Four-National-Parks-Tour
Day 6

On day six of our journey we first checked out Panamint Valley, the valley west of Death Valley. We were suddenly surrounded by horses, mules, and riders. The group of more than 100 equestrians were on a 7-day journey to Furnace Creek. It was the "Death Valley 40th Anniversary Ride". A rider told me that they have to do the trip every year. Otherwise, the National Park Service might choose to shut down the adventure forever. There are concerns that the riders might disturb the Desert Tortoise. In order to protect this elusive animal, the group has to clean up diligently, and gather all horse manure. All folks were in a superb mood and all excited about the adventure. Let's hope that tortoises and men find a way to co-exist for many years to come!

We continued on a dirt road aiming for the Pinnacles three miles ahead. These strange rock formations are remnants of volcanic activity many million years ago.

They come in amazing shapes and my mom and me had fun interpreting the rocks as petrified birds, bears, or a fat women. I spent a role of film and therefore cannot resist showing two more shots.

The third pictures gives an idea of the pinnacles' size. By the way, the rock to the right is our "fat women". And, isn't the rock I'm leaning on looking like a smiling face with a thick nose and two frog-eyes?

After driving through Ridgecrest, we arrived at Lake Isabella in the late afternoon. It's my favored windsurfing lake in Southern California, which I have visited on the Memorial Day weekends in 2000 and 2001. See my Updater from March 2000!

The lake had been drained heavily during the summer and looked quite different from the spring. Before we settled in for the night, we had a hike on the dry bed of the lake.