Great Exploitations - Old things, living and dead

RSS Bot · September 26, 2006

Kind of a different blog entry - not much Atari stuff to speak of.

I did some traveling the past 10 days. I like to visit uncrowded places that few ever see. Well, I did spend half of my time in Yosemite, which is kind of the antithesis of the rest of my trip. That's not to say the natural wonders there aren't worth seeing. However, I believe its beauty is diminished by the road-hogging RV's and camera-toting tourists who act as if they've never been outside a city. And the fat squirrels and raccoons don't help much either. I did find that it was much less crowded on Wednesday, however - my theory being that most stay the weekend plus a day or two; but the squirrels weren't any thinner. Overall, I would recommend Yosemite to others, but don't expect any peace and quiet...

Moving on now. I also went to see Devils Postpile. The area looked as if it were normally crowded, but it was pretty much abandoned this late in the season. Alright, so I don't have much to say about it. Yes, I thought it was neat, but I didn't spend much time there.

Getting much less crowded now. Next stop was the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. This is located east of the Sierras, in a high-desert climate at more than 10,000 ft elevation. I have been to the White Mountains before, but I regretted not visiting the forest, so I went back.

Upon arriving, I found the area full of old folks with walkers and scooters, which I found strange since the only way to see the ancient bristlecone pines was via a 4.5-mile hike with 800-foot elevation gain, all on a narrow path that leads up to nearly 11,000 feet. That is, the air is fairly thin up there. It's not exactly a death march for anyone under 40 in average physical condition, but I couldn't help but think that most visitors there miss out on the real experience. Although the parking lot was completely full, I only saw two other people on the trail.

I do find it amazing that a tree could live there for 4,700 years, especially considering that the environment is inhospitable for most living things. But beyond that, I think the experience is something I can't really describe. My only regret was doing the hike in sandals (my feet have not healed yet.)

Now for the most remote place - Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park, which is located near the geographic center of the most remote state in the continental US, Nevada. No whores or gambling here though. It's located off of highway 50, which is called the lonliest road, as it probably sees less than 100 cars a day. Well, about 50 miles from highway 50, that is, and yes, you do need to drive down a dirt road to get there.

In the area are several ghost towns, the most prominent of them is named Berlin. I didn't spend much time in the ghost town, however. My main interest was the ichthyosaur fossils that were left in situ instead of being dug up completely and sent to a museum somewhere. A barn was built over the fossils to protect them from the elements. Though upon getting to the barn, I was the only one there and it was locked. Soon, 4 leather-clad bikers came by on their rumbling Harleys, followed by a ranger who let us all in. He said that the barn is normally locked but when a crowd comes they will open it up and give a guided tour. Silly me, but I don't tend to think of 5 people as a crowd, but out there in the middle of nowhere, that's all relative.

As it turns out, the leather-clad bikers were actually just Canadian geologists. I guess the biker stereotype has changed in recent years. So the bikers asked some very good questions, and the well-educated ranger was able to answer all of them.

This is a pic of some of the fossils. Not mine, but I'm too lazy to pull the pics off my camera for now.

No Atari stuff. I brought my laptop along but I never really used it. Maybe one of these years I'll head out to Alamogordo...

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