Heading Home
April 30, 2014
Soundtrack:
- Elliott Smith -- Either/Or
- Vampire Weekend -- Modern Vampires of the City
- The Raconteurs -- Broken Boy Soldiers
The drive home was a nice one, if a little uneventful. I took 395 North, crossing over the Sierras at the Sonora Pass. I made a stop at Mono Lake on the way.
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| Owens Valley, CA |
As usual, Owens Valley had me driving with my mouth open. I read somewhere that since the lake dried up this place generates more dust than anywhere else in the world. It's beautiful, though.
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| Mono Lake, CA |
I stopped at Mono Lake hoping to pick some interesting bird pictures. I did better with the landscapes than the birds. Still, I saw a few interesting things.
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| Osprey -- Mono Lake, CA |
It looked like these two osprey had built a nest on one of the tufa towers. I don't know if there's much in the way of fish in Mono Lake. I'm guessing they probably pull fish from one of the nearby lakes. I saw one of the birds flying off in that direction later in the day.
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| Violet-green Swallow -- Mono Lake, CA |
The violet-green swallows are the stars of the show here. They build nests in the tufa. They're constantly flying around from perch to perch. They don't seem to have to work as hard as the cliff swallows I saw earlier in Buttonwillow. Good for them. Those poor cliff swallows looked like they didn't have it easy.
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| Savannah Sparrow -- Mono Lake, CA |
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| Osprey |
The Tioga Pass through Yosemite was still closed for the winter. It opened up about two days later. That was not a problem, though, because the Sonora Pass was open just a few more miles North. That is a steep drive. It tops out at over 9600 feet. The sign at the start of the ascent said it was a 26% grade. Wowsers. It's easy to see why they don't bother to try to keep it open with snow plows.
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| Sonora Pass, State Route 108, CA |
I heard the sound of falling water near an especially tight turn and pulled over for a few pictures. It's amazing what can be seen by just pulling over to the side of these mountain roads.
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| Sonora Pass, State Route 108, CA |
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| Self Portrait |
The rest of the drive was uneventful. The Central Valley was as hot as Death Valley, but it was also more humid. I was definitely missing that dry desert breeze. Things didn't cool off once I got into the Bay Area, either. I came home to a heat wave. Yoshika said it had been about eighty degrees over the last couple of days. That might not sound hot to most people, but it's about as hot as it tends to get in Alameda and our house cooks like an oven on those hot days. We're used to cold winds blowing off the Bay at night.
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| Sonora Pass, State Route 108, CA |
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