Highway 395, past
Mt. Whitney, down to
Independence and then Manzanar through
Owens Valley. There is a nice museum in Independence about Manzanar
and the site of this Japanese Internment Camp holds many shameful
secrets. We befriended a park volunteer who took us through the camp,
giving us the full history of Manzanar as first a lush area of
produce with groves of fruit trees and as part of eastern Sierra
mining, to becoming where we held behind barbed wire fences, the
Japanese in America during World War II. If you want to understand
Manzanar, there is a great little book called, Farewell to
Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.
We wanted the ranger guy to come with us -- he was really cute --
as we headed down to Lone Pine. We think he considered it as he
looked at the packed car..... Lone Pine is an interesting town, used
as a backdrop for many old western movies and television shows like
Ponderosa and Big Valley. It is our image of the old west and the
Sierras. Unfortunately, it is on the eastern side of the Sierras and
looks nothing like where the shows and movies were suppose to be
located. It is also the gateway into Death Valley, our next
destination.
As we drove toward Death Valley we passed Owens Lake, now a dry
lake because of that huge sucking machine known as Los Angeles. After
Manzanar internment camp was dimolished, the city of Los Angeles
quietly bought up all the land in Owens Valley, arid high desert land
that used to be lush furtile farming ground, to gain water rights,
and then systematically sucked all the water out of the area. The
people of Owens Valley are now suing the city because the dry lake
bed kicks up so much dust that many people are becoming sick and
dying from the dust in their lungs. We shook our heads and drove on.
Death Valley was a surprise to me. I
pictured it dry and flat and hot with parched lands. I was not
prepared for the high mountain ranges and the
constantly changing terrain. Hot I knew.
Very hot -- up to 130 degrees some days. It was only 117 the day we
were there. Ain't no thang. As we climbed to the 9000 foot pass into
Death Valley, we had to turn off the air
conditioner and watch the radiator temperature. As we crawled down
the mountain, we appreciated the coolness of the air conditioner :)
We explored some of the area, me making note to return with nolte to
explore every inch (during the winter!!) and climbed out the other
side (20 long slow winding miles with no air again). As we reentered
into Nevada, we visited a true
ghost town and the
Bottle House -- a house made entirely out of
bottles. We played rancher around the area and then we headed for Las
Vegas.
We arrived in Vegas early enough to get a good room and leave our
obligatory $50 at the casino. We drove along the whole strip and ate
at a buffet. We returned to our room and crashed. Now if only the air
conditioner worked in the room.....
On to Day Seven
