Death Valley National Park: Artist Drive

Artist Drive, Death Valley National Park 

The temperature kept leaping up as we drove along the Artist Drive. We were stunned by the spectacular color in the rock formation. Greens, pinks, purples, mustards, blacks, browns, blues.

Beyond belief. 

A wondrous place.

Death Valley National Park: Zabriskie Point

Iconic Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park.

Fred taking the most spectacular set of photos of the point and its surrounding Badlands. Nothing seems to move or fly, its eerily silent, scorchingly hot, tumble dryer feeling. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Coping with 115 degree F heat at Zabriskie Point

Roadrunner, Death Valley National Park

As one heads into Death Valley from the west the first stop is the Panamint Springs Resort. 

Fred and I stopped here to pick up coffee for our breakfast picnic. I was already scanning the bush around the camp spot  - after all their sign told me too..

Fred came back after chatting to the waitress and she had told him the roadrunners are early morning birds and it was already close to 9am.

Well, got my bird of the trip! 

The Roadrunner is my only target bird for the west. It has been on my radar for 4 weeks and then it quietly sneaked past me. Fred rushed off for his camera and managed to snap a few pictures before the bird disappeared. Awesome. 

Running as they do!

How cool is this bird! Rock star of the desert.

cautiously watching Fred and his huge lens.

Trainspotting

I was sitting on a hill this afternoon surrounded by trainspotters from Canada and Germany. They were so excited to watch the trains coming through the Tehachapi Loop which is unique in the world and an engineering marvel. As was Fred! In fact even I had fun….

Completed in the 1870's the line at the Loop climbs in a spiral over itself. It is a California Historical Landmark and the most heavily trafficked single track in the US.

The numbers: about 50 freight trains a day climb from 400' in the west and crest the summit at 4025' and then drop into Mojave at 2700'.

Tehachapi Loop

Aerial of the Tehachapi Loop thanks to Google Maps.

Encountering Giants

On the road through the Sequoia National Forest.
Within a few hundred miles we have driven a desert road and now a forest road….

This Sequoia beauty is 1500 years old and 245' tall

 Lyrical sounding names -  Ponderosa Pines, Sugar Pines, Incense Cedars, White Firs coexist with these giant Sequoias. I even glimpsed my first chipmunk for the trip, cute Alvin….

Wolf lichen adding vibrant color on the bark of a White Fir

Filtered light in the forest.

Exposed roots of a Sequoia that fell in the 1800's.

PS: I was in a coffee shop in Reno, and Alvin was looking down at me from the lintel. Asked him to join us and took a quick photo - what attitude.

Foodie Interlude - Yelp.com and biscuits

Cracked Egg Cafe, Kernville

A morning routine while my coffee is brewing, is to check what is trending on Yelp.com, a social media site with ratings and comments on local businesses, for top breakfast spots in towns that we are passing through.

Like this morning, we were driving mountain roads through the Sequoia National Forest and I picked Cracked Egg Cafe, a gem in Kernville, a diner with locals meeting for coffee, catching up on their news, waitress back and forth with coffee pot refilling my mug, local newspaper for soduku.

Classic counter chairs and an old black and white tiled floor. I could picture Jack Reacher sitting back to the wall and watching the door drinking his hot, black coffee.

Lovely.





Eating twice a day is a good strategy when faced with breakfast here in US. I decided to be a bit more adventurous this morning and ordered the biscuit side, as opposed to the standard sourdough bread.

It was a light and quite delicious scone.

Think I will pass on the gravy though.
Its good with marmalade.

And the O'Brien's turned out to be hash browns with bell peppers and onions, we learn.