May 25, 2024 – COHN17

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.

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.