We've taken to adding a prefix to anything we (Mike, his fellow teachers and I) don't understand: "weird desert ______". It's fitting, especially given some of the crazy and beautiful things I saw in the Mojave Desert last weekend.
Last Saturday, a few of us went to Joshua Tree National Park. The drive there down CA-95 was nauseating, not in appearance, but in the up and down and up and down and up and down of the road. We're not even talking serious mountains here, just a road that dipped and rolled with a horizon that looks deceptively flat. I'm to blame for the route though. I picked it because Google Maps suggested it took the same amount of time as the bigger highway, and figured it'd be more scenic. It was actually really interesting to look at-- desert as far as you could see, which I'm learning includes a lot of weird desert plants, more than I ever would have guessed. The southwest is actually not like the Sahara, I've learned.
Something we thought was especially interesting was that as we paralleled the train tracks, was this intricate sort of graffiti made out of sticks and different colored rocks. People's initials, dates, names, images. I've never really seen that before.
California Route 62 drives along the edge of Joshua Tree National Park for a while, but not one Joshua Tree was spotted until we were well within the other side of the park near Twentynine Palms, CA. They are almost Dr. Seuss like. I can only imagine their weird shapes are a long-perfected adaptation to windthrow or something, knowing that root systems and branches have some balance to them. The weirder looking their crowns, perhaps the weirder looking and more anchored the roots? I don't know. They were really bizarre but very, very cool to stare at as we hiked and visited different parts of the park.
In addition to weird desert trees, the geology in the park was pretty weird looking. Everything was smooth and rounded and curved, as though a child was given some green, brown and grey crayons and told to invent a new planet. It was very beautiful, but kind of eery. I've never seen anything else like this place.
We stayed in Barstow, and the next day, Mike, Dustin, Hannah and I headed to Death Valley National Park. My ears rejoiced as we hit sea level, and despite how hot it was at -282 feet (close to 90 degrees till the sun began to decline), it was a really cool place. You can see snow capped Telescope Peak (part of the range that Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental US is in) from the salt flats in Badwater Basin (the lowest point in the US). There were mountains in every color, a stunning natural bridge, weird salt formations, and of course, weird desert plants. I was amazed at how much was growing in the park (not much, but more than nothing).
After a good rest in Pahrump, NV (another weird desert gambling town) we spent the next day meandering back to Bullhead City, with a stop at Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. This place was really beautiful, and really unexpected. For one, the desert heading into Vegas seems so barren and empty (although we were proven wrong later, there are way more plants, including Joshua Trees, visible when you drive south from Vegas during daylight); the desert in this park had a lot of weird desert plants, and even some wild horses. Again, the rocks came in every color, and the wind erosion created some really great rock scrambles. We were able to sit pretty high on top of some red rocks and have a great view of the place.
The drive back to Bullhead City was pretty direct, but like I said, we saw way more plants than we knew were there. Having only flown into Vegas at night, I've seen some of the brush by the road, but it mostly looks like you're on the moon when you drive through the Mojave Desert. It turns out, the incredible darkness of the desert is hiding all sorts of yucca, Joshua trees, distant mountains, and other weird desert things. Really cool. Well, warm, it is February, and it is up over 60 degrees most days already...
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
25 February 2013
31 August 2012
THREE corners
Yesterday, Mike took a half day from school to get his Arizona driver's license and plates. Obviously other adventures ensued...
After 2.5 hours at the Motor Vehicle Department, we set off to find the Three Corners. That's right, three. It's not really a thing, I just wanted to find the spot where California, Nevada and Arizona came together at the Colorado River. The earth view on Google Maps suggested that there would be agriculture on the Arizona side, desert in Nevada, and a small access road in California.
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Leaving Arizona, we drove into the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation, which I learned from NRCS this week is actually kind of checkerboarded with BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands and privately owned lands. It was amazing to smell the greenness (I'm serious, it smells way different than the desert) of the alfalfa and cotton along the river.
The road that I saw on Google Maps turned out to be a dirt road, which we didn't feel super comfortable going down 1. without four wheel drive (the sand is pretty soft in places) and 2. not knowing whose land it was. We were just about in three states at once when we crossed the bridge though--
View Larger Map
So instead we went back into Arizona to drive down to Needles, California because I wanted to visit California on this trip. There is pretty much nothing in needles though, but we did find a riverfront marina park, and I got to put my feet in the Colorado River. It was cool water, but very refreshing.
We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Fort Mohave on our way back to Bullhead City. Upon getting home, Mike changed his license plates over, and we washed the New Jersey plates and hung them on the wall.
We've planned a trip to the Grand Canyon this weekend before I fly out of Vegas. It will be the first time for either of us to visit there. Pretty excited!
After 2.5 hours at the Motor Vehicle Department, we set off to find the Three Corners. That's right, three. It's not really a thing, I just wanted to find the spot where California, Nevada and Arizona came together at the Colorado River. The earth view on Google Maps suggested that there would be agriculture on the Arizona side, desert in Nevada, and a small access road in California.
View Larger Map
Leaving Arizona, we drove into the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation, which I learned from NRCS this week is actually kind of checkerboarded with BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands and privately owned lands. It was amazing to smell the greenness (I'm serious, it smells way different than the desert) of the alfalfa and cotton along the river.
The road that I saw on Google Maps turned out to be a dirt road, which we didn't feel super comfortable going down 1. without four wheel drive (the sand is pretty soft in places) and 2. not knowing whose land it was. We were just about in three states at once when we crossed the bridge though--
View Larger Map
So instead we went back into Arizona to drive down to Needles, California because I wanted to visit California on this trip. There is pretty much nothing in needles though, but we did find a riverfront marina park, and I got to put my feet in the Colorado River. It was cool water, but very refreshing.
We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Fort Mohave on our way back to Bullhead City. Upon getting home, Mike changed his license plates over, and we washed the New Jersey plates and hung them on the wall.
We've planned a trip to the Grand Canyon this weekend before I fly out of Vegas. It will be the first time for either of us to visit there. Pretty excited!
11 August 2012
post dated
This post is not actually being posted when it happened (4-6 June). Right now, I am secretly in Reno, Nevada.
"Ne-vă-da! Short A!" -Mike
I don't even know where to start with this. Mike had an interview in Reno and decided to fly into San Francisco and make a trip of it, and talk me into joining him, mostly by promising me redwood trees. Twist my arm, will you. It worked.
EPIC.
We landed in San Francisco and got on the road about 10AM local time. We'd already been awake for 11 hours at this point, with all of the adventures ahead of us still. Excellent. We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, acquiring caffeine and Ranier cherries and checking out the sea lions.
Drove up and down Lombard Street. Drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. Glorious.
At my dad's good recommendation, we stopped in Golden Gate National Recreation Area and drove up the windy, windy (one of those was weather and one of those was the adjective describing the not straight roads) road to an awesome vista of the bridge, the bay and the Pacific Ocean. The clouds even lifted for about thirty seconds of ridiculous scrambling to take pictures.
Next on the docket was an important, life-altering, beautiful thing. Tree of the day: Muir Woods. Because I was secretly on this trip, I couldn't tell anyone that this was happening AND IT WAS KILLING ME. I offered this on facebook in hopes that the few people in the loop would share my joy, but... REDWOOD TREES... and I couldn't tell anyone. It's like nothing I've ever seen. They're just so tall, and... tall. So tall. My mind was blown by one that was measured and determined to be as old as the United States. This 236 year old tree just seemed so tiny, because others around it were hundreds more years old. Just stunning.
Sadly, I had to leave that place because we did need to eventually make it to Reno. Driving on I-80 in this part of the country is very different than at home in NJ. We drove through Tahoe National Forest and into the Sierras after a brief stop for lunch in the Napa Valley. We noticed it was getting chillier as we drove up, and were shocked/ amused by the signs we passed announcing the elevation (for two kids who grew up at sea level, one of whom had not left the time zone before in his life? It was kind of awesome.)
We continued to ascend until we reached Donner Pass, which was kind of mind blowing to see in real life when I'd mostly only known it through the Oregon Trail computer game. I can imagine how one would get stranded there in the spring or fall, given that we were there in JUNE and there had been several inches of snow that morning. Out of the ordinary, for sure, but it still happened. In fact, it was so unusual that a news team was parked at the rest area where Mike and I stopped to have a snowball fight... and then they interviewed us for the evening news.
Reno itself was very interesting, just a big empty town in the middle of mountains and desert. We stayed at a casino just a few miles from his interview, just absolutely passing out after a full day (and a half, when you consider travel time and time change!) of adventures. The next morning we drove around town a little bit to kill time before Mike's interview, which went really, really well.
We celebrated at Great Basin Brewpub in Sparks (which is basically just the other, slightly-nicer half of Reno). Great food-- jalapeno wonton poppers? We need to figure out how to make those at home. But the beer was also really good. We tried samples of just about everything they had on tap, some better than others. The Cerveza Chilebeso (chili kiss beer) was pretty awesomely done, but we were most impressed with the Ichthyosaur IPA, also known as Icky. In fact, we brought a six pack home with which to celebrate whenever he would eventually get his first full time teaching job.
The rest of the trip was kind of hurry-- we didn't really leave much time for wandering off the beaten path, but we woke up early enough to see dawn in the Sierras (gorgeous, and now we more fully understand what "purple mountain majesties" means) and head back to San Francisco via Lake Tahoe, which was REALLY chilly for it being June. Beautiful though.
Cool trip. I loved seeing a part of the country that I had never seen anything like before. Also cool was finding out when we landed in Philly that he passed the first round interview and was eligible for hire in Washoe County, NV... except, we now know what would come of that... but it gives me a new place to visit in less than two weeks!
"Ne-vă-da! Short A!" -Mike
I don't even know where to start with this. Mike had an interview in Reno and decided to fly into San Francisco and make a trip of it, and talk me into joining him, mostly by promising me redwood trees. Twist my arm, will you. It worked.
EPIC.
We landed in San Francisco and got on the road about 10AM local time. We'd already been awake for 11 hours at this point, with all of the adventures ahead of us still. Excellent. We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, acquiring caffeine and Ranier cherries and checking out the sea lions.
Drove up and down Lombard Street. Drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. Glorious.
At my dad's good recommendation, we stopped in Golden Gate National Recreation Area and drove up the windy, windy (one of those was weather and one of those was the adjective describing the not straight roads) road to an awesome vista of the bridge, the bay and the Pacific Ocean. The clouds even lifted for about thirty seconds of ridiculous scrambling to take pictures.
Next on the docket was an important, life-altering, beautiful thing. Tree of the day: Muir Woods. Because I was secretly on this trip, I couldn't tell anyone that this was happening AND IT WAS KILLING ME. I offered this on facebook in hopes that the few people in the loop would share my joy, but... REDWOOD TREES... and I couldn't tell anyone. It's like nothing I've ever seen. They're just so tall, and... tall. So tall. My mind was blown by one that was measured and determined to be as old as the United States. This 236 year old tree just seemed so tiny, because others around it were hundreds more years old. Just stunning.
Sadly, I had to leave that place because we did need to eventually make it to Reno. Driving on I-80 in this part of the country is very different than at home in NJ. We drove through Tahoe National Forest and into the Sierras after a brief stop for lunch in the Napa Valley. We noticed it was getting chillier as we drove up, and were shocked/ amused by the signs we passed announcing the elevation (for two kids who grew up at sea level, one of whom had not left the time zone before in his life? It was kind of awesome.)
We continued to ascend until we reached Donner Pass, which was kind of mind blowing to see in real life when I'd mostly only known it through the Oregon Trail computer game. I can imagine how one would get stranded there in the spring or fall, given that we were there in JUNE and there had been several inches of snow that morning. Out of the ordinary, for sure, but it still happened. In fact, it was so unusual that a news team was parked at the rest area where Mike and I stopped to have a snowball fight... and then they interviewed us for the evening news.
Reno itself was very interesting, just a big empty town in the middle of mountains and desert. We stayed at a casino just a few miles from his interview, just absolutely passing out after a full day (and a half, when you consider travel time and time change!) of adventures. The next morning we drove around town a little bit to kill time before Mike's interview, which went really, really well.
We celebrated at Great Basin Brewpub in Sparks (which is basically just the other, slightly-nicer half of Reno). Great food-- jalapeno wonton poppers? We need to figure out how to make those at home. But the beer was also really good. We tried samples of just about everything they had on tap, some better than others. The Cerveza Chilebeso (chili kiss beer) was pretty awesomely done, but we were most impressed with the Ichthyosaur IPA, also known as Icky. In fact, we brought a six pack home with which to celebrate whenever he would eventually get his first full time teaching job.
The rest of the trip was kind of hurry-- we didn't really leave much time for wandering off the beaten path, but we woke up early enough to see dawn in the Sierras (gorgeous, and now we more fully understand what "purple mountain majesties" means) and head back to San Francisco via Lake Tahoe, which was REALLY chilly for it being June. Beautiful though.
Cool trip. I loved seeing a part of the country that I had never seen anything like before. Also cool was finding out when we landed in Philly that he passed the first round interview and was eligible for hire in Washoe County, NV... except, we now know what would come of that... but it gives me a new place to visit in less than two weeks!
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