California, Round 2, Part 3

California is big.

Day 34 began with the bittersweet trip through the park for the purpose of continuing our trip via the east entrance. A beautiful drive; but how sad it was to leave perhaps the most beautiful place in this country (there are still four weeks to refute this).

And so begins a series of hot posts, the emphasized word being unrelated to my profound talent for writing captivating blog posts.

Bodie State Historic Park
We parted from the park via Tioga pass and then, KER-BLAM, hello desert. Fortunately, the Central California desert was tolerable - approximately 90 at mid-day.

I have to go back seven years to set this story up for you. My family and I were on the trip I may have mentioned - a loop from Las Vegas to Death Valley to Yosemite and back. I recall sitting outside a restaurant, somewhere in California (to me as a teenager, the location should have been more excited I was blessing it with my presence). I looked west, to the two-story motel, uneasily placed on the hillside above a parking lot seeming incapable of containing cars. My eyes drifted above the motel to a billboard. How romantic the billboard looked in this tourist trap of a town, with its brown buildings and big, bold fonts. It said, "Bodie. The Largest Ghost Town in America."

Naturally, I turned to my parents and said, "That looks super awesome; can we go?" On vacations with my family, my eyes usually drifted past that line which marks the limit of time availability.

This is why I was caught off guard when my parents looked to each other, then back to me and said, "Sure."

And while it may have been a tourist trap, I've been in love with it and its romance and nostalgia since. I wanted to write a novel about it; and I haven't forgotten my idea. I just wanted to give it time to germinate while I practiced my skills. So why not have another look? Why not see if I still feel the same way? And why not show the splendor to another person?

I may have gotten even more excited this time!

I could spend years telling you about Bodie. You can look it up if you are interested, or perhaps you should even visit it. I'll sum it up by saying it was one of the largest mining boom towns in the country and it pioneered and realized the transfer of electricity over a significant distance. But what really made it what it was was the speed at which the town boomed as well as its lawlessness. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from a little girl whose parents had just informed her they'll be moving to Bodie:

"Goodbye, God, I'm going to Bodie."

If you've been keeping up, you've probably already seen the entire California album. If not, the photos from the park are in that album; you can reach it via the link at the end of this post.

Death Valley National Park
We headed to Death Valley, where we had a reservation at Panamint Springs Resort. Yep, resort. You parked three feet from the room's door, where the foot of the bed sat three feet from the long wall, the bathroom was carpeted, the shower had been worn away to its previous layer. And there was no TV (which I didn't care about), but there was ample dresser space! When you are in the middle of one of the harshest locations in the world, you'll take what you are given, even if it means spending $5.48 per gallon of gasoline.

The next morning, Day 35, we drove through the park on our way back to Las Vegas.

If you have read or ever do read travel books about Death Valley, they probably tell you to visit in the winter. I say, "No Way!" They call it Death Valley for a reason - you aren't supposed to be comfortable in this park. It must be visited in July or August. Plus, if you visit it in the winter, you can't see the two most beautiful overlooks.

Most of the day in the Valley it was about 117 degrees (Fahrenheit). Of course, we traveled through various pockets, included one such microwavable treat where the temperature rose to 129 degrees! Now, my car is precise, not accurate. It seems to consistently read 2 degrees higher than it is outside. Thus, it was probably closer to 127 than 129. Big difference.

People may say you have to visit Grand Canyon before you die. I move Yosemite and Death Valley far above Grand Canyon.

To best describe the Valley, I'll tell you about our trip to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America.

The thermometer in the car read 117, but once it gets above 110, does it really matter? It all seems equally unrealistic. Maybe it does matter; it read 110 in Joshua Tree NP, but this was significantly more intense.

We stepped out of the car and were blasted with the heat. It was as if the world were an oven and the car was our bomb shelter.

We walked out to the white ground. Why is the ground white? Who cares, it's 117 degrees; let's get our photo and go. We walked to the white stuff to get a good photo. It looked so close to the car; 10 minutes later, the car looked so far away from us. We got the photo and turned.

We knew we were sweating; our brains told us this much. But we touched our backs, our armpits, our foreheads, and we were dry as a boneyard (assuming it hasn't rained in the boneyard recently). During all the other hikes we completed this week we prayed for a breeze. Breeze always feels good, right? Not here. Here we just wanted the wind to stop. As thought we were sitting in that oven, just let us cook in peace, we know the heat is there, why blow to remind us?

We made it back to the car. Had it been days; years? I nearly broke the air conditioning dial, trying to see if it would blow any harder. We felt our backs again. Aha! There's the sweat; so maybe we're not dying.

You couldn't cross this valley in the summer on foot or horse. It's most accurately death to enter.

This leads me to a point I've thought about much recently: we have it so easy. I'll come back to this in future posts.

To point out some points of interest, here's Panamint Springs, Sand Dunes, Dante's View (into Death Valley), Devil's Golf Course and Badwater Basin. Both Devil's Golf Course and Badwater Basin are in Death Valley; Sand Dunes are in Panamint Springs.

Again, the California Album

Next Post: Nevada, Round 2