow, I'm realizing we did a lot on this day. This is still thursday the 9th and after the drive up the mountains and to the Alabama Hills, Morgan went fishing. We first tried Diaz Lake with no luck.
We then tried a random creek that someone told us about at the nearby Visitor's Center. There were trout in there but they just weren't biting! I really wanted my hubby to catch a fish!
Next stop, Friday Morning, the 10th of April, Death Valley National Park!
This is Rainbow Canyon as we are entering Death Valley.
Some sand dunes.
The "Devil's Cornfield". Yup, that's what it's called.
We then stopped at a visitor's center in Furnace Creek in Death Valley but it wasn't all that amusing. I think the most amusing thing there was the fact that we were 190 feet below sea level! It was pretty hot there.
They had some pretty cool looking mountains and hills. The deep, deep red color was one of my favorites.
We then stopped at "Bad Water Basin". This is the lowest point in North America with an elevation of 282 feet below sea level. It's just a huge salt flat with a small pond with larvae in it. Hence, bad water.
There is a small sign on the rock cliff in the background of the picture below that says "Sea Level" showing you how far under sea level we are as we stand in Bad Water Basin.
These salt flats at Bad Water Basin go on for 5 miles or so (at least that's how far you can walk out). We walked out maybe a quarter of a mile at the most. It got pretty warm.
The "Devil's Golf Course". Here there is just miles and miles of sharp crystalized salt formations.
Another desert wildflower.
Our drive through the "Artist Pallete". This was a beautiful drive where we saw different colors in the hillsides due to the different minerals which reside there.
We drove right into a storm on our way back to our hotel Friday evening. It was fun! It reminded me of the random storms you pass through in Nevada or the ones in Utah! I miss Utah weather!
There were many Joshua Trees on the road to and from Death Valley. I had never seen one before until then. They're pretty cool lookin'.
We packed up and left our comfortable Comfort Inn on Saturday morning, but the trip wasnt over yet. Not too far from Lone Pine is the Manzanar Relocation Center. This is where those of Japanese ancestry were relocated in the beginning part of World War II. This particular camp is 1 of 10 concentration camps and was home to 10,000 or so.
This was the Manzanar Cemetery.
On our way back we stopped at a place called "Convict Lake". It was so pretty and there is really good fishing there. We saw some fish swimming around but it wasn't quite fishing season yet. Poor Morgan, he wanted to fish that lake so bad.
The colors were so pretty.
Well, there you have it. A lot of pictures but it was a lot of fun. And well worth the cancelled camping reservation. It was more of a blessing that it was raining all week where we were to go camping, because we got to see such beautiful sights and we were reminded of the tender mercies of the Lord and that we are on His earth and He created such a beautiful place for us.
