Leaving the Superstition Mountains, we made a not-so-bee-line for Tucson, Arizona. In an effort to avoid tiresome highways, we happened across Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. This collection of ancient structures is remarkable for the size of the titular, free standing "Great House."
Finally, my new lens has come in handy to photograph the rarest fish found in the wild. The Devils Hole Pupfish only lives in a subterranean cave isolated in the Nevada desert. Technically, this site is an annex of Death Valley National Park but it is quite a distance from the main National Park. Think of it like Hawaii, relatively small and distant from the main 48, but a treasure unto itself.
While rougher than the road to the Racetrack, Echo Canyon's 4-wheeling route was a much more fun drive both for the lack of washboard and the the brilliantly colored cliffs that flank the road.
You all know about The Racetrack. You've seen it in pictures: the cracked earth scraped by trails of surreally moving stones. The majority of the distance to the racetrack is paved road. But the majority of the time spent getting to the racetrack is the slow going of the unpacked, high clearance, 4-wheel drive.
It's been more than half a year since we were back in Death Valley National Park. Then, the temperature was 120 degrees. Today, it is 64 degrees. Perfect.
There are so many ecosystems that we have explored but we have never wandered through a natural palm grove. That is, until we hiked along the Thousand palms oasis preserve.
When a friend's plane was delayed two hours, we had time to kill before picking them up from LAX. Instead of camping out* at a Starbucks, we went to the beach.
Sutro is a name that permeates San Francisco. Roads and civic works were named in commemoration of this mining engineer turned Mayor. But of all of these commemorative locations, there is a set that was our favorite place to take visitors when we lived in San Francisco and continues to be one of my go-to stops whenever I'm in town: Sutro Heights And Sutro Baths.
While we were on the other side of the bay, another box on my "to do" list was to hike Mount Tamalpais. The mountain towers over the bay with breathtaking panoramic views. Tamalpais towers 2,576 ft from sea level. It's summit is part of Mount Tamalpais State Park.
We were looking for a place to sleep. There is no shortage of options along the California/Arizona border. Snowbirds flock to expansive RV parks for the warm weather. But we weren't interested in parking in a lot, staring into the windows of neighbors right next to us. No, we wanted something rugged and beautiful. We wanted the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.