 Tuesday,
Oct. 14:
On our way to Lone Pine, CA, near
Death Valley, we stopped at Torrey Pines state reserve
and took pictures of the beach and got some sand.
It had a lot of rocks in it and was very fine sand.
Then we drove to the Torrey Pines Golf Course for John
to take pictures. Where we parked there was a sign
on the fence that said "Potential of errant golf shots.
Park at your own risk." We didn't see any
motorized carts due to new sod and other preparations
for a tournament, according to the valet for the Lodge. |
 We
drove on to Cardiff State beach and watched some surfers
and took pictures. The waves were larger here than
at the Torrey Pines beach.
Surfers, 52 secs.
 |
All Three days we were in San Diego
the days started out hazy and cloudy and the skies began
clearing around 10:00 AM. Driving through San
Bernardino and Los Angeles at mid-day the skies were
still smoggy. We got to Lone Pine, CA and stopped
at the visitors center. The park ranger told us
what to see when we go to Death Valley tomorrow.
He said this was the beginning of the tourist season
because it's too hot in the summer months through
September. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 93
degrees. It was really windy here today, about 30
mph winds. The winds are supposed to continue
until 11:00 AM tomorrow. |
 We
also found out that a lot of western movies were filmed
here. We road to where they were filmed on Movie
Road (pictured) right out of town. Last week they
had the Lone Pine Film Festival. Hundreds of old
westerns and modern movies have been filmed in this area
according to the post card. It also said thousands
of movie buffs come for the film festival. I asked the
clerk at the gas station if she knew anybody that came
to the film festival. She said all the old ones
are dead now. She did say Johnny Crawford came.
He was Mark McCain, the rifleman's son in the television
show, The Rifleman. He's the only one
alive of the old ones. She did say the Lone Ranger
movie w/ Johnny Depp, Iron Man 1 and 2 w/ Robert Downy,
and Unchanged w/ Jamie Fox were filmed here along with a
lot of commercials: Subaru, Mercedes Benz and Toyota. |
 Across
from our Motel you could see Mount Whitney, 14,508 feet.
Before Alaska joined the union it was the highest peak
in the United States. John asked the ranger at the
visitor's center why there was no snow cap, he said it
is too steep to hold snow. |
 Wednesday,
Oct. 15:
On our way to Death Valley National Park the first
thing we encountered was a coyote slowly crossing the
highway. |
 As
we slowed down and stopped, Sandra looked out her
driver's side window saw the mate. They both
ambled along on either side of the car. We left
them undisturbed. |
 We
entered Death Valley National Park at the Mesquite Sand
Dunes where we saw a dead mesquite tree. We were at
Sea Level at the pay station, just below sea level at
the dunes. It was 12 noon and the temperature was 99
degrees.
Sand Dunes, 43 secs.
|
If you are at least as old as me,
you might remember Ronald Reagan hosting the television
show, Death Valley Days sponsored by Twenty
Mule Team Borax. This is an old, restored,
non-operating Borax mine on the way to Badwater Basin.
We discovered a bit of trivia, there were only 18 mules
in the team, the two lead animals were horses. |
 We
got to Badwater Basin at 1:00 PM and it was 100 degrees
and the wind was blowing awfully hard.
There was a sign on the cliffs behind the parking area
that showed where sea level was. It's in the
video.
For the longest time people
couldn't believe this was below sea level until it was
proved using a barometer. The crunched up area is
long term dried up salt bed. The white area with
people is salt bed that has been "renewed" at some time
by water flowing over it.
Badwater Basin, 1 min 11secs.
|
 We
left Badwater at 1:30 heading towards Las Vegas.
On the way we saw a lot of Joshua trees. At the
visitor's center in Lone Pine the ranger said they look
like Dr. Seuss trees. |
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