Jim Dick
Moderator Emeritus
We have been in Inyokern, CA since Friday. It's a very small town just west of Ridgecrest which boasts the main gate to China Lake, the US Navy's Air Weapons Development Center. We settled on this town as it is between Death Valley to the east and Sequoia National Forest to the west. The drive to DV is about 120 miles and Sequoia is about 83. I'll have reports on both in future posts.
The town originally was Siding 16 which the Southern Pacific called it while laying track from Mojave to Owens Valley. It was later named Magnolia but they again changed it to Inyokern because of it's proximity to the Inyo and Kern county lines. There are several things to do in the area and many off road trails on BLM land where the flowers are magnificent. The roads aren't like those in QZ but, with the flowers as they are, it is a pleasant drive and pretty easy terrain.
When we arrived we could see the high desert floor was covered in yellow with some purple and white mixed in. As we have seen in other locations, the flowers are just everywhere. I've attached a couple of photos of what we are experiencing here.
Ridgecrest is a larger town with plenty of shopping available and the ubiquitous Starbucks is located at a shopping mall on Rt. 178. The only problem we have experienced is you cannot drive more than a couple of miles before the butterflies start to commit suicide on your windshield!!!
Two places we have visited in the area are the Trona Pinnacles and Red Rock Canyon as well as Death Valley. I'll post on these later.
The town originally was Siding 16 which the Southern Pacific called it while laying track from Mojave to Owens Valley. It was later named Magnolia but they again changed it to Inyokern because of it's proximity to the Inyo and Kern county lines. There are several things to do in the area and many off road trails on BLM land where the flowers are magnificent. The roads aren't like those in QZ but, with the flowers as they are, it is a pleasant drive and pretty easy terrain.
When we arrived we could see the high desert floor was covered in yellow with some purple and white mixed in. As we have seen in other locations, the flowers are just everywhere. I've attached a couple of photos of what we are experiencing here.
Ridgecrest is a larger town with plenty of shopping available and the ubiquitous Starbucks is located at a shopping mall on Rt. 178. The only problem we have experienced is you cannot drive more than a couple of miles before the butterflies start to commit suicide on your windshield!!!
Two places we have visited in the area are the Trona Pinnacles and Red Rock Canyon as well as Death Valley. I'll post on these later.
I just sent you an email concerning that photo.
