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Zabriskie Point at Sunrise
A popular sunrise spot in Death ValleyWe were up early this morning (5:15 am) to catch sunrise at Zabriskie Point, a recommended place to see first light shadows on the colorful formations. I clicked away along with a number of other photographers. The light show was over in about 20 minutes. Unfortunately, haze dulled the colors.
Next we drove to Badwater, the lowest point in the US; 282 feet below sea level - - very barren. The temp in the morning was comfortable, but it warmed up quickly. We made a few more stops of geologic interest and decided to move on to Bakersfield which is mid way to the central CA coast, our next stop. Death Valley is interesting; beautiful in its starkness. It looks like giant dump trucks randomly dumped loads of rocks, boulders and sand in the middle of the desert and then there’s the volcanic debris everywhere.
The highway out of Death Valley took us over one mtn range and along the base of the Sierra Nevadas. There was desert right to the base of snow capped mtns, no transition. Most of the journey was on lonely roads, out in the middle of nowhere, just like the Yukon.
On the way to Bakersfield
we stopped to get the oil changed. CT has traveled 3800 miles so far. We paid $4.01 a gallon for gas on a desert highway, the most expensive of the trip, not sure if it was the location or just California prices. I guess we’ll see.
The Bakersfield area is an agricultural region. There are cooler temps and green fields and orchards (irrigated). What a change from the desert! We passed one fruit stand that had a mile long hedge of yellow roses - - very nice.
We had problems finding a Wal Mart tonight. We found 2 locations with signs for Wal-Mart, but no store! Interesting. We finally located an actual Wal-Mart and the parking lot was full with a craft show, but we managed to find a little space for CT.
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