The Adventures of Ken: August 2020

Friday, August 28, 2020

Beatty, Nevada

Beatty is a picturesque, unincorporated town just 7 miles east of Death Valley National Park. It is located along the Amargosa River at an elevation of 3,307 feet. It is surrounded by 3 peaks; Bare Mountain, Sawtooth Mountain and the Bullfrog Hills. I always enjoy the drive across Death Valley from Lone Pine, California, to Beatty.

Death Valley National Park - California

I always enjoy the summer drive across Death Valley from the Sierras. After backpacking in the high country, it's fun to visit the low country. California is a land of extremes. It's about 95 miles from Mount Whitney the highest mountain in the lower 48 states at 14,505 feet, to Stovepipe Wells at 10 feet above sea level. I begin my drive east at Lone Pine which sits at the base of Mount Whitney in the Owens Valley. Sometimes I drive to Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level. However this time I was eager to reach my air conditioned hotel room in Las Vegas so I skipped that drive, and anyway it was hot enough at Stovepipe Wells. I wasn't eager for hotter temperatures since I was heading back to Phoenix.

Rainbow Canyon

Devil's Cornfield

Horton Creek BLM Campground - Bishop, California

Horton Creek Campground sits at 4,975 feet elevation, and is located on an alluvial fan, next to Horton Creek with an outstanding view of Mt. Tom at 13,658 feet elevation in the Sierra Nevada Range. This is a very nice campground with good Verizon 4G cell coverage, unless Verizon is down for 11 hours, which is what happened in Bishop. Then my OCD says to me what if it doesn't come back on? What if something is wrong with my phone? What if I need a new phone? So I end up checking back at the Verizon store for a second time in the late afternoon, and I just get the same answer, "it will probably be back up soon." My phone came back on around 9:00pm, and I hope I learned something about my OCD.

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Eastern Sierras, Ansel Adams Wilderness - Day 3

On my third day on the trail I hiked 9 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail/High Trail back to Agnew Meadows. Every morning I was up at sunrise, and hit the trail at 7:30am, and reached my destination by 2:30pm. I probably spent an hour photographing Thousand Island Lake before connecting with the PCT Trail.

The Sierra Nevada Range extends 165 miles along the California/Nevada border between Los Angeles and Reno. The Inyo National Forest includes over 2 million acres of pristine lakes, winding streams, rugged peaks and arid Great Basin Mountains. Elevations range from 3,900 to 14,505 feet, providing diverse habitats that support vegetation ranging from semi arid deserts to high alpine meadows.