Finally warm! San Diego is warm – about 80F which is lovely. Love the warmth. Almost too hot in the car as we’d dressed for a cold Death Valley early morning.<\/p>\n
We wandered around Furnace Creek and watched birds and generally pottered about. Didn’t see the roadrunner, of course. Never did see one or a coyote. How am I suppose to not feed them when I don’t get to see them! But we had a nice day. Then off to Joe’s spot for his moon rising photos. Got some sunset and moon rising photos but the moon may have been too bright for it to turn out well. Then to the dunes in the dark and some shots of those. People were turning up so we headed out to Badwater and ended up being the only people out there. Heard a bird flying off but nothing else.<\/p>\n
First day of 2010 we were up a bit later than normal then off to Darwin’s Falls. Drove past the road (it wasn’t marked) and ended up at Father Crawley’s view. Which was nice though the road up there was a bit twisty and slow! Then back down to Darwin’s Falls. The guide book said it was an easy drive on a graded road – it lied. It was a rutted path that really needed a high clearance vehicle. But we made it. Just. Then the books says it’s an easy walk, suitable for all levels of ability. It lied. It’s not a good path to try in winter as there are several times you have to cross the stream and it gets deep and cold. We had to turn back as we couldn’t find a way across one section. There is also some scrambling up rocks and narrow bits of trail. Fun, but a bit disappointing as we didn’t make it to the falls after all that! But did see some birds.<\/p>\n
Then off to Mosaic Canyon, which was an easy walk, with just some bits of scrambling up rocks. And back down again. Which was fun, because some of the rock was worn smooth enough to make a nifty slide. But the canyon was lovely and we had a good walk up it.<\/p>\n
Back to the hotel to do laundry and have a large dinner. Then packed ready for an early start the following morning.<\/p>\n
Up early and on the road by 6am. We stopped at Badwater for sunrise photos and Joe got some good ones from the walkway. Of course, the other photographers had to ignore the signs and climb over the ropes to get right on the water for their photos. Destroying the area for a photo, hope they got one that was worth it but I doubt it. We went via the Badwater Road out of Death Valley so saw the old Ashford Mill ruins and more of the valley. Then up through two passes to Shoshone and down to I15. It was then just moterway all the way to San Diego.<\/p>\n
We made good time and got warmer and warmer. Arrived early afternoon, changed to t-shirts and sandals, and went to check on our whale watching tour. Switched to their nature tour which is 5 hours or more so more chance to see various things. So we’re off tomorrow morning for that. Then we walked down the harbour to some nifty little shops, then back up through a little Italy area, only to head back to the hotel for dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finally warm! San Diego is warm – about 80F which is lovely. Love the warmth. Almost too hot in the car as we’d dressed for a cold Death Valley early morning. We wandered around Furnace Creek and watched birds and generally pottered about. Didn’t see the roadrunner, of course. Never did see one or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-5p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/31\/last-day-of-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":335,"position":0},"title":"Last day of 2009","date":"Thursday, 31 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"And last update from Death Valley - our internet connection runs out this evening and we'll be out trying to get photos of the full moon. So next update will probably be 2 January. Definitely a rest day. Woke up around 5.30 but decided I didn't want to be awake\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":323,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/30\/long-day-in-the-desert\/","url_meta":{"origin":335,"position":1},"title":"Long Day in the Desert","date":"Wednesday, 30 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Up well before dawn, dressed and in the car. Drove in the dark all the way up to Dante's View where Joe got all settled for photos. In the freezing cold. Really freezing cold - it was about 32F. Brrrr. Watched the sun rise and Joe take photos, while freezing.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":326,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/31\/vroom-vroom\/","url_meta":{"origin":335,"position":2},"title":"Vroom Vroom","date":"Thursday, 31 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Up before dawn again and out on the road by 6. Stopped for a few photos but mainly just went for Racetrack Road. Saw several different ecologies on the drive up to the Playa - started with the usual salt tolerant plants, then a few cacti and a few more,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/27\/last-post-before-we-leave\/","url_meta":{"origin":335,"position":3},"title":"Last post before we leave","date":"Sunday, 27 November 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"We are packed and ready - off tomorrow evening. Joe still claims not to know where we are going so hopefully still a surprise. Of course he's pacing about driving me crazy. So it goes. We managed to fit everything into our bags. With minimal sitting on the bag to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4281,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/06\/final-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":335,"position":4},"title":"Final Day","date":"Saturday, 6 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Up early as we were off at 6am as the others were flying out that morning. We briefly thought of staying and making our way to Seville, but the weather was the same damp and cloudy, with no improvement; so we headed back to the airport with the group. Due\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":320,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/29\/death-valley\/","url_meta":{"origin":335,"position":5},"title":"Death Valley","date":"Tuesday, 29 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Picked up our car, a cute little VW Beetle. Which was great until I got to Death Valley and realised we really should have booked a four wheel drive! We got lost getting out of Vegas, they don't much like road signs or warning you before a turn. 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