February 22, 2027 Death Valley

 75 and sunny,

John walking in a field of flowers on our way to Mummy Canyon.  Mummy canyon.

Entering the mouth of Mummy canyon. John going from the narrows to the narrowest narrows.

Narrowest narrows.  John in the alcove at the end of the canyon. 

Jensen natural bridge over the alcove. John back in the narrows.

John leaving the narrowest of the narrows to the normal narrows. The trail description called them this. White streaks of travertine calcium carbonate embedded in steep slopes of conglomerate.

This rock formation is supposed to look like a mummy in a mummy case. I don't see it. Barrel cactus near the mouth of the canyon. The whole hike was 1.8 miles. The history assoc. is leading a hike into this canyon, for $60 a person. I would be very disappointed if I had paid $60 to see this. 

Field of purple phacelia and yellow desert sun cups. John heading back to the truck. 

Coreopsis,  huge mohavea, checkerspot butterfly, pink monkey flower, coreopsis bush, markings on a rock. Where are the flowers blooming? with a map and identification of some of the flowers. They are calling this a super bloom. It is a good bloom, but not as super as the last one. 

Sunset on some hazy clouds. 

February 21, 2026, Death Valley National Park, California

 67 and sunny.

Desert Gold in front of the Panamint mountains new snow from the last storm. We were going to hike Room Canyon. There is no trail and the directions were a bit vague. We went up the wrong canyon, but it was lovely. A hoo doo at the mouth of the canyon.

John in front of a cool cliff with an arch in it.  I am not used to  Death Valley being so green. John heading up canyon. 

Cool looking hoo doo.

An arch and a U hole with desert gold. John on the way back.

Heading out the canyon. Desert stars, gravel ghost, five spot, mix of flowers, phacelia, tequilla. 

Desert gold. There is a super bloom going on now.

Fields of flowers along the road. Beautiful field of desert gold. 

Lake Manly still has plenty of water in it. Phacelia blooming along the water course. 

Phacelia.

February 19 - 20,2026 Death Valley, California

 High of 61, mostly cloudy and rain all around us, but  not on us. 

Rain in the Funeral mountains to the east. Sun coming through some rain to the west. 

We walked over to Furnace Creek Ranch. Note the elevation sign to the right of the fountain, 190 feet below sea level. The thermometer at the visitors center.

Sunset tonight. 

We went to a  so so ranger talk on wildflowers this evening. 

Wildflowers at the visitors center. I finished another masterpiece. This is made from dyed pine needles, polyester and hemp cord, gemstone and glass beads, blue magnetite beads. The center is a slate sandblasted and pained with a raven.  It got away from me and got huge. 12 x 12 x  3 inches. 

The masterpiece is embellished with a silver thunderbird and a blue bear. Wildflowers by the bus. 

Sunset. Roelle was singing on the Borax  deck outside the Last Kind Word Saloon at Furnace Creek Ranch. She was so loud you could hear her all the way into the campground. Fortunatly she had a lovely voice. 

February 21, 2026 Death Valley, California

 High of 73 and sunny.

Lake Manly on our way back to find Room Canyon. Entering Room canyon.

Narrows of Room Canyon. Navigating around a large rock. 

Narrows. This is the 'room' in Room Canyon. It is a spot where the canyon widens out after the narrows.

Leaving the room on our way back.   Under  a large chock stone. 

  Large boulders in another branch of the canyon. Heading back.

Narrows. John is a side slot canyon.

Side slot canyon. A bit of a rock scramble in here. 

John climbing up a short over hang.  Pinnacles at the top of the slot canyon.

More pinnacles. This pinnacle is up another canyon near the beginning of the hike. It is the tallest free standing pinnacle in the park. 

Couple more pinnacles behind the tallest. There were flowers everywhere. Really pretty. Lupine, dwarf poppies, a 5 spot, with no spots!, gravel ghost. 

Desert gold and phacelia. With the sunny skies, there were not many clouds for sunset.