Friday, September 12, 2014

50 degree Fahrenheit difference between the Southwest to the Rockies

In the Southwest it is 90s Fahrenheit but in the Rockies now it is 40 degrees or below with snow forecast.

Little Ice Age anyone?

When I was a boy we had an experience like this at a place called Telescope peak near Death Valley.This was probably September 1960 or 1961 so I guess I was11 or 12 then. From the summit where my parents and I walked to it we could look down on Death Valley. You drive up the Panamint Valley next to charcoal kilns (if they are still there from the 1800s). As a boy I climbed up on top of them. It seemed like they were 10 to 20 feet high made of rocks and some kind of cement.

Anyway, my friend and I had our .22 rifles and we were hiking with my parents to the summit and met a bunch of boy scouts. We were about 11 or 12 years old then and the scout master was worried about us because it was starting to snow. However, it was September so we had seen over 100 degrees Fahrenheit throughout our trip until then. So, we weren't prepared for what happened next. When we got back to our 1960 Mercury station wagon Dad tried to drive on the dirt road down to the paved road far below our campground. But, he didn't have any chains and realized we likely would die as this was a dirt cliff road. So, he walked about 5 or 10 miles until he could get a forest Ranger who came up in a 4 wheel drive enclosed Jeep and he put his Jeep in 4 wheel drive and tied his vehicle to ours and stayed behind us to slowly let us go down the road so we wouldn't all die by sliding off a cliff. And as we slipped and slid all over the road he kept us from  sliding off the dirt cliffs down 100 or more feet and dying. It was quite an adventure for my Mom and Dad and my friend and I and not one we would ever forget.

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