Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

So we jettisoned the Oracular Tour Generator last time when it tried to direct us into a complete circle. Fortunately, we were far enough along the way to start winging it, so wing it we did. We breezed on past Reno, and decided to go north on Highway 395. Generally speaking, I suppose you could say it runs north-south along the Sierra Nevada mountains. I picture this stretch we're following as being slightly on the eastern side of the range. You'll notice from this pic that we're seeing more desertishy scrubland, rather than the high pine forests on the western slopes of the Sierra:


Here's a straight ahead shot of some bare rock. Looks like iron in them thar hills:


Here's an interesting look at a feature that I'm not sure the name of. When I look at it, all I can think is that the Grand Canyon must have started out like this millions of years ago:


There is iron in them thar hills:


I devoted several pics to this, the most beautiful rest stop in California, possibly the world:


It's at Honey Lake, and I are here:


The sage grouse struts around in this area, it seems:


In this larger pic, Honey Lake is near the left edge, just about halfway down. Kind of looks like a butterfly. It's is one of several remnants of a much larger lake, Lake Lahontan. Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake are also remnants of Lake Lahontan, which covered 8,000 square miles at the end of the last ice age. Which ended, by the way, without the help of any industrial greenhouse gases, some 13,000 years ago. Almost as if there are natural and perfectly normal cycles of cooling and warming:


The Red-Tailed Hawk, the American Kestrel, and the Turkey Vulture, are all apparently common to this region:


As it turns out, we're in the Shasta Valley, and the dominant shrub is the silvery-gray sagebrush:


I wasn't sure if a pic would capture it, but it did. When you look out toward Honey Lake, It looks kind of foggy, dusty, brownish. It was almost like an optical illusion, as if there was some sort of mini-sandstorm going on down there. It did not look like I was looking out at a body of water. Maybe that was part of the decision to call it Honey lake:



Next stop: Susanville, where we spent the night on day one.

PS- If you are really interested in the text of any of those placards, let me know, and I will try to piece it together.