March 27, 2021 Shoshone, California

 81 degrees, sunny and windy in the am. 

We hiked to Montgomery spring today. Heading towards Salisbury peak. Looking back into the valley. The snow covered peak  is Mt Charleston, that is just west of Las Vegas

Petroglyphs on the rocks along the way. Most of the day was bushwhacking, but once and awhile we found a trail, or as in this photo a road.

 Judy, James and John on the ridge. John and James going through the rocks.

 View back through the rocks. Colorful peaks and jagged rocks. 

Petroglyphs and a sight you don't see much of in the desert- moss and water. John in the cave with Salisbury spring. There is a pool at his feet and lots of greenery.

Split rock, monkey flowers, petroglyphs, cool sparkly rock and a mojave aster with a butterfly. Colorful rocks and green Mormon tea. 

Side canyon. Another spring with a reflection of the cliffs, another view of the butterfly in the mojave aster. Three yellow balloons that flew out here with helium, then the heat melted them into hard globs. Balloon pollution. This is a really bad photo, but this is a black and white dyke that oozed up a crack in these rocks. 

A small spring. Judy and James in front of another spring with cool backlit grass. 

The other small spring is also in a cave with greenery. John having lunch on a bed of soft grass. 

John and Judy heading down canyon. Colorful rocks on the slope of Salisbury peak. 

March 21-26, 2021 Shoshone, California

 70 degrees, sunny with winds 40 mph with gusts to 53 mph.

I shut my hand  in the door to the bus. Just the first three fingers. The middle finger n has a huge bruise and half of the pad is ripped loose. OUCH. I iced, elevated and read a whole book. It is a miracle that the fingers did not break. And that it is my left hand. I can still type with one hand. This is 24 hours later. All the icing and elevating took away  most of the swelling and the bruise. Still a nasty cut. But I am feeling better. 

Sunset tonight. Today we went to Las Vegas and got our 2nd vaccine! Visited Pahrump along the way.

We drove through Red Rock Canyon National Recreation area both ways, to Vegas  the scenic route. Rain on the way back. It rained off and on it Vegas and on the way back. 

Rain over Tecopa at sunset tonight. We are both under the weather from the vaccine. John sweet heart that he is cooked dinner. I said I wanted chocolate cake so he snuck out and got a piece at the only restaurant in town. what a man.

We are almost recovered from the side effects of our vaccines. We had a sunset show as we ate dinner outside. Two moons tonight on my walk.

The common reeds (Phragmites) glowing in the afternoon light in the marsh on my afternoon walk. Playing with the moon a bit. 

Another playful moon shot.

March 18-20, 2021 Shoshone, California

 78 degrees sunny and light breezes. 

Ruud and Torren took us to see the hieroglyphics they found. They took us a different way than they usually go since they were taking 2 old ladies. Torren showing us some of the hieroglyphics  Below his arm is says I 💓 AM.

Ruud and Torren showing us old ladies a few more hieroglyphics. I forgot to get a photo of the current masterpiece until after the sun went down, usually I like photos in the sun. 

Sunset tonight. 82 degrees and sunny. Some wind, which was nice because it was hot. We hiked from Shoshone to Greenwater Valley. 6 miles and 1,000 foot vertical. Judy D and John with Shoshone behind those hills in the background. 

Judy D in a wash. Rugged peaks to the south.

John is a small water sculpted wash. Interesting rocks. The blue is copper ore. 

We hiked down this wash into Greenwater Valley. Looking back at some colorful hills behind us on the way out. 

John heading to the car. Sheepshead Mountain is on the horizon on the other side of Greenwater Valley. We found 6 balloons snagged in the bushes. We always find at least 1 or 2 on our hikes. We are in the middle of nowhere, far from any real population. Please throw your balloons away when you are done with them. 

We had a scrumptious dinner outside at Steaks and Beer in Tecopa. Lorraine joined us. Sunset from Steaks and Beer. 

74, sunny and windy. I taught another basket class. Karin, Mary and Judy D are shown here busily making baskets. We were going to have the class on the nice covered patio, but the wind was blowing right across it, so we sheltered on the leeward side of the Station House. A good time was had by all. My current masterpiece is getting closer to completion. Almost done adding the needles, just need to add a few more beads and stitching behind the big beads. It is 11 x 11 x 1 1/2 inches so far.