CA 06: Deserts all Day

Our wild night driving into the campground at the Mohave National Park, we woke up about 6:30 am, to the sound of rain on the roof of the car. Outside, the rocky desert scrub landscape was a dark wet brown. I got out of the car, startling a jack rabbit, and inhaled the pervading scent of wet lumber. The campground was a grove of pinion pine that had burnt a few years ago. The smell was pungent, and somewhat unpleasant, having something of the smell of railroad ties. There were all different kinds of flowers blooming everywhere, and I scampered about taking up close photos of all the different ones I saw. The drizzle dwindled into nothing, as we stretched out and got ready to go. We went to the visitors center which was still closed, and explored some of the craggy rock formations around it. We then headed on an exploratory mission through the park. At one point we spotted what we believe was a peregrine falcon, sitting on a lonely outcropping of rock. All along the road were small clusters of quail rushing through the brush.

Finally we left the park, and headed for another kind of desert: Death Valley. It seems to take forever to really get down into the valley. The two land highway winds through a dry wasteland of rocky hills, reminding me more of footage of Afghanistan than any American landscape. Finally, as we crested a hill, we could see down into the valley. Something like 1200 ft in elevation later, we were approaching the lowest point. We stopped to investigate the ruins of Ashford Mill, and felt the dry heat cracking in the afternoon air. We got back in the car, and continued on towards bad water, remaining below sea level. Ahead of us on the left, a broad flat white plain came into view. Further ahead, there was a large lake - err wait, no, that's not really water... is it? No, no way, but... it looks like water. In fact, it look like a lot of water. We drove all the way to bad water without ever reaching that mirage, of course. At bad water, we were officially 282 feet below sea level. We walked a little bit of the way out onto the salt flat, but even though the temperatures that day were not as high as they could have been, the dryness of the air made it very uncomfortable. Further down the road we took a detour to see the artists palette, a section of the hillside that is many colors due to the different minerals in the rock. We missed Dante's view, and the racetrack, because time was short, and the day was getting long. It was time for us to make the long drive out of the park, and head towards out destination for the next day, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. The drive was uneventful, and unhindered by lunatic rabbits.