darkflavor

we left thursday and reached three rivers california at night, which was unfortunate because we were not able to see the spendor of the seirra nevada range as we approached it. i will write more later.

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what we have here are eight images that quickly summarizes the trip. the assent into giant forest on the lower west slope of the seirra nevada’s. then we have as image one kings canyon which we descended into. that left us a mere thirty miles from lone ping, ca on the east side of the range in owens valley. we left the mountains and wrapped around the southern edge driving several hundred miles driving up into owens valley on the other side. here we ended at lone pine and were able to view mt. whitney from there, the highest peak on the continental united states. a hundred fifty miles further east of that i stood a few miles from the lowest point in the continental united states — badwater, death valley. because the seirra nevada range is so large and immense, all the clouds become trapped on the east slope creating the moist eviroment for a lush forest on that side as you see in the images. this cloud blocking leaves the west side dry as a bone. i took several images of the huge western peaks from the desert of the western owens valley. immediately on the south-west side of the range is owens valley, then a hundred miles further east of that is death valley, then nevada, arizona and north utah. this cloud-blocking created the one-hundred thousand square miles of desert southwest. it is a profound geological effect that i had to experience myself.