Today was a travel day from Death Valley to Lake Tahoe. First let me say there is no cell service in Death Valley. I had a weather update 2 days before I left via text. I got the text because I was at the top of a 9000 foot peak! Even with that it was a byte every 10 minutes (very very slow). I did learn later you can pay for wireless at the Ranch hotel.
my focus for weather was lake Tahoe and the pass you need to go up to get there. Route 50. What I didn't realize was 95 in Nevada has some 6000 foot passes. I had about 3 hours of ice and hard packed snows. Accidents but luckily not me. One truck burned to the frame but that wasn't snow related. Smelled very bad for a while even though I just drove by it. After a while you get back into some desert lands and everything was OK. Saw Joshua trees, lots of snowy peaks, and lots of desert. I wanted to take a picture of Joshua trees in the snow but the conditions were bad and no where to pull over. I also didn't plan for winter again. I left death valley wearing summer clothes and when I pulled over to get gas and it was 28 degrees with a 30 mile per hour wind I realized I had to think again about my wardrobe.
The drive up the pass to lake Tahoe was fine in light snow. The person at the hotel said a large rock fell into the road maybe 2 days ago and they closed the road until they could blow it up and remove it! Glad I missed that one. Looks like I can walk to the ski area. A day of recovery tomorrow and then we will see what the skiing is like.
Sunrise death valley
No comments:
Post a Comment