Big Sur to Death Valley

            I am running out of descriptive words for all the wonderful places I am passing through. In fact, I think I will utilize my computer thesaurus...  Anyway so after leaving my wonderful family in Danville.  I took Highway 1 South along the California Coast.  I was very unlike the Oregon coast in the respect that it was more rugged, bitter even I’d say.  The cliffs were tall and covered in multicolored moss and tumble weed like vegetation and the water sounded like it was coming at you from all directions it was so loud.  The road was slow going and insanely windey but I didn’t mind because I wasn’t in a hurry and the view was more than appeasing.  The only downer was that because I was alone, it was hard to sight see and take pictures while driving, and Charlie was fired as the navigator for sleeping on the job…

So after a long day of driving, we ended up slightly north of Los Angeles in a fishing town called Morro Bay where we camped for the evening. It is a quaint little place, and a tourist trap for sure but with some cool sights none the less which we took in on our evening stroll after setting up camp in Morrow Bay State Park.           
The following morning I went for a jog before heading off the Death Valley…and here is where things got hot.  This was actually quite a turning point in my journey, because so far I have consistently been traveling south and mostly on the coast, but turning to drive horizontally across California begins what I like to think of as the second leg of my trip.  Boy, let me tell you, once away from the costal cities and population, the climate is drastically different and the cultural landscape goes from modern and urban to rural and scary in some areas. I drove through ghost towns where most of the buildings were abandoned with busted in windows and even the people looked worn out (Seriously, if you ever drive through Trona, California you’ll know what I’m talking about).  Most of the roads were not well maintained and had almost no shoulder, and the heat was nearly suffocating.  However on the plus side, I almost hit a tarantula crossing the highway and saw my first real biker gang on the way. :D

            When I pulled into camp I must say I was disappointed at the lack of amenities (like showers and lighting in the mangy bathrooms).  They were remodeling the main campground and had moved everyone to overflow campgrounds, which were minimally maintained and had little to no shade, which in Death Valley heat is kind of a big deal.  However, the view from my tent spot and the night stars made up for it, not to mention the gorgeous sunset.  

Charlie and I got an early start the next morning and hiked Golden Canyon, which was really lovely and lived up to its name seeing as all the rim walls were a bright yellow. We followed it up with a trip to the lowest point on earth, Badwater Basin and drove a scenic car trail called Artists Loop.

We were out putzing around until we simply couldn’t take the heat anymore.  We called it quits at 102 degrees and headed to the café for lunch (and AC).  Unfortunately after lunch was not as awesome as the morning because it was so hot and we had no way of getting out of it.  Charlie couldn’t come into the any of the on site buildings and it was way too hot to keep him in the car even in the shade, so we made a pact to suffer together for a few hours, filled the water bottles and bowls and took a nap in our steamy tent.  When It got cooler again in the evening we did some more adventuring on the trails around the campground and had tuna and crackers for dinner.

            In all honesty, if I could do it over, I would spend the money on a hotel (with reservations made far ahead of time) or go in December or January when temperatures are cooler.  I would still recommend going though if you like the desert (which I do), because it is truly a unique place.  The earth is baked to a crisp, there isn’t much wildlife and landscape is jagged and harsh.  Even though I had everything I needed, when you are out in the elements like that, there’s a certain element of survival added.  You can feel your body wanting to only expand energy on what is necessary and you know that getting too far from water is a bad deal.  I don’t know, I’ve never been in a situation like that before and it was interesting to say the least.  Saturday morning after an early run, Charlie and I packed up in a hurry and scooted off to a little unplanned adventure I had lined up for us the day before….