Back to Death Valley

You may remember that I ran away spontaneously to Death Valley on Easter last year, with grandsons Harrison and Carter. With no time to plan, I managed to get a second night reservation at Furnace Creek and we camped the first night---in the most wicked wind storm. We filled the car with Easter candy, Mexican Easter buns, trail mix, juice and water...and were off. Spontaneity can be so joyful...or so much torture.

We had such a glorious time that Harrison and Carter have spoken of it, all year long. Carter went so far as to announce that if he had "all the money in the WORLD," he'd go to Death Valley! Well, I can make that happen! Without all the money in the world! We'll meet Emma and Dylan, the rest of the "big" grandchildren, in Lone Pine, and then drive in and revisit what we loved last year---Scotty's Castle, Devil's Golf Course, the charcoal kilns, Badwater---the kids are planning to ski the sand dunes...so we'll be packing skis, poles, boots, snowboards this year. The wildflowers are blooming like crazy after this rainy winter, and waterfalls should be flowing.

What I love most about living in northern Nevada, is that you can look out the window to the snow-capped Sierra Nevada. You can easily pick out individual aspen or pine trees. The other direction, you can see dry, low-growing chaparral to the horizon. The wildness is as close as a neighbor and there is no thought or planning to getting in the car to enjoy peaceful Mono Lake...or Death Valley...or Lake Tahoe...or vastness as far as you can see! You can drive 80 miles an hour, for days and only see vastness!

I know that Death Valley will be a joy again, this time with Emma and Dylan there to share the sunsets with us. I'm looking so forward to the crazy volume of four kids laughing and talking over each other, cooped up in the car or toasting croissants on a camp fire! I'm so looking forward to sun on my face! I'm so looking forward to embracing wild, open, western desert...and having it embrace me back!