Since leaving Sedona on April 9th, I’ve traveled through more of California than I ever have before, and after watching my gas mileage get shredded to bits on the uphill drive out of Death Valley, I came eye-to-eye with a sunset blazing against the eastern range of the Sierras.
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In my first true “vacation” of the year, I’ve traveled about 1,300 miles in seven days since leaving Sedona. Tonight I’ll be up in San Jose hosting a private stargazing event with a family and group of friends, then tomorrow I pull a U-turn and drive all the way down to San Diego for about two weeks of sidewalk astronomy at Seaport Village.
Following that, I’ll chuck another U-ey (nope, don’t like that spelling, not one single bit) and trek my way up to Oregon for two weeks on my second vacation of the year, before swinging around AGAIN to head back to Sedona, where I was hired to provide stargazing at a wedding reception.
After that, I have about two straight months of sidewalk astronomy in three different states (Arizona, Idaho, and Montana) before I get another “vacation” — a term I clearly use loosely.
But! Take a look at this map (the blue line). To preserve where I’ve actually been the past week, this isn’t my exact route, but it highlights what I’ve been near. Now add the 9-hour drive south tomorrow, and the 20-hour drive north in two weeks, and you have a pretty good idea of how I like to zigzag on my adventures.
I also want to note you can hire me for stargazing pretty much anywhere in the western US (and, when I’m on that side of the country in December – February, anywhere in the lower southeast).
You can see reels from my week of travels on Instagram, but I want to highlight one specific moment–one that you can actually see in my reel as I drove OUT of Death Valley (rip my gas mileage).
Rising out of Death Valley, you end up winding around the top of a mountain, and as you descend the other side, you get a view of the Eastern Sierras.
And boy oh boy, did I drive this road at the EXACT right time of day.
Here’s a link to the exact clip, if you want to see it. The view I’m talking about takes place near the end of the video.
There came a moment, starting down the other side, that I caught a glimpse of the mountains bathed in orange. My jaw dropped. On the non-timelapsed video, you hear me going bananas about it, and searching everywhere for a place to stop. I even turn the video directly toward the mountains so they’re fully visible, but obviously the cell phone view can’t compare to what your eyes see.
But find a spot to pull over, I did. And here’s what I captured:
Geometrically, this view is super cool. Why? Because that’s not where the sunset was. The Sun was already way down behind the mountains off to the left of this photo, but there was an opening in the clouds (near the bright white at the top) that reflected sunlight backward onto the mountains.
This picture is pretty much what my eye saw (though much smaller than this zoomed in version).
There was a second time I stopped as well, because as luck would have it, it wasn’t just a fleeting moment, but an extended 20-30 minute sunset event that I was face-on with the entire time.
Magical. Just magical.
I got to my camping spot for the night as the light changed from golden to white, the leftover remnants of sunset that mingle with twilight. Enhanced by the clouds, I pulled off one of those commercial-worthy shots of my van:
I mean come on.
From Death Valley, to the astronauts splashing down in the Pacific, to THIS? All in one day?
What. The. Heck.
It got cold, fast, dipping down to near-freezing (evidenced by the Sierras being blanketed in snow right behind me). I thought it was going to rain, but got lucky and the sky cleared, making for some brief but gorgeous stargazing.
Waking up in the morning, I had my van angled toward the mountains (on purpose) so I could open my back doors to this view.
Hands-down, my favorite part about living in a van is being able to park at pretty much any angle you want so you can open those back doors to a view of your own choosing–and I had a few days of morning reveals during this trip that were just stunners.
Views like these beat paying the $1600 per month I was paying for HALF of my rent in Florida.
But as I’m writing this post, it’s Thursday afternoon and I’m sitting in a cafe about 20 minutes south of my private stargazing event tonight. The adventure I’ve had the past week has been rejuvenating just as much as it has been exhausting (in a good way!) After my hike yesterday, I conked out for like three hours, a much-needed rest in the mountains of central California before I get back to work tonight, then make the drive south.
See you Friday, San Diego.
This world is beautiful.
Alex
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