A Lot of Catching Up To Do...

Shoooot, it's proving very difficult lately to stay up-to-date with this blog. The thing is, generally we need about 4 hours of uninterrupted internet time plus that much energy to pump out a post. It's the photos that take all the time really. We've been making our way around northern California and Oregon the past couple of weeks. But we still haven't told you about or shown you some gorgeous photos of Death Valley, Yosemite or the Eastern Sierras. Sigh. So that's our goal for this post- get as far as we can...

From the Grand Canyon we headed west into California, no wait, we went south! I almost forgot all about Sedona. Alright, let's sum it. BEAUTIFUL!!

The drive into town even is amazing.

We scrambled up to a vortex on the top of rock mountain.

Can you spot Waldo?

I'm ok letting the photos of Sedona speak for themselves. We spent two nights there, the second of which was alongside a forest service road in the desert. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and yet I was able to have a great conversation with my sister huddled around a campfire. Ha!

Ok, so from Sedona we headed west to California!! Woo hoo! Death Valley in the eastern part of the state was our first stop. I wasn't expecting much to be honest. Fortunately, I was very pleasantly surprised.  This was the first stop of an incredible California visit. Death Valley is the hottest, driest, lowest place in the country. And actually, one spot in particular- Badwater Basin- is the lowest spot in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Interestingly, Mt. Whitney, only 84 miles to the northwest is the highest point in the Lower 48 states.

Heading in to California.

Approaching Death Valley National Park.

So we had the craziest experience with this coyote. Naturally when we saw him (or her?) standing along the road we stopped, fully expecting him to run off. Well we sure were surprised when he hung around. So we took a few pictures and then just visited with him. Our visit included Reiki (from a distance folks, relax), chanting and more intimacy than we ever expected from a wild animal. He liked Reiki so much he just laid right on down. Interesting to note that a day or so earlier in Sedona, coyote energy was recommended to me. Since then coyote kept coming up, even in physical form obviously! You know: trickster coyote, laughing at himself and everyone else. In hindsight we realized this guy was probably just accustomed to being fed by passing tourists.

After camping for a night and driving the length of the park- I understand it's the biggest block of wilderness outside of Alaska- we decided to check out the moving rocks. You've heard of these rocks, right? They remain one of the mysteries of the natural world. No one knows for sure how they move, but their tracks clearly indicate that they have in fact moved. (Of course I'm curious if anyone has ever officially tracked them moving over time, even if they've never seen it happening directly.) Anyway, the road to the "Racetrack" with the moving rocks involved a long exploration on a dirt road and a quick stop at Teakettle Junction.  

We were tempted to take one of the kettles- I mean some of them were in pretty
 good condition. Maybe one with a message from Oregon? Nah, didn't want to jinx ourselves.

So the Racetrack is a very flat dried lake bed, a playa they call it. When it rains you're not supposed to walk on it because your footprints can apparently last for years. Death Valley only gets a couple inches of rain a year so I guess you don't have to worry about this very often, though we did see a few footprints... 

Playa close-up

This playa is several miles long and reminded us of the scene in Star Wars Episode I when Anakin races the pod. I think George Lucas might have actually been inspired by this area for that scene. Apparently another part of the movie was filmed in Death Valley... I digress. The moving rocks were wild!! See for yourselves, there were lots of them with long tracks indicating movement in different directions:

Apparently scientists think that when it rains and the surface of the playa becomes slick, the wind is able to slide the rocks along the ground. Pretty unlikely if you ask me, but there's not any other great explanation. Andrew and I think they move as a result of the earth's magnetism. But it's just a guess!  If you notice the photo two up you can see that some of the rocks appear to have slid from the base of a rocky foothill. How could rocks get blown from the base of a hill though- there's no way wind could be at their back??

So after spending some time with the mysterious rocks, we decided to backpack an area just south called Lippincott Pass. Our idea was to check out the road condition to see if we could take a short cut out of the park the following day. You can see below that 4 wheel drive is recommended. (We only have 2 wheel drive so hence the preview.) There are lots of old mining "roads" in Death Valley. Kind of fun to explore I imagine if you have an old off-road 4x4 truck to beat up!

Eh, maybe not a good idea we realized pretty quickly.

Lots of mining in those Death Valley mountains. Copper mineral trace?

Fire man Andrew had organized our brush collections into 9 precise piles. Seriously.

Wow full moon!!! We took this photo through our binoculars!

Cool pokey plant.

Death Valley was designated a National Monument in the 1930s! The area was later expanded and turned into a National Park by President Clinton in the 90s. 

So that's our visit to Death Valley National Park! We both loved it there and wish we could have had some more time to explore the mountains. The landscape was very striking and the mountains had a strong feel. We highly recommend a visit if you have the chance- though with summer temperatures up to 120 degrees you might want to make it a winter vacation. (We enjoyed temperatures ranging from the 30s at night to the high 50s during the day!)

We're heading to Portland this weekend hopefully so we'll try to post again soon to bring y'all up to speed with our travels. Before we sign off though, we'd like to wish a very happy February birthday to: Michele Simmons, Lindsey Tyler, Beth & Matt Davis, and Ashley Newell!! Love you guys. :-)