We are at Sequoia National Park. Kent got to drive some wonderful curly mountain roads to get us here. We are about 6 miles into the park and will have to go the rest of it in the car. They have a major construction project going on the Generals highway that goes through. It is limited to one lane and 22 ft vehicles. Oh well, might be more enjoyable in the car anyway. Camp is heavily wooded and just 40 or so sites. There are warnings about black bears everywhere. They have some pretty impressive pictures of bear:car break-ins. Fortunately, seems they haven’t quite figured out motorhomes yet! We probably will not see one though, its pretty early spring for them.
We do have very noisy mini-bears (squirrels) that have this annoying sharp little bark and are pretty persistent. They are accompanied by some raucous acorn woodpeckers that seem to be defending territory much of the time. Hummm, the desert was sure quiet! The mule deer munched their way through the middle of camp several times. They seem to really like some of the understory that grows here. They are always fun to watch

It was 102F. We are out of here, Death Valley. We have visited all the “must sees”: the lowest spot, Bad Water, the grand vistas from Dante’s View and Zabriski Point, and the Borax Works. We will save the area ghost towns for another time. All in all, Spring in the deserts has been a fun thing to do.
We pushed through the strong head winds in Tehachapi pass to the west of Death Valley on CA58 and were met with rolling, green grass covered hills crowded with trees. Truly a remarkable change. I think we are both ready for some green.

The Inn is actually privately owned and run but we had a Ranger-led tour today. It is sort of a mix of California mission architecture and classic national park stone and timber. It has these wonderful gardens. They are watered using the 90F spring water that also feeds the flow through pool. All pretty extravagant for this desert place. It is a little upscale; rooms start at $350/night. Just a little different than camping fees. We did try out their restaurant though. I had a smoked gouda, fig, and prosciutto pizza with spinach. Far from traditional Midwest pizza but it was wonderful.
I think there should be a National Parks Lodges tour. I guess I should check online. Maybe there is . I definitely plan to make sure that we check them all out as we pass through. They seem to have great stories behind them and those we have seen are wonderful buildings.

Must still be using the 20 mule team wagons to bring the stuff in!!??

Most are smarter than to live here or at least smarter then to come out in the daytime. We have seen the pupfish, lots of lizards of various types, the ever present desert antelope squirrel, entertaining roadrunners, and a couple coyote who passed right through camp. Overall though, creatures are not the primary draw around here.

We went to a couple ranger programs that were great fun. Ranger Bob is the Death Valley National park Photographer. He gave a guided talk on hints for great nature photography. He gave good simple advice but the most fun was how much he loved what he does, and has been doing for some 17 years. Ranger Jay led a couple wildlife programs but the highlight of each was his talk about how “we the people” own these national parks. Very enthusiastic and truly an advocate for the park system.

Parks cost each American a whopping 18 cents in tax money a year. Amazing!

The story of this guy Scotty and his rich financial backer from Chicago are what make the tour great but the mansion itself is pretty cool too. It is built in the style of a Spanish castle. When it was built in the late 20s it was self sufficient. Water drawn from a canyon creek, power generated using that power, even early attempts at solar heated water. Fun to see, plus it is presented as a living history museum so the rangers are in costume and tell the story. They even had a pipe organ that was purchased as silent movies phased out in the theatres. It plays from paper rolls like a player piano (we got to hear that) or with a live organist. Live concert is in late June…would probably be pretty cool.

This place is all about Mother Nature. The geology is grandiose; plates tipping with mountains rising (snow capped Telescope Peak) and the lakebed getting ever lower. Since it was formed through that geology rather than erosion, it is a basin not a valley. Rock of every color and type. Thousands of washes with their alluvial fans (my favorite geology term from here); and canyons with walls as smooth as glass and others so rough they would take off hide if you brush the walls. There is volcanic stuff too with a 500 foot deep cinder cone plus two sand dune fields.
Just like we all always hear, surface water is nearly absent. We hiked to a canyon waterfall though. It was a beautiful hike with half dozen creek crossings. We both managed to get there and back without muddying more than the soles of our shoes. It is bizarre finding that much water midst the huge dry lakebeds. Making that seem even more bizarre, as we drove back to camp we were caught up in a huge dust storm off the flatlands. Weird!

The Getty Center. The building is all modern design with sleek, stark, lines and entangled shadows. All mixed in are the graceful, color filled, sweeping curves of gardens. Then inside, 1000s of pieces of art. They say it is meant to be a family outing place of picnics on the grounds and a quiet cup of coffee on the promenades. It sort of feels that way but it is pretty grandiose….not exactly the laid back that Getty might have wanted it to be. Wonderful none the less. You could spend days here. We took the gardens tour and saw maybe 20% of the exhibits in our one day. It is the kind of thing I can only do in four or five hour spurts…..something to do again.