A Quick Weekend Trip
Ancient Bristlecone Forest
and
Scotty's Castle in Death Valley
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We left La Canada Saturday morning November 17th for a
trip to the Bristlecone pine forest in the White Mountains.
We planned to photograph and draw the trees for the
afternoon then find a place to camp in the lower parts of the
Owens Valley.
The weather was beautiful and when we arrived at the
Bristlecone Forest Visitor Center there was a little fresh
snow on the north faces.
After we finished there we started to the Owens Valley; at
the point where we were to turn right and head for the valley
we said why not turn left and go to Death Valley? We did....
And that is the second set of pictures.
In Death Valley we went to Masquite Springs Campground. It
is at the north end of the valley at about 2000 ft elevation.
Just for fun we went up to Scotty's Castle to photograph. We
took the tour years ago when Scott and Katherine were about
7 and 5 years old. There we discovered there is now an
underground tour of the castle. A trip through all the support
passages under the castle. We signed up and were met by our
tour guide, the very charming and knowledgeable Megan
Wilkins of the National Park Service.
After the tour which lasted well over the normal hour, we drove to Stovepipe
Wells for lunch and then headed home. Once again the direct route seemed to
normal so we drove to the Randsburg Mining District. We had not been
there in 20 years since our friends Minnie and Wally left. Lots of changes
and not all for the best.
From Randsburg we headed on down US395 to Highway 58 (The road we
first came into California on almost 44 years ago). We passed the solar
collection power plant turned west and headed for the Borax mine at Boron.
We were just in time to get the last tour. From there it was time to head
home. Got back to La Canada at about 6:30PM on Sunday after driving 752
miles in less than 36 hours.
A great trip!
Here are some Google Maps of where we went
You can click on any picture to get a bigger view
also use Google Earth to see the pictures up
close
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Looking down of Scotty's
Castle
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Mesquite Springs Campground
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Randsburg Mining District
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Solar Concentrator Complex
About 100 acres of mirrors
that collect sun light and
focus on to tubes carrying oil
that is heated and used to
generate electricity in a
steam plant
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The Twenty Mule Team
Borax mine in Boron, CA
It is a mile long and half a
mile wide and 800 feet deep
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The Ancient Bristlecone
Forest is here
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And here are the pictures
First the Bristlecones
These are the oldest living
trees on earth.
They were discovered by Dr.
Schulman in 1950
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This is one of our favorite
trees. Dr. Schulman dated it
in 1957 at 700 years old!
Today it is about 6 feet tall
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In the large version of this you
can read the time line for the life
of these wonderful trees.
Close up of the needles and
cones of the trees. The
needles will remain on a
limb for up to twenty years.
You can count the rows on
the left to see how many
years old the needles are.
The electrical generation
equipment at Scotty's Castle.
the Castle generated all of
its power and use the
batteries for lights etc.
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Mary Ann and our Guide
Megan Wilkins
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The entrance and quest
house at the Castle
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The pool was never finished
and these are the ceramic
tiles that should have gone
into the pool. I is 260 feet
long, 50 feet wide and 12
feet deep at the diving board
end.
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