All Photos by James Carey
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Photo Images of the Salton Sea, California
The wasteland of the Salton Sea, California
Tag: Desert
Daily Photo – July 25, 2020
Road Trip to Nowhere – Death Valley and Palm Springs
I was looking forward to driving up to Death Valley from LA during Easter weekend and catch a bit of the desert super bloom before it was all gone. I have lived in California for 30 years and had never been to Death Valley. I had passed the turnoff to it many times has I drove up to Mammoth on US 395 but I had never turned right on to California 190 to see where it goes. But this time I was.
So on Friday morning I got up early and packed. I ran a couple of errands and managed to get on the road by about 11 o’clock. I wasn’t pushing it too hard and drove up Interstate 5 to California 14 that goes through Palmdale and Lancaster across the high desert until it meets up with 395 at Bradys, California. Then about 25 miles later, the turnoff for California 190 appears on your right. It was about 3:30 PM and I stopped to get some gas before heading into the Valley. On 190 you drive about 15 miles and meet up with California 136 coming south from Lone Pine. The two highways merge and you follow 190 further in driving through gulleys and gulches between solid rock formations, and always the immense sky above you.
Just before you begin your descent into the Valley there is an observation point off to your left and from there you get how dramatic the drop is into Death Valley. I recommend that you stop here to see the amazing view because from that point you will drop about 4100 feet over a distance of 9 miles. You are leaving the high desert at 4000 feet above sea level and dropping down to 100 feet below sea level.
Now I have a fear of heights and California 190 is like most old state highways that go back to the thirties and forties. They are almost always narrow 2 lane roads built on the edge of a mountain or cliff with no guard rails. They wind back and forth, and snake around so much that you wonder sometimes how they’re were even built there in the first place. And if you are riding in the outside lane it is possible to look out and see nothing but a 2000 foot drop and no guard rail. For me that starts to trigger my panic attacks, but as long as I am moving forward I can pretty much keep it under control. Yet, that particular Friday, someone decided that it was time to do some road work on the highway and traffic was stopped in certain places and began to back up.
I was still in the first mile of the drop when I rounded a corner I saw that there were 8 to 10 cars being held by a guy with a stop sign. AND we were on the outside lane, AND there was no guard rail, AND you could clearly look over the side of the road and see the 2000 foot drop. A panic attack started to slowly come on but it built and built the longer we sat there. I could also see the rest of the highway below us and there appeared to be another couple of places that people were also stopped for road work. That is when I entered full panic mode. I pulled my car over into the lane that they were doing the repair work on. Some angry workmen came over yelling and screaming, demanding to know what was I doing. I was finally able to explained the situation and asked if they would let me use the inside lane to drive back up the hill and out of the Valley. They agreed so I quickly drove out of the Valley and stopped at the observation site to catch my breath.
I was out of the Valley but I had left a hotel reservation back there and it was non-refundable. It was 5:30 in the afternoon and the Sun is going down. I was at least two hours from Mammoth, and four hours from Reno and there was literally nothing to do where I was. Also I didn’t want to go back to Los Angeles so I decided that I would drive to Palm Springs about 3 hours away. So I headed south on 395 toward San Bernardino and the I-15. This part of 395 goes through some of the most desolate areas of California that I have ever seen. There is literally nothing out there. I did go through a couple of very small mining towns of Johannesburg and Red Mountain. As I drove through both towns I didn’t even see any people on the streets. The houses seemed like shacks and no businesses were open. It stayed like that until I got to I-15 at Victorville/Hesperia.
I took the 15 to the 215 through San Bernardino picking up the 10 East on its way out to Palm Springs. Driving into town about 9:30 PM, I decided I would treat myself and stay at a great hotel. and I pulled into the Hyatt Palm Springs only to find that it was the weekend for Coachella, the huge fashion-conscious rock festival held out in the Coachella Valley area every April. According to the receptionist every hotel in a 100 miles was full that night.
Frustrated I checked another hotel and got the same answer. Then I drove up to Desert Hot Springs, a favorite area of mine because of the hot mineral baths that are natural to the area. I checked with three middle of the road hotels and every thing was gone, and even if it wasn’t, the rooms were going for 400 dollars each because of the demand of that weekend. Defeated I went to a bar called Playoffs had a beer, got a burger at Jack in the Box, and drove home at around mid-night. I got back to LA around 1:30 AM making wonderful time coming back because no one was on the highway.
So I had a road trip. I drove a lot of places. I saw a lot of stuff but I didn’t actually end up going anywhere except back home.
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