Dec 5 2013

Death Valley, not as hot as we thought

Death Valley is totally the land of the extremes:

It was also very cold – 30s at night and maybe 60 during the day. It was bright & sunny during the day, perfect for exploring. At night, the sky was amazing. We could see an incredible amount of stars, the Milky Way, and if we knew what we were looking for, we could have seen star clusters like Pleiades, and even the Andromeda Galaxy – 2.5 million light years away! We didn’t stay up late enough, but after midnight, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all visible with the naked eye.

Rachel wanted to be the lowest person in North America:

Rachel, in a hole, more than 282 feet below sea level

Dec 3 2013

Snowed In in Mammoth Lakes

We were hoping to get out of the cold weather and head to Death Valley, but Mother Nature had a different idea. We ventured out for dinner later, assuming the roads had been cleared. They had not and it was very slippery out, but as Peter is from NH, he’s an old pro at driving in the snow. We had purchased chains for the tires way back in Wyoming, but they are safely tucked in the box in the back of the car. We’ll return them to Walmart in Florida. That should be good for a laugh.

There was actually frost on the windows inside the motorhome…

The dogs sure enjoyed the snow…

Dec 2 2013

Mammoth Mountain Skiing Success!

Peter and the girls went skiing on Black Friday when the mountain was pretty crowded and had a good time. Then they went back today and had a GREAT time! They basically had the mountain to themselves. The girls stuck together & Peter was able to get a few good runs in by himself.

I spent the day shopping in Mammoth, and basically had the stores to myself too. I got to the mountain in just enough time to see the girls skiing down for their last run. And Peter showing off on the slopes too. He’s mentioned the words “ski house” several times already. I need to remind him that we live in Florida.

Dec 1 2013

Mother Nature’s Hot Tub & a Lunar Landing

Mammoth Lakes is well known for its natural hot springs and some nice locals have built hot tubs around them. None of them are “official” or marked, so you have to know about them in order to find them. Or, just do a Google search.

Summer on the path to hot spring hot tub

After our hot-tubbing, we decided to take a drive and ended up going through the Inyo National Forest and found ourselves in an area called the Volcanic Tableland. We joked that it felt like we had landed on the moon, as the terrain was so odd looking. I had to consult Google & this is what I found: “The Volcanic Tablelands is a vast volcanic landscape that was formed over 700,000 years ago by materials spewing from the Long Valley caldera”. Ok, I confess, I had to look up “caldera” too – A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters.

We didn’t pass a single car or any man made objects for miles and miles. It was very cool.