Death Valley National Park to Bishop California

We started our drive home today on Thursday. We planned to leave tomorrow on Friday but the weather forecast showed intense winds starting this afternoon so we left a day early. This morning at Death Valley was very nice, no wind and very warm and sunny. But we believed the weather forecast and got out of there just as the wind started to pick up.

The drive out was a little crazy with intense Crosswinds and a blowing dust storm that got so bad we had zero visibility for five minutes and had to slow down to nearly 10 miles an hour. I wish I got a picture of it. All I could see was the painted lines on the road immediately in front of me and that was about it.

we climbed out of the Death Valley area and dropped down into Owens Valley and Highway 395 to Drive North to Reno.  In this area we found the state police stopping trucks and making them wait on the side of the road due to the wind. The wind isn't forecast to end in till Friday night so they may be spending the night.

We are in a good RV Park in Bishop California which has good size trees so we have a bit of protection from the wind but it's still pretty windy. When we arrived the power was out but its back on now.

Hike day and Death Valley National Park

Another long hike today to try to find little Bridge Canyon. It was a pretty hot day and most of the 7-mile hike was in open desert. We emptied both of our CamelBaks so went through four liters of water. And of course we did not find little Bridge Canyon, again. So I guess in the years ahead we'll just keep exploring every Canyon up there until we find it.

There was lots of interesting desert pavement on the hike as well as the occasional beautiful cactus flower.

Las Vegas to death Valley National Park

The forecast today was for winds in Death Valley National Park calming down in the late afternoon. So we had a lazy slow morning leaving Las Vegas and then went to Red Rock Canyon for more hiking outside of Las Vegas to the west.

We realized the day before driving through Red Rock Canyon that there was this beautiful Canyon hike called icebox Canyon. So we went back to this Canyon today and hiked it. I've hiked a lot of desert canyons and I think this is probably one of the most beautiful. The pictures really do not do it justice. I hiked to the end where there was a dry fall except there was a small amount of water coming down so I guess it was more of a waterfall.

Halfway to Death Valley National Park we stopped for gas and check the weather forecast. Its still looked a little windy so we stopped at a winery in a town called Pahrump Nevada. You really wouldn't think this town which also has legal brothel would have a decent winery but it did.

Tomorrow we plan to get in a good 7 mile hike in Death Valley. The weather forecast is for intense wins starting Thursday afternoon so we may bug out a day early and take a lazy slow pace back home.

Las Vegas again

We left Disneyland and went back to Las Vegas for a couple of days. In the previous post I forgot to post a photo from the RV Park in Anaheim of a fruit tree. The RV park was called orangeland and it was full of lemon and orange trees. The owners of the park said the fruit was ripe and to feel free to pick as much as we want which was pretty cool.

We did our usual walking around the Las Vegas Strip and used Lyft repeatedly instead of driving. At the Rio Casino there was a kiss store that sold all sorts of paraphernalia and had this weird Gene Simmons Volkswagen bug. The sign in the window is pretty amusing.

We also got out to the Red Rocks Natural Area west of Las Vegas and did some hiking. It was a little cool and cloudy at times but very very pretty area with lots of great hiking. Also very popular, the parking lot we're all full which was surprising for a Monday.

The wonderful world of Disney

Lots of fun yesterday and today in Disneyland and California Adventure. Feet are pretty sore after all the walking but the weather was good and we had a lot of fun.

The crowds were a little crazy in Disneyland. At one point late in the evening everybody tried to leave at once from Tomorrowland and it started to get a little intense. One woman started yelling for everybody to speed up and get out of her way and there was nowhere to go. We kind of felt like for all of Disney's legendary reputation for handling crowds that they kind of blew it in this area of the park that evening. It really seemed like the park was much more crowded than I remember. But my memory could be faulty on this but it sure seemed like you couldn't turn around without hitting a mass of people everywhere in the park.

The fireworks display that evening was amazing even from the distance we saw it, the main entrance. They were really bright flares shooting over the castle in arcs just like in Disney credits before their movies. Very cool. Plus we could see Tinkerbell, a real person, flying over the castle suspended by I guess cables. From our distance it was a little hard to make out but it looked really amazing.

The Water and Light Show in California Adventure today was really spectacular. They broadcast really sharp images of their most famous movie scenes on walls of water with really great music. Brought back lots of great memories of their movies that we used to watch when our kids were young.

As a parent of adult children now it was really fun to watch other people's little kids in Disneyland. Particularly the young girls in the princess costumes they were just absolutely adorable. On the other hand Ramona and I really enjoyed adult beverages with our adult daughter in California adventure and it was much easier to get into bars to have dinner relatively quickly without a minor in tow.

We were a little frustrated that it seemed like numerous rides were closed but only one ride was closed for renovations, the Matterhorn. Otherwise the other rides were temporarily closed for breakdowns and then reopened.

Wednesday and Thursday

This was the two-day drive to Anaheim.

I stayed in a KOA Campground would seem very quiet until this train went by. It was a passenger train that's part of the Los Angeles Metro mass transit train system. Seemed odd that it came out to such a rule area. Campground was nice although the canyon had obviously burned in the last year or so so they were doing lots of restoration work.

Also went by a gigantic solar facility outside of Las Vegas. It was kind of a cloudy day which maybe explains why the mirrors were all turned different directions and not aiming the sunlight at the central Towers like they're designed to do.

I stopped at the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area to do a bit of short hiking. Lots of films and TV shows have been filmed here including two or three Star Trek episodes. Always wanted to stop here and check it out. I was surprised to see that the Pacific Crest Trail went through this area.

I stopped at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to check out this gigantic Boulder Art Exhibit. I read about the installation of this Boulder and how much effort it was to transport it through Los Angeles to the museum. Kind of cool for a geology nerd. The museum is right next to the La Brea Tar Pits.

Tuesday las vegas

I got in kind of a nice ride this morning in Las Vegas. I rode to the REI in Henderson and then did a loop back that followed this dry wash on this bicycle paths in the photo. Not a real friendly town for bike riding but it was about 17 miles mostly flat and a fun ride.

Drove up to Costco near downtown Las Vegas today and went by this weird or I guess really beautiful Medical Clinic building.

Having cocktails now then dinner then probably uber over to the strip for a couple of hours of wandering around.