What up everyone.
Kristin here with Be My Travel Muse.
It's a glorious day outside.
I always start videos that way, telling you about the weather.
I don't know why.
Anyway, I am going to explore a bit of parts of California I've never seen before today.
I was born and raised in southern California but I've never been to Death Valley, the Alabama
Hills, I've only seen a Joshua Tree for a few hours once, and I've never been to the
Mojave Desert so it is time.
I am so stoked to be doing this road trip.
I'm doing it by myself, I'm doing it with Visit California.
And I'm going to be seeing some super amazing stuff that I hope that you'll be encouraged
to come visit when you come out to California.
So without any further ado let's hit the road.
So the Alabama Hills is Bureau of Land Management land which basically means it's owned by the
public and you can camp here, you can bring your dogs here, and it's just really stunning.
Amazing rock formations everywhere like this one behind me is the Mobius Arch and it's
the most famous but I'm the only person here so that's pretty cool.
Mt. Whitney is behind me, which is the tallest mountain in California, maybe other places
too.
To be here in January is perfect because it's not hot like it normally would be and the
eastern sierras have snow all over them so it's just picture perfect.
And this archway is a perfect frame.
I finally made it to my destination today and it's the Artists Palette and you can see
why it's named that.
The colors behind me are amazing.
And I'm standing on pink sand right now with this, like, minty green rock behind me and
in pretty much every direction.
It's really cool.
I can't believe it looks like this here.
Good morning.
You probably can't see me.
There we go.
I'm playing the "Will there be a sunrise?" game.
It's a bit cloudy but I can see the sun coming up over there.
So I'm at Zabriskie Point and I'm gonna psyche myself out to get out of the car, walk, like,
I don't know, two minutes to the overlook and just see if we're gonna get lucky this morning.
So decided to do the Golden Canyon.
And behind me you can see the point where I was for sunrise and now I'm, like, in it.
So there's a loop that goes from there all the way around this, like, beautiful badlands-looking
landscape called Golden Canyon, and I highly recommend this, it's absolutely beautiful
and it's flat so you might as well.
I'm seriously, like, floored.
I've never heard of this trail before and it's just one of the most impressive I've
ever been on in the world.
It's insane.
In every direction it's amazing.
Well, that hike was totally freaking awesome and now I am at the Badwater Basin which is
some salt flats and it's a huge expanse but there's a boardwalk here that you can take.
And then after that ends, you can keep going if you want.
This is something that I didn't even know was out here until I started doing my research.
I'm really just so impressed so far and I can't wait to get out there.
So time's a-wastin', let's go.
Sunset was awesome.
This landscape is awesome.
And it's salty, my goodness.
So someone the other day was asking me what my job is like, and my job is like me sitting
here for probably another hour and a half waiting for the stars to come out.
And I think that's gonna be spectacular.
J. Biebs. Yo, yesterday was amazing.
I had the best time just exploring Death Valley and seeing a park that I really had no idea
looks like that.
[inaudible 00:05:16] beautiful hiking I'd ever seen.
My description words are great.
So I'm in Baker now.
It's famous for having the tallest thermometer in the world.
I don't know what it is about wanting this tall, phallic-looking objects but that is
their claim to fame.
This is usually where you would fill-up with gas, which I did, if you're gonna head into
Vegas or the Mojave Desert.
So I'm camping out tonight and I'm really excited to sleep under the stars finally.
Here we go.
So I've arrived at my first stop in Mojave which is the Lava Tubes.
So they used to have flowing hot magma going through them, and now hopefully some light
beams.
Found me a dune.
She's a beauty.
First thing to know about climbing dunes, it's actually, like, really hard because you
take on sand in your boots and, like, for each step forward you kind of fall one back
or slide one back.
So the second thing to know about climbing dunes, it's better barefoot.
The third thing to know about climbing dunes is there's almost always snakes and scorpions
around, so pick your poison.
I almost forgot the most important rule of all.
If there are footsteps you always step in them.
It makes it so much easier if someone else has already packed down the sand for you.
Good morning.
So I am here with Jessica of Mojave Desert Land Trust.
Jessica: Hi.
Kristin: And we're doing a little hike to Amboy Crater.
Well, I wanna hear a little bit about this volcano.
Jessica: So, this is Amboy Crater which is 80,000 years old.
It's situated right next to Route 66 and it's basically in the center of a 25-mile lava
field.
And it's all in the middle of the Mojave Trails National Monument.
Kristin: And apparently there's going to be a super bloom this year.
Jessica: Exactly.
Yeah, end of February, March.
Kristin: Good to know.
Okay.
So I wanted to ask a little bit about preserving the natural spaces in the deserts, especially
in light of the government shutdown right now.
And I think that most people when I see them going off trail or doing other things they
shouldn't be doing, they maybe don't realize the impact or I don't think that they're doing
it on purpose.
I think I've done it many times in the past, too.
So I just want to better understand from you how we impact the desert and the ways that
we can minimize that so that we can still enjoy it.
Jessica: So, yeah.
I think what people don't realize is that the desert is actually extremely fragile.
So there's tire tracks you'll see in the desert on the soil, those can take hundreds of years
to grow back to a normal kind of vegetation.
Kristin: Hundreds of years.
Jessica: Hundreds of years.
Something to be mindful of and to stay on trails that have been designated especially
for us humans to be out and being out here in the desert safely.
And there's really good guidelines on the Leave No Trace websites, really good advice
about how to go out and interact with the desert in a really safe way.
Kristin: Awesome.
Thank you so much.
Jessica: No problem.
Kristin: And my final park on this trip is Joshua Tree National Park.
Well, that is my last night of an amazing, amazing desert road trip around southern California.
And I just can't believe how varied and beautiful the deserts are but how they all have their
own unique thing.
So I hope that you enjoyed this video.
Special thank you to Visit California for helping to make this possible.
And make sure that you subscribe if you love solo traveling and road trip videos like this.
Share it with your friends and give it a thumbs up.
See you next week.