A quick hop over the Colorado River and we cross from Arizona to California.

Spike, Snoopy's older brother from the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, apparently lives alone in the desert near Needles... as in right here!

Back on Highway 40

One can infer a lot about an area from its choice of billboard signs.

We took a short break at a rest area in Newberry Springs, about 10 miles east of Barstow.

Desert Oasis Blue Star

Blue Star Memorial Highway Markers can be found throughout the US. The Blue Star program began in 1945 after World War II to honor the the U.S. Armed Forces.

Information signs told all about this Mojave Desert area.

We were currently in the Mojave Desert Landform Province, one of three desert provinces in California (with the Great Basin to the north and the Colorado Desert to the south). While to the casual observer all three deserts may look the same... hot, dry and sparsely vegetated, there are subtle differences in landforms, climate, plants and animals.

20,000 years ago this rest area was under Lake Manix, a giant glacier lake over 380 feet deep and 150 square miles big. Mammoth, camels, bison, giant sloths, horses and dwarf antelope roamed its shores. About 8,000 years ago, the climate began to warm up and the lake disappeared... as did the grazing animals. Those that couldn't adapt to the drier environment went extinct.

Adapt to the harsh environment of the Mojave Desert or die

Dark-colored lava rocks remind us of this area's turbulent history a mere 20,000 years ago.

Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano.

More old lava fields

Strip mining...

... and processing plants

The obvious difference between life with lots of water and life without!

The signs of approaching civilization

Warning... cows??

Highway 15 runs via the Cajon Pass between the San Gabriel Mountain range (to the north) and the San Bernadino Mountains (to the south).

Mount Baldy (officially Mount San Antonio) is the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains with an elevation of 10,068 feet.

While air quality has drastically improved over the past several decades, it clearly still has a long way to go. The term smog was first used in 1905 by Dr. Henry Antoine Des Voeux to describe the combination of smoke and fog in London during that time.

Air circulation is limited in the L.A. Basin... a low lying coastal plain surrounded by high mountain ranges, with breezes blowing in from the coast.

Getting deeper...

... and deeper into the congestion.

New freeways continue to be built.

We arrived in Orange County in the afternoon. Things were being set up for the evening parades and festivities for various 4th of July celebrations. We spent the rest of the day socializing with family, enjoying a lovely BBQ and watching the numerous firework shows put on by the surrounding cities.

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