Heading down towards Banner was heading into a green wall of mountains. I could see no way through at all and was getting more and more apprehensive about the climb up. At least there was very little traffic.
Everything had turned green and luscious. The Banner Grade is the twisting road up to Julian from [...]
As ever in the desert fighter jets scream overhead. The sun, I watched rise and paint the surrounding mountains various colours. I can hear birds all around. The greater valley is called Earthquake Valley with the Pinyon Mountains to the north and Granite Mountain behind me to the south. In a few miles I reach [...]
The road took me quietly back into the desert again and away from the fertile Imperial Valley. After the sand sculptures was the US Navy bombing area. It’s an air to ground target area and you’re not allowed to stop so when I saw 5 parachutists land beside me in the desert I didn’t take [...]
And then dunes. Gravel dunes. Close up not at all pretty. More like a building site. The mountains were red, brown, black, grey, blue. It was impossible to capture them through the camera. Then the mountains turned to a beautiful shade of golden red. This was an old pre-Colombian Indian trail from the Colorado River [...]
The clouds had made the day a lot less scenic than it could’ve been. In the distance (from as little as 5 miles away) mountains were only feint lines. Closer up they were as fabulous in California as in Arizona and New Mexico. Sometimes they look like big sleeping animals and other times, like the [...]
