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Our Death Valley Road Trip, April 2004
We drove along the Eastern Sierra, to Death Valley, Los Angeles, Hearst Castle & Big Sur!
You can see Large Versions by clicking on the thumbnail pic!
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.jpg "Mono Lake ! An oasis in the dry Great Basin - the water never drains, only evaporates: so it is 2-3x saltier than the ocean & extremely alkaline."){kind=small}
.JPG "Overlooking Mono Lake - At least 760,000 years old, Mono is among the oldest lakes in North America.")
.JPG "Our home away from home")
.JPG "Topher in the Tufa! - Tufa are limestone formations from the mixing of underwater springs (rich in calcium) and lakewater (rich in carbonates).")
.JPG "Tufa & Veronika - Tufa form underwater - the calcium preciptates around the underwater spring, building it upward.")
.JPG "Tufa at the shoreline - it takes centuries, but Tufa can grow to 30 feet in height underwater. When the water level recedes, they become visible.")
.JPG "How do they grow? Mono lake's water level has fallen dramatically due to water diversion beginning in 1941 to provide more water for Los Angelinos.")
.JPG "Mammoth, CA - Not quite summer yet... Mammoth has the highest elevation of any ski resort in California.")
.JPG "Eastern Sierra above Hot Creek")
.JPG "Veronika admires the bubbles - Hot creek is an area with 7 hot springs nearby")
.JPG "hot stuff... The ground can be unstable. Scalding hot springs flow out of the ground & fumeroles burst forth!")
.JPG "Hot water bubbles up like a soup pot with bursts of volcanic sediment & mixes with the snow-fed creek. Topher found just the right spot!")
%20(3).jpg "Morning in the Buttermilks"){kind=small}
.JPG "Biking in the Buttermilks - Outside Bishop in the Owens Valley, these unsorted piles of rock & boulders were bulldozed by glaciers during the ice age.")
.JPG "Veronika on Rock Creek trail, outside Bishop - The ascent was fun although it snowed on us! The descent, however, was fantastic...")
.JPG "Rock Creek portage - You see where the name comes from...")
.JPG "Camp in Lone Pine, CA - We stayed only one night in a hotel. The mornings were cool, especially at elevation - here just a few miles from Mt. Whitney")
.JPG "Hiking Mount Whitney - We drove to the Whitney Portal around fallen boulders, across ice & snow to reach the base of the highest peak in the lower 48")
.JPG "Whitney Portal: hiking up the snow-fields for 6 hours, we looked down to the Owens Valley below")
.JPG "Steeps! We ascended only about 1/3 of the way to the summit since we didn't have true winter mountaineering gear, but it was exciting all the same.")
.JPG "Whitney - frozen lake: An amazing day of high-altitude snow in the middle of the desert!")
.JPG "Death Valley! - our first view, and it's all your FAULT. It is the movement along fault lines that create the valley.")
.JPG "At the floor - blessedly before the truly hot season")
.JPG "Mosaic canyon - so named because of its curious collection of rock types")
.JPG "Wildflowers! It was an abundant year with unprecedented rain: usually 2\"/yr on average - this year was 6\". The tiny flowers made a sea of color.")
.JPG "Sand Dunes - everything looks \"close\" in Death Valley even when it is about 20 miles away...")
.JPG "Veronika strolls the dunes as the full moon rises")
.JPG "Individual grains of sand swirl in the air through the canyon - the conditions slow the air and allow it to fall, forming the area of the dunes")
.JPG "Topher at sunset on the dunes")
.JPG "Veronika & sand, sand, sand")
.JPG "Snake! This sleeping Mojave Desert Sidewinder was fortunately more interested in the local lizards than in us.")
.JPG "Veronika enters the Golden Canyon")
.JPG "Golden canyon below Zabriske point overlook")
.JPG "More golden canyon - fantastic!")
.JPG "The happy hiker couple")
.JPG "No water in this river-bed.")
.jpg "Topher & the cotton-top cactus - not an inviting creature")
.JPG "\"The Artist's Palette\" - a collection of mountains of various types of rock sediment")
.JPG "Vivid colors of the artist's palette")
.JPG "Veronika bikes the Artist's drive in the late-day glow")
.JPG "Veronika descends back to the valley floor")
.JPG "The Devil's Golf Course! The surface is not snow, but nearly pure table salt (sodium chloride) deposited from ancient salt lakes.")
.JPG "The craggy lake bottom is intricate with crystals in various stages of development. Salt continues to be deposited by recurring floods.")
.jpg "The Neptune Pool - springwater is heated to 80 degrees and circulates through all year long through the Greco-Roman style bath"){kind=small}
.jpg "The road to Big Sur lies before us!")
.jpg "Sea lion haul-out at Piedras Blancas: the \"immature\" sea lions (note the small noses) spend weeks on the beach molting into their new fur coat")
.jpg "Truly awesome, but it is a smelly sight.")
.jpg "Sunset on the Big Sur coast")
.jpg "The coastline adjacent to Kirk Creek campground")
.jpg "Sunset coves litter Big Sur")
.jpg "The end to a beautiful day")
.jpg "Morning at our happy camp-site in Big Sur. A good time to travel - nobody around!")
.jpg "Veronika and Topher on Route 1 in Big Sur")
.jpg "The waves crash through a hole in the rock at Pfeiffer beach")
.jpg "Spring has sprung in Monterey, our last stop before returning home")