Mojave Desert National Preserve II

And Thusly the Mojave adventure continues. We spent the next day and a half exploring the dunes in detail. With the weird weather, lots of rain previously and the (apparently) ever present wind, there were very few people on the dunes. In fact, during both climbs of the dunes, we only saw two other people close by, and that only on the main (tallest) dune by the designated parking lot. There was evidence of a couple of people that must have come before we arrived, but for all intents and purposes, it was our own private playground. Distances are deceptive, and looking at the dunes, it is hard to tell how high they are or how far it is to get to the top. In one of the pictures looking down into the valley, we are at the top of one of the tallest dunes, shown from the bottom in one picture. If you look closely at the center of the valley picture, there is a small black/green dot. That is the stand of trees next to our trailer (remember in my last post the picture of the trees and the trailer I said to use as reference?), so we are a ways away. Of course one of the joys of climbing the dunes is running down them and scuffing sand off the ridges. These dunes are ‘singing’ or ‘booming’ dunes. So, when we scuffed enough sand with enough force off of the windward side, they made a cool humming, droning noise. The wind was a gentle breeze, which was refreshing since it started out as a clear day with the sun a beating down. Later in the day, the wind really picked up and in one picture you can see the sand blowing over the edges of the dunes. Interesting fact though; even though the sand was blowing, by definition, sand does not rise above about one meter in the wind, anything above that is dust, which for the most part has long blown away. So even in the wind, very little debris got in our eyes (except Andi since she was the shortest, and even that debris was more from rolling down the dune sides methinks.). Then, after cannon-balling down the dunes, we ended back at the trailer for some rest and well deserved showers (sandy beds are not so much fun). With my Eagles Nest (camping hammock thingy, look it up online) set up in the trees and some chairs set up in the leeward shade of the trailer, lots of relaxation was had by all. During the afternoon, clouds rolled in and provided a beautiful back drop against the dunes to reflect the setting sun. It could have been the isolation, it could have been just what we needed right then, it could have been anything, but I can say, no matter what the reason, the dunes at Mojave were one of if not –the- most magical place we have been to yet. The next post will detail our adventures in the Joshua Trees and the Lava Fields (complete with Indiana Jones style Lava Tube). Stay tuned….

Mojave National Preserve, part one

Wow, Mojave Desert National Preserve (Preserves are just like parks, except you can hunt on them) is probably, to date my favorite place and just about everyone in the family agrees. As the title suggests, there will be more than one post about this area. The variety of stunning vistas and scenery combined with a picture limit of 5 pictures per blog post, well, you do the math. After spending the evening between Death Valley, Parumph and arriving in Mojave at Tekopa, CA and availing ourselves to a wonderful triple sitting in the mineral hot pools, we arrived in Mojave early in the day. Once you are in the park midway, you are greeted by the sight of the dunes off in the distance. The dunes (our favorite part of this (so far) favorite park), cover about 45 square miles and are the remnants of an old lake bed from over fifty miles away. They are the largest by volume size in N. America, though at 'only' 600 plus feet high, they are not the highest in America. We stopped at Kelso Depot on our way to the dunes and availed ourselves of a little frontier style child care. I am thinking about having something similar welded to the back of the trailer for when the kids get too rowdy or start arguing (again). One of the nice things about Mojave is that you can park in designated areas for free. We were very fortunate to find a spot by a stand of Tamarisk trees (hard to kill non-native intruder species that take over any chance they can, but they sure were pretty and fast growing when they were planted oh so long ago with no concept of intruder species and local ecology diversity structure, but I digress). Included is a picture of the trailer more for a sense of scale for some of the pictures in later posts. Of course, what do kids do around nice sand? Well bury themselves of course! The sand was pretty nice and for the most part, rather fine and smooth, like beach sand, less the beach. Even in the desert and in miles of sand no less, there is an abundance of life. Many species of plants and some animals have evolved and adapted to the localized climate and conditions to the point they do not exist anywhere else in the park (or elsewhere for that matter). One of them is the Fringe Toe Lizard, whose namesake toes allow them to get up and scoot across the In another post I will have a picture of another lizard, in another part of the Mojave desert and it looks completely different relative to coloration. Well, all this was just the first day of a week in Mojave, so the next post will cover the dunes themselves (maybe 2 posts, we shall see)

Death Valley 2

Well, More of Death Valley. Diana's Brother and Fam came out to be with us in DV for a few days, and all of the previous pics and the previous post occured when they were around (sorry P&R, I still need to get you those photos of y'all). After they departed back to civilization, we hung out a few days and saw more of the stark Majesty of Death Valley. As you can see from the pictures, it is indeed very stark, but beautiful because of it. In one of the pictures you can see the old wagon train that use to haul borax out of Death Valley to a train depot -135!!- miles away. Yes, in the heat and such. The wagon train weighed 36 tonnes and carried 1200 gallons of water with them to survive. We also did alot of side trail hiking as evidenced by a couple of pictures. A person can go for seemingly ever on some of the back canyons until you reach a tall waterfall (dry) or other obstruction. Another benefit of the time of the season we were there, (February) is that with the rain and runoff, the streams were running and the native fish, which have evolved to handle the high salinity of the water, were out and about. Again, this was an instance of lots of available surface water, and none of it usable/potable by us human folk. I guess that is part of what makes the Valley so Deathly, it can kill you quick if you are not prepared. As we departed we stopped at Zabriski point and the color gradients in the rocks, and the stark contrasts made the intervening hills and outcroppings almost look painted on. I have used fractal generating software to model mountains and some of them looked more 'real' than the real hills you can see in the pictures. Weird. After this, we are off to Parumph, Nevada for supplies, then back to Tekopa, CA for overnight, then off to the Mojave Desert National Preserve.

Death Valley 1

After another stint in the Palm Desert area visiting Diana's family, we headed north up to Death Valley. It was quite amazing. We spent a week there, over by Furnace Creek. Now, as many people assume, the Valley is a very desolate, hot, dry area. Too true, in summer, we were here in February, after more rain in a few weeks than is typical in a year. So, not so warm, and a lot of the roads were washed out and the salt flats were lakes. Still, the whole of it was quite amazing. We went to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, and if you look at the picture, the entire area, miles upon miles in all directions, are salt flats with the salt crystals you can see in another of the pictures. The salt is mostly Sodium Chloride (table salt) as it is not oceanic in origin, it just leaches out of the ground after the winter rains and crystallizes. We were also able to get to natural bridge on one of our hikes, and though you can not see in these photos, you can climb up and around and if you have the stones, over the bridge. We just did the up and around, must lack stones. The ranger talks each night were very informative and well done, it was obvious that the interpretive rangers knew their stuff and were quite passionate about their subjects. It is amazing that so many people worked and survived in this area. Of course, as the photo shows not all did, it -is- called Death Valley for a reason. One of the ancillary neat things about the abundant rain fall prior to our arrival was the crystal clear lakes that formed in the low areas and the snow on the peaks surrounding the Valley. It made for some interesting Juxtapositions with what Death Valley is known for. There was so much to see here in the Valley that there is going to be a follow up post after this one with more photos and descriptions. Stay tuned, because then we are off to the Mojave Desert National Preserve.

Anza Borego

What a great way to visit the relatives. Cami, Andi and Diana had the pleasure of visiting Stan and June near Anza Borrego State park. We hiked to a palm oasis and low and behold there was actually an oasis there, water and all. It looked like a giant fairy land with tall palms to climb in and around and a stream running down the rocks, creating a cool oasis after a warm hike. On our way out of the canyon, we got a distant peak at some big horn sheep heading down the canyon wall for a late afternoon drink. We wish Stan and June had plans to continue traveling a bit more as we would enjoy visiting with them. Another great warm and sunny day in the desert.
(Diana and the girls only, Flint had to do other things, oh well)