Category Archives: California

Death Valley, December 23

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Our alarms were set for 4:50, and when they went off Dan got up and looked outside.

Gray. Gray. Gray. And no stars to be seen.

That meant back to bed and sleeping in (which means up at 7:00 for me). There was no point going out for a non-existent sunrise, after all. It also means that today will probably not be much of a photography day at all, but of course the iPhone will get used so I can post things here.

After sitting around for a bit Dan made us some coffee. Not the in-room stuff, but good coffee using his aeropress. We then walked to the spots that serve breakfast. The breakfast buffet was $21 per person. No thanks! We don’t eat enough to make buying mediocre food worth it. The coffee spot had pretty sad looking pastries and muffins. Instead of those we went back to our room and enjoyed the breakfast food we brought with us, sitting on the little patio outside. Worked great! (And the price was right.) Oh … and some odd fungi outside our door which I’ll include here.

Eventually we drove down to Manly Lake (or is it Lake Manly?) again just to have a look-see. On the way we stopped a bit so I could take some more iPhone photos.

Finding parking at the lake took a bit of time, as there were a whole lot of people out there. Dan opted to only shoot a photo of the crowd, and I did the same with the iPhone, but I can’t quite capture things well.

Then we drove to Natural Bridge Canyon and after parking we took a few photos looking back at the lake.

Then it was walking time. Good thing I read the sign about the snakes. Whew!

On the way I noticed more green. I do love to see green!

The bridge isn’t a terribly long walk. And of course I took photos.

We continued on for a bit, and I continued making iPhone shots.

We opted not to climb the rocks to go up even higher. I had seen a family working on getting down and they were young and agile. I’m not interested in taking a chance of falling. Plus I’m lazy. The rocks, though, are so beautiful. I mostly took photos with my camera, so those will wait until later to be posted and go up on my photography site at some point (if they are decent). But above you can see a few images.

Then back down we went.

While we don’t necessarily feel the need to revisit the Artist Drive, we did so since photo ops weren’t plentiful. I do find the rock colors pretty astounding.

Can you spot someone on the rocks?

More of the drive …

Lunch was at our patio again, using up more of the food we brought with us.

Oh … I forgot to mention the weather! Looking up at the higher mountains, near where we were yesterday, it looked to be snowing. Sure enough, later when we checked there was more snow on them. We had a few tiny drops of rain down below, but that was it.

After lunch, a bit of reading, and whatnot, Dan figured maybe we’d do a loop off of the road to Beatty (I think). So out the door we went.

But wait! What was this we saw?

SUN.

Yep, the sun was shining on the mountains just across the street from The Ranch, too, and so we simply drove across the street and out came Dan’s camera (and my iPhone). They were beautifully lit!

From there we moved on, and stopped a few more times. Dan was sort of chasing light at this point. As he said, anything he got was a bonus since we really hadn’t expected to have the right lighting and all for photos. Quite a wonderful surprise, and a good — maybe great? — reason to have stayed today.

Yep, you read that right: we had actually considered coming home one day early, even while we knew the place was paid for and there was no chance of getting the money back. I think we (okay, Dan, really) made the right choice!

Finally it was back to our room, dropping things off, and then dinner time. Dan had a nice piece of salmon. I had pasta with a mystery white wine sauce, meaning there was no sauce! Oh well. Thankfully I had added chicken to the plate and that was good. Prices here are ridiculous, but as Dan and I frequently say anytime something is a bit off, “It’s Death Valley!” You get no food photos. But heeeer’s Danny! Hah!

Dan decided I “needed” some chocolate since my dinner wasn’t great, so we went to the store. What do we find? A book with Dan’s image featured on the front!

When we returned to our room it was shower and packing time. We are going to head out quite early so we can, we hope, get through DEVA and a bit more before the rain really hits. Stay tuned!

Death Valley, December 22

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It was an early morning day: our alarms (yes, both mine and Dan’s) went off at 4:15 AM. At that point I wasn’t sound asleep in any case so it wasn’t a miserable awakening.

While loading the car a runner went past. That’s one early run! She wisely had lights on both front and back as I learned when we later passed her on the main road.

I sort of dozed on and off as Dan did the long drive in the dark. I do have a tendency to fall asleep in moving vehicles … not only in cars, but in trains and planes as well. It’s a gift. 😉

The final road to our destination was not “sleepable”. It was washboard for a while, and at one point quite narrow. Again, I’m grateful for the driver. I think the drive itself was a bit more than an hour.

We arrived at Aguereberry Point at a very good time. Sunrise was still a bit away, but the colors … well … they were amazing. I didn’t use my good cameras, but the iPhone was just fine.

I’ve been to Aguereberry a few times now, and today’s visit was really rather pleasant. It was chilly, yes, but not like one time when the wind really made it ridiculous and another when it was pretty darn freezing.

Dan continued to photograph. Me, not in the mood, sat in the car part of the time since even with the nicer weather it does get cold, what with the wind and the clouds that were blocking the warmth of the now rising sun. And mostly I was really enjoying the peace and quiet one experiences in this area.

From Aguereberry Dan drove a short bit to a different view, hoping to get some light on the water down below. It’s possible a bit of dozing took place as well.

It appears that the light today might not be a photographer’s dream, and tomorrow Dan has read that it will be rather gray. We’ll see how it goes. I enjoy the area no matter what. (I’m not sure I’d want to be here in a huge storm, though, and while I’m glad to have experienced a dust storm once in my life I could do without that as well.)

More driving and a brief stop at a small cave Dan investigated … it really didn’t go anywhere.

At one curve I noticed a lot of trees below and figured there must be a water source. Going around further we saw a very bright cottonwood which was catching the sun so of course we had to stop. But gee, what are these pink things on the ground? Flowers. In December!

Crossing the street I then saw a spot of orange. Mallow. Another surprise.

Since Dan was continuing with his photography I walked up the street a bit, seeing tons of evidence of the wild burros but no burros in sight. And then more mallow. Plus this marker. Who knows if it’s for real or not? Guess I should look up the name.

More of the trees …

Finally we wound up at Wild Rose Campground. Breakfast time!

After eating we drove up the road a bit, seeing a few building that may or may not still be in use, and then headed over to Skidoo. The drive was long and bumpy and, for yours truly, sometimes scary. I’d done the trip before, but I’d forgotten at the drop offs in some areas. Thankfully Dan knows my fear and is very careful. He also suggests I grab my emergency passenger brake. It works so very well. How do I know? Well … we’ve not gone over a cliff. Yet.

Here is the photo of my emergency passenger brake being put to use:

We didn’t go all the way to the mine, but stopped at what used to be Skidoo, which was a convenient spot for one of us to get a bit of a rest while the other worked on this blog entry. (Waking up at 4:15 and doing ALL the driving while yours truly nods off does mean a nap or two is in order.)

Then back where we came from. This time, though, Dan mentioned that he thought we could probably find Furnace Creek from where we were. Sure enough, I found it, could spot where our lodging was, and where the fancier place up above and to the right was. Can you see them? (The Ranch is a darker rectangle, if that helps.)

More driving in a very windy area as we looked for a lunch spot. We ended up near a nearly wiped out abode (A cabin? An actual house? Dunno!) and driving past that we wound up near a mine that was a bit more sheltered. We first took a quick look into the mine … but no, we don’t go into these things.

Then we set up our chairs and table and worked very hard and diligently on eating. So far I think we should get an A+ (and everyone who knows me knows I don’t even believe in pluses!) when it comes to eating. Hah!

We saw some interesting clouds as well. Dan mentioned that seeing Mare’s Tail ones was often interpreted as “rain in 24 hours”, and we did see those, along with other strange clouds.

We walked back to the ramshackle place and took a few photos. Dan has probably taken photos nearly every time he’s been here, so he wanted to grab more, knowing the place isn’t long for the world.

From there we drove to another building. If the dates are right it was built in in 1951, but who knows if that’s really true. It was in better condition than the first, but of course there’s no way in the world I’d ever want to stay there. Dan got the door opened, so I could shoot a few photos of the inside, but I wasn’t even about to walk into it.

Our drive then took us to another “Oh, I might as well take a photo!” spot for Dan, as the light was good. I worked more on this blog then. When I looked back up that light seemed to be going. One has to work very quickly with photography!

Side note: we often think, “Oh, it’s 1 hour to our next destination,” but get distracted by photo ops. Go figure. (Good thing there aren’t many flowers … we’d get distracted even more then!)

It was decided that we’d head back down to Stovepipe Wells and see what the light was doing when we got there.

Turned out it was doing nothing but fading to gray.

We filled the tank (it’s unbelievable how many miles we drive to get from place to place!), and then sat in the car below the power pole location to see if the sun decided to poke through the clouds.

Eventually we drove up to the end of the gravel road. We saw a strange plant someone had placed on a rock. And then … gee, some flowers on the desert holly! I’d never seen that before. Obviously I had to pull out my macro lens and shoot that, along with another plant with incredibly tiny leaves. I hope something turns out — I’ll only know when I get things into Lightroom.



Then it was halfway down the road to wait to see if that boring light turned into something magical.

The answer was no. Ah well … can’t have great light every single day.

We went back to our room, unloaded all the gear, and headed to the tavern here. We enjoyed some pizza and salad and I neglected to take a photo until it was too late so you’ll have to use your imagination. But yes, it was yummy and yes, I ate too much.

We don’t know what tomorrow will bring: the weather forecast isn’t promising. But only time will tell …

Until then, goodbye!

Death Valley, December 21

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My watch and phone alarms went off at 5:30 AM. I woke (actually I was sort of awake already) but noticed Dan’s alarms didn’t go off. Hmm. I figured I must have misunderstood the time he said we needed to get up. I decided to check his phone to see what time he’d set: turned out he hadn’t set it at all. Double hmm. So I woke him and, yes indeed, he wanted us to rise at 5:30 AM. Oops!

Thankfully we are pretty quick to get up, and we weren’t planning on even a hotel coffee before leaving so we dressed, loaded up the car, and headed to Badwater and Manly Lake. It was pretty dark outside …

I’d never seen the lake with enough water to qualify as a lake, but the November 18 storm they had here meant it would be a good time to check it out.

Don’t get me wrong … no one would be boating this lake. No swimming either, but we did see a few people walk into the water to have pictures taken.

The light was pretty. A very pastel sunrise appeared. I actually took a few Fuji camera shots, and a lot of iPhone photos so I could find decent ones for this blog.

We stopped one other time for another view looking back from where we had come. I noted that while it looks rather dead right now (no flowers), there were lots of little green things growing.

We also drove the short road to Devil’s Golf Course. No one was golfing. (No, you can’t really golf there.) I should have snapped a boring photo just to say we’d been there. Too late now.

Finally we made our way to Zabriskie Point and Dan got the car parked. We didn’t head up to the point, though: it was breakfast time. First up was coffee, and then it was granola and banana slices in milk. Food is so yummy when eaten outside in a National Park, I think.

After breakfast we went up the walk to the top of Zabriskie. It’s an extremely popular spot for tourists and Dan doesn’t usually go there any more, but I wanted to get some shots to post here so he was accommodating. He’s nice that way. And of course he took photos too.



Funny/weird side bit: I saw a man walking up on his own. When I got to the top I heard him telling awful stories to a family there that he somehow nabbed … talking about people who’ve fallen to their death at various locations. Mentioning how far they’d fallen. Talking about other horrors, like someone accidentally driving their car over an edge. Eek! Not quite the thing vacationers are probably wanting to hear. When he finished his spiel he turned around and walked back down. Hm. Odd to witness all that.

Okay … but back to our adventures!

After Zabriskie we went to drive to Echo canyon. We’d been there before and I had fond memories of eating lunch at the end of the canyon, where we had reached an old mine. (I also was remembering being bothered horribly by yellow jackets.) So up we went. And hey, we spotted yellow flowers. That was fun.

We also stopped to shoot Eye of the Needle.

When we reached the Inyo mine we unpacked for lunch. The weather was pretty nice: no need for a jacket, but not hot enough to be out of the sun.

Then back down the road we went. Dan had a very brief rest while I went out and shot some other yellow flowers.

These gravel roads are really something to drive … and I’m grateful that Dan does them as I’m uncomfortable navigating them.

I took another photo of Eye of the Needle. Just because.

People camp along some of the roads here. These days they have to get a permit for many of them, and have to camp in designated spots. (Dan used to just pull over and sleep wherever he wanted, and he can still do take some places. Me? I camp in a room. With a bed. And a bathroom. And electricity.)

From Echo we drove to Stovepipe Wells to tank up, and then, a very short hop away, we drove up to Mosaic Canyon. I think I know why they call it that.

We walked a bit up the canyon, finally getting to a spot that is a lot of smooth granite.

I had been up that before, but today I decided I wasn’t up for slipping, which I’m prone to do on that stuff. So that was the end for of the trail for us and back to the car we went.

The sun was quickly moving and while Dan initially thought he might go to “his rock” (a spot he likes that has good views) he decided instead to go to the “power pole road” spot. Dan had to move quickly to get his camera gear out. I only took out the the iPhone so I could post here. I find shooting sunsets and landscape things to be very challenging and I wasn’t in the mood for that challenge.

Dan is an extremely patient photographer, unlike yours truly. He is so good at waiting for the right light. But of course one never knows if the right light will show up or not! There were some incredibly interesting clouds, and they were light from the top … but, alas, it wasn’t to be tonight. When all went gray he packed up.

Next up … food! Since we were so close to Stovepipe Wells we opted for dinner there tonight. It wasn’t exactly an epicurean’s delight, but it filled our stomachs and it was nice and convenient.

Then it was back to our hotel. We arrived back somewhat early, but that gave us time to relax, I could finish up this blog entry, and early to bed is probably wise since I’m assuming it’s an early to rise morning.

Here We Are!

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Greetings from Death Valley! We are search at The Ranch at Death Valley or maybe it’s the Inn at Death Valley, or if we were to get very hopeful, the Oasis at Death Valley, but I’m pretty sure that last one is the expensive place. But when I made the reservation it was for the ranch, and when I look at the provided notepad it says the inn, and Dan said something else said the oasis. Go figure. I guess they just like to keep us guessing!

We woke quite early (for me, anyway) had our coffees, and after brushing our teeth (and my making the bed) we headed out. Our car had been loaded last night, so it went rather quickly.

The drive was just fine because my personal driver did it all. Yes, Dan did every bit of the driving. I guess I need to offer to drive on occasion. But today was not such an occasion. Go figure.

Going over Pacheco Pass was lovely. Fog. Nice light. And a shot through the car window (I could touch these up, but not tonight: I’m lazy that way).

The drive continued. I attempted to shoot through the window some more … capturing a Joshua tree was near impossible which was a disappointment as I always enjoy seeing those on our way to Death Valley. This one image will have to suffice — through a window and a fast moving vehicle!

We arrived at Searles Valley … such an odd place. And then the very bizarre city of Trona. I try to imagine what it is like to live in such a place … but nope, can’t imagine it at all! Dry. Dusty. And quite … um … unusual.

We reached a nice spot with a view, and I asked to pull over. I took a few shots, and then Dan saw a group and offered to take their photo. Turns out they were from Holland and he spent a bit of time recommending spots to visit in Death Valley. He’s handy that way!

We arrived at the visitor’s center where Dan got our permit and yakked with a ranger there about what roads were open now. (There are more opened than we thought, which was nice.)

Since we were early we then took a little loop before going to the Ranch.

After checking in we unloaded the car. Dan had purchased a little wagon sort of thing that worked quite nicely for unloading everything.

Our room is just fine. Nothing special, but rather roomy — with TWO queen size beds — and clean. It’ll do!


Then we walked to see what our dinner options were. First spot was the “tavern” which was serving what seemed mostly like lunch food, second was an grill that had dogs and burgers, then there was a buffet ($29 per person and I don’t believe that included drinks), and finally the saloon.

We ended up at the “Last Kind Words Saloon” even while knowing it wasn’t the least costly, but it looked nice and it was the final spot we looked at so why not? We had to wait a while to be seated so Dan had his alcohol free beer and I had a glass of merlot as we waited.

Eventually we were called in. I had chicken tacos (listed as a starter but PLENTY of food) and Dan had a burger. Nothing here is inexpensive, but it’s Death Valley and that’s to be expected. Thankfully we’ve brought food for our breakfasts and lunches, so we only have to pay for dinners. Whew!

Tomorrow we will head out on some sort of adventure. When it comes to places look this I leave it in Dan’s capable hands: he knows this area so well, and I’m happy to go along for the ride.

December 28, 2023

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YESTERDAY AT THE COAST

(This is a posted both here and at my photography site. Not that anyone really cares but I feel the need to point that out because … well … that’s just me!)

We went to the Coast yesterday with Greg (my brother) and Jan (his wife). It’s a favorite place for them, and we had heard that we were in for some pretty crazy surf. It was just a perfect day: not cold, not too windy, yet the waves … well … amazing! 

Happy People:

Coastal Scenes

Goin’ Home

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Thursday meant we had to head back home. I was sad to leave, but I suppose I’m nearly always sad to head back to the house, even while I think we live in a lovely area. I just enjoy travel so much!

Before going home we did take the June Lake loop. There just wasn’t anything that caused us to stop and pull out the cameras, so one iPhone shot will have to suffice.

We also took a VERY brief detour so Dan could shoot some clouds. I didn’t get my cameras out, but I did shoot a bit with the phone, including a bit of a typo on the sign, as I’m sure you can see.

Then we went over Sonora Pass to get home. We barely stopped, and I only had the phone out for this view.

From there it was only one more stop in the mountains, somewhere near the Dardanelles, and then the obligatory Starbucks gotta-stay-awake bit. Finally, back to the house and back to work.

Wednesday, Continued …

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After spending time in our exciting motel room we went back out to shoot around 4 PM. The first spot was one we planned on returning to when it was a bit later and the light would be better, but still, we stopped and I did a bit of shooting.

As you can see, we had color and we had bare trees. I like ’em both!

At this point I think we ran into Charlotte again … or at least close to this time. She was enjoying some water reflections, I think. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with from her travels!

Then I managed to pull out the macro lens, amazingly enough … but those photos will wait for another time, as I might use them for my “daily flora” photos and I don’t like to post things twice!

But what a wonderful day we had, and it was our last full day in the area. Thursday we packed up, but of course that didn’t mean we didn’t stop anywhere, so I’ll post a wee bit more about that later.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

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And now it’s Wednesday … or it was … on Wednesday.

Hah! See how funny I can be? I should be on stage.

But I AM on stage. They just don’t let me talk.

There … funny again.

Okay. I will stop now. Promise.

So let’s move on to Wednesday. I can’t remember now if we woke up early or not. Crazy how I can forget something so awful as an early morning wake-up call, right? But I do know we headed out to spots Dan had chosen. Looking at my iPhone photos it looks like I had moved on to using the Canon more frequently and the phone much less. I guess I’ll have to post some of the Canon (and maybe Fuji if I pulled that out) images in order to really see what I did for Wednesday.

We went to a spot we’ve frequently visited only to be rather disappointed in much of what we saw, and OH was it windy! Still, we managed to do a bit of work (and I’m certain Dan will have much more since he stayed out after I headed back to the car to warm up).

This first photo is using the Canon and a TRIPOD. Yes. I did use a tripod on occasion. (People who know me know that I hesitate using one so much of the time, and when I don’t use it I always regret it later!) Still, with the wind, nothing will be super focused if I zoom in. So it goes.

Now when it’s windy there ARE fun little things to play around with. Like water. Who says everything has to be realistic … right?

These two were on my way back to the car. I kept trying to find something I could manage to shoot! (Then I gave up, got in the car, and turned on the heater for a short while, including the seat warmer, because “happiness is a warm …” um … never mind!)

When Dan got back to the car we went to destination #2. Again, cold and windy. We shot very little. But as you can see, there was certainly color.

There were also spots that made it clear there would be more color to come. (And yes, I do know that green IS a color. You know what I mean … right?

After this we started to drive further in and, lo and behold, there was Charlotte Gibb … and Evan Russel as well. We spent time yakking and verified where we’d meet for brunch.

Dan then acceded to my request to go down a favorite little dirt road, where photography wasn’t all that great, but it just makes my heart happy to drive it … or have HIM drive it, anyway.

After meeting our friends Charlotte, Gary, and Evan for brunch and good times, we went back to our motel since the midday sun isn’t conducive to capturing much of value.

Now you might be dying to know what followed … but it’s dinner time here and I have a concert after that, so I will finish up Wednesday sometime later … stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

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Tuesday was moving day: we left Lee Vining, and our destination was Bishop. Of course that doesn’t mean we go directly to Bishop — we couldn’t check in to our hotel until 3:00 PM anyway, but there are also places to visit between the two towns.

Dan always has good ideas about where to go for a sunrise, so we went to one of “his” spots. I had stupidly forgotten to bring my really long lens, so while he used his in this area, I shot different things. I prefer shooting a different direction than Dan in any case: once he aims at something I tend to turn around and do something in the opposite direction! No point doing something that the master photographer is doing, at least much of the time.

Then it was more driving, more exploring …

And yes, those trees in the last image were leaning.

When it was past 3:00 we went to check in to our glamorous (not really) motel in Bishop. Hm. Our room wasn’t ready. But we could still check in, get charged an addition $10 for a “reserve fee” whatever that is, and get our keys. The unavailability of the room wasn’t really a problem, since Dan had said we’d do a “reconnoissance drive” to see where we’d want to be for the next day. So back out we went.

And yes, I really DID take a selfie!

While at the above spot some friends we planned on meeting up with the next day drove past. What a fun surprise to meet up with Charlotte and Gary as we were standing on the side of the road making photos. We chatted a while, agreed where we’d meet for brunch, and said our goodbyes as they went one direction and we went the other.

Yes, we did find color!

We went back, got into our now clean room, and then went to dinner. Another early morning wake-up call meant it was time to hit the hay. But what a lovely day.

Monday, October 9, 2023

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Okay … we did get up at 5:15. And I didn’t whine. I do believe I deserve an award of some sort. Dan had some motel coffee (yuck), and I was actually ready to go so I didn’t hold him back when he was ready.

We headed to destination number one, a bit near Mono Lake. The trees were lovely. So was the view!

Eventually we headed back down, and we met up with some friends to have lunch. What fun to see them! No photos of us all together, though: guess we aren’t the selfie generation, eh?

We headed out again, and Joe and Velda followed in their own vehicle. We all got out at one lovely spot and I even managed to get a photo of Dan and Joe. (Sorry, Velda … I missed catching you!)

From there we drove on up the road, and I just marveled at the beauty! Took a few photos, too.

From here we said goodby to Velda and Joe and drove elsewhere. Some viewers will recognize the spot, I’m guessing. I have more images from Monday on my other cameras, but I will have to look at those at a later time, so these last two are it for the day.

Then it was, again, off to dinner. Because we’d had a nice lunch we opted to eat in our motel room. We always bring food along, so we pulled out crackers, cheese, and other goodies. I went to open a wine bottle and … UGH! … the corkscrew broke. Well it was Dan to the rescue … off he went to the store within walking distance to buy a new corkscrew. He got back and went to open the bottle. AND that corkscrew broke! Heh. Guess I wasn’t supposed to have wine that night. So beer, which was what Dan initially was opting for, it was!