Day 9 - Bishop

Did you expect to hear from me again?

I just got back down the hill from backpacking to Cottonwood Lakes in the John Muir Wilderness. Lovely lakes and snow-touched peaks. Lots -- I mean LOTS -- of bugs. But most weren't the biting kind. Just the careful-or-you-might-inhale-a-dozen kind. But I picked a campsite on a slight rise and the wind took care of most of that.







Let's see... Before Cottonwood Lakes was Death Valley. The night before, I stayed in Shoshone, which is plenty desert for me. Then the road crests a small pass and suddenly there's a huge, deep, gaping hole in front of me. That would be Death Valley. I got out of there before noon.





Outside of Lone Pine (the portal to Mt Whitney (and Cottonwood Lakes)) are the Alabama Hills. At first, they look like huge piles of dirt sitting in the middle of the valley, but they actually have some quite nice rock formations when you get up close.



The day before that, I drove from Santa Barbara to Shoshone, without stopping for much. Lots of traffic on I-15, then I turn north at Barstow and suddenly the world is empty once again.

Way back when, along the coast, I posted a few pictures on Flickr but couldn't blog, so here they are. The first is sunset at Monterey, then a typical Big Sur coastline (do you see the highway?), and finally some elephant seals.