I have a plan. I’ve spent a few days in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts, and now I want to see Death Valley, the lowest, hottest, and driest place in North America. But I won’t go directly there, I’ll travel like a smart desert wanderer, via the oases of Hoover Dam and Las Vegas, Nevada. The road from the Mojave to Hoover Dam is wide and easy, and one of the most boring routes I’ve ever driven. Yawn. Maybe it…
After my enjoyable couple of days in Joshua Tree National Park, I wanted to experience more of the Mojave Desert, but in a slightly more wild and uninterpreted way, so I drove to the Mojave Desert Preserve, to the visitor center at Kelso Depot. Kelso is an old train depot that served the miners and ranch owners in the area, and the station house has been fixed up beautifully as a visitor center and gallery. I’m not sure how much…
Joshua Tree National Park is located in the middle of Southern California, about equidistant from Los Angeles and San Diego, and was my next destination on my grand circuit. [In case you’re wondering why I seem to be looping around California instead of heading east, it’s because my brother and sister-in-law are coming to California on vacation at the end of this week, and I’m planning to meet up with them to visit some of the larger National Parks!] On…
I have mixed feelings about zoos. I don’t do well in a caged environment myself, so always feel very sorry for the individual animals that live their lives there, but at the same time I can recognize the excellent educational and conservation work that the zoos do. So maybe the good of the many outweighs the good of the few?? In general I rather avoid zoos since I find them depressing, but the San Diego Zoo has an excellent reputation…
I really can’t complain about the weather on this trip. Except for a few days of rain at the beginning, and some fog in San Francisco and Morro Bay, it’s been clear and sunny the whole way, and usually a quite livable temperature. It’s made it possible to get some great pictures too, like this one in Santa Barbara, looking back on the town from Stearns Wharf, where I stopped to have coffee and do some writing. Unfortunately, the cold…