GET-YUR-MOTOR-RUNNIN' ROAD TRIP
(Astoria - Santa Fe - Death Valley - Astoria)
Furnace Creek, Death Valley to Lone Pine, CA
November 14, 2013 (Day 31 of 44)
Miles Today: 140 / Trip Miles: 3,734
Click on Map to Make Larger
Photos:
Click on photo for a larger image.
All photos © 2014 Leon Jackson. All Rights Reserved.
Death Valley to Owens Valley:
Leaving the Furnace Creek area the weather was great with temperatures in the 60s F and cloudy. A road sign near Stovepipe Wells reads: "Elevation Minus 150 Feet". The highway passes by the beautiful Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
Hikers on Sand Dune
I had the highway to myself—very little traffic! The drive from Stovepipe Wells through the Panamint Range and down into the Panamint Valley is awesome - dips, curves, more dips, more curves. After quickly climbing over 5,100 feet from the floor of Death Valley to Towne Pass (5,000 ft elevation), the highway descends into Panamint Valley at a steep 9% grade for six miles with continuous twists & turns. The flat Panamint Valley terrain is covered with small desert shrubs and black volcanic rock. I had lunch at the restaurant in remote Panamint Springs (1,900 ft elevation)—a good Greek salad and cheeseburger. Comfortable temperature in mid-60s. After Panamint Springs, the highway ascends quickly into the Inyo Mountains.
Highway 190 twists and turns through the Inyo Mountains. Panamint Valley and the Panamint Range are in the background. Death Valley lies beyond Panamint Mountains.
[flickr]
Dry Lake #1
[flickr]
Owens Valley:
Once over the summit, a long downhill straight-away is broken-up by some curves—this is a very fast section of highway. The highway makes a sharp turn toward Olancha, and the terrain becomes very sandy, with sand dunes. Owens Lake and the Sierra Nevada Range dominate this area. Owens Lake is mostly a dry lake. Located at the terminus of the Owens River, at its peak the lake covered 200-square miles, and held water continuously for at least 800,000 years. To the west, the majestic high Sierra Nevada Mountains rise straight-up from the Owens Valley.
Owens Lake is an extreme example of the destabilizing effect of surface-water extraction in desert regions. Unlike most dry lakes in the western USA that have been dry for thousands of years, Owens held significant water until 1924. Much of the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), causing Owens Lake to desiccate. Today, some of the flow of the river has been restored, and the lake now contains some water. This dusty, sandy, arid area is the largest single source of dust pollution in the nation.
Famed humorist, actor, statesman and cowboy Will Rogers said the following about the Owens Valley after it was drained by the 223-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct: “Ten years ago this was a wonderful valley with one-quarter of a million acres of fruit and alfalfa. But Los Angeles had to have more water for its Chamber of Commerce to drink more toasts to its growth, more water to dilute its orange juice and more water for its geraniums to delight the tourists, while the giant cottonwoods here died. So, now this is a valley of desolation.”
The cut-off to Olancha is an old-style highway that follows the lay of the land through a sand field and along Owens Lake. Road signs read: "Blowing Dust" and "Range Land". The highway passes by a few more sand dunes.
Once over the summit, a long downhill straight-away is broken-up by some curves—this is a very fast section of highway. The highway makes a sharp turn toward Olancha, and the terrain becomes very sandy, with sand dunes. Owens Lake and the Sierra Nevada Range dominate this area. Owens Lake is mostly a dry lake. Located at the terminus of the Owens River, at its peak the lake covered 200-square miles, and held water continuously for at least 800,000 years. To the west, the majestic high Sierra Nevada Mountains rise straight-up from the Owens Valley.
Owens Lake is an extreme example of the destabilizing effect of surface-water extraction in desert regions. Unlike most dry lakes in the western USA that have been dry for thousands of years, Owens held significant water until 1924. Much of the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), causing Owens Lake to desiccate. Today, some of the flow of the river has been restored, and the lake now contains some water. This dusty, sandy, arid area is the largest single source of dust pollution in the nation.
Famed humorist, actor, statesman and cowboy Will Rogers said the following about the Owens Valley after it was drained by the 223-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct: “Ten years ago this was a wonderful valley with one-quarter of a million acres of fruit and alfalfa. But Los Angeles had to have more water for its Chamber of Commerce to drink more toasts to its growth, more water to dilute its orange juice and more water for its geraniums to delight the tourists, while the giant cottonwoods here died. So, now this is a valley of desolation.”
The cut-off to Olancha is an old-style highway that follows the lay of the land through a sand field and along Owens Lake. Road signs read: "Blowing Dust" and "Range Land". The highway passes by a few more sand dunes.
Old Desert Highway
Undulating Highway 190 heading southwest, through a huge sand field, toward Olancha, California. This is a good example of old roads that are not constructed to modern highway standards and subject to flash floods. This is also a blowing sand hazard area.
[flickr]
[flickr]
Desert terrain to the east of mostly-dry Owens Lake along Highway northeast of Olancha, California. The Sierra Nevada Mountain range is in the background. Note the formation of a baby sand dune in the foreground!
[flickr]
Chinatown Deux:
Cartago, with a population of 192, is located on the west side of Owens Lake at an elevation of 3,600 feet. I was surprised to see a huge Crystal Geyser plant on edge of dry Owens Lake. Crystal Geyser's Olancha plant is 100,000-square-foot bottling facility. In the late 1980s, the company spent two years tasting water from all over the West, searching for a spot to build a new bottling plant and finally decided to locate their plant alongside the main highway in the high desert town of Olancha. "Olancha had the best-tasting water they could find," said a company spokesman. Crystal Geyser is not the only company attracted to Olancha by the exceptionally pure and good-tasting water from the Sierra Nevada range that collects underground here. Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch bought a ranch next door to where the Crystal Geyser plant now stands. The LADWP, which already owned most of the land and water rights in the valley, has bought hundreds of acres of additional ranch land at Olancha.
Weird hut and dinosaur sculpture along US-395 in Cartago, California. A motel located next to this has a giant ant on the roof.
[flickr]
Lone Pine:
Lone Pine (elevation 3,700 ft / population 2,000) is a pleasant old-fashioned town that sits at the base of the Sierra Nevada Range. From my motel room's balcony I had an incredible view of the Sierras. The Mt. Whitney Portal is a short drive from Lone Pine. Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of 14,500 feet.
Scenic Rating: B+
Driving Fun/Road Rating: A
Tomorrow:
Explore the Lone Pine area.
1 comment:
Such diverse semingly barren beauty. Thanks for sharing, great photos!
Post a Comment