How Low Can You Go In Death Valley?

Max at the Alamagordo Welcome sign
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11/13-Found a spot to bunk out and woke up with 6 young bulls looking at me looking at them. Very curious sorts who got REAL close as I put the truck together and headed to 3 Rivers Petroglyph site. 20,000 pecked-in-the-rocks images along a mile of ridgeline. Pretty cool. Headed south on 54 to Alamogordo and stopped at the space display. Aerospace and pistachio ranches are big time down here. Caught 70 to White Sands, arriving at 3pm to hear they close in 2 hours and also closed tomorrow for a missile test. I worked it hard for those two hours. It's kind of like walking on hard frozen powder snow and the same blue snow cast applies. Strange and beautiful. I decided then to push hard across Arizona to California and Death Valley so away we went west on 10 to Lordsburg, on to Tucson sleeping an hour, driving, etc.

New Mexico Sunrise
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11/14- Arrived in Yuma at 11am, into CA and catching 86 north to Brawley and Salton Sea Village. I was amazed to see that Sonny Bono got a highway AND a wildlife preserve named after him for skiing into that tree. Salton Sea was fascinating in a Oh My God Who Lives Here sort of way.  Hot and humid with the stench of a million dead fish hanging over it. The beach is actually made of tiny little bones. I saw no boats anywhere!   Alot of dreams died there when the water came up. Left at 3:30pm and got a truck stop shower to get the fish smell out. Kind of a puker, that place. Made a bad choice to stay on 10 and got stuck in the 5pm San Bernadino traffic. Shocking after the places I've been on this trip.

Max Falls in Love

Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site
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11/15-Took 15 to Barstow, ate a Denny's Grand Slam at 2am in Baker and switched north on 127 to Death Valley Junction where there is no gas. We kept going to Amargosa Valley, finding a station at 4:30 am next to the Bunny Ranch Gentleman's Club. We looked around and the only gentlemen to be found were all in FYI. Didn't see a soul but did pass a 20' tall dairy cow lit up with spotlights out there in the dark. Weird. Pulled in at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley NP, got an hour's shut-eye then started working at sunrise. Tooled around the valley the rest of the day scouting sights for sunset until I gave out. I flat-out had no more gas.

Max visits with friends at the World Lawn Ornament Convention, New Mexico
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We got a site at Furnace Creek, pulled the truck apart, put it back together, ate  a supper that wasn't dried fruit and energy bars then slept for 14 hours.

11/16- Coyotes woke us up and we were on our way again to places already scouted. After morning shooting we drove NE on 374 to Beatty for gas then back to Rhyolite where Max fell in love with a 25' tall kneeling woman in her birthday suit out in the brush. A vision in pink and yellow, it didn't seem to matter that she was made of cinder blocks. Rhyolite was fascinating in a good way, with a house made of bottles and no dead fish smell. We met Bill and Kerry, BLM volunteers who have hauled trash, brush, and whatever to bring some class to the place. Good job to you guys.We then drove the 4-wheel road down Titus Canyon which was agreed to be a trip highlight due to the geology and narrowness (didn't think FYI was going to fit a couple of times) Met and talked to Mark, a tour guide from Seattle of all places who was breaking in a new jeep.Caught a stunning sunset on film after a  1/2 mile photographer dash over broken ground. I've still got it. A blog update at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center then into the night to King's Canyon and Sequoia NP. Good night and thanks for the comments, they help keep us going!