Hello from ultra-crispy California! Today was a travel day from the Death Valley area to a hotel convenient to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. We are looking forward to the extra hour tonight to catch up on some sleep and housekeeping.

We took the scenic route for our drive today which took us through Death Valley and past the Mesquite Sand Dunes. The variety of things to see in the park really is incredible. As Billy’s last post showed, one visit to Death Valley can reveal striped mountains, white sand flats, tawny badlands, mysterious canyons, and lots and lots of rocky desert. The dunes look like a mini desert plopped in the middle of an otherwise featureless rocky flat. The sand is powder-fine and of course, it’s hot. Very, very hot. We walked just far enough to find a section of the dunes with minimal footprints. Then hustled back to our air-conditioned car and headed out.

I had a lot of trouble finding places without footprints.

I admired this mountain yesterday and since I was not driving could finally take a photo of it today! The colors and patterns are unbelievable.

Fun with my cell phone fish-eye lens attachment!

The drive from the dunes to the hotel was very long, very straight, and very brown. Miles of rocks and dry dustiness had a hypnotic effect and the road literally felt like it went on forever.

This was the scene for miles on end.

I looked forward to making our way north to the more forested areas of California (I feel like I haven’t seen something green in weeks). Unfortunately, the state is still in a terrible drought and everything is dry as bone. Not only that, the air is hazy white and visibility is very poor. At one point, I thought I was driving through wildfire smoke. The hills are all brown, the grass dead, and everything more than a few hundred yards away is shrouded in smog. The only places where plants are still living are the orchards (saw a Halo clementine orchard!) and vineyards.

One interesting thing I noted on the drive is that California seems to be thriving in the natural energy business. We passed two huge solar panel fields, the Tehachapi wind farm (that has more than 4,700 turbines providing electricity to 350,000 people!), and a very large area of pumpjacks bobbing up and down like cranes drinking from a river. All were very cool to see.

Tomorrow we are going to see some big trees. Hopefully the smog/haze isn’t as prevalent there so we can hopefully see the treetops! Thanks for visiting!

A 180-degree view of the Mesquite Dunes.