New Years! Shoshone Ca

Yesterday John, Judy and I hiked to Ibex dunes in Death Valley. Since you have to hike to these there was no one else and the dunes were pristine.

Pristine dunes. Judy hiking to the dunes.

wind patterns

Judy and John climbing the dunes. I rolled down the face of the dune. Filled my pockets with sand.

Our foot prints on the crest of the dune. It snowed the night before on the peaks above us.

the river was still running in the valley to get to the dunes. We had to pick our way over rivulets and mud with weird patterns in it.

sunset on the way back.

12/31
We started the day by helping clean out an empty house that will be remodeled into a darkroom for a non-profit artist in residence program here in Shoshone.

John and Judy(around the right corner of the dumpster. And sunset tonight. We went to a New Years eve party at Resting springs. There were two huge bonfires of palm fronds, a roasted pig and pot luck food and drinks.

John, Sue, Mary Ann, Judy and Laurie                                        

                                                                                     Sue and John

Shoshone, Ca Dec 29, 2010

After Christmas Judy and Laurie came back. The next day two of their friends and hiking partners, their children and grandchildren arrived. I cooked a big spaghetti dinner the first night. Today we all went to China ranch date farm, had date shakes, bought dates and hiked the Amargosa Valley to the waterfall. Sunny day, beautiful colors. The river is still high from the rain. We had dinner at the Crowbar. Tomorrow they are going to Death Valley. Judy,John and I are hiking somewhere.

The river is still high from the rain. The waterfall was huge.

This panorama is not the best. The light changed across it, but you get the idea, big waterfall, big rapids.  Usually this is a trickle here.

the group hiking and another shot of the river

 

Sunset and cane

 Photo of Laurie by suep at sunset and a photo of Suep by Laurie at sunset

Christmas Day Death Valley

there was a cancellation at Stovepipe. All the roads in and out of the valley were closed due to flooding. So we grabbed the room and spent Christmas eve and Christmas day in Death Valley. We were so tired after hiking Fall Canyon we had dinner appetizers in the bar and went to bed. John drug me out of bed for sunrise on the dunes. I have seen that many times before, but this time there were tons of people, none speaking English and hardly a square foot of the dunes was untracked. It was still beautiful.

It is sad that people come from all over the world to see our National Parks, but hardly any Americans come to see them.

The colors were beautiful. John said 'Merry Christmas, sorry I couldn't wrap it for you!'

the sunrise colors do not last very long.

 After the sunrise we headed home to the bus in Shoshone. As we past Lake Manly we decided to boat it. Don't get many chances to do that, it only fills up on really heavy rain years.

Lake Manly, the patterns on the bottom are the salt formations from the floor of the valley under water.

John on the lake and my boat on the lake. We had to carry the boats till the lake got deep enough.

Humidity in the air from the flood. In the foreground is the Amargosa river, raging to Lake Manly.  It flows into the bottom of Death Valley. It ends farther north than where it started from. The Salt river runs into the valley from the north. Both dry up before they meet.

Here are a couple photos John took of me on Lake Manly.