Saline Valley

Heidi and I had been planning several days in Death Valley for months. Saline Valley Hot Springs are some of the most remote in CALIFORNIA. We made the trek over the Halloween weekend & we saw bats from one of the hot springs on Halloween Eve.

We met in South Lake Tahoe and headed out to Death Valley

First stop was Buckeye Hot Springs

under the waterfall!

the look down to the main pools on the creek

if the springs @ creek level are full, soak up the hill.

 

The sign you see at the beginning of the 50 mile dirt road

old salt mine structure on the road in

the care taker has a thing for BATS..

hiked out into the hills to the far, undeveloped hot pools

desert landscape and watermelon backpack

it was my first time out to this pool

Heidi brought some yummy homemade hummus!

Cooler on the left, warmer on the right

Heidi did yoga once a day... don't know this pose....

this is mountain pose with a mountain in the background

trudging back to the van from the main pool.

the sun dips behind the mountains.

someone was too chicken to sleep in their tent

After 3 nights at Saline we drove back toward South Lake Tahoe and hit some of the hot springs around Mammoth Mountain.

the wind was blowing and Heidi wouldn't get in. The Hot Tub

We both got in at Shepard's.

We watched the storm come in with some locals @ Hilltop.

Reports from South Lake Tahoe had snow falling so we found a cheap motel in Mammoth Lakes and hunkered down for the night. I saw a big black bear around the corner from the stairwell digging in the trash.

This is what we woke up to.....with a flat tire as well.

All in all it was a fine trip to the desert...! I dropped Heidi off at Rob's in Tahoe and motored on into Sacto.