Whenever I talk about going to visit some remote place in a desert, most people immediately ponder to themselves, “What could possibly be there that’s worth visiting?”  Truthfully, I believe that the desert is a beautiful region of California that is extraordinarily unappreciated.  In Death Valley alone, there’s enough to see to warrant spending two days here.  The two regions covered in this post were spread across two days, in two different years, and I still haven’t seen it all.  FYI I consider Highway 190 and Daylight Pass Rd to be the main roads that split Death Valley into the northern and southern region.

Southern Death Valley

Of course, the desert is not only quite far away from most civilization, but also immensely hot in the summer.  It is not unusual for regions in Death Valley to hit 115-120 degrees in the summertime.  I learned that lesson the hard way once upon a time, which is why I planned the first visit in this post for early January 2009.  Well, the best laid plans often go awry.  It was a bearable 80-85 degrees with a high UV index.  I didn’t bring sunblock.  You can probably fill in the rest if you read the title.

Nonetheless, it was a very pleasant drive on Highway 95 from Las Vegas north towards Beatty, then bearing southwest in the town of Beatty onto NV-374, which brings you directly into Death Valley’s Stovepipe Wells region via Daylight Pass.  Many of the parks more easily accessible destinations are south of this point.  The first attraction we visited in the park was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.  These dunes are nothing special, not particularly tall or expansive, except for their intricate line formations (which you can see if you walk out a ways) and the soft, fine sand.

A little ways west of the dunes is a 2.4 mile long gravel road that leads up to the base of Mosaic Canyon.

You can walk up the canyon a little bit and see the strange polished marble, almost like a diamond in the rough.  Take care with your footing as you go, the rocks are slick and can be used as slides (intentionally or not), even when dry.  It’s up to you how far you walk into the canyon – you can go up to 2 miles – but we decided to cut it short to allow time to explore the southern section of the park.

Back on the main north-south highway, we head towards the Furnace Creek region of the park.  Before hitting the luscious Furnace Creek Inn resort, we pass by a little area called the Harmony Borax Works, which was a working Borax refinery for several years in the late 1800′s.  Today, only the ruins of some equipment and buildings are left to let you imagine working in such a hot, remote place during the summer.

We continued on to one of the parks very famous attractions, Badwater Basin.  The name refers to the water from an adjacent spring, which is undrinkable due to its high salt content.  The lowest point in this salt flat is an astounding 282 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point in the continental United States.  There are markings on the adjacent cliff to mark where sea level actually is.  If you feel adventurous, you can even walk out a bit onto the salt, but be aware that it can be unstable and muddy after rains.

(c) Gary Cheang 2009

To finish off the day in the park, we headed to Zabriskie Point.  This is a magnificent piece of nature that I don’t think could be seen anywhere else.  It consists of rolling hills that have been shaped by water erosion.  The way it looks as the sun casts shadows into the valley is simply breathtaking- a must see feature in the park, even if you have to skip other attractions to do it.

A couple of other notable attractions in the southern region of the park that aren’t pictured are Artist Palette and Dante’s View.  Artist Palette is located on Artist Drive, and is a collection of odd colored rocks in the side of a mountain.  The colors come from various metals embedded in the rock, and can vary in intensity.  Dante’s View is the highest point in Death Valley, and provides a view of the entire Badwater Basin.  Be forewarned that you must drive up a steep, winding road to get up to Dante’s View – a road that is closed to anything over 25 feet in length.

Northern Death Valley

This portion of Death Valley was actually explored after I moved into the middle of the Mojave Desert.  A group at work decided to take a weekend trip, so a friend and I joined them for a day to see some of the stuff we hadn’t seen yet.  We took 178 over the Slate Range towards 190, over Town Pass, and into the park from the west entrance.  We met the rest of the group near Furnace Creekand pointed our four truck/SUV caravan north to the main attraction that day, the Racetrack Playa.

The Racetrack is an immensely cool, serene place that many people will never get to visit, because it is 27 miles each way.  That doesn’t sound so bad until you realize that the road is (mostly) a low speed, 1.5 lane rutted dirt road filled with sharp rocks that will pummel your kidneys for a couple hours, minimum.  A four wheel drive high clearance vehicle is recommended only because conditions can change rapidly, but just high clearance with heavy duty tires will suffice most times. The only really dangerous part is that no tow truck will come fetch you out here, and many people who try this in cars or car-based SUV’s are unprepared for the multiple flat tires due to the sharp rocks.  The blind corners and driving up on steep embankments to allow for passing also scares the piss out of some people.

But the long devilish drive is definitely worth it, winding through some beautiful canyons along the way and passing through Teakettle Junction as well.  I’m not sure how this junction got started, but it has developed into a collection of kettles from around the world (I noticed one with Korean writing on it).  Many people who find out about this little gem bring kettles to leave there.

The Racetrack itself is nothing special to look at – it isn’t particularly eye-catching or breathtaking by traditional standards – but instead relies on its mystique to draw visitors.  It is just a large salt playa that has rocks on it.  Some of these rocks have long smooth trails behind them, and yet nobody has ever seen them move.  The theories on how this happens have grown in recent years, ranging from outrageous to believable.  The most believable one I’ve heard is that after a rain, the ground gets soft and susceptible to imprints (this is fact).  Then, overnight the temperatures cool rapidly and cause the water to form ice sheets around the rocks.  The wind picks up and blows across the ice sheets, and the sheets have just enough surface area to catch the wind and gently slide the rocks across the wet ground.

The road out of Racetrack is the same one that you took in, and leads you back to Ubehebe Crater.  This crater was not created by an asteroid but by an imploding volcano.  There are actually trails to hike down to the bottom of the crater, but I avoided that only because I dreaded the climb back up (yes I’m lazy).  Besides, there’s nothing down there anyway!

After sitting around for a while in the wind, we went off to Scotty’s Castle.  The story behind this place is really intriguing and the extended version is told on the tour.  This castle in the desert was built in the ’20′s, and it wasn’t owned by Scotty.  Scotty was actually a scam artist who tricked the owner, Albert Johnson, into investing in a fake gold mine in Death Valley.  Johnson had a health issue that got better when he visited Death Valley, and he happened to really like Scotty.  So Johnson let Scotty do as he wanted with the place, letting him supervise construction and tricking people into believing that it belonged to him. As a result of their friendship, the plaques around the castle read SJ DVR – Scotty & Johnson Death Valley Ranch.

The lavish castle actually has some very cool features, such as an interior water fall.  There is a built in pipe organ, a power plant specifically built for the castle, a pool that was supposed to surround the castle as a moat (although it was never finished), etc.  The tour is worth the money if you want to hear the whole story behind this place.  Truthfully though, the inside really isn’t anything stunning, so if you’re not that curious just skip it.

I decided it would be cool to take the really long way back for once.  It’s a drive I’ve always wanted to do but it was just too long to meld into any other trips, and too far for a normal day trip but too close to justify an overnight.  After spending some time along the Pacific Coast Highway, I must say it is worth it.  It’s a trip that every self-proclaimed driving enthusiast must take at least once in their lifetime, before it’s all locked up by the environmentalists.

The route I took only followed the Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Cruz down to near San Luis Obispo, but that’s because I’ve already driven the highway from Santa Cruz north to Point Reyes.  It is a nice highway up there as well, but it’s not as foggy and cold south of Santa Cruz.  I took a stopover in Monterey’s Cannery Row to look around.  I was hoping to find a shop I’d visited in 7th grade because I wanted to buy another coaster from them, but sadly many storefronts are now empty due to the economy.

After walking around for an hour with no success, I decided it was time to move on.  I drove down to Carmel by the Sea and then continued on down the coastal highway.  It’s easy to see why this is a must-do for all riding and driving enthusiasts…yes, that sign says the next 63 miles.

That sign was placed right before the famous Bixby Bridge.  This bridge is pretty famous, its been in several commercials and photo shoots.

There is a little known dirt road (Old Coast Rd) on the north end of it, to the east side of Highway 1, which brings you up to give better views of the bridge.

If you keep making your way south past Big Sur, not only does the scenery get better, but apparently so does the weather and the haze.  The waters turn a slight hint of aqua that you see so often in those “tropical paradise” locations…who’d have thunk, right here in California!

However, I would advise you add at least an hour to the length that your map/GPS says it should take you to get down the highway.  This is especially true after rainy season, since the road is so prone to wash out.  Lucky me, it was an El Nino year, and there were two one-lane sections back to back.

The good news is that Mother Nature was nice enough to put these washouts in a convenient place with food, bathrooms, lodging, and picture taking opportunities.  Caltrans also helped by closing the highway for a ridiculous stretch of time for no apparent reason…but then again, if it was apparent then I probably wouldn’t have taken this way home!

Near the end of the PCH where it rejoins 101, you run into San Simeon – home to the late William Randolph Hearst and Hearst Castle.  If you’re lucky, you’ll see his zebras roaming around by the road.

I’ve been having a great time going around the SoCal area recently, seeing some really cool stuff, so I thought I might share.  Winter is a great time to visit since SoCal usually doesn’t get that much rain, and temperatures are much milder than in the summer.  Have to be careful of snow and washed out roads on some of the mountain passes though.

Going down to Barstow originally for Lenwood outlets, but I remembered there is a Route 66 museum and they were open, so I dropped by to take a look.

After looking around, I decided to drive down Route 66 to Victorville for lunch.  On the way there, you run across a couple little community by the name of Helendale and Silver Lakes.  I thought Silver Lakes was one of those stupid names where it was completely non-descriptive of the town, since it was in the middle of the Mojave Desert.  Incredible how wrong I was…boy it’s a beautiful oasis in the middle of nowhere.

On a separate trip, I went down to Woodland Hills for Supercar Sunday.  Since Supercar Sunday starts at 7am and ends before most people wake up, I decided to make it an even better day and go auto-touring.  Always wanted to see Port Hueneme and Channel Island…but they didn’t turn out to be that interesting.

So I headed over to UCSB after having a breakfast in downtown Santa Barbara.  It’s one hell of a nice campus I admit.

If you look on the map, Solvang is only an inch away!  It’s a whole town with Danish architecture, even the houses.  So I trekked there hoping to get some pastries, but they all looked ordinary to me so I passed.  Can’t believe I drove so far for nothing, and neither can my coworker.

On the way back, I took the scenic route going over the coastal hills.  After all, nothing to see on 101 that I haven’t seen already.  154 over Lake Cachuma and San Marcos is a pretty nice drive, but full of traffic for some reason.  This was taken on a very steep side road.

Then decided that taking 14 or 5 back up wouldn’t cut it.  So I took 33 north of 101, went up into Ojai, keep going north and cut east on Lockwood Valley Rd towards Grapevine.  This is just over Pine Mountain Summit on Lockwood, it’s a beautiful place but the road gets very hairy as it’s up there in the mountains.  There were multiple washed out sections and flooded rivers that were a couple hundred feet long…shallow but hairy nonetheless, especially because they tend to surprise you after you crest a hill at speed, and there’s absolutely no traction to slow down in time, so you just hang on.  An amazing section of road with no traffic that I would recommend only in the summer after a long dry spell.

When it looks more like this, I will take more pics.  That might take like…til forever and beyond

For: Gamblers, people who like dancing and lights
Scenery: Neon glow
Time spent: 2 day weekend
Visiting season: Fall
Great for: Losing your paycheck in one fell swoop

We headed off to the Photoshop Convention at Mandalay Bay.  It didn’t take as long as I expected, so I decided that since we were at the end of the strip, this would be a good chance to walk through the hotels.  Mandalay Bay is connected via walkway to Luxor, an pyramidal Egyptian themed hotel.  It’s a feat of architecture – you’ll notice when you walk in that there are NO support pillars, and you can see straight to the roof through all the floors of the hotel.  The elevators also head up the edges of the building sideways.  At the center of the 2nd floor, there is a pillar of light – literally.  It sends a beam of light through the peak of the pyramid at night, visible from tens of miles away on clear nights.

After passing through Excalibur (which is connected to Luxor with an indoor walkway), we stepped out onto the strip and headed towards New York New York.

The hotel has a nice facade out front, complete with a Statue of Liberty replica, an FDNY tugboat, and a Brooklyn Bridge.

We then hit the Monte Carlo and the City Center project, which is coming along beautifully despite almost being bankrupted early in 2009.

We were getting to be a little far from the car, so I decided we’d turn back and check out the other end of the strip after lunch.  Walking back on the opposite side though, you hit many more attractions, such as Gameworks and M&M World.  They have all sorts of M&M memorabilia, along with a short tour of how M&M’s are made, leading up to a funny 3-D movie.

Then we headed into the MGM Grand.

You run into the Rainforest Cafe as you come in off the strip, so we went in to say hi to Dory (Finding Nemo fame) and her friends.

If you poke around some more, you find the Lion Exhibit…and little did I know, it was feeding and play time.

Watching them eat made us hungry, so we decided to pause for lunch at Buffet Asia.  Apparently some people are hungrier than others.

My plate

Val’s plate

After lunch, we went to the opposite end of the strip and parked at Wynn, and walked up the strip from there.

We walked into Fashion Show Mall on the strip to get away from the slot machines and cigar smoke for a little bit.  It’s a nice little (huge) mall, and very aptly named as you can see.

We eased our way back into the casino’s by going through the rainforest themed Mirage, which has some real nice eateries.

We took the tram over to Treasure Island, then walked over to Caesar’s Palace and the Forum Shops.

I headed towards all my usual spots when I’m here…watched the statue show…

…said hi to the Trojan Horse at F.A.O. Schwarz…

…and visited some more of Dory’s friends.

We finished it off by going through The Canal Shops at the Venetian and the Palazzo.

And with that, we headed home for a good nights rest after walking quite a few miles.

For: Gamblers, people who like dancing and lights
Scenery: Neon glow
Time spent: 2 day weekend
Visiting season: Fall
Great for: Losing your paycheck in one fell swoop

So on Thursday night, Val and I planned a nice trip to Vegas for a couple days.  Originally, it was for an Adobe Photoshop convention, but that ended up being almost a secondary thing.  Val drove up from Irvine and we left at around 5:30 on Friday evening.  That meant that we wouldn’t be able to make it in time for our planned Prime Rib dinner at Gold Coast, so we stopped at the Mad Greek Cafe in Baker, CA – which was featured on Food Network at one point.  I don’t know if I’d stop there again, but their gyro wasn’t too bad and Val seemed to like their mushroom burger.

We decided to stay at a small casino hotel called Gold Strike in Jean, NV just outside of Vegas – it was half the price of almost everything in Vegas, due mostly to the fact that BikeFest, Supra meet, Kylie Minogue, and Adobe were all in town at the same time that weekend.  After we dropped off our stuff, we decided to make the 25 mile trip to the Vegas Strip, just to see the neon glow at night. I pulled off at the beginning of the strip at Mandalay Bay, and drove up the whole stretch.

Afterwards, I just kept on going, all the way into Downtown, where the lights and attitude of Vegas really come alive.

We hung around for a while and Fremont Street Experience gave us a show shortly thereafter.

We retired to our hotel room for the night, anticipating an early start to the next morning.

So with that, I left the Bay Area on Labor Day, and arrived 7 hours later at this decent, double story, 1 bedroom furnished apartment.  They even have a rice cooker, a grill and the previous tenant even left some charcoal for me.

After I unloaded the car, I went to re-park the car.  And I thought I would take the Odyssey so that my dad wouldn’t have such a hard time parking it…well, here’s what you see from inside the car.

Fair enough right?  Well, that heater and water heater are on pedestals, and that means that I have to park slanted…

…so that the nose will go into the crevice…

…so that the garage will just barely close.

So the next day, I head off to work.  And not only does this town have great music, but also apparently great scenery.

After some orientation, I’m greeted by my own office!  Even some Cal professors don’t have it so good.

And after that, I head down to the lab, where I’ll be spending most of my time for a while.

And on the way home, I saw Fish Rock (not my picture)