California Chronicles: Chapter Two

Mojave Desert Reflections

The scene from today’s post.

During our trips, the most memorable days are those where we get in miles by foot and in Clarence. Travel days. The day we arrived in California was that kind of blessed day filled with adventure and varied scenery. 

After seven weeks in the desert, surely a foreign place for three wayfarers from northern New England, we were about to immerse ourselves in a shocking change of scenery. During one marvelous day, we left the Vegas strip, greeted the sun in the flame-colored stones of Red Rock Canyon (along with the wild donkeys), and witnessed death and destruction from the wildfires as we hiked to the top of Teutonia Peak in the Mojave Desert Preserve. After all of that, we were headed for the oasis of Palm Springs. 

But first, we had to drive across a brittle and brutal sunbaked land with little vegetation. 

It felt like we were traversing Mars, rolling along in Clarence up and over hills, across parched flatland, seeing few other cars, and often stopping to so…