1/8/11 - Mojave NP

Mojave NP--this time it’s not Natl Park, but Natl Preserve!  We’d never heard of this one until I saw pictures at a lunch stop in Baker, CA.  I was looking at postcards by the cashier’s counter and all the interesting pictures were all of Mojave.  Then when we were in Pahrump, we talked to some folks who had volunteered there for 8 months one year, and they said it was definitely worth the trip back to California when were in Las Vegas. 

Mojave NP has more Joshua Trees in higher density than Joshua Tree NP.  We stopped first along side the road by a really interesting old lava flow, where I clambered up on the rocks.  When you look at this picture, it looks like George is out in the rocks—nope, I climbed downhill and he stayed on top. 

We visited the Kelso Depot Visitors Center—which is the old Union Pacific train station.   It’s been renovated to just like it was in the 1940s.  We took turns taking pictures of each other inside the remains of the old strap-steel jail out by the parking lot.  then hiked the Kelso Dunes. 

 We didn’t make it all the way to the top, but went farther than anyone else that parked around us.  It’s 700’ to the top of the highest dune, but you don’t just go up a hill.   You walk to a dune, climb it, then go down it so you can repeat with the next dune—and the next, and the next, and the next.  Some of them are pretty high—and you can’t even tell there’s another one behind it until you get to the top of the dune.  We never did make it to the very highest one.  Eventually we realized that we had to make it back to the truck, and we were a long ways out.

We stayed longer there than I’d planned so we didn’t get to go to some of the other places in the park.  Another time, I guess. 

We took a different road out of the park—a really lousy road, actually.  It’s pretty obvious that Mojave National Preserve is not at the top of the list for upkeep and maintenance.  George stopped so we could wait for sunset and I could get a silhouette of a Joshua Tree against the darkening sky.

Link to more pictures of Mojave NP

“It’s an Adventure!”

"It's an Adventure!" That's my line when something unusual happens; you know, things like (a) getting lost, (b) a disaster occurs or even (c) going somewhere interesting. Occasionally the comment annoys my husband George, but usually I just grin at him. Depending on the adventure, I might add something else but sometimes it's just better not to say anything more.

I actually thought the pioneer genes from my ancestors died out a generation before they got to me, but there must be some residual gypsy left because I really do love to travel.  George and I planned for years to travel the US for at least a year after we retire.  We bought the truck and the 5th wheel in anticipation of the journey. 

I retired October 29th, 2010--2 years earlier than we had originally scheduled—and we hit the road the very next week! Original plan has already been scrapped. Who wants to go back to Seattle in November??? So we're telling people "year-and-a-half to two years", but I think the real answer is "as long as we want!"

The focus is National Parks—plus assorted National Monuments, Recreation Areas, Preserves, golf courses (for George), or anything else which distracts us. I can be easily distracted.

In the first 2 months of our trip, we've had several different types of adventures:

1. On day 2 of our trip, I suggested a quick side trip to view the Clarno Unit of John Day Fossil Beds NM before we went on to our reserved campsite for the night. That way we wouldn't have to backtrack the next day. The map didn't show that the quick side trip was down a really steep, really narrow road. G wasn't much pleased having to drag the trailer down that grade. I really think he missed most of the scenery. I learned later that he wanted to use the RV resorts as hubs for our explorations, not take the trailer with us all the time. (Okay, that works too.)
   
2. The stupid GPS tried to get us to drive to the RV park in Bend via Mt. Bachelor. The road kept going upwards as we headed into the snowline in the dark. G got a little testy there too…but it was definitely an adventure before we turned around—once we found a place that we could turn truck-and-trailer around! Please note: we do still own a GPS, although it's not allowed to talk anymore.
   
3. We missed snow by 6 hours leaving Yosemite but had a different kind of adventure that day. G drove 6 miles on a 7% grade down the new Priest Grade from Groveland without trailer brakes! At least going downhill the mountain and not the canyon was on my side of the truck.
   
4. We've visited Redwood NP, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity NRA, Yosemite NP, Pinnacles NM, Salton Sea California State Parks), Joshua Tree NP, Death Valley NP and Mojave NP as well as various and assorted side trips—without the trailer—along the way. We explored Monterey and the 17-Mile-Drive, a WWII Air Museum in Palm Springs, a windmill farm, oases and a couple of ghost towns. George has even played golf a few times.
   
5. Lots of rain in Southern California this year—even Death Valley was underwater.  

We've visited relatives, hiked and ridden our bikes, loafed around and tried to stay warm. At first we weren't staying very long at one place, but we've learned that we don't have to keep driving all the time. We don't have to be somewhere by any certain time, so we can be anywhere for as long as we want.

I'd planned on getting this blog going long before now, but playing on the computer hasn't been high on my list of things to do in retirement. We're going to be in Las Vegas for another week, so it seemed like a good time to get back to working on this.

It will be a work-in-progress for a while. Let me know if you have suggestions on places we should visit, or comments on our travels.

1/2/11 – Rhyolite Ghost Town

Rhyolite is another ghost town that popped up in the early 1900s while they were mining gold nearby, and then just as quickly died. 

We thought there was a lot of haze or dust in the air as we were driving from Pahrump to Beatty.  When we got to ­­­­Beatty, it suddenly registered that it was starting to snow! 

We decided that since we were about 5 miles from Rhyolite, we’d make a quick tour to say we’d been there.  There are actually very few buildings left.  The bank building was cool, and the old railroad station.  It was cold so we didn’t stay long.

The Goldwell Outdoor Sculpture Museum is nearby so we detoured for that, even though the snow was starting to come down in earnest.  But you have to see to believe things like the huge mosaic sofa, the huge pink and yellow lady that looks like it was built out of giant Lego blocks, the white ghost holding a bicycle (“Ghost Rider” LOL), and Szukaiski’s “Last Supper”.

Okay, we saw it.  We took pictures.  We got in the truck and high-tailed it back to Pahrump!  By morning there was about 4” of snow—just enough to have us extend one more day in Pahrump until the Spring Mountain Pass was clear before we headed to Las Vegas.

Link to Rhyolite Ghost Town pictures

Link to Goldwell Outdoor Sculpture Museum