Another $100 lunch - Reno to Death Valley

[Greg Arehart]

So, here we are, the day after Thanksgiving, stuck in Reno with cold and hazy weather. We're thankful for our RV, and ever more so after today's trip. What could be nicer than to get out of the cold and basin inversion - how about lunch in Death Valley? Sure - its less than two hours by RV, and we can walk into town in shirtsleeves and have lunch. Plus the scenery enroute should be spectacular on a CAVU day like today. So, off we go.

Here's the APRS track for our flight. Note that we didn't get signals out when we were descending into the valley toward Furnace Creek, so our flight path is chopped off on the S end:



And here is one of the images we got with the in-wing camera:



Full slide album is found here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gregareh...77618219343634

To those of you who are still pounding rivets - keep working at it - this kind of trip is one of the things that the RV is perfect for! I hope it provides some inspiration. I know I'm thankful to have the RV and the ability to fly basically wherever I want!

Cheers,
greg

[Danny7]

looks like some nice photos

[rv9av8tr]

SWEET! Thanks for the aerial tour! I've been on the ground at the "Race Track", it's a nasty drive (an adventure) to get there. Have lots of pics of those rocks and traced their paths across the playa. It's absolutely NUTS!

[jjconstant]

Thanks for the tour Greg! One question: I kept looking for the fault line you pointed out in the bottom right of one of the photos and couldn't find it. Do I need more caffeine? Is it a geologist's version of "where's Waldo?"

Thanks again

Jeremy Constant
RV7A first annual

[Greg Arehart]

Jeremy,

The fault line runs about N25E (true) and is where the texture changes abruptly. I've modified the caption so that maybe this is clearer.

Cheers,
greg

[Danny7]

Jeremy i think he is referring to where the hills stop, and it looks like flat land. it is almost an exact straight line, from about 3/4 of the way up the righ side of the photo down to about 1/4 from the right

[NYTOM]

Nice Photo tour Greg. Looks like you may have overflown that well preserved ghost town a little north of Mono lake called "Bodie". Any chance you got a shot of it? A great stop for anyone wanting to explore the remains of the real old west.

[Lars]

I have been making myself insane trying to find the mystery airstrip in photo 11. As for the one in photo 3, that's easy: Dayton Valley Airpark

[petehowell]

Great photos Greg. Much nicer than snow covered frozen lake here in Minne!

[Lars]

Sooo... found it using Google Maps. Not that it does much good. I dug out my Nevada atlases (I have several, due to my obsessive non-stop exploring of Nevada in a parallel life) but found no useful info. Couple of springs nearby, but that's about it. Probably a private ranch airstrip.