Alaskan Memories
A travel report

Before Alaska

Day 1 - "Ernani has just had his shower and he said that the cold water was already hot enough"

After a long flight from Brazil, we arrived in Los Angeles for a short stay in California. We wanted to visit two parks in the desert. In our rental car, a dark green Geo Metro, we headed northeast to the first one, Death Valley National Park. It tooks us about six hours to get close to it. We stopped in Panamint Springs for the night. The place is only a hotel, a restaurant and bar, and a gas station. It was very hot - as we had expected - and even the cold water tap was warm enough for a shower.

Day 2 - "After facing fire (the heat), air (the wind) and earth (the dust), water, the fourth element, was a blessing!"

The restaurant was not open when we arrived for breakfast before 7 am, but we got something and bought water for the hot day we were about to experience. Soon we were crossing the Panamint Range, entering Death Valley National Park. The place is not a valley indeed, actually it is a piece of land that sank in relation to the rest, and is still sinking. There are high mountains surrounding the park - it may even snow on them - but a good portion is under sea level. Curiously, Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in California (14500 ft), at the Sierra Nevada, is not far away.

The road crosses a rocky and dry area. We took the road to the Charcoal Kilns. "Watch out!", I shouted. "Huh?", replied Ernani. Too late. We had just ran over a poor and defenseless rattlesnake that was crossing the road. After a steep climbing, the road led us to the surprisingly green valley of Wildrose Canyon. When the paved road ended, we headed back.

The ranger station at Stovepipe Wells was closed. The temperature was 40°C under the shade. Stovepipe, huh? The name says it all... After refuelling the car and ourselves, we went ahead and took a walk on the sand dunes. They were beautiful! Close to it we saw a sign indicating we were at sea level.

We finally arrived at Furnace Creek, the main village in the park, 192 feet under sea level. We got maps at the Visitor Center and headed south to Badwater. At Devil's Golf Course, we saw rocks of salt so hard we can walk on them. We had planed to hike on some trails on the way, but it was getting too hot. I went to the Natural Bridge while Ernani waited under a shade. Badwater, 282 feet under sea level (the lowest point in the park and in the Western hemisphere), was our next stop. It has pools of salt water where some tiny fish can be found. On our way back, we saw Artists' Drive, where different minerals leave many colours on the rocks. I tried to hike Golden Canyon, but it was too hot at that time of the day - about 1 pm. Back to Furnace Creek for lunch and exploring the Visitor Center and Museum, the temperature was 50°C under the shade! I had read that the record high was 56°C.

Hotels in Furnace Creek were a bit expensive, so we decided to stay in Stovepipe Wells. After registering, we went south again, with milder temperatures as the sun was starting to go down. We stopped at the famous Zabriskie Point, crossed the Twelve Mule Team Canyon, then went up the road that lead to Dante's View for the sunset. The view of the valley is fantastic from there, but I believe it must be more interesting in the morning.

Day 3 - "The day was hot, with a lot of sun, but nothing compared to Death Valley."

The sand dunes were magnificent at early morning, full of shades that enhanced their contours. One more stop at Zabriskie Point and after a while we were leaving the park. Desert was still surrounding us, though.

Heading south, some of the roads we took were part of the famous Route 66. We stopped for lunch at Yucca Valley and I could not resist a strawberry cheesecake for dessert. Hmm!

It was about 4pm when we arrived at Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center at 29 Palms. After a quick walk in the Oasis of Mara just outside the Visitor Center and having already got information from the rangers, we entered the park. There are many trails and we took the one to Arch Rock, with signs that explain a bit about the geology of the area. Along the roads there were lots of Joshua trees, with their thick branches. We had expected to see the St. Andreas fault from Keyes View, but air pollution makes visibility very poor. Cap Rock trail allowed us to learn about the many different kinds of vegetation found in the park and see some interesting rock boulders. We climbed some rocks at Jumbo Rock campground to watch the sunset.

TV gave no information about weather in Alaska. They don't even show it on their maps!

Day 4 - "The flight attendant gave a reprimand that I believe was directed to me: I stood up after the fasten seat belts was switched on. But I had to grab my camera to photograph that view!"

Though the maps indicated that we would be crossing St. Andreas fault twice on our way back to Los Angeles, we saw no trace of it. I didn't know what exactly to look for, anyway, but I expected some sign or even a pullout with a view to it... Hundreds of windmills for power generation were seen on the hills of the valley, where it was really windy.

As it was still early when we arrived in LA, we decided to do some sightseeing. We wanted to see the famous Hollywood sign on top of a hill and we managed to do so from the also famous Sunset Boulevard. Heading west, we reached Beverly Hills and its beautiful houses. It was cloudy when we got the shore near Santa Monica. As we had suspected, Malibu Beach is very ugly. There were lots of surfers in the area. We had lunch at South Bay Shopping Center and then returned the car at the airport. We were in our way to Alaska!

On our way to Anchorage we flew over Prince William Sound and the view of the huge glaciers was amazing! The girl that was at the window seat was kind enough to let me share it with her and photograph it. It was already past 9pm, but there was still a lot of sun!

Our bags took a long time to show up. We got another rental car - this time a red Cosario, which I found very ugly. At 1am, when I went to bed, it wasn't completely dark yet. We were in Alaska.