What time is it there?!

The Trona Pinnacles, several hundred spires of calcium carbonate, some nearly 140ft tall standing together in the middle of the desert near Trona can’t be that hard to find ..... can they? They weren’t hard to find but it was 5 miles along one of those ‘not roads at all’ roads which certainly shook every bone in our bodies and put the car through it’s paces (don’t worry Dan, we really have been looking after it!). We had seen a clapped out Datsun (not 4WD) hurtle along the road so we guessed we would be fine. We were, just more leisurely and careful - we have to bear in mind that it isn’t our car, or a simple hire car so we gave the desert road the respect it deserved and the car did us proud. A little drive round Edwards Air Force base - no shuttle landing today and we were on our way.

Barstow was another nondescript desert town in which we stopped the night. The next morning we drove around for an hour or so trying to find the Rainbow Basin Natural National Landmark. Apparently lots of large rocks in red’s green’s and yellow ochre ..... nope they were hiding from us on that day. This seems to be a bit of a theme, we have found several areas like this where there are natural landmarks on the map, but the signposts are so poor, or non-existent, that you struggle or fail to find them. Probably quite a good way to avoid them being trampled into oblivion by thousands of tourists really.

The other method used to avoid destruction of such natural wonders is to surround them by hundreds of square miles of restricted military areas. This was what prevented us from seeing the 16,000 year old petroglyphs at China Lake, near the town of Ridge Crest. You have to book 30 days in advance, and us mucky foreigners needed more forms of ID than it took to get into the country in the first place. Then you need to get there at 6:30am for a 90 mile round trip into the naval base, during which time you MUST travel at least 4 to a car, the vehicle doesn’t have to be 4 wheel drive but must have good ground clearance, and the road may become impassable after rain. Then you’re allowed 6 hours at the site (where there is no shade) in the middle of the day. Oh, and there are rattle snakes there..... So, er, maybe next time we’re in California (because it really does look like it’s worth the trip). More details here.

We also went to Calico, an old ghost town from the mining days but they wanted to charge us $6 ..... another scam like the drive thru tree we think, charge an unsuspecting tourist who is merely passing through and exorbitant amount of money to take a picture of a few holes in a mountainside held up with rickety wood, claiming it was once a mining town ....we can see that at the movie, thanks but no thanks.

We had to take a quick 114 mile detour back to Baker where we had missed something the day before (sounds like a long way but here in he US, people travel that far to get groceries!). It was a 134ft tall thermometer which was built to represent the highest ever recorded temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit in 1913 in Death Valley - why Baker was chosen for this we have no idea as it is 56 miles from Death Valley. The only other thing worth mentioning about Baker is ‘Mad Greek’ ..... wonderful over the top, stuccoed to with and inch of its’ life diner which seemed to serve great food but we were too late for breakfast and too early for lunch so we didn’t eat but lots of people were!