Beautiful setting. This is the luxury resort lodging in Death Valley National Park. Not exactly a campground. Originally built in 1927, it still looked pretty swanky in 2009. I stayed in a more modest section of the park, resembling an upscale trailer court. This Four Diamond rated resort will be renovated in late 2018. So, obviously … Continue reading Furnace Creek Inn
Tag: California
One of the most popular rock climbing sites in North America is the 3,000' shear rock face of El Capitan. The granite monolith is an iconic figure of Yosemite NP of northern California. At 7:00 AM this road is deserted, but will be bumper-to-bumper within two hours. This road veers to the left at the … Continue reading El Capitan
A mere 400 steps to the top of Moro Rock provides a panoramic view of Sequoia National Park in northern California. Its elevation is only 6,725' but it provides a clear view of the much taller peaks along the western divide. For the most part, the steps are guarded from the drop off by a … Continue reading Moro Rock
The Sequoia tree is so large that getting a photo of the entire tree is impossible without a wide-angle lens. I used a 16 mm wide-angle lens on this shot, but still had to back up about 100 yards to get them all in. And these are young trees. Sequoias are a separate and … Continue reading Giant Sequoia Trees
In the southwest corner of Yosemite NP there is a small town named Wanona, CA. I was doing a bit of exploring, which is a nice way of saying, "I was snooping around". In the back of this broken down abandoned cabin was a field of purple wild flowers. I laid down to get a better … Continue reading Pacific Lupine
One extreme to the next. Either there is too much water, like the Colorado rains of Biblical proportions, or never enough water, like in Death Valley, California. It's been raining along the eastern slope of the Rockies, from Boulder to Colorado Springs, for the last 7-10 days. Heavy rains, like gully washers on steroids. Half … Continue reading Too Much Water
Whoooeeee! I feel like I've just been rescued from a desert island -- this is the first time in six days that I've had internet access. Without the internet, I was beside myself. I felt so isolated: What to do? What am I missing? How am I going to get my "work" done? I found … Continue reading Desert Island
Death Valley, California Rhyolite, California is a ghost town in the northeast part of Death Valley National Park. There are several ghost towns within the vast boundaries of the park, but Rhyolite is noted for its still-standing structures, one of which still has part of the second story intact. The famous "bottle house" is located … Continue reading Gone But Not Forgotten
My wife was reading an article about Death Valley in the Travel section of the local newspaper. She said, "Let's go see Death Valley!" I was not interested. "Why?", I asked, "There's nothing there but heat and desolation". This is how I pictured Death Valley, but without the snow capped Panamint Mountains in the … Continue reading Death Valley National Park
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