Thanksgiving in the Mojave Preserve - Nikon D200 - Days 0,1

 We went out to he Mojave National Preserve for Thanksgiving. Wednesday night we cooked up a half chicken and also two mini chickens from Dey Dey's farm. Also made mashed sweet potatoes, massaged kale salad, bran muffins, and Sara made an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. So we had a Thanksgiving-like meal that night, but also took the mini chickens and other leftovers out with us for Thanksgiving.  We were up late wednesday, so got a late start, and with the 5.5 hour drive arrived at the south end of Kelbaker road pretty much near sunset. We camped right up against the Granite Mountains. Friday we hiked in the Quail Springs area, then around Kelso Dunes, then drove up to Mid-hills to camp. There had been a fire through there in 2005 so lots of cool standing snags. Saturday we took a short drive to the trailhead to Eagle Rocks (we could also see them from the campsite) and found an AMAZING future campsite. Just a stunning view out into the plain. We tooled around there for a while, then went to the Kelso visitors center and then camped right up against the Granite Mountains again. Sunday we visited the lava beds on the way out of the north entrance to the preserve, which were great, only to find that I-15 from Vegas was a parking lot. So we drove back through the preserve and went out I-40. This all set us back a tad and led to a late return Sunday evening. Here's the full album of photos from the Olympus 1030SW point and shoot. And here's the full album from the Nikon D200.

 sunset, granite mountains

view north (above) and south (below) from our campsite

 

from Quail Springs, looking towards Kelso Dunes

The biggest dune. I shot alot of B&W at the dunes, those came out more interesting to me, there is a separate B&W post.

racing the train to the crossing on the way to Mid-hills campground

day2
day3
B&W
Olympus1030