http://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog/...-mark-121a.jpg
This location is north and east of Valley of Fire State Park. It's within half an hour of the Clark County fairgrounds....
Mark
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http://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog/...-mark-121a.jpg
This location is north and east of Valley of Fire State Park. It's within half an hour of the Clark County fairgrounds....
Mark
Or is this one too hard?
Mark
Nobody is ever going to come up with Logandale Trails.
http://www.logandaletrails.com/
It's very cool -- like driving in Zion NP, except you can drive just about anywhere you want to go.
There's relatively little cliff-side driving and so your lovely navigator would probably be comfortable....
Mark
No off-highway driving required with this spot....
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog/...y-mark-122.jpg
(Photo by Dan Sedenquist) -- That's our dad standing there...
Where is this?
Mark
Lava, of course. Barren hillside behind.
"Barren" excludes Hawaii.
"Lava" tends to mean somewhere along the "Ring of Fire".
Could be Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California.... but I'm going east.
It's been a while (two decades, approx), but my guess is "Craters of the Moon", in Idaho.
COTM was definitely my first thought, but I just don't remember a hill that looks like that along the drive. It MIGHT be the hills to the north, but those hills weren't that barren.
I have been yet, but I'm going to guess Lava Beds Nat. Monument in NorCal.
You're both getting very darn good at this deductive reasoning part of the puzzles. In this case, it is Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.
Mark
This photo makes me yearn for this country...
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog/...y-mark-123.jpg
(Photo by Dan Sedenquist)
Where is this? Thousands of people stand at this spot every year and take a similar photo....
Mark
Well, the western coast of the Big Island, from a point just north of Kona and for a good 30-40 miles on up, is in the rain shadow of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, each just a touch under 14,000' above sea level. The "saddle" between them is over 6,000'. The hotel where we stayed for a wedding in 2005 had no roof over its several story atrium. They receive < 9" of rain per year in that little area.Quote:
Originally Posted by CalOldBlue
That side of the Big Island is drier than week-old toast left on the dashboard of a locked-up Chevy. The terrain is all lava flows, some from the late 1800s, and some primative soils derived from weathering of the older flows. The puzzle picture could have been taken there.
The transition from desert to rain forest is very quick. As one approaches Waimea from Kona, the scrub brush picks up over a several mile stretch, then almost as though you've crossed an invisible line, which topographically you do, the long grasses of the Parker Ranch appear, and within a couple more miles, you're in trees, and the transition is complete to full-on rain forest within a few miles on down the road towards Hilo.
The Big Island is one of the most amazing places I've ever had the pleasure to visit. I want to go back.
Foy