A day late and a dollar short (really late for those that are counting)...

OK - pictures from the trip out west. It wasn't as fantastic as driving out west in 2014. I have been a little lackadaisical in posting this pictures or even updating the blog. Work got in the way.

The pictures...

 The road up to Mt. Whitney - yes that is smoke from the forest fires. Made the air thick.

 At my campsite in the valley. I spent the night at the trail head.

 The creek coming down the mountain behind my campsite. It made sleep sort of peaceful. It is hard to believe that California was in a drought with this much water coming off of the mountain in September.

 A view above the valley.

 A view along the trail.

 You can see the smoke filling the valley - Lone Pine, CA is down there somewhere.

 This will break your ankles if you are not careful. Plus it was hard to do this with a fifty pound pack on my back.

 Starting to rethink my 50 pound pack and the climb still ahead of me.

 Lovely water fall.

 This is where I gave up. This is around 11,500 ft. I just wasn't into the climb and felt uneasy about my fortitude in making it all the way up with my gear. It is hard to pack everything for a solo climb.

 Same spot but up just slightly. I laid in the sun for about an hour at this elevation.

 The moon above Mt. Whitney from the bottom of the valley in Lone Pine, CA.

 Sand dunes in Death Valley. It was hot this day; about 120 degrees.

 A look at Death Valley near Painted Rock.

 Painted Rock - pretty cool.

 The lowest point in the USA, well actually you have to hike about three miles straight out to get there, but it was 120 degrees and you should only hike in the very early morning hours in Death Valley. You don't want to die - hence the name.

 There is actually water in Badwater basin.

 The salt flat. I am not sure if this is just from people tramping it down or what.

 10 second timer on the camera - see the shadow - the sun is almost directly above me - hot!

 There is a sign in the middle of the picture that says "Sea Level" - it was way up there.

 The south end of Death Valley.  I had an extra day to kill and decided to head to Las Vegas about 1.5 hours away instead of going back to Los Angeles just yet. I got a room at Treasure Island for very cheap - used Trivago. I spent several days in LA. Very nice weather there, but traffic sucked and there are a lot of odd people out there. The only famous person I ran into on my trip was the history guy with the beard and hat in Pawn Stars. He was in the parking garage at Treasure Island. I didn't see any movie stars when I went to Hollywood. If I did run into one then I had no clue who they were.