My new best friend at the Mammoth Lakes Visitor Center suggests that I camp at the Lower Lee Vinings Campground just outside of the small town of Lee Vinings along Hwy 395. He says this will be the perfect place for me to go from “furnace to forest” after two nights in Death Valley, while also offering a convenient location to explore Mono Lake. Continue reading
Having left Furnace Creek before sun-up, it is early when I reach the junction with California Scenic Highway 395. I am relishing in the cool air coming through my open windows, the sight of the snow-capped Sierra Mountains on my left, and wildflowers blooming alongside the road. I have Joni Mitchell’s “California” blaring over the speakers: Continue reading
I set my alarm for 4:30am. I must get up and get out before first light, before I reach that danger zone again. At 5:00am, it is still 85 degrees out. I hitch up in the dark, and take off toward Stovepipe Wells. I don’t want to go, but I don’t want to put any of the “TTTH Team” through another 110 degree day, either. Continue reading
After driving the nine mile Artist Drive loop, it is probably around 11:00am, and the temperature remarkably still feels comfortable to me. (“It’s a dry heat,” I know, I know.) So I figure, I am feeling good, I am going to keep going! Continue reading
I set my alarm for 5:00am and wake up in time to make it to Zabriskie Point by sunrise. I have to hang around for almost an hour, as I did not figure on the sunrise over the mountain being so much later than the “true” sunrise. It is so cool and pleasant…..like 65 degrees. Just a gorgeous clear, cool morning, the kind that makes me wonder why I don’t get up for sunrise every day. Continue reading
“I came, I saw, I conquered!” Okay, well, so maybe I didn’t conquer. Two outta three ain’t bad.
When trying to determine the best place to cross over from Arizona to California’s Scenic Hwy 395, the obvious choice was right through the heart of Death Valley. This would also allow me to cross off another National Park, Continue reading
Autozone had diagnosed my Check Engine Light (for free!) as a faulty exhaust temperature sensor – an emissions thing. Many said “Emissions? I would just keep driving it. Just ignore it.” But how would I know if there weren’t other codes popping up if the light never went out? Continue reading
“OH CRAP!”
Yes, that is surely one of them…But the one I really meant was “Plans are made in Jello.” Such was the nature of my exit from Prescott on a Friday afternoon. Continue reading
Now that I am in Arizona with a two hour time difference, in order to keep to Central time zone hours, I have to start my workday at 6:00am, which sounds pretty dreadful, especially when I have early morning conference calls. But the plus side of that means I can stop at 3:00pm. This leaves me with four and a half hours of glorious daylight to burn, and I can’t think of a better place to burn it than Prescott! Continue reading