Desert dispatch

The latest view from the saddle included the mountains and Joshua trees of the Mojave Desert, along with my very patient companion Brian. We flew into Las Vegas on Dec 31 and spent a week tooling around the desert, flying back out of Vegas on Jan 8, 2009.

The views were excellent, the weather dry but chilly, and the timing fortuitous. A late December snow dumped over a foot of snow and the area was pretty well holed up until they managed to scrounge up some plows. By the time we showed up, the last patches of snow remained in shady crevices, but life would have been much more difficult if we'd decided to come 2 weeks earlier as originally planned.


There’s Brian assembling his bike in the McCarran airport. Some curious security guards asked us what we were doing. They said they had never heard of doing such a thing, and where is the Mojave Desert? I count myself as very lucky to not be a person who has never heard of the ecosystem in which I live.

This is the first trip where I've actually done the majority of the picture taking while pedaling. I can't say it's done much for the quality of my photos. That's my sleeping bag on the back of my bike you're seeing in the bottom of the frame. And the open road, stretching until you can't see it anymore, cresting over the next ridge, which opens into the next basin, which goes to the next ridge....

The photogenic Mojave Yucca, with the last of the day's sun hitting the mountains in the background. And uncountable stoic creosote bushes in between. This was a little south of Baker, CA.

We saw a whole lot of creosote bush on our trip. They can be hundreds of years old (such patience, waiting for the next rain) and are very beautiful when you take the time to look closely)

Why did the tarantula cross the road? Actually, I'm not sure it did, after taking the photo, we engaged in a little wildlife relocation and removed it to a safer spot. Isn't it pretty?

Brian's a lot tougher than me. I don't know that I ever stripped down to a tee shirt. Day time temps were typically in the 30's and 40's (F).

A lovely stretch of road through a Joshua tree forest in the East Mojave National Monument. I think we saw 1 car all morning.

This is how I was usually dressed. As you might gather, I was wearing my rain gear not because it was raining, but because I was wearing every stitch of clothes I had with me. I assure you I quickly put my mittens back on after putting the camera away.

Even my erstwhile companion was frequently seen wearing his rain gear, for the same reason.

A very excellent campspot.


My bike is such a ham, always getting in the photo.


This road was so much fun. This was just before Jean, NV.


You are lucky to have the sensibilities of two very different people informing the photography on this trip. For example, when I take a picture, it is never of a vehicle unusual for the number of axles. Which is to say this photograph contributed by Brian.