Going East to see the Wild West
So today we are outta LA and off to the desert. Given that most of the day was going to be in a car on one's ass, I did a run/walk along the Santa Monica foreshore (and to get the Strava points...) and saw my first ever squirrel!! Whilst I was doing the exerces, Ant picked up our trusty steed (rental car) for our venture into the Wild West and with a brief stop for life admin (laundry) we were off to the desert (via the freeway).
Of note on the way:
Enormous wind farm: right outside a tiny town called Mojave was the most enormous wind farm I've ever seen. It turns out to be the 3rd largest onshore wind farm in the world with 600 turbines and produces 1,500 MW of power - or 250,000 homes. The real reason we stopped in Mojave was for the plane graveyard which was a complete non-event. There were barely any planes there!
By now we were in what I guess was the desert and out of cell and wi-fi coverage. I wasn't expecting the desert to be quite so hilly - some parts of the road were steep! And carved into the side of rocky slopes so not good on the vertigo. We dropped down into a long, flat, arid valley that had a tiny township and large piles of a white substance. Turns out it was a borax mine and as it was getting toward dusk (4pm....) it was right out of your best nightmares about getting lost in the desert.
Dusk progressed to night quite quickly and we climbed out of the valley for 16 miles of uphill, windy road and then dropped into the head of Death Valley. By this point it was dark - the smudgy, inky dark of a cloudy night with no lights. Combine that with a downhill windy road and it was a tense hour for someone with a rich imagination.....and straight to the saloon when we checked in.
The resort we stayed at was literally in the middle of nowhere, 150 feet below sea level and, ironically for one of the hottest places on the planet, freezing cold. We had specifically chosen to stay as it was in the middle of an International Dark Sky Park with spectacular stargazing. Most unfortunately, we arrived right when it clouded over, it was still cloudy at midnight and again at 3:30am so that is going to have to be rescheduled for a future visit.
The resort saloon was every tourist fantasy come true with horseshoes, large cocktails, stuffed animals and wagon wheels everywhere. I loved it.
Antoine’s Content Corner
There's no point driving all the way to Death Valley. There's plenty of stops before then.
