Birdwatching + Death Valley ghost towns

[SBGrad]

One of my hobbies is photography. The bulk of my camera time is spent birdwatching-- in my case the 'birds' are military aircraft.

In and around the Sierra Nevada mountains in California there is a low level training route. Think of the low level flying in Top Gun Maverick.

So, off we went to chase airplanes in the Badlands. Part of the flying area is in Death Valley, so we visited a few spots near there.

Photos in chronological order.

Kern River, South of Sequoia National Park

Wildflowers in Walker Pass

Trona Pinnacles, 5 miles down a gravel road from highway. Filming location for movies, films, music videos

Ballarat, population : 2
3 miles off paved highway

Mining town of Darwin, stand in for Paradise in Kevin Bacon film TREMORS.

In & around Lone Pine/Alabama Hills
lots of soft roading in Alabama Hills. Dozens of movies (mostly westerns) filmed here, but also parts of Iron Man & Gladiator-- visit the film history museum in town

 

[thekingprawn]

Awesome.

 

[Tigger]

Those were great! Thank you for sharing.

I really loved this

 

[Mark S.]

Terrific photos! We rafted down the Kern river once. What a blast!

The spousal unit and I recently returned from Florida where we attended the Sun-n-Fun fly-in at Lakeland with the grandsons. If you like airshows it's one of the best. The photo below is a heritage flight with an F-35 and a P-51D.

 

[SBGrad]

Those were great! Thank you for sharing.

I really loved this

Thanks for the kind words.

Ha ha, here's the story on the Bronco line up. My sister also owns a BSBL, and the day we went to Lone Pine she had sent us a text saying she'd be waiting for us-- she lives in Reno, a 5 hour drive from LP.

I pull into the hotel parking lot and see 2 Sports. I told my wife, 'cool, there will be 3 Broncos,' and wife my says, 'look closer, those are both CA plates, neither one of those is your sister's. '

So actually, there were 4 Badlands in the parking lot, but sadly a Chevy took the spot next to me, keeping us from a 4x4 line up.