The Places We've Been

Oh, the miles we've covered and the places we've been!
After leaving Annie's in Sacramento, Pinnacles National Park east of San Jose was our first stop.  We hiked the Condor Gulch trail and saw 5 condors perched on a pinnacle.  The park has been one of a few release areas for condors raised in captivity and 27 condors now wear tags from Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles: just one of the names for those free-standing columns of stone that you find in various rocky places in the West.

Just so we could say we'd been coast to coast, Atlantic to Pacific, on this trip, we decided to head to the beach before turning east for home. South of Monterey, CA, we found a camp site at San Simeon State Park, just north of Cambria. A short drive from there is the state park beach where dogs can walk on leash. Our walk with Nina ended abruptly, though, when we realized the large brown lump in the sand ahead of us was a sleeping bull elephant seal. We decided not to go any closer. Up the coast a few miles, though, we watched from a viewpoint, tons of elephant seals lounging in the sand.

 Leaving San Simeon, we drove Hwy 46 toward Bakersfield, CA. On that road, we found Blackwell Corners, a gas station at an intersection. This was where James Dean stopped for gas in 1955 before his fatal car accident a short time later. The gas station that's there now, of course, is new, and includes a market and a gift shop to attract passing motorists. Just as interesting, though, was the valley that Hwy 46 crosses. This vast stretch of flatness grows more almond and pistachio trees than my mind could comprehend. Of course we bought pistachios at the James Dean Market.

That night we bumped ever-so-slowly over 5 miles of washboardy gravel to Trona Pinnacles National Rec Area. Otherworldly comes to mind. There, more than 500 rock columns (or tufa spines) of various sizes rise from a flat valley of nothingness (well, nothing but rocks, anyway.) Since the Rec Area is so off the beaten path, we had the place to ourselves, except for one local amateur photographer who was setting up his tripod to capture that evening's full moon rise.  And oh, what an event that was! The next morning we caught the sunrise AND the moonset.

From there, we drove north and east to the entrance of Death Valley National Park.  As it turned out, a favorite part of that morning drive was the road BEFORE we reached the west entrance of Death Valley Park. We passed Searles Valley, a dry lakebed that contains 98 of the 104 known naturally occurring chemical elements. Searles Valley Minerals mines and processes minerals from this expansive flatland to produce boric acid, among other things. The town of Trona IS the mine and processing facility, plus a few houses. Wikipedia says, "Searles Valley is known for its isolation and desolation." Uhh.... yes. The amazing part of the drive happened after that. We drove from that very very flat lowland of Searle Valley Basin, until the road got to a point where it turned down sharply, curving and twisting to an even lower valley that stretched for miles to the east and north between two mountain ranges. A breathtaking moment! The occasional sunshine  through the clouds over the mountains and through the light mist that was falling created  rainbows as we drove along through this enchanted area.

Then we entered Death Valley National Park. As the sun got higher in the sky, the wind ramped up, and by the time we'd climbed over the mountains on the west side of the park and tumbled down into the sandy valley that sits below sea level on the east side, the wind was gusting to 50 mph, and we decided not to stick around in the swirling cloud of sand. So our plan to camp in Death Valley died, and instead we battled the Siesta down the windy road toward Nevada.