Out f the Darkness or Leaving Death Valley

Leaving Death Valley

Reluctantly we had to leave Death Valley today. Over the last two days we have learned to really appreciate the beauty of this magnificent treasure. When you visit national parks like this you realize how lucky we are that our government is working to preserve some of the most incredible places on the continent for us and future generations to enjoy.

We left right on time this morning for our drive to Carson City. We planned to stop at Bishop to get gas and to visit an amazing German bakery there. It turns out that the bakery has celebrity status. There had to be close to a hundred people congregated around and in the bakery. Where do they all come from? Having said that, our efforts waiting in line were well worth it. A real German bakery in the middle of the Owens Valley.

Eric Shatz Bakery in Bishop

Shatz Bakery

After consuming our goodies we drove the 5 miles (or so) to the town of Laws. Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Laws, CA. I din’t think many of you have. Laws is home to a very cool railroad and Owens Valley history museum. I could have spent most of a day there, but I kept it to about an hour. They have a great collection of buildings, unique railroad equipment, mining machinery, and farm machinery.

Looking down the yard tracks

Engine service facility

Southern Pacific narrow gage

The original Laws depot

Waiting Room

Turntable at Laws

Once back on the road we arrived at a plan to eat our lunch at Mono Lake. Now we didn’t know anything about Mono Lake except that it was a big pretty lake that we would be passing on our way to Carson City. In the lakeside town of Lee Vining we discovered the National Park Service interpretive center. We made some startling discoveries. The lake is close to a million years old! Thats old for a lake. It also has some unique mineral structures that grow to great heights. We turned around and back tracked down the highway to the turn off to the south side of the lake to see the Tufa (the tall mineral structures.

Ooh, its not so hot today.

Tufa formations on the water's edge

Baby Tufa

We hiked around through the Tufa for an hour or so and then headed north again. Just another 100 or so miles to go. Finally we made it to Carson City where I’m recovering from dinner and sipping a beer while writing this. Tomorrow we are driving to Bend! Google says its about a seven hour drive. It’ll be a very long day. I guess we’ll have to limit our stops tomorrow. Somehow we have managed to turn our four or five hour drives into all day events. Tomorrow I’ll let you know how it turned out.

Jim