When I drove by in April, the alfalfa field directly across 395 to the east
looked good

I checked that field out, a few years back and it looks good and is the only
landable place in that area. I know a guy that tried to land on Owens lake. He
thought everything was fine as he rolled along on what appeared to be the hard
surface near the southern end. Then he broke through the crust and sank 4 foot
into a muddy, alkaline quagmire. The rest of this story is too grim to relate,
but it took a gang of pilots to get the Nimbus 4 out of there. He told me the
alkaline actually started to eat at his landing gear.
Take the alfalfa field,
JJ Sinclair