Sequoia/ Alabama Hills/ Death Valley/ L.A. pt.2

At the end of the last post we were about to drive into the Alabama Hills. I'd been there before with Mum and previously had been able to see Mt. Whitney through the Mobius Arch. This time it was too cloudy. It remained cloudy all three days we could have seen Mt. Whitney, so poor Joe and Connor never got a chance to see it.

We followed the trail and had fun spotting different shapes in the rocks.

We were also lucky to see the desert in bloom. The rain doesn't come often, but this year there has been a fair amount of rainfall. My favorite flowers were the orange ones.

It threatened to shower on us, but there was enough light to paint, so the boys left me in the parked car before going off to scramble over some rocks. It was a good move on my part. My paint is water soluble and would have been ruined when the clouds finally did let loose. Unfortunately I didn't remain dry. I managed to spill my paint water all over my lap half way through.

With my spirits dampened and the light fading, we drove back to town and got dinner. I spent another hour in the hotel finishing up my painting before going to bed. 

The next day would bring us into Death Valley and we had an aggressive itinerary planned.

To be continued...

Devil's Postpile And The Alabama Hills: ERT2014 Day 3

Day 3 of the Epic Road Trip of 2014 started off with a good breakfast before driving to Mammoth. I was pretty happy I wasn't driving this leg of the trip. I really enjoyed looking out the window the whole way.

This abandoned shack is just outside of Lee Vining

When we got to Mammoth, it was raining. Mum was a little hesitant to take the bus to Devil's Postpile. (In summer, you have to take a bus to see the rock formation. It helps cut down on the traffic.) I said I wanted to go anyways. So we went, and it turned out that it was only raining on the side of the mountain that the parking lot was on. It was lovely on the other side of the mountain. 

We hiked to the top to see the formation even closer. Even though we knew that the post pile was created by the way lava cooled in the area, it still looked like man-made tiles to us. 

We ate lunch while looking up at the formation. The seat was wet, so I lay out my jacket for us to sit on. Unfortunately I had forgotten that I had put my sunglasses in my jacket pocket. Mum sat on them. She said I did it on purpose so she'd have to buy me a new pair.

After getting new sunglasses, Mum and I drove down to Lone Pine. I had wanted to see the Alabama Hills. I didn't realize that so many movies had been filmed out there. Films like Gunga Din and Gladiator have all had scenes filmed out there. The reason I wanted to go was to see the Mobius Arch.

Right behind the arch is Mount Whitney

What's so interesting about these hills is that the rock it is made out of is the exact same as the rock in the mountains behind. They have just eroded differently. Truth be told, the Alabama Hills feel otherworldly. If you've ever seen the movie Galaxy Quest, it felt like a Gorignak could come out at any moment. (Galaxy Quest was filmed in Goblin Valley, Utah, but it felt the same.)

We stayed until the shadows deepened and the sun faded away. Then we casually drove back to town through the warm and dusty evening.