Death Valley

Before I write about Death Valley I just have to comment on a few serendipitous events. For instance, right now I am just north of Las Vegas, Nevada, a place I wasn’t that keen on dealing with. During our travels Mike accepted an offer to speak at an engagement in El Paso so we had to figure out the easiest way for him to fly out, speak, and fly back to wherever I was. Figuring we could easily get here from Death Valley, we picked the Las Vegas airport. We were going to set up Elvis where I would stay while he was traveling, but, we killed Elvis’s battery, Mike needed internet to do some work, and – whola, my sisters gave me a rescue-me-hotel certificate for my birthday. They can’t imagine spending a night in Elvis let alone five and half weeks! Well, Kris can, because we grew up in Family One (sorry, inside family talk).

Here’s the thing, I’m staying at this hotel with a pool big enough to swim laps! Plus, it isn’t heavily chlorinated. It isn’t a salt water pool so I’m not sure what’s in the water, but the gift shop sold goggles and the water temp was near 80 – so it was simply blissful. I can’t wait to jump back in. This is what I love about our trip – unexpected and unplanned things you think are going to be a disaster turn out to be rewarding.

My other serendipitous event was another visit with a west coast cousin, Theresa, who happened to be visiting Prescott, Arizona just when we were. Mike and I were in town having enchiladas when I got a text from her stating that Cate told her we were both there. She asked to meet up and when I asked “what about now” she and her husband showed up in twenty minutes. Again, there is nothing like family. First thing she said was you are Celeste, and I reminded her she was like her mum, too. Theresa is another quick-witted Bradley, refreshingly self deprecating and hysterical. Our time was very short, but we got caught up and had some good laughs.

Ok, now on to Death Valley. Wow, where do I begin? Death Valley is like no other, you wonder if you just stepped onto another planet. This is a geologist’s paradise full of wonderment. The sheer vastness of the area itself is staggering, and the varying landscape is breathtaking. We walked on the salt flats at 280 feet below sea level to the mountain tops at a mile high from sea level. At the flats it was 80 degrees with no wind, the day we went to Dante’s Peak it was in the fifties and the wind speed was around 30 mph. Looking straight down to the salt flats and out to the surrounding mountain ranges was one of the best mountain top views I have experienced.

We also took a bike ride and had the road to ourselves as we took in the changing colored mountain sides around us. There are carved out areas, full of color, that look like giant scalloped fossilized shells carved into the striped colors of rock. To their sides and below are alluvial fans of eroded rock and sand spilling down to the base spreading out across the desert floor. We hiked into a canyon made hollow from a volcanic eruption within the last 2,000 years and lay on the spongy sand floor protected from the gusty winds above. The only life we witnessed were some crows scavenging for who knows what.

Just outside the park is an oasis in the desert – the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Upon entry to the visitor center hang photos of the President and Vice President – the irony of it all. The Refuge was created by the Nature Conservancy to try to restore the damage done by previous developers looking to build the next Las Vegas – Calvada. Their work now is to keep the area protected – especially the pup fish, one of the first species protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1967. It was a cold, windy day so the birds were nestled in the trees. We did see a Redhead Duck, a Northern Harrier, and we are pretty sure we were watching a pair of golden eagles soaring overhead.

We are leaving Las Vegas and heading east now with no definite plans because we don’t know where the snow is in Northern Arizona and New Mexico. Another few weeks ahead getting lost in the right direction.

And again, a third unusual encounter. While in Vegas we treated ourselves to a Cirque du Soleil performance and on the way in an usher stopped me because she recognized my bag from Mongolia. She was from Ulaanbaatar and was a professional dancer. We talked about the places I had visited, hugged each other, and thanked one another for the connection.