The west is about landscape, and especially the basin and range country - the west between the Sierras/Cascades and the Rockies - is nothing if not dramatic. Every turn in the road brings a new vista,a new delight. I never tire of it. This was a long day through spectacular country, hence the pile of photos that follow.
Morning in Death Valley, quiet, as it always is there away from people. And something about the place quiets people,at least those who feel it.
A rig in the campground I liked for its classic lines and simplicity.
I drove up to Scotty's Castle, a 1920's collaboration between a former Buffalo Bill Cody showman/desert rat prospector an a Chicago insurance magnate. Interesting story, resulted in a Spanish style mansion at the north end of Death Valley.
I thought I could continue east over the mountains to Beatty, Nevada, but the road was closed due to storm damage,so I drove thirty miles back down the valley to Hwy 374, then east out of Death Valley into Nevada.
There is probably some reason for Beatty, but it is not obvious. I did have a good latte and an argument in a cafe about politics with an angry old white man with tubes in his nose who was traveling through with his equally angry old wife, so that was something.
Someone with Scotty's dream, in plywood.
driving north on Hwy 95, folks living in classic desert style.
Says something, although I can't say what, when the road behind
looks the same as the road ahead.
High country - I must have crossed maybe a dozen passes all at least 6,000 feet.
The turning west on 266, the road climbs over mountain ranges then drops into the valleys between - the ranges and the basins created when the earth's crust stretched.
From the heights, views of the 14,000 foot Sierras in the distance
When the road heads up a canyon like this, you have to wonder
From this pass, I turned north on a one lane Forest Service road and drove fifteen miles up through juniper and pinyon pine to a bristlecone pine forest.
By up, I mean I drove to 10,000 feet,above the treeline for everything else. I turned into the visitor center, but the road goes on another dozen miles or so to a gate and a trail up White Mountain at 14,248 just shy of Mt Whitney across the way in the Sierras.
A fine new visitor center, closed for the season but folks there closing up so I got to look around
These trees are old beyond any trees I know of - 4,000 years and counting.
I started down a four mile trail and quickly realized that if I was panting in the altitude walking downhill, I wouldn't make it back up. I choose a shorter trail on the hillside, but beautiful and with good informational signs.
A couple of old timers
Back down the mountain to the highway, then west down a very narrow, twisty road into the Owens Valley at the foot of the Sierras.
A big storm was building up to the west over the Sierras
The peak under the cloud is White Mountain; the bristlecone pine forest is a little to the right of the peak.
Into Bishop, a busy town straddling Hwy 395 in the sunshine
I drove north on 395, rolling over high ridges coming off the Sierras, in heavy winds, clouds blowing in but still sunny off to the east.
looking more ominous . . .
over a pass, snowing with snow along the road
Around Mono Lake, still a gem, saved for now it seems
rocking over yet another high pass in high sidewinds, the road closed to vehicles over nine feet high (I was eight)
still calm and serene to the east
through small towns mostly closed for the winter - I think this is Bridgeport
Finally into Carson City in the dark, wondering if i would make it over Donner Pass the next day with forecasts of feet in the Sierras
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