Fear and Loathing in the Desert

The drive from Sequoia to Joshua Tree was memorable for several reasons. For one, you quickly leave these groves of massive green trees and stumble straight into the San Joaquin Valley. Massive industrial-scale almond and citrus farms yield only to massive power generation operations.

Two of these are worthy of particular note: First, the Kerns Oil Field, the fifth largest in the United States. It’s something straight out of a Mad Max film, and without Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron it’s a much less sexy experience. Around this time we caught a piece of gravel kicked up by a convoy of trucks at 60 mph straight in the windshield, further adding to a sense of being under siege by the landscape.

We also drove past the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, which was much less Mad Max-y and much more “holy shit science is cool!” We weren’t able to catch a good photo while driving by, so I’ll do you a favor and suggest you check out the Wikipedia page, which will tell you all about how the world’s largest solar thermal plant uses mirrors to flash steam water (and the occasional errant bird) to 1000 Fahrenheit / 540 Celsius.

Throughout the drive we were in the midst of what California calls a “red flag warning,” which featured 80 mph winds just west of us. In our case, just outside of San Bernardino the winds whipped up a proper sandstorm (or agricultural dust storm I guess?), such that in a matter of five seconds we went from fine visibility straight into absolute blackout, zero-feet visibility while driving at highway speeds. We slammed on the brakes and - successfully, apparently - prayed that the trucks behind us saw our hazard lights, all while wondering how much impact the tin-can Airstream behind us would absorb. Easily the most scary moment of driving on the trip thus far.

Joshua Tree National Park sort of sneaks up on you, as out of this post-apocalyptic landscape suddenly there are mutant trees popping up out of the scrub. We hiked up to Warren Peak, and at first we were quite confused why the Park Service rated it as strenuous. But after an hour of slogging through the sand and remembering that we are in an actual desert, our calves were in agreement with the rangers. The federal government survey marker at the top from 1939 was an unexpected treat, and the panoramic view of the park was breathtaking.

From Joshua Tree we drove to Las Vegas, in the original plan notsomuch to “do” Vegas but as a stop in a major city to accomplish life administrative tasks, like getting an oil change, picking up some prescriptions, fixing the cracked windshield, and doing long-overdue laundry. With all of those tasks completed, we did manage to have a mini-Vegas weekend of indoor rock climbing (Zeynep completed her first top-roped route!), catching a show (Zoomanity, Cirque du Soleil’s 18+ exhibition of human bodies at their most sculpted), and losing a little money at the tables (Corey likes blackjack but is not good at it).

All in all a successful if sometimes stressful trip through the desert, but both of us were excited to get underway toward Zion and Bryce Canyon.