December 16-18, 2018 Independence to Death Valley, California

Mid 50 and sunny. We helped take down the Fruit Cake Festival in the morning. Then went for a hike outside of town.

Beautiful hike with John and Judy this afternoon west of Independence. 

John and Judy with 6 metates. We stopped at the Eastern California museum on the way back. They had a fabulous basket display, plus this huge obsidian blade, spear, arrow head?

Our last view of the eastern Sierras is of snow on the tops. We headed to Death Valley.

We dropped about 2,000 feet  in about 8  miles. Steep, hair pin turns and 7.5% grade. Into this very narrow road cut.

You can look down on the valley floor. We have a lovely campsite at Panamint Springs. We took a no power site. Last time we were here the power which is from a generator spiked a lot and our surge protector just shut it down. We have 10 solar panels now and we are going to run on them. Our site and our view.

John on top of the bus washing the solar panels. The newest basket so far. 

 Last light on the Panamint Mountains from our campsite. Our neighbor Rich took us in his 4 wheel drive to the back country today. This is the remains of a mine with beautiful clouds. 

Looking back down the canyon. The colors in the rocks is spectacular. John in front of  the ruins of an old stamp mill at the China Garden mine.

We stopped at this mine because of the gold fish in the spring. Rich says that the Chinese workers here grew vegetables for the the mine staff. They kept the gold fish and they are still there. Not something you expect to find in the desert. Some one painted this on some of the cement ruins of the mine. There is also a bowling ball. People camp at these old mines. 

John and Rich looking down a mine shaft at another mine. Rich has this beautiful Humvee. He pulls a very rugged popup A frame trailer. Usually he camps in the backcountry. This is the first time either of us has ridden in one. It is very, very nice. The view from Jackass Flats mine with a tower in the foreground. 

 Some of the historic buildings at Darwin a small town to the west of Death Valley. People still live here. Many artists live in Darwin.  Sculptures in the yard of an artist.

Main street of Darwin. Lots of historic buildings.  Also may piles of historic cars and junk. A view of the eastern Sierras as we leave Darwin with joshua trees in the foreground. Independence is only 70 miles from where we are camped, much closer to Darwin. 

  The clouds are making interesting light on the valley. First the light was only on the floor of the valley, then it worked its way back up the mountains. Sunset light on the Panamint mountains. 

The progress on the basket so far. I like the colors so far. It matches the picnic table. A Joshua tree,  Riches drone, he took a movie of Jackass Flats mine. I don’t usually like drones (or humvees) but his drone was really high tech and cool and he seemed like a responsible drone user.  Layers of rocks. 

Sunset from camp with the Panamint Mountains and the moon. Sunset looking west.