Marcia and I headed north to the Owens Valley to get away from it all, and to explore and photograph. We stopped along the southern edge of Owens Lake and took in the views of Keeler and the Sierra Nevada.
I had not been through the Saline Valley for quite some time, so we headed towards Lee Flats and up to the overlook between the Panamint and Saline valleys. The weather was great, and the views were fantastic! Below are a few pics of the Panamint Dunes. That would be a good name for a hotel in Las Vegas.
We descended into the Saline Valley via the Grapevine Canyon dirt road with only a couple of hours of daylight remaining. At the bottom of the basin around sunset, the light on the sand dunes to the east was nice. The air was very still, and a caravan of SUVs roared past us. A lot of dust was kicked up and hugged the ground due to the shallow surface inversion. The shallow lake in the basin was a perfect reflecting pool thanks to the calm conditions. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time before dark to explore more in these areas.
Marcia and I exited Saline Valley to the north, with an elevation gain from 1100 feet to over 7000 feet. We had to navigate over a few snow and ice-covered patches of road in the dark. That was a bit nerve-wracking, but the Xterra had no problems with it!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.