Ehmann Family: Basin and Range Part 1: Basin

Way back in Feb 2020, before the pandemic, I roughed out a trip to the Basin and Range province of CA-NV-UT and made reservations at Park lodges in Death Valley, Zion, and Bryce. These are popular parks and visiting in the summertime with the crowds and the heat seemed unwise. April Break in the pandemic turned out to be the perfect season. We experienced 97 degree afternoons in the basin of Furnace Creek at 190 feet below sea level and 25 degree mornings in the range of Bryce at 8,500 feet. The earthquake gods kept us tremor-free and our Chrysler Pacifica was named MVP for not overheating or popping a tire over the 1,700 mile trip.

Step 1 was COVID testing in MA prior to our departure. The free state-sponsored program, called Project Beacon, returns same-day results and allows us to travel with peace of mind. We tested on return as well to enable the kids to return to school.

Say goodbye to snow in Lexington

and hello Vegas. Hey there's our first destination: Lake Mead

Caroline, Erin, and Heather flew out 2 days early so that Caroline could compete in her Science Olympiad meet while Tessie and I were flying in.

I'm guessing that this Boulder City bar hasn't given out many free drinks

First taste of the desert at Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Smell ya later Mandalay Bay

and you too, Vegas strip

Heading into California, that glare is from the Ivanpah solar thermal plant, comprised of 173,000 reflectors that focus the sun's rays on 3 water towers that generate steam to drive turbines

The Mojave National Preserve and adjacent Castle Mountains National Monument was empty and quite the contrast from the hordes in Vegas. Probably the only shade in the entire park was here at Kelso Depot, built back in the early days of rail travel when extra locomotives had to be added to pull trains on the way to the California coast up the long rise out of the Mojave basin.

The Kelso Sand Dunes were not Great, and they made for quite a trudge

In the desiccating heat we didn't get close to the top

I hope this old dad doesn't have to overlook any jackass canyon behavior

Here at the first gas station outside the Mojave, in Baker, CA, we found Jim "Jet" Neilsen's rocket car, which is capable of hitting 700 mph on the salt flats. We stuck with the 85 octane unleaded.

World's Largest Thermometer. I like how with room for 130+, at 80 degrees it registers only halfway up

Still going down

Amazingly, here at the Ranch at Furnace Creek, there's enough thermally heated spring water to fill a swimming pool. The water is a constant 87 degrees and it was a highlight of the trip to relax guilt-free in the oasis of the desert-surrounded pool. And the air was so dry that your swim trunks dried by the time you got back to your room.

Trailhead for Darwin Falls

and a most unexpected waterfall

Pop quiz, besides Hawaii what is the only state growing larger in area?

Answer: Nevada. Out here the earth's crust is being stretched out east-west such that Reno and Salt Lake City get further apart by 6 inches every 10 years. The stretching has thinned the crust so much that it created 50-100 mile-long north-south trending faults at regular 10-15 mile intervals. This patchwork of enormous cracks in the continent allow the rectangular crust blocks to dip sideways at 40 degree angles. The top halves protrude upwards as ridges of the ranges and the bottom halves are silted in as the valley floors of the basins. This is the Panamint Range on the west edge of Death Valley.

and there beyond the Panamint range is Death Valley's partner in meteorological crime, the Sierra Nevada range. Those are the highest mountains in the lower 48, and they capture all of the moisture coming east, leaving a 750 mile desert in their shadow. Being the closest to the Sierras, Death Valley gets the least amount of rain and without any erosion to fill its basin, it is the only valley below sea level. All of the other basins eastward into Nevada would be below sea level too, if they weren't filled in by mountain runoff from the occasional rainstorm.

Our goal on this day trip was the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp in the windswept and desolate Owens Valley. The buildings at Manzanar were closed but the scenery was wide open. One of those peaks is Mt. Whitney, the top peak of the Sierras.

The B-ball court was open, too. With my jump shot you can Sierra 'nderneath my feet

This cemetery shrine inscription reads "monument to console the souls of the dead"

Back in the Valley, it was only double-digit heat

Last August it reached 130 degrees

Here at Badwater, the lowest point in North America, you can walk out on the salt pan of the dry lake bed in the center of the valley

or you can take crazy pictures. (photo inspired by Chinda and Mike)

At home we have a box of 20-mule team borax. Boron is one of the coolest elements and we use its ionic bonding properties to make slime. The original 20-mule teams mined borax here at Furnace Creek and hauled the mineral all the way over to that Kelso train depot in the Mojave.

Words of advice on the wall of the DV Ranch Saloon

We saw roadrunners on the roadside and here we found a coyote!

Sunset trail ride

Zabriskie Point

Puzzler: see if you can put these 3 photos in the correct chronological order

After 28 years of driving, Heather earned her first moving violation

Heading up to Utah, at Floyd Lamb Park outside Vegas we picnicked among the peafowl.

Peahen

Peacock

Peacock!

Las Vegas translates to "the meadows" and back during the ice ages the Vegas area was wet enough to attract large mammals. The so-called Pleistocene megafauna included lions, tigers, camels, and mammoths, all of whose fossils can be found in the rapidly disappearing scrubland north of Vegas. A portion has been preserved as the newly created Tule Springs Fossil Beds, which currently consists of a signpost in the dustbowl.