Heathers Mucky World

Bristlecones

We made an unplanned (how could I have not planned this!?!) detour to the bristlecone pine forest. After climbing up to 10,000 feet, we got to watch a spectacular sunset.

a bristley cone

We took the short walk, almost running to beat the light.

Fun trees though

Although this is stating the obvious, those are some amazingly old trees!

It really does get to you

It was friking cold though. Max stole Rin's poop bag to protect his frigid toes. Lucky for him (or not, depending on how desperate you are), Rin didn't need the bag.

Sunset

Camping was rather cold at 9000 feet.

Max bought Rin his own sleeping bag. I think he liked it

The view in the morning across the valley

The White mountains, from the top (almost)

Another view of the sierras, this time from the top of one of our not so intelligent, but really fun adventures.

We decided to take the not so widely traveled way off the mountains: Silver Canyon Road

Rin thought we were nuts, or maybe I'm just projecting.

It was a spectacularly beautiful drive

We dropped about 6000 feet, on a very rough dirt road. It was so steep, and Max's car not so offroady, that we had to stop every few switchback to let the brakes cool.

Quite steep

Finally, after almost 4 hours (and we thought this would be a shortcut over doubling back on the main road!), we made it to the relatively level lower half.

Ah, level ground! We didn't plunge off a cliff and die!

This is what we came down

As a reward for our survival, hot springs!

Spectacularly beautiful setting, don't you think?

ahhhhh

Owens Valley

Headed north on 395

Here's whats left of Owens Lake, weee LA! (sarcasm, if you can't tell)

Mount Whitney

The view from halfway up the Whitney portal

Owens Valley

The Alabama Hills. Why they are called that, I don't know. But they are interesting

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Our first night camping we stopped at Red Rock Canyon State Park.

This was an unexpected stop, but man was it pretty

The actual camping left a little to be desired though. The wind picked up in the middle of the night, and practically flattened our tent to the ground. Poor Rin took the worst of it though, since he was in the upwind side... fwapfwapfwap

The cliffs in the morning were still spectacular

As were the canyons beyond

Into the desert

Joshua trees!

Doesn't Rin look wild?

This was just a stop on the side of the road as we headed into the desert.

Santa Barbara

Max joined me on Friday afternoon and we headed south to visit his family in Santa Barbara

This is his Sister Heather, her Partner Deb, and their son Liam.

Napping boys.

Max and his Mom.

San Luis Obispo

In San Luis Obispo, I stayed with a friend of a friend. They were so wonderful, and had an absolutely beautiful house. The guest room was in his shop, the cleanest shop I've ever seen.

The kids were fun too, though they were a little nervous about Rinley

Before the talk, my host let me join his ecology class on a field trip on the hill above the campus.

Tarantulas!

There was a fire a few years ago.

Rinley disappeared after a while. I finally found him, to my chagrin, in the ag pond at the bottom of the hill. Can you see him?

Down Hwy 1

I had to go down to San Luis Obispo to give a talk on my research. There's no way to easily fly there and so I decided to make a road trip out of it. On the way down, I took Highway 1 through Big Sur and all that stuff.