An 8,403-Foot Plunge (part 2)

After conquering Mount Whitney from a safe distance, we drove to Death Valley. The road to Death Valley is covered, in places, with wildflowers and Joshua trees.

We then got our first look at Death Valley. Except that this wasn’t Death Valley; better to say it was the valley before Death Valley.

Past the park entrance, we came upon the Eureka Dunes.

This salt flat, called Badwater, is the lowest point in North America—232 feet below sea level. (In the last photograph, a very small white rectangular sign in the middle of the cliff indicates sea level.)

Nearby is the Devil’s Golf Course—so called because the rock salt is so eroded that “only the devil could play golf on such rough links,” said the National Park Service in a 1934 guidebook.

Then we have the Artist Drive and Artist Palette. The rocks have been colored by oxidized metals and elements. When people say “pictures don’t do it justice,” this is what they mean.

Finally, sunset at Zabriskie Point.

Next: It depends on what we see next—I’m caught up.

May 25, 2024

An 8,403-Foot Plunge (part 1)

Granted, this was over 133 miles, but still, in one day, we went from nearly the highest point in the U.S. to the lowest. But first, a picture of Lake Tahoe.

From Lake Tahoe to Mono Lake: Mono Lake is noted for its tufas, limestone growths that were created by calcium-rich freshwater coming into the carbonate-rich lake water. (Mono Lake water has a distinct baking soda flavor.)

The tufas rise so far above the water because, starting in 1941, Los Angeles began diverting water from Mono Lake, 334 miles away. Combined with the effects of the drought, the lake—originally 6,417 feet deep—currently is 6,384 feet deep, just below the state-mandated target of 6,391 feet. (Diagram courtesy of the Mono Lake Committee.)

From Mono Lake (elev. 6,768 feet), we set out for Mount Whitney (elev. 14,494 feet). The terrain on the way up is rocky.

The road leads into the Alabama Hills National Scenic Area, a range of rock formations that have served as settings for many films over the years, such as Gunga Din, Iron Man, How the West Was Won, and Django Unchained. Many Western television show episodes also were shot there.

Beyond Alabama Hills, of course, is Mount Whitney. We stopped at about 8,117 feet.

Next: Part 2.

May 25, 2024

Bodie

I’ll circle back to our stop at Lake Tahoe later … Bodie, CA was a gold mining town. Founded in 1877, the town peaked in 1881 and began a decline that lasted until 1942, when the mine shut down.

At its height, the town had somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 residents along with 65 saloons, 18 hotels, three breweries, a number of markets, two banks, a newpaper, and a schoolhouse. It even had its own red light district—shocking, I know. The mines produced more than $38 million of gold and silver over their lifetime. When the town finally was abandoned, residents apparently left a lot of their possessions behind.

I don’t know if there were any ghosts—I didn’t see any paranormal orbs in my photos—but I met a couple with a German Shepherd that seemed very nervous. The couple told me that on their last visit to Bodie, there were two buildings where the dog simply lay down and refused to go in.

Next: Lots of natural beauty.

May 23, 2024

Alcatraz

Welcome to the cell block. After serving as a military base and military prison from 1850 to 1932, Alcatraz became a federal prison, specifically to hold prisoners who were too troublesome to be held elsewhere. “Break the rules and you go to prison, break the prison rules and you go to Alcatraz.>”

Each new prisoner received a cell with a mattress, pillow, blanket, and the rules and regulations book. (The toilet is behind the bed, next to the sink.) Some of the more notable regulations were:

Regulation 5: You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Anything else you get is a privilege.

Regulation 19: Trading, gambling, selling, giving, or loaning your personal property or your government issue items or services, or contraband of any kind, is a serious offense.

Regulation 21: You are required to work at whatever you are told to do.

Regulation 25: You are not allowed to have money of any kind in your possession while in this institution. Use of cigarettes or other items as “jail money” is forbidden.

Regulation 30: Loud talking, shouting, whistling, singing or other unnecessary noises are not permitted.

And so on. With a little time, the prisoner could make his cell nice and cozy, with the allowable items as shown in the diagram:

On the audio tour, we heard about some of the more notable residents (I did not know, for example, that Al Capone went crazy from syphilis, nor did I know that the Birdman of Alcatraz did not actually have any birds at Alcatraz; he also was something of a sociopath). One of the better stories was that of three men who escaped. Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin engineered an escape in 1962, fashioning crude tools to dig out the cement around their air vents, climbing into the corridor that ran between the cell blocks and up to the roof, and using a modified musical instrument to inflate a raft they’d constructed from stolen raincoats. They even built fake heads to lay on their pillows so their absences wouldn’t be immediately noticed. The story is here.

The three were never found; the likeliest outcome was that they drowned trying to swim the frigid water and strong current of the bay. According to a fourth member of the gang who was unable to get his air vent grill loose in time, the plan was to steal clothes and a car upon reaching land; however, no thefts of that nature were reported in the days following the escape. Moreover, some of the prisoners’ personal effects and pieces of raft washed up in the bay.

For our part, we took the ferry back.

Next: Ghost town.

May 22, 2024

Pebble Beach

Pebble Beach lies along the 17-Mile Drive, a scenic drive in Monterey that takes in more than the five (!) golf courses on the Pebble Beach peninsula.

A patch of sea called “The Restless Sea.”

Next stop: We go to jail.

May 18, 2024

Up the Coast

From San Simeon, we drove as far north along the Pacific Coast Highway as we could, given the current road conditions. The Central Coast is incredibly beautiful.

The best thing for us that day, however, were the elephant seals. There is a breeding ground just north of San Simeon, at Piedras Blancas.

Elephant seals are seriously noisy critters when they’re not resting. This beach contained mostly mothers and pups; the mother seals can weigh up to 1,800 pounds while the pups can weigh 300 pounds at weaning. During the beach season, the elephant seals molt. They also flip sand up over their bodies to cool down and protect themselves from the sun. Here is a video of some elephant seals flipping and galumphing (yes, that is the word for how they move):

Next: Golf.

May 17, 2024

Hearst Castle

(Per Wikipedia, “Not to be confused with Hurst Castle, Henry VIII’s Device Fort near Lymington in England.“)

Hearst Castle was built on 40,000 acres of land purchased by George Hearst, William Randolph Hearst’s father, which the elder Hearst had used as a ranch. (George Hearst made the family’s initial fortune in mining.) The hill on which the castle stands was originally a camp site, but William Randolph Hearst wanted “something a little more comfortable up on the hill,” and he worked with Julia Morgan—the first great female architect of the United States—to build a cozy little place with 42 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, two swimming pools, and three guest houses. Not quite good enough for a permanent residence, mind you, but definitely sufficient for entertaining, in keeping with tradition. The history of Hearst Castle is fascinating, especially if you’re a fan of Marion Davies or of the lifestyles of insanely wealthy people in the ’20s more generally.

Hearst and Morgan filled the house with incredible artwork—ceilings from Italian palazzos, doors from Moorish estates, a fireplace from a French château, Italian choir stalls, French tapestries, ancient Greek urns, European masters, etc. etc. All snark aside, it is fabulous.

*Don’t get excited, it’s only one of the guest houses.*

Next: the Coast.

May 16, 2024

Morro Bay

From Sequoia National Park, we drove back to the coast and began driving north. Randomly, we decided to stop in Morro Bay: we didn’t have any particular destination, and Abby saw there was a rock in Morro Bay, so that’s where we went. And it was quite the rock.

Coincidentally, we arrived on the Saturday of the Morro Bay Kite Festival.

There was kite choreography as well. Here is a short sample:

Next: Money money money money money.

May 15, 2024

Trees. Big Trees.

After Oahu, we returned to California for a lot of non-photogenic relaxing and socializing.

Okay, mostly non-photogenic. The Santa Monica Pier (iPhone photos make everything look like it’s been taken in front of a green screen); a cat finds my web searches fascinating; Venice Beach; a gloomy day at Pismo Beach.

Then we went to Sequoia National Park. Sequoias are huge, generally between 250 and 300 feet tall, and with bases sometimes more than 30 feet in diameter (94 feet around). For example, the “President” Sequoia tree—the oldest known living sequoia, at 3,240 years old—is 247 feet high and 27 feet in diameter.

The largest tree in the world by volume is the “General Sherman” Sequoia: 275 feet high, 25 feet in diameter, and a volume of 52,000 cubic feet. It’s almost pointless to photograph them, because a camera cannot capture their massiveness, but I tried anyway, because, what else was I going to do?

Forest fires are good for sequoias, in moderation, because the heat makes the seed pods open and sprout. Moreover, sequoias have very thick bark which protects them against fire damage. However, there have been some severe fires in the last few years which have left their marks on the forests. Moreover, severe weather has caused landslides and eroded the road base; as a result, the adjacent King’s Canyon National Park has been closed since 2022.

*The King’s Canyon access road. Photo credit: Fox26News*

Next: Kites!

May 15, 2024

Oahu

Leaving the car at LAX, we flew to Honolulu to see friends and, for me, to attend a ukulele workshop. (Ukuleles are far more portable than drum kits.) Damn, it’s pretty here.

For any of you who want to watch a ukulele performance, here is “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” performed by the workshop organizers.

Next: More California.

May 9, 2024