Usually I take a trip south in the winter. Yes, I'm a "snowbird", one of the perks of being retired. This year I decided to delay the trip by a few months in order to meet up with my daughters and their families in Moab, UT over spring break. So instead of leaving at the end of December, I left in early March.
While I love the snow, and in winter it can be really beautiful in North Idaho, I'm finding that after a while plowing snow and being cold gets old, so I head south to warm up. This year I had the added incentive of visiting my brother in Palm Springs who moved there since my last trip south.
As I'm heading down I-5 driving past Shasta, CA, I come to the off ramp for Highway 395. I've never been down 395 and think "why not" so I take the off ramp. It was that quick of a decision. Then I see a sign saying "Susanville, x number of miles" down the road. Susanville....... That's where my wife's cousin, Susan, just moved to. A quick exchange of messages confirms that she's going to be home the next day.
Here's Susan, the one with the necklace, with her wife, Carol, and their two kids. I'm always struck by how much Susan and her sisters look like my wife Gail. Susan holds a special place in my heart as she sort of adopted my three girls after their mother died. Needless to say, she's a special lady. I wish I had gotten to know her sooner.
Back on 395. It pretty much parallels I-5 but goes down the east side of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada Mountains. In winter it's too cold and snowy for me but in March, it was great. One of the places I always wanted to see was Mono Lake. It's not much to look at, but still very interesting. Highway 395 is a pretty sweet drive and I highly recommend it if the weather is good.
In Palm Springs I visited with my brother and attended an Amateur Radio Convention (Hamfest) in the area.
Next up was the Joshua Tree National Park just north of Palm Springs. I especially like the Jumbo Rocks campground. It is such an interesting spot with all these huge rock formations that look like some giant kid just stacked them up. It's a crazy spot and a great spot for photography. There's usually a couple of us photography hobbyist running around at dusk with our tripods and camera gear.
From Joshua Tree I went to the Valley of Fire State Park north of Las Vegas, another place I haven't been too but heard much about. Unfortunately, the weather was lousy so it was very conducive to picture taking. I'll have to return when the weather is good.
Although, there was some interesting petroglyphs next to where I was camped in the park.
The next stop as I migrated towards Moab was Zion National Park. What can I say, I really like Zion. This time I went high and headed up the park road that goes above the canyon area. Few people visiting the park head up to the upper reaches of the park. It is really quite and interesting area. You could sort of see these rock formations from the road. A short bushwacking hike in reveals so much more. I spent several hours wandering around.
I can certainly see why the park service doesn't mention this area in any of their literature. It is a very fragile area and I can see where it would be destroyed if hundreds of people stomped around it every day.
It's hard to believe when your up in this area that just a few miles away the terrain drops over a thousand feet into canyons.
I'm still working on the pictures from the rest of the trip. Usually I work on the pictures just a few days after I've taken them. When I'm travelling though, I tend to wait and the next thing I know there's a lot to go through. I remember when I was shooting film, Gail would get upset that I would only keep maybe one out of 5 or 10 pictures taken. Now, thanks to digital cameras, it's maybe one out of 50 or 100. Needless to say I'm taking a lot more shots thanks to modern technology.
The next blog will have slot canyons and mountain biking.
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