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Published: September 30th 2017
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Salt Creek origin
The creek originates at the foot of the mountains in the distance Geo: 34.0533, -118.245
On our last day of the trip we got up in time to take a short trip back down the road from Stovepipe Wells to a short boardwalk hike along a salty creek. The boardwalk is only about 1/2 mile but we walked around it several times so that we probably got around 2 miles of exercise before climbing into the car for the trip back to LAX.
The salty stream is the only home to a rare pupfish that is able to live in this salty water. The stream originates at the foot of nearby mountains and flows into the desert where it disappears into the sand of the valley floor. It is extremely salty but is amazing to see flowing water there in the middle of the desert. In summer the lower stream dries up and in winter the pupfish are dormant. They are active in late winter and early spring. We saw lots of the little fish scurrying around in the shallow water.
After seeing the Salt Creek and pupfish we returned to the motel, checked out, and headed for LA. Drove down highway 190 to the Panamint Valley road and on through
Salt Creel
Part of the boardwalk at Salt Creek Ridgecrest and Inyokern to CA Highway 14 South and into the jaws of the LA freeway system and its unbelievable traffic. We hit stop and go, bumper to bumper traffic around 3:00 PM near Palmdale and it was 8 or more lanes of that kind of traffic for the next 60 plus miles until we got to the airport. I cannot imagine having to deal with that kind of traffic evey day.
Fortunately we had plenty of time since our plane didn't leave until 12:50 Wednesday morning but driving in that traffic was a tad stressful. Got to the rental car return, with no problem amazingly enough, around 5:00 and rode their shuttle to the airport. We visited the Bob Hope USO there for a short while in hopes of being able to plug the laptop in and communicate one last time. However the place was mobbed with young men and women of all military services relaxing while waiting for their flights. We could not find a spare receptacle for the laptop and the battery was getting weak so weren't able to send any messages.
I never cease to be impressed with the service USO provides to our service men
Pupfish.
There are a few of the little pupfish on the left center of the picture, about the size of minnows. and women. It is one of my favorite charities - one that actually provides a seriously needed service, especially in this day and age. They had an amazing array of
free sandwiches, chips, cookies, cake, soft drinks, etc. as well as free TV, video games, computers, and WiFi. We picked up some of the free snacks and went on to our gate where we people watched until we boarded the plane. Had a female pilot who gave us a very smooth ride into Atlanta where we caught our connection to GSP with no problem. Arrived back in Central around 12:00 noon, picked up a very happy to see us Gabby, and got home to a 'ho hum - we're hungry' reception by all the cats. Good to be home.
I'll add some miscellaneous pictures below of some of the flowers, and one of a lizard, we saw along the trails we traveled.
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