Yosemite National Park

 The wow factor never ends.

Seriously.

Every time you go around a bend, curve or tunnel

there is an amazing view.

 Half dome.

After we turned that corner there it was peeking

out from the mountains and the clouds.

 Not sure if this Yosemite falls for

bridal veil falls.

But it is waaayyyy out there.

 El Capitan.

I did not see any climbers and looking

at the sheer face with handholds I'm hard pressed to see.

I can't even imagine.

 And just like that the weather changed.

This is called the Tunnel View because when you come

out of the tunnel.

Shazam.

 That view is amazing.

 One last photo before heading out of the park.

We were here a few years ago

June 8, 2011

I

Death Valley National Park

And Wow!

It is an amazing park.

The mountains are majestic and so different

 depending on what side of the road you're looking at.

You go around the corner and BAM!

There's that.

 We thought going into the park - we'd just blow 

through and it'd be boring.

 Boy were we surprised and bummed because we

weren't gonna be able to see it all.

Lots of trails to hike and see sights off the beaten path that we sadly,

didn't have time to do because we got there late.

 On a great note, we were sidetracked by other really cool things

we didn't know were gonna be there.

 Fun factoid. Any of you remember 20-Mule Team Borax?

Yeah, we just got dated LOL.

Although you can still get borax and I HIGHLY recommend

it if you have pets. Sprinkle it around your carpets, furniture let it

lay for awhile and vacuum it up.

Shazaam - smells great and fleas are toast.

ANYWAY, they mined borax here and back in the day it

was taken out by 20 mule teams to take it to market.

 An oasis in the middle of the desert.

Not a mirage, although you could see mirages out there.

It tricks you for sure.

 Did I mention the mountains change.

If you see green. That's copper.

 In addition to copper, gold, silver, antimony, lead, zinc and tungsten

were also mined until 1915.

 You can walk in the park - just not off-road unless its designated.

Tom went out to check the salt flat and 

picked up a chunk of it.

Looks like ice - but it is REALLY REALLY salty.

 There is also a neat campground and hotels on the premise.

Maybe next time we'll camp there and explore more.

 Scotty's castle which would've been really cool to see

wasn't open due to flood damage.

It was named for a prospector named Walter Scott who was

in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, but never owned the castle,

which is not really a castle.

Managed to catch the golden hour on the way out.

Check out that cloud cover.

No rain for the desert.

Rhyolite - the ghost town

 Was once a boom town.

In 1907 the population was 5,000-8,000.

There were 18 grocery stores, 50 saloons, 19 lodging houses, 6 barbers,

4 bakeries, 35 gaming tables, 8 doctors and 3 railroads.

This could be the train station as there is a caboose behind it.

 There were no tracks so we're not really sure.

But it's cool all the same.

There were no mention of banks in the summary

 on the Welcome sign but this appears to have been a bank.

Maybe.

 Or a jewelry store.

There wasn't a chockfull of information around the ruins.

 This is the school because there was a sign.

The foundation of miners union hall is all that remains and I

know that because there was a sign marking its location.

The town was founded when a few prospectors found gold in them thar hills

and when the mine failed so did the town.

It is in the middle of nowhere, after all.

 Above that house actually looks pretty good for its years and

it is made of bottles.

A lot of bottles.

And that is a bedroom window and inside it appears to be

very girly looking furniture.

Very interesting history and remains.

Some of the structures were relocated to other towns

and some were torn down for the materials.

All that's left of this poor truck is the shell.

This ghost town was a cool find on the way to Death Valley.

Second visit to Joshua Tree

Headed on down the mountain in Palm Springs  after dithering 

about looking for and finally found the Aerial Tramway.

Promised a 360 view going way up and huge mountain.

This is us going not riding the tram.

It was expensive, a 10 minute ride up and down the mountain.

Eh.

We then after lunch, getting gas, finally stopped at the visitor's

center and Tom got his "passport" stamped.

Are these not gorgeous flowers.

This is a claret cup cactus.

A Joshua Tree.

Fun fact it's a variety in the Yucca family.

 Below is the start of our 4 wheelin' adventure.

 The first half wasn't too bad.

Mostly just sand a couple of ruts. 

Can you see the road to the mountain?

Yeah we went down there.

The roads were rough, rocky, gravelly, twisting and turning.

We bounced a lot.

We even engaged the 4 wheel drive a few times.

I also, in hindsight should've gotten out and taken pix of

Tom coming down the really, really rocky ones,

but I was too busy holdin' on.

LOL.

 You see that rocky drop-off. 

Yeah we did that too.

We were totally surrounded by mountains.

We were in a canyon.

 On rocky roads.

It was wild, sometimes there were forks in the road

and we took one.

Whether or not it was the right one

It took a couple hours...

My hopes were no flat tire and we'd get out before dark.

LOL.

Elk and friends...

An entire herd.

Awesome!!

 And not so good settings but I do NOT claim

to be a pro.

 The man of the herd kinda lost control LOL!

He was across the street and all his babes were on

the other side of the road.

 And they did stop traffic.

 Battery Point Lighthouse.

I turned around and made a friend.

He thought I had goodies because evidently

people feed them.
Silly squirrel.

 The coastline of Cali..

Made another friend and he has followed me up the coast.

I have proof 💼

The coastline on the west coast is wild and beautiful.

Highly recommend a ride up Hwy 101.