Heatwave

Keys View Promontory, Joshua Tree National Park, CA

It has been some two weeks since I left the cool of the northern California coastal redwoods. And, although I complained about how tired I was of the residues of volcanic activity, at least my tour there kept me on the tops of mountains, where snow still occasionally lined the roadway at depths of 10 ft. or more.

As I descended down through California's Central Valley, the temperature jumped to amazing heights. 104 degrees in Redding, at the northern end of the Valley, was the start of it. Leaving the glare of I-5, I detoured through the Napa Valley on my way to Martinez in the Bay area, where a family gathering was planned. This provided some relief from the heat, but not the traffic. Napa is now a major destination for city dwellers who don't really want to leave the city behind on their vacations. It reminded me of the posh Hamptons on the South Fork of Long Island.

After spending two wonderful days getting reacquainted with the West Coast wing of my family, Betsy, Dan and I left for Yosemite National Park, King's Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks, in the Sierra Nevada mountains. (These will get their own little stories when I get my thoughts together.)

When we left Sequoia via the Three Rivers exit on the south, we had no idea what lay in store for us. By this time, the Central Valley near Fresno had been experiencing record heat and very poor air quality – a fact noted by the park rangers in Sequoia.

To reach our next destination, Joshua Tree National Park, our route skirted the south end of the Sierra Nevada range and into the Mohave Desert, on the east side of the Sierras, where temperatures climbed to over 110 degrees. Nothing appeared to be moving on the hundreds of square miles of brush, red dirt, and rocks, except for the traffic.

Red Rock Canyon State Park, near the Mojave Desert, California

We turned east at Victorville, silly us, and continued deeper into the desert. 29 Palms is an artsy outpost at the north entrance to Joshua Tree, where we spent the night vowing to get an early start in the morning.

Dawn comes to Twenty Palms, California

It was already in the 80s by the morning when we started out, then it quickly rose to the 90s. We saw a variety of reptiles, desert rodents, and birds – along with Joshua Trees, of course. We ended with a brief respite at a Keys View promentory, where we peered down into the Coachella valley near Palm Springs, along which runs the San Andreas fault. The valley was murky with days of unbroken heat and pollution.

View of San Bernadino Mountains near Palm Springs, California, from Keys Point.

Los Angeles was no different – and millions of people were leaving town for parts north. Las Vegas promised no relief – it was in the high nineties there as well. I continued north to Zion and Grand Canyon National Park, where I hoped the higher elevation would save me. I was wrong. The winner of the high temperatures for the week was in Kanab, Utah, which reportedly reached 114 degrees the day I booked a room there.

Intense heat, coupled with hundreds of miles of wide open wilderness, is nervewracking for this gentle Easterner. First, heat and I are not on the best of terms. I think it is my Irish blood, yearning for fisherman's knit sweaters and a cool mist. This part of the trip would have been better attempted in the winter, in retrospect.

On the road to Kanab, UT. Temperature 113 deg. F.

Second, although my new Jetta wagon has been a stellar perfomer, I worry about having a flat tire, engine trouble, or some other event that will strand me in the heat, along the side of the road. This fear is compounded by the fact that I can go for a hundred miles without a cell phone signal. I brought along a CB radio for emergencies, but that requires a functioning car battery – something that I am not convinced will work when I need it.

Finally, it makes it hard for me to enjoy anything in this beautiful landscape, if it means that I have to leave my air-conditioned car. Sightseeing? Forget it. Shopping at some out of the way trading post? Ridiculous. All I really want to do is get as close as possible to the boundaries of the next amazing park I am going to visit, check in to an air-conditioned hotel with WiFi and a cell phone signal by 2 in the afternoon, and hide out in the cool until 5 the next morning, when I can streak into the park before those pesky [other] tourists get up.

How exhausting!