To the left of the salt basin was this view. We had not left the snow capped mountains after all. In one of the brochures we got later in the day, there was a quote from John Muir who talked about his visit to the Sierra Nevadas in 1864. He said it was a country of "wonderful contrasts"...hot deserts bordered by snow laden mountain...frost and fire working in the making of beauty". I guess that says it all.