March 27-28, 2016 Death Valley National Park, California

We went t0Titus Canyon, which is a 30 one way canyon that ends in tight narrows. You can drive to the bottom end and hike in. We were going to ride our bikes from the bottom end to the end of the narrows.

View on the way to Titus Canyon. Once we got there and I was on my bike I saw a sign that said no bikes allowed from the bottom end. Oh well, we decided to hike it, it is only 1.5 miles to the end of the narrows. Road in the narrows of Titus Canyon.

Breccia on one of the walls of Titus Canyon. There were lots of wild flowers, mostly nice fields of  purple phacilia  and white gravel ghosts like these.

John walking back down Titus Canyon. On the way back we stopped at The old Stovepipe wells. It is the only water near the sand dunes. When the sand blows over they would put a stove pipe in it so people could find it. It was on the road from Skidoo to Ryolite. Now it is pretty much covered over and an interesting thing to see.

On the road near the Stovepipe wells was this grave marker. Val Nolan, died Aug 1, 1931, buried Nov 6, 1931. A victim of the  Elements. Not sure what his story was, he was in sight of the well.  After our grueling hot day we went to the pool and Stovepipe and had a shower. Lovely pool. You have to pay $4 each if you are camping, but it was worth it.

Chuckwalla lizard, purple flowering bus, yellow flowering plant and seed pod of the yellow one. Some cool rock patterns on the walls of Titus Canyon.

The basket is finally done. I still need to shellac it, and that will dull the red and blue colors some, but they are pretty bright now, so it will still look good. Monday morning the wind came up again. High wind and blowing sand.

John in front of the bus checking the turn signals in the wind.  Blowing tents.

  We went below sea level, above and going below again. There are fields of yellow flowers on the other side of the sign. The blowing dust is almost obscuring the mountains on the other side of the valley. Out of Death Valley there is not as much blowing sand, but still lots of wind. There are yellow flowers blooming on the side of Eagle Mountain.

Back in Shoshone the wind was blowing so hard the power and internet went out. It died down a little in the late afternoon and I went for a walk. Wind blown brittle bush flowers  on the bluff.

Backlit monkey flowers on the path and a sheltered backlit brittle bush.

The cactus are really blooming. Sunset on blowing dust.

March 25-26, 2016 Stovepipe Wells area, Death Valley, California

Friday we hung out. John did taxes and I finished up my photos from the last two days.

At sunset there was this ground fog of dust all around. Pretty wierd. It was hot and dusty most of the day. In the morning we woke up to  high wind and the sky and sand dunes gone. Good thing the wind was from the west, we are up wind from the blowing sand. Most of the tents were gone too, Only a few brave souls hung in there. Tonight the wind calmed down and there was dust to the west, but only from the dirt road.

We drove up to the ghost town of Skidoo up around 5,000 feet and it was a nice change to be cool, it was only 55 degrees. It was a very rich gold mine in it’s day in the early 1900’s. Mostly there are only ghosts left and the mines, the town itself is gone. Here is a building made out of railroad ties. John is standing at a headgate looking down into the mine shaft. It has a metal net over the top, but it goes way down.

Another headgate and the snow covered Sierra’s in the background. The book says the highlight of Skidoo is the stamp mill. The light was wrong for good photos, but it was cool.

There were 8 of these quartz stamps. They processed the gold ore, which was quartz with gold in it. The stamp mill was run by water that was brought down in a 20 mile pipeline. The success of this mine was due to the mill on  the site, otherwise transport of the ore would have made it too expensive to work the mine.

 

Yet another headgate at another mine. There were shafts all over the place. In front of the openning to this last mine is a jack rabbit. He was not afraid of us, I think he was begging for food, he hung out the whole time we were eating lunch. Maybe he is the Easter bunny?

I thought he was posing coyly, waiting for a handout, but in this photo he is giving me the stink eye. This is the first time we have ever seen a jackrabbit up close. Cool rocks on the way out.

It was pleasant in the shade of the bus, only 82 degrees. I worked on the basket. For all the hassle it has been it is coming out cute.  Pink flowers, Indian paintbrush, scorpion weed, and purple flowers.

More pink flowers, a lady bug, a bush with purple flowers and some vetch. Cacuts, curled grass, yellow rayless flowers and the jackrabbit again.  John thinks it might be a jackalope and they don’t get their horns till fall. . .

March 24, 2016 Marble Canyon, Death Valley, California

 

We went with Jeff and Jen to Marble Canyon. The 13 mile dirt road drive up was very colorful. We parked by these big rocks and started into Marble canyon.

The first narrows were studded with black chert nodules. Jeff is getting ready to try skiing down. The canyon walls are made up of massive strata that shoot at awkward angles - from the book Hiking in Death Valley.

Jeff, Jen and John at the end of the first narrows under the giant quartz monzonite chockstone. John is holding it up. They ducked out and Jeff shouldered the giant stone, then ran out when it started to move. . . Ha!

We climbed around the end of  the first narrows and hiked to the second narrows which were phenomenal. From Hiking in Death Valley-The leaning walls, polished high above the wash, fold and unfold into a smooth contorted passage.

The book says it is dolomite, but it was lots of different colors and looked like more than one kind of rock.

There are petroglyphs in here, but they are mostly covered with grafitti. When I rounded the corner John, Jeff and Jen were taking a photo of me.

Me waving back. We hiked a ways up the canyon, into a side canyon and then came back and had lunch in the cool shade.

Then headed back down. Some of the massive stata at awkward angles.

There were tons of wild flowers. Gila, pincushion, nettle, bitter bush, pink flowers, evening primrose, mallow, chia.

This tiny red bush looks dead but has flowers on it. A close up of the branches. Mohave aster, red flowering bush, yellow flower, yellow spider and flowers from a vine.

The floor of the side canyon past the second narrows was yellow with flowers. Mostly tiny desert poppies, primrose and rock daisies.  Gravel ghost, desert tobaco, poppy and poppies, yellow rock daisies, yellow primrose and crypanthia.

Gila, single phacilia blossom, and yellow flower. The cool colors and patterns on the rocks were fun. The last one is one of the petroglyphs we found.

There was this big area of white designs. Some of the black chert nodules and a round rock Jen found.

The nodules were all kinds of facinating shapes. Colors in the rocks.

Nodules, contorted strata, and a couple cool rocks.