Part 2
Elkhorn Road
Thursday, April 11
We were up and out at dawn again this morning to drive the 40 mile Elkhorn primitive road today. It’s a thirty mile drive to the start and begins by navigating the Elkhorn Grade portion. It is a steep, narrow and rutted dirt road, but is not that difficult to drive in our Rav4. I have just enough clearance to feel comfortable traversing some of the deep ruts and the all-wheel drive means less slipping in the dirt. This early in the morning there were no vehicles coming down, and just us going up.
It was a not difficult road to drive and once on top, wide views of the mountains and plains were revealed. Still not a lot of flowers along here, but I could see them starting to appear on the hills around us.
The road soon spills out to the open plain and travels along the base of the Temblor Range. These mountains were formed by the pressures of the San Andreas fault that runs through the entire length of the monument. It is largely flat easy driving.
This was spectacular with flowers in 2019, but here again they were spotty. Some of the flower areas were large – they just don’t seem that way in the context of this huge monument. All the usual flower suspects were seen a various spots: phacelia, fiddleneck, goldfield, owls clover.
Looking out down the road, I couldn’t help but believe it was originally constructed as a largely straight road, but that the earth movements from the fault has caused the road to gently zig and zag it’s way through the plain.
This was the year of YELLOW on Elkhorn Road. Goldfield and Fiddleneck in abundance, and these little yellow daisy flowers I haven’t yet identified was almost all I saw.
About halfway into the drive, we came to a bypass in the road to avoid a former wet spot. As we drove it, I looked across the to the other not taken part, and saw an unexpected creature leisurely strolling down the road, chomping on the new fresh grasses. A lone pronghorn antelope was certainly not bothered by us. We just sat and watched it walk and eat before pulling out the cameras. Occasionally it would lift its head at various sounds.
Beyond there, we found more nice large areas of blooming and we continued to photograph, but by now it was beginning to seem the same. The road eventually feeds back into 7-mile road in the north end. Getting in and out of Elkhorn this way would be much easier and it’s possible to make a loop by traversing at Panorama Road. Something to consider on another trip.
The original plan was to travel to Death Valley from here, but checking the weather reports reveals temperatures will be in the high 90’s for the entire time we would be there. Sitting in an aluminum can that is our motorhome did not sound appealing. We do have air conditioning, but to use it means running the generator and that doesn’t sit well with us. So, it’s off to the eastern Sierras for several days around Owen Lake. I was really taken with the landscape on the largely dry lakebed during our las visit, so this time we hope to explore the area a little more. And maybe a few more wildflowers!
Marking Our Place 