Road Trip to Awesomeness - Day Five and Home

We thought we might do another day of exploring and end up staying overnight in Reno before heading home, but I have to tell you, this day would sort of "finish me off" for further adventures.  We didn't do the Devil's Postpile or Bodie after all.  Instead, we made the most of our morning, and used our afternoon to "horse to the barn"; taking turns driving and dozing and raving at the views that we were offered.
In the end, we toted up some stats: 3 National Parks, 6 new Counties, 1364 miles driven, lots of new stuff learned.  What a trip.  We're ready for the next one, but it'll have to wait until we've slowed down on doing all there is coming up this summer.

It's 5 a.m in Lone Pine, and this is the pre-sun view of Mt. Whitney and the Sierras.  Gosh, it made my heart sing!  Later, we would eat breakfast in the building farthest away, and eat with hikers from the hostel, which is the closer building.

Heading out to watch the sunrise

Before the light actually touches the tips

It's beginning to pink!

The light is on it fully.  It came on so fast!

Heading to see the Arch Rock that Jeffery had been to before.

The view as the light creeps down the peaks

Jeffery and I at the Arch Rock with Mt. Whitney behind us.

A stranger posed for me with Mt. Whitney

Jeffery waving from a rock that seemed so close when he hopped up on it.

The brown foreground mound is differently formed; more rectangular stackings and plinths.  See the cars?  People camp out among the formations, which we would like to do in the future.

See me down in the shadows?

Jeffery and a rock doing a shade-selfie together

The sun is coming down to meet us now

See the jack rabbit?

Cactus?

Cactus

I loved this leaning stack, and still can't figure out how all these formations were created, despite explanations.

Headed back to the car to get on the road north.  What a time we've had in this cool place.

Information and map

The turn-off to Manzanar, where the U.S. placed over 10,000 Japanese in internment during WWII.

The guard tower from afar

Plaque

Block 14 has been created to give us the sense of how people made life bearable in this barren place

One of the family spaces in one of the barracks.  The Japanese made all the furniture and privacy screens and toys for themselves, as they were provided with none of those things.

Close-up of work done to make a long hanging banner

Here it is in full view

The orchard

Pears are still growing on the trees!

One of the gardens that must have been such a solace to those who were imprisoned here.

An explanation about the gardens, which were several around the internment camp

The cemetary

Closer up

These guard houses were built by the internees, which struck us as another of the strange tangles that came from this sad moment in U.S. history

Old Courthouse in Bridgeport CA

Last view from Bridgeport and on towards home without further ado.

So many more views were viewed, but the days had been long, so we drove straight home, stopping only for gas, mail, and ice cream.  What a trip of discovery and magic.  Thank you, dear Jeffery!

Road Trip to Awesomeness - End of Day Four

We left the JPL in the early afternoon, went via San Bernardino, Kern, and Inyo Counties, and headed up through some dry territory, dotted sparsely with small towns of varying sizes.  It is still beautiful and fascinating countryside, so we enjoyed the low end of the east side of the Sierras greatly.  We made it to Lone Pine by late afternoon and spent the night there.

Joshua Trees.  The Joshua Tree National Park wasn't on our route, but it was close, and thus, tempting for the park passport stamps we collect.  We didn't go, but there were some Joshua trees for us to enjoy along our way.

The view from our car windows

I'd gone through Kern County last year, but hadn't photo'd the sign.

Here's our entry into San Bernardino Co., another new one for my list.

And here's Inyo Co., also new since I began my list.

Back on the road to Lone Pine

Pearsonville - Hub Cap Capital of the World!  We had a Subway sandwhich at the truck stop there.

Don't know who she is, but she's fabulous!

We've reached Lone Pine, secured a hotel room, and are going out to introduce me to the Alabama Hills before dark.  Mt Whitney is the sharp peak to the right above the telephone pole and below the windshield blob.

Looking eastwards toward the Panamint Hills, with a tiny segment of Alabama Hills in the foreground.  The Panamints are the western range of Death Valley.

Jeffery on a giant "sandworm" rock formation.  The Alabama Hills are sort of illusory.  Farther away and bigger than they appear when you decide to go check the formations out, they startle with their presence. This blobbous formation wasn't even one of the more noticeable or intricate  things that we looked at, but it was still super-neato.

Looking south from a gap

A pointier set of formations (with Mt. Whitney)

The texture of the roof of the rock grotto

How was this formed?  What happened here?

Jeffery gives perspective to the previous photo.

And then there's this sort of perspective, too, using a different rock

Loved this one - so smooth - but if you put your hand on the rocks, they were extremely rough textured.

Another strange sandwormy structure

See me among the rocks?

Being silly

The sun is going down

The shadows are lengthening in the Alabama Hills

I call these The Meister-singers.  I think site maps call them ghosts

My car against the dying of the day with Mt. Whitney in view just above it.

Back in Lone Pine, we walked much of the length of town before retiring for the night.

The restaurant was actually a round building.

Sporting goods and Hardware

fun touches around town

Jeffery points out Mt. Whitney on the pictorial map

The maps shows what a funny geologic occurance the Alabama Hills are in the area.  You can't really even see them from much of a distance; they become so discrete, yet when you're in the Hills, they are impressive.

Lloyd's of Lone Pine - Western Wear

See this barrel?  It's the attractive trash receptacle on this block, this side of the street.  I am particularly enamored of municipalities that offer regular trash receptacles to the people walking along.  It is civilized.

One small section of wall held this sign, and another sign said that there was a bit more somewhere we didn't go.

Another civility in Lone Pine - frequent artful benches along the way.  This is just one of them.

It was a long, glorious, unbelievably fabulous day, and 80 degrees with a pleasant summer breeze when we finished our walk and headed to our Motel (not hotel) to crash and sleep like babies.  See you tomorrow!