March 13, 2012

March 13, 2012

A few days ago the USA Today had an article on ten great places to see Spring wildflowers. One is just east of here in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. So we leave San Diego and drive two hours up and over a lot of hills through ranch country that looks nothing like California. Eventually the mountains end and a vast desert stretches before us. The park Visitor Center is just below on the valley floor. There we learn that Anza-Borrego is the second largest state park in the United States. We also discover that the Gulf of California used to extend all the way up here. As the Grand Canyon was carved the resulting sand debris filled in this valley.

We decide to hike the six-mile Palm Canyon Trail. The hike follows a wash up a shallow canyon. I don’t see wildflowers anywhere. In fact, there is little of anything growing here including cactus. We come across several hikers staring at the top of the canyon. It is a Bighorn Sheep posing. Too bad I need binoculars to prove it is not a rock.


To our great surprise we eventually cross a tiny stream. Water in the desert. That is always a treat. And even more surprising, around the next bend we see palm trees in the distance! It is a real life desert oasis like seen in movies. Our first! And so very cool! On closer inspection it looks like a rock dam causes the water to pool here letting these California Fan Palms survive. This native palm is a descendent of the palms that grew here when this area was wetter and open to the sea. Interestingly the Mediterranean version of this fan palm decorates our pool at home.

From Anza-Borrego we head east. We run into the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California. This lake was formed accidentally in 1905 when flooding on the Colorado River overwhelmed the local irrigation canals and flooded the area. Because the area is below sea level, the water couldn’t be drained. Continuing east we cross Imperial Valley, a huge irrigated agricultural region that specializes in winter vegetables. We pass fields of carrots in various stages of harvest. As we drive east on I-8, I can see the border wall with Mexico. Shortly after crossing the Colorado River and the city of Yuma, AZ we hit desert again. We make it back to Tucson in time for Aimee’s bedtime. Unpacking can wait till morning.

March 12, 2012

The San Diego Zoo is world renown, and since I enjoy photographing animals, we couldn’t leave the area without a visit. Unfortunately ticket prices are a budget-busting $42 each. Coming from St Louis I am used to zoos being free.

We arrived shortly after opening and randomly picked a direction to start. I was immediately amused with a flock of Caribbean pink flamingos that would regularly honk and start marching in unison. We wandered into the monkey area and smiled again watching two gibbons compete on who could howl the loudest. We watched some chimpanzee-like bonobos use a stick as a tool to gather some gooey treat. Frustration soon set in because the Primate area is a maze of hilly intersecting paths making an efficient visit impossible. We walked around and around and never passed the gorillas or orangutans. I almost wish I had brought a highlighter so I could mark off the routes as we walk them.

We decided to push on to new areas and use the aerial tram to return to the entrance. We did a lot of walking, more than a normal zoo. Half the park seems to be non-zoo stuff, like shops, restaurants, entertainment, and roads, lots of roads. For the sedentary, the zoo offers a tour bus that will drive you around and let you “glance” at the animals from the comfort of your seat. The zoo seems to be conflicted on whether they want to be a walking zoo or a driving one. After three circuits of the park we thought we finally saw everything, so we hopped on the tour bus to give our weary feet a rest. To my consternation we missed at least one whole street.

In the end, the zoo was nice and awesomely landscaped with plants and flowers from around the world. And like all zoos, it has some unique exhibits but I am not sure if San Diego is any better than its major competitors. Interestingly the zoo also has a sister park outside town called Safari Park (for another $42) where the animals roam in an open savannah.

Weary and starving, we drove downtown and had an early dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter. We then crossed over to Coronado Island to visit the Hotel del Coronado. This historic structure opened in 1888. You may recognize it from when the hotel starred with Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in the movie, “Some like it hot”. We make it back to Old Town in time for happy hour.

March 11, 2012

March 11, 2012

From San Clemente, we drove down the California coast to San Diego. Our first stop was a spit of land called Point Loma that houses the Cabrillo National Monument. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a member of Hernando Cortez’s army that conquered the Aztecs. At that time, the American West was a big blank spot on the map. So in 1540 Coronado was sent by land to explore our Southwest, while Cabrillo sailed up the coast. Cabrillo discovered San Diego. He died later in the voyage and may have been buried on the Channel Island we visited last summer. The National Monument commemorates this first exploration of our west coast by Europeans.

After lunch we drove through heavy traffic to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Billed as the birthplace of California, Old Town is where the first Europeans settled. The Park is an easy mix of historic buildings, small museums and lots of shops and restaurants. It is very nice and seems to be where the locals go for dinner. After lazily walking the compact area, we stumble upon the adjacent Mormon Battalion Historic Site. We join a tour and quickly realize this is run by the Church. Aimee thinks it is a little hokey but aside from the soft-sell, I enjoy it. The tour is well done and I learn a little known historical tidbit. Near the end of the Mexican War, a group of 500 Mormons were recruited in Iowa to bolster the army in California. This battalion marched overland to San Diego but arrived too late. Their only fighting was against a herd of angry cattle.

March 10, 2012

March 10, 2012

This morning we drove over the San Gabriel mountains into Los Angeles. We arrived too early so we decided to stop at Grauman’s Chinese Theater to see the footprints in the cement that I remember from my childhood visit. I remember thinking at the time that only Shirley Temple’s prints were near my size. While walking to the Theater we also stumbled upon the “Walk of Fame” lining Hollywood Boulevard. Almost every actor and singer has a star embedded in the sidewalk. Also next door to Grauman’s is Kodak Theater. We stop and take a picture of where movie stars meet to give each other Oscar statues.

After this brief dalliance with Hollywood glitz we head to the very urban Hancock Park. This park contains the La Brea Tar Pits, where Ice Age mammals got stuck in gooey asphalt. What I thought was an historical artifact is still very active. Asphalt still seeps up in many spots in the grass. An oily sheen and smelly methane bubbles emanate from the park’s pond. La Brea also continues to be an active dig site with a seemingly endless supply of fossils. In the center of the park is the Page Museum displaying a tiny fraction of the fossils. They have found lots of almost every animal from the Ice Age. Dire Wolves and Saber-toothed cats have been found in the thousands. Scientists think these extinct carnivores just couldn’t resist pouncing on a struggling mammoth or buffalo. They even have found 400 Golden Eagles. No other spot matches the sheer concentration of fossils found at La Brea.

After lunch we drove north to Griffith Park. Griffith is the Central Park of Los Angeles. It sits on a beautiful hill overlooking LA. We wound our way up the narrow road packed with cars parked alongside. Griffith is a magnet for both tourists and locals. At the peak we stop at the observatory made famous in James Dean’s movie, Rebel without a Cause. From the deck we get a great view of the Hollywood sign and the city. We spend an hour perusing the Observatory's extensive exhibits on astronomy.

Aimee has been very patient with my touring. She wants payback now, so we drive to the Fashion district near downtown LA. It is a zoo of humanity. I drop Aimee off while I go looking for a spot to park. Aimee is in heaven. Here fabric is not sold by the yard, but by the pound!

The crowds of Los Angeles are getting to me, so we decide to cut short our tour and head southeast out of town. We spend the night in San Clemente, where Nixon had his western White House.

March 9, 2012

March 9, 2012

After waking early from our camp in Death Valley, we find that Furnace Creek is less than a mile away. Death Valley sure is a place of extremes and contrast. This is the driest place in North America but here at Furnace Creek they have hundreds of water guzzling palm trees and a golf course! It is also the lowest and hottest point but very tall snow-capped mountains surround us. Death Valley is a desert but yet abounds in color.

After wishing we had brought our golf clubs, we stop at the Visitor Center, where we find no exhibits but a good movie. From there we stop just north at the ruins of the Harmony Borax Works. Enterprising chemists scraped this “white gold” off the top of the saltpan and purified it in a small chemical plant. Pretty amazing for the 1870’s. They then loaded the Borax into wagons and hauled them to the railhead on “Twenty-Mule Teams” made famous in TV commercials from my youth.

We finished our tour of Death Valley strolling a boardwalk over a spring-fed salt marsh and hiking a short way into a sand dune area. Our final stop was a hike of Mosaic canyon. The trailhead was reached by a steep drive up a two-mile gravel road. It was well worth it as this hike is a showcase of geology. The walls of this slot canyon are water-polished white marble. Clearly when rain does fall in this desert, the ensuing flash flood sculpts the scenery.

The whole day Aimee and I have been debating if we should spend another day here to see the “Racetrack”. This is a famous spot where boulders mysteriously move across a flat plain. Unfortunately we would need to rent a jeep and drive five hours along a very bumpy road. Aimee thinks that is crazy. We decide to save it for another day.

Instead we leave Death Valley and head towards Los Angeles. Along the way we stop at a rest stop in the small town of Trona. There we read some Interpretative signs about the local industry and terrain. During the Ice Age, lakes not only covered Death Valley but also a dozen other spots east of the Sierra Nevadas. Most are now dry or nearly dry lakebeds. Searles Lake here at Trona turned out to be a chemical gold mine. A modern chemical plant pumps up brine from deep below and finishes Mother Natures work producing Borax, Soda Ash, and Lithium.

In the distance we can also see Trona Pinnacles National Landmark. Like everything today it is at the end of a long gravel road. I hope our tires last. The Pinnacles are a most unusual geologic feature, formed when Searles Lake was much deeper. They are made of Tufa limestone when Calcium-rich spring waters bubbled up into the highly alkaline lake water causing Lime to precipitate. These tall spires are otherworldly having starred in several science fiction movies like Planet of the Apes and Lost in Space.

We spent the night in Palmdale CA and had a wonderful Thai dinner.

March 8, 2012

March 8, 2012

Las Vegas is not our destination, just a convenient stopover point. Before heading out of town, we stopped at a local pawnshop near the Strip. No, we are not here to get some quick cash but to visit one of my favorite TV shows, “Pawn Stars”. Since our bodies are still on Mountain Time, we arrived too early. But it was a good thing we were early, because by 9AM there was a long line behind us. Over 4000 people visit every day. The inside is a lot smaller than it looks on TV. It is also packed. For filming they need to clear the entire place of customers and employees. Sadly the four main characters were nowhere to be seen.

From Vegas we drive two hours to Death Valley National Park across the border in California. Once in the park, we make a detour to Dantes View. This spot at 5000-foot elevation gives a great overview of the park. Below us we can see the long Death Valley with its white saltpan floor surrounded by very high mountains.

From Dante we drive farther into the park amazed how mountainous and colorful the terrain is. There is obvious black volcanic formations mixed with whitish gold sedimentary rocks. We drive downhill and make a left onto Badwater Road. This path follows the saltpan down to its lowest point at 282 feet below sea level. We get lucky and arrive just in time for an excellent ranger-guided walking tour. During the Ice Age, a lake filled Death Valley. It has since evaporated leaving all the salts behind. Even though Death Valley is the driest point in North America, it isn’t dry. Natural Springs flow underground into the valley. The water table is only a few inches below the surface. The constant churn of water is like a little natural chemical factory separating all the minerals eroding out of the surrounding mountains.

On the way out of Badwater Basin, we make a short detour along Artists Drive up into the side canyons lining the salt flat. Here we get close up looks at the spectrum of colors that result from Mother Nature’s chemical separation process. We also stop at Golden Canyon for a short hike up an eroded mudstone canyon the color of whitish gold.

Since we are in a National Park without the RV, we tent camped. Oh how we miss our motorhome. No running water, no lights, no comfy bed, and no cold beer.

March 7, 2012

March 7, 2012

This is the time of the year when the IRS makes me do a lot of extra work. It is a very taxing effort, so I convinced Aimee I need a vacation. We left this morning for the long drive to the opposite corner of Arizona. In Phoenix we caught the Joshua Tree Parkway headed northwest through one of the more isolated parts of Arizona. About halfway along we ran into the Joshua forest. Since these strange trees are native to the Mojave Desert of California, I wasn’t expecting to see many here. Surprisingly there were thousands. Joshua Tree National Park has nothing over Arizona.

After driving another couple hours we made it to the border. When we hit the Welcome to Nevada sign, I asked Aimee what happened to Hoover Dam? On our last trip through we watched them building a beautiful suspension bridge as a bypass around the dam. Apparently they built high concrete sides on the bridge deck to prevent gawkers like me from slowing down to take pictures. We crossed the new bridge and didn’t realize it. On the Nevada side we took the first exit and wound our way back to the bridge. A short hike brought us onto a pedestrian crossing of the bridge. It provides a great view of Hoover Dam but from this vantage it looks smaller and less impressive.

A short drive later we arrived in Las Vegas where we spent the night at a casino hotel.