TravelStream™ news feed for member tsargood on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/tsargood en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:30:17 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1195056780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1195056780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1195056780/tpod.html Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:30:17 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Noosa, Australia

Our 7 week stop over in Noosa is almost over........Now its nearly time to head back to Melbourne and start work in January !!! NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!Its not that bad....I am actually kind of looking forward to it! Strange hey!? Thanks for reading our blog, I bet you didnt have as much fun reading it as we did making it!"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."Sorry to copy Mark Twain, but he said it so well.......Anyway, what a trip! is all I can sayTil next timeTim Over and Out.....................................................
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194710760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194710760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194710760/tpod.html Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:18:39 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Los Angeles, California, United States

It's Saturday and we head to a Californian town called Victorville for a Route 66 classic car show that we've heard about. There's a huge range of gleaming vehicles and their beaming proud owners. Tim can't believe his luck and, as usual closely inspects all the muscle cars as my eyes begin to glaze over once again... We're soon on the home straight to Los Angeles, negotiating the mess of highways and ramps with the help of our trusty sat nav. We're staying in West Hollywood again, but in a different spot. It's the Alta Cienega Motel where Jim Morrison lived from 1968-1970 in room 32. We spend our last couple of days in LA winding down. We visit Downtown LA to take a look at the two different MOCAs (Museum of Contemporary Art). We're lucky enough to see a huge Murakami exhibition. Unfortunately, its also time to face the reality of returning home and replenishing bank accounts. I'm offered a job interview in Melbourne, so have to arrange a flight straight out of Brisbane once we arrive from LA. We finally return our trusty stead, the red Mustang and head for a late night flight from LAX... Goodbye America, land of excess! Where you can buy 'favour' with God by making a one-off $1000 donation to the TV evangelist channel. Where 'budget' hotel bathrooms are festooned with 15 white, fluffy towels. Where cars are so big they dwarf industrial machinery. Where the government provides super-sized car spaces for gas guzzling super-sized cars. Where TV adverts market pharmaceuticals like candy, ensuring that you can tell the doctor what ails you AND what will fix you. Where soda is served in bucket-sized receptacles with free refills. Where you can drive-through to get a coffee, do your banking and to fill a prescription. Where you can conveniently buy your liquor and a shiny new rifle in the same establishment. Where casino and tobacco licenses are given as peace offerings to indigenous people. Where buffet restaurants have seriously appropriate names like 'Chuckorama'. Where main meals weigh in at 5kg and are served with take-out containers so you can take your 4kg leftovers home with you. Where strip malls are so big, long and endless that it's wonder that we ever found our way out... Hallelujah.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194537660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194537660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194537660/tpod.html Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:32:14 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Kingman, Arizona, United States

Onwards, we head away from the mighty canyon and toward the might road - Route 66. We're soon in quirky Williams where we pick up the Mother Road. The town is full of little diners, gas stations and a curious combined gun and liquor store. Further on we stop off in the atmospheric little town of Seligman, which is hanging on to its 50's roots. We hit a long and straight stretch of Route 66 which takes us through some little one horse towns, including Peach Springs and Hackberry. Finally we reach Kingman. It doesn't look too promising at first, with the usual chain stores on the outer road. However, the old part of the town, hard up against the railway line has lots of character, including the hotel which was built in the early 1900's and has obviously seen some wild times. Apparently a daily quota of 80 big, long and incredibly vociferous freight trains run through the town at all hours. We're not surprised to find complimentary ear plugs on the bedside table of the hotel. We have dinner at the local busy Mexican restaurant and Tim indulges in an approximately 5kg burrito called 'The Godfather' and are sodas are served in what can only be described as buckets. The waitress doesn't even put the leftovers into the 'take out box' for you, but simply dumps the box on the table for you to do it yourself. We end up in a very cool dark grungy bar decorated with witches and skulls (although Halloween is over) for a couple of drinks before settling in for a night of freight train blasts. How do people sleep in this town?!There's a very good Route 66 museum in town, so we head there the next morning for a look around. It documents the history of Route 66 from the original and very treacherous wagon trail to the present day preservation of the towns along the route. We're quite taken with their souvenir shop (for people that don't usually buy souvenirs anyway), and buy up big on the Route 66 merchandise. On the way out of town Tim spots another classic car yard. Most of the cars are rusting into oblivion and the owner of the place is a bit scary, but he has some great cars dotted around the yard.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194624180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194624180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194624180/tpod.html Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:24:45 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Twentynine Palms, California, United States

Route 66 bowls on west through Arizona, winding up into the hills and past small gold mines on the old gold road. The road then drops down to the fascinating little town of Oatman. It's a small place with a lot of character, due mainly to the so-called 'wild' burrows that wander freely along the one street town. You can buy bags of carrots and feed the cheeky little blighters. Tim, with the help of some tasty carrots, makes friends with a young burrow called Peanut who follows him eagerly as we take a look around. Oatman is a Western town full mainly of souvenir shops that line the mains street, which is actually Route 66. At nigh noon everyday they block the road off and demonstrate a bit of gun slinging - showing off some cowboy exploits using very loud blanks. The town bank is long closed, so the show now involves the goofy cowboy holding up the ATM instead... We hit the road for more roller coaster style dips that Route 66 is so famous for. A desert fox runs to the roadside to beg for food - talk about cunning! We have to join back up with the Interstate 40 for a short way to Needles where we cross back into California.  Back onto 66 to Goffs on the edge of the Mojave Nature Preserve. Not much out here but more freight trains which you can race along the long straight roads. If you can get the attention of the drivers they will pull the might horn for you. We pass through Essex and Amboy before leaving 66 to head south pasta a huge salt lake to Twentynine Palms.Up early the next morning, we make our way the short distance to the Joshua Tree National Park. The landscape here is full of huge boulders piled up here and there, reminding us of Hampi in India. Of course the main attraction is the many over-sized Joshua Trees, giant yuccas that sprout out of the ground on every available piece of land. They are peculiar looking plants and we make several stops to take a closer look at them. Some of them reach heights of 13m. We visit a few of the view points and take a walk to Barker Dam, an old pioneer settlement spot where the water has long since dried up.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194451080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194451080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194451080/tpod.html Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:40:05 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Grand Canyon village, Arizona, United States

It's a great drive from the north to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The road heads through pine forests, then down off the rim at the eastern end of the canyon where the Colorado River feeds into Lake Powell. At Marble Canyon you cross the mighty Colorado River which is 467 feet below the amazingly high bridge. From this point, the road passes through the Painted Desert, which is part of the Navajo Indian Reservation. The indigenous people run the endless roadside stalls, mainly selling native jewellery. The road is long and straight and we make good time. Soon, we're see glimpses of the canyon once again - and no smoke on this side! Grand Canyon is extremely busy and an obvious tourist trap. We're staying right on the rim in amongst the hustle and bustle. Our room window is only about 30m from the cliff edge. We check out the excellent views from the nearby pathways and enjoy the sunset colours. The next morning it's just a hop, skip and jump to the edge of the canyon to watch the sun slowly rise in the east. There are deer wandering around eating the grass along the pathway. Surprisingly, not too many of the hordes of people have made it up so early, so it's very peacecful. You can see the smoke on the north side slowly lifting as the sun rises higher in the sky. Apparently pollution (mainly from California) has reduced visibility in the park by 30% in recent years. Later in the morning I head along the Hermit Road on the shuttle bus, and walk back between some of the viewpoints, all of which have different angles of the canyon. At the 'Abyss' I watch a helicopter diving up and down into the canyon, obviously in practise for the many rescue missions that have to be made. Further along at Mojave Point are great views of the Colorado River, which continues to shape the canyon. Later on Tim and I head to some of the lookout points east of the village. Yavapai Observation Station is a glass-fronted building that looks down into the canyon, providing information about how the canyon was formed. It is hard to comprehend the history of the canyon as its story is on such a grand scale. While the cap rock on the rim (Kaibab limestone) is 271 million years old, teh rocks within the inner gorge date to 1840 million years ago. However, the carving of the canyon itself didn't start till about 5-6 million years ago. Prior to this, heat and pressure from the collision of tectonic plates caused the Colorado Plateau to rise by 3000m, whilst remaining largely intact. The Colorado River was then formed by water draining off the western slopes fo the souther Rocky Mountains. As this water carries sand and gravel it cut through the layers of rock pushed up by plateau. The river is 750m above sea level, but it's still another 106km to the canyon rim. As the erosion continues, rock layers collapse into the river - the softer rock eroding first. This material is carried to the Gulf of California. The canyon is 446m long and it's width ranges from between 13-26km. Within the various layers of the Grand Canyon are two ancient seas! Mind blowing!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194364440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194364440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194364440/tpod.html Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:12:43 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Jacob Lake, Arizona, United States

Diving down into Arizona, we head towards the Grand Canyon North Rim. The park is officially closed and there are no services available. Usually the road to the canyon rim is closed by snow at this time of the year. As we can't stay in the park, the next option for accommodation is at Jacob Lake at the Highway 67 junction. Not the best option, but we don't have much choice. We head off early in the morning for our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon. It's a 120km round trip from the road junction and the road is pretty deserted, apart from the fire fighters who are burning off the dense forest close to the road. There's enormous pile of deadwood beside the road the whole way, many of which are burning. Along the way we see some deer, as well as a coyote in one of the pretty roadside meadows. Unfortunately, we hit a small squirrel who bolts out onto the road, with Tim having the gruesome job of going to check that the poor little thing was properly dead. As we drive out along the North Rim peninsula we can see that the smoke is settling low in the side canyons down below. Sure enough, when we reach the North Rim point the canyon is full of thick smoke from the burning off. Not what we expected, but it looks incredibly beautiful in the morning light. The cabins here are right on the point, many of which have incredible views. Like everything else, they are closed for the season, but would be an awesome place to stay if you visited in season:www.xanterra.comWe head out along Bright Angel Point, a fabulous view point that takes you out into the canyon along a narrow peninsular. Despite the heavy smoke, the view is really incredible and best of all we have the whole place to ourselves apart from a couple of people we see as we make our way back along the trail to look at some of the other viewpoints. It's a beautiful spot. Across the canyon you can see the South Rim area - it doesn't look far from here, but it's about 346km as you have to go around the deep canyon! That's where we're headed, so after another look at the beautiful view, we hit the road again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194277920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194277920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194277920/tpod.html Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:54:38 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bryce Canyon, Utah, United States

Continuing on with our national parks tour, we head onwards to Bryce Canyon National Park, staying nearby at the historical Ruby's Inn. It is now run by Best Western, but the facilities are good and the location is hard to beat:www.rubysinn.comBryce canyon is incredibly beautiful and unique. The most visited section is in a compact area where you can take short walks along the rim, as well as down into the famous 'hoodoos'. A hoodoo is a natural column of rock that has formed into a fantastic shape, but there seems to be a spiritual element to the word as well. It would usually be much colder here at this time of the year, but as with everywhere else we have scored a warm sunny day to look around. Our first view of the weird and wonderful hoodoos is at Sunrise Point from where you look across the top of the gnarled structures. The views just get better as make our way to Sunset Point and decide that we should head down the rim cliff for a closer look at the rocks from the Navajo Loop trail. Originally this area was part of a massive lake into which flowed the sediments and minerals from surrounding rivers and streams. Over time the water disappeared, leaving behind the colourful limestone called Clarion Formation. When the Colarado Plateau uplifted it created fractures, forming smaller plateaus. The fractures then created joints and the weathering and erosion over the years sculpts these joints to form the hoodoos. The cold night/warm day temperatures create frequent freeze-thaw cycles and leads to 'frost wedging' which shatters and prizes the weak rock apart. The rain also works to shape the hoodoos. All this is causing the canyon to recede to the west. We wind our way down into the a deep and narrow space between the hoodoos, appropriately called 'Wall Street'. Further along we pass along a dried river bed, then arrive at the incredible 'Three Bridges' - two precariously perched vertical pieces of rock stretched across between two hoodoos. Climbing up once again, we have a bird's eye view through the randomly shaped rocks, the most striking being 'Thor's Hammer'. Back up on the rim we are duly inspired by the spectacular views from Inspiration Point, as well as from Bryce Point. The only thing we can compare the rock formations to is the Capadoccia area in Central Turkey. Well worth the visit.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194191280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194191280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194191280/tpod.html Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:31:01 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Springdale, Utah, United States

We turn our backs on the bright lights and debauchery of Vegas for something a little more earthy - Zion National Park. Leaving Nevada behind, we're soon in Utah where the layered, weirdly shaped mountain ranges stretch for as far as the eye can see. We stay close to the park in small town called Springdale. There's a small farm in the town that rescues bison, long horns and elks - these are big animals. The National Park is made up of a beautiful canyon where enormous rocks with names like 'The Court of the Patriarchs' loom large above the roads and paths. There's some gorgeous waterfalls and pools that you can walk to, with much of the water percolating thought the various layers of rock. The morning light combined with the brightly coloured autumn leaves is very atmospheric. Passing the 'Big Bend' towards the end of the canyon we take a walk along the river where the canyon narrows into a 'slot'. Leaving the park the road climbs steeply to an amazing old tunnel built in the early 1900's, quite a feat of engineering. It is built into the edge of the cliff and as you pass through the tunnel you pass occasional arched windows which let in light and frame views of the beautiful canyon below. At the end of the tunnel is a trail to a viewpoint that sits atop a sheer cliff and overlooks the canyon with magnificent views.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194222600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194222600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194222600/tpod.html Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:19:59 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Driving out of Death Valley National Park we find signs of life in the small town of Shoshone. We stop at a small solar powered run vegetarian cafe where you can make yourself at home in the friendly owners cute little house while he cooks something up for you! But onward we must go, it's Friday and we're keen to get to Sin City! Vegas looms up out of the wide, dry desert valley and the massive casinos and hotels of the Strip can be seen well before you hit the city limits. Apparently Vegas has 8 out of 10 of the world's largest hotels, so it's now surprising! We're staying at the old skool Sahara Hotel:www.saharavegas.comThis place is one of the original hotels and has really got a history! In the foyer there are photos of Elvis and the Rat Packers at the Sahara and the Beatles stayed here when they were on tour in the 60's. It's a pretty worn out old place with the usual casino, entertainment, restaurant and shopping areas. However, there have been some efforts to keep up with the times, including the installation of a 'Nas Car' themed extension. We're quite excited to find that the hotel has a roller coaster ride that exits from inside the building. It's called 'Speed' and they're not wrong there. It sure is short and sweet. It literally whips you through a hole in the wall onto a strip where you do a superfast corkscrew and loop then a vertical rise, only to be whipped back to do it all in reverse. It's all over before you can even scream!! We're staying at the northern end of the strip which is dotted with cheesy wedding chapels, old style motels, flashing neon signs, tattoo parlours and massive souvenir shops. We catch the mono rail to the south end of the Strip to get a taste of the glitz. It really doesn't seem to matter what the theme of the casino is, they are full of the same eye-stinging flashing slot machines with people feeding in their tokens like robots! There isn't an iota of glitz to be found with most people wearing tracksuits and looking fairly drab. I'm horrified that MGM Grand has real live lions in a glass enclosures right at the throbbing centre of the casino. The lions look tormented as people try and make them roar. You've never seen anything more depressing.... New York, New York is our next casino experience - a mini version of New York's landmarks with a huge roller coaster winding around the sky scrapers. We can't resist and queue up for another vomit-inducing ride. The casinos all blur into one, apart from their horribly over the top entrance statements - Excalibur's castle and Luxor's pyramid, obelisk and sphinx etc. Your eyes start to sting after a while from neon overdose...On Saturday we head out to the Hoover Dam not far out of Vegas. This is by far the most beautiful dam I have ever seen, built in the early 1930's in a graceful Art Deco style. The construction of the dam bought thousands of workers to Nevada. When it was all finished the state turned to gambling and nuclear testing to continue expanding their economy! The water is now extremely low and the dam is working at minimal capacity, with the huge turbines starved of water. Back in town, Tim is on a quest to find a muscle car showroom - but we don't have much luck. After a trippy hippy lunch in a vegetarian cafe, we opt for ultimate contrast and head to a gun store. The place is packed with men of all ages itching to get their hands on a gun and live out their biggest fantasy in the indoor firing range. Basically you choose your gun from the selection on the wall (from hand guns to military assault rifles), choose how many rounds you want to shoot, choose a target sheet to shoot at (Osama Bin Laden appears to be the big seller) pay your money, then get in the queue to shoot your gun. In a country where, at 32, you can't buy a can of beer without showing ID, you can walk into this place and shoot a fully automatic machine gun, no questions asked! Needless to say, Tim can't resist and selects a Desert Eagle with 5 rounds. I try and make myself scarce amongst the gun accessories section while he heads in to the noisy shooting room. It's horrifying to watch all this going down - the shop guys dressed in black military type uniforms walking up and down with massive weapons, young gangster wannabees showing off their target sheets, the stag party looking group going back for another go.... Our Saturday evening entertainment starts of in Downtown Vegas. There's also loads of casinos here, but it has an older feel about it. We're here to see the sound and light show called the 'Freemont Experience'. It goes for about 6 minutes, and is projected onto a covered mall area. It's bright, loud and cheesy, but what more can you expect from Vegas! We head back to the Strip to the Imperial Palace to check out their Auto Collections. Tim is super excited to look at the collection of over 200 classic cars. Tim makes a close inspection of Dodge Challenger RT, a Chevy Nova and Shelby Mustang before we head back out into the madness. Past the Venice and the Eiffel Tower ... who would ever need to travel the world when you can come to Vegas??!! We watch the synchronised water fountain show at Belaggio's (this is about as classy as it gets here!), then head to the super tacky Caesar's where we have a very expensive drink on the 'Spanish Steps'. Our neighbours at the bar are some very tanked Naval guys in full uniform who have obviously been partaking of various illegal substances.Great PR. We have a hilarious trip home on the Deuce bus where the strip bus driver keeps telling off his largely drunk and disorderly passengers who respond to his instructions with roaring laughter. The Strip is so busy that it takes an eternity to get back to the Sahara. We're up early the next morning - we've seen more than enough and are ready to to hit the road. Apparently Vegas hotels somehow manage almost full occupancy on weekends and the average visitor spends around $600 on gambling!! This figure isn't surprising when you see the amount of drained looking people still gambling at 8am on a Sunday morning. The 'opulence' of Vegas might be cheesy and fake, but there's no denying that it's cost a lot of dollars - it's a wonder that the gamblers don't take a look around them and realise that the city of sin is built on their losses and misery. Vegas is like a car crash - there's something grotesque about it, but for some strange reason you just can't look away...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194222480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194222480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsargood/round_the_world/1194222480/tpod.html Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:12:46 -0500 Tim & Karen's adventures in ... India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sth America & Nth America.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Death Valley, California, United States

And so our road trip begins... We leave the smoggy palm lined steets of glamourville and are soon charging through the arid landscape of Southern California. There's a lot of armed forces based out here, and as we near Death Valley we start seeing jet fighters shooting through the valleys not far above us. Soon after we spot a helicopter circling a bunch of police dotted around a tent in a remote ravine. At first we think it's a crime scene, but soon realise that the helicopter is filming actors! The scenery soon becomes even more barren as we drop down, down, down into Death Valley National Park. We watch an amazing sunset from high up at Zabriskie Point looking down from a ridge over the salt flats of Death Valley. We're luck enough to be staying in the park, so in the morning we watch the sunrise over the mountain range from our room. There's some really fascinating geology in the park. The forces that created this area are quite incredible. Many of the canyons formed along fault lines - as the  running water was chanelled into the cracks it gradually carved out the canyons. Many of the canyons have huge alluvial flows at the entrance to the main valley where the water filled with sand, gravel and rock has flowed into the valley. We visit the lovely Mosaic Canyon for a morning walk. Whole sections of the narrow canyon's walls do like mosaics. They are formed by ancient fragment of rocks that have subsided deep into the ground, become super-heated and have then been pushed up to the surface again. Nearby are the Mesquite sand dunes, located on what was once the base of an ancient lake. Futher down the valley is 'Devil's Golf Course' (very similar to the salt plains in Northern Chile). Rather than being flat, this salt plain is made of weird lumpy formations, caused by a random composition of minerals that crystalise at different rates. Our final stop is 'Badwater', famously known as the lowest land in North America at 282 feet below sea level. There is apparently 11,000 feet of accumluated sediment and salts here, but the filling of the valely can't keep up with the subsiding tectonic motion that occurs on the fault lines that rund along either side of the valley. About 2000-4000 years ago this area was a lake that has since evaportated. There's a small pond remainind next to the road, home to the hardy Badwater snail. Even though it's Fall now, it's still really hot on the salt flats. In Summer the temperatures soar and barely drop in the night time because of the enclosing mountains that continually recirculate hot air. It's a barren and inhospitable place, but at the same time it's incredibly compelling. You can see the evidence of the forces of nature everywhere.
]]>