Saturday, May 14, 2011

Into the Valley of Death rode the six Kreitzers


We had not done much planning past Vegas, so we literally looked at the map on Sunday morning as we were heading out.  We knew we were heading to Yosemite, and we decided to go through Death Valley on the way.  That ended up not being the best idea.  We got to Death Valley and found out that the Eastern road into Yosemite was closed and they were expecting snow in the Sierra Mountains.  This meant that we were going to be driving much further out of our way to go around to the Western entrance of Yosemite, and we were going to be racing the snow a little.  The snow ended up not being a problem, thankfully!  The wind, though, from the storm was quite intense.  There in Death Valley, it was very strong.  Here, Dave and Rachel are just leaning back into the wind and being held upright.  You can really tell that Rachel is leaning backwards.  Death Valley was interesting, but it really was desolate.  I can't say that it was the kind of place I have this great desire to return and explore further.




We got out here because the dunes looked so much like a desert and the wind had died down a little. But, as we went out over a few of the dunes, the wind picked up. Below, you can see how hard the wind was blowing. It was quite painful for those of us with our legs bare to the sand.




1 comment:

Mary Ann Kreitzer said...

It's amazing how different the country out west is. I'm just looking outside my window at our rainforest. We've had so much rain this spring that it looks like Ireland. And we are getting an amazing variety of birds -- some I've rarely or never seen before. I don't imagine you saw many birds in Death Valley!