March 16, 2026 Death Valley, California

 100 degrees and mostly sunny.

We drove down to Death Valley for our annual family Death Valley trip. We have been going this time of year for almost 30 years. The flowers are still blooming, but it has been so hot and dry there are not as many and they are much shorter and smaller blooms. Still pretty. Field of sand verbena.  Desert gold. 

Desert gold. View of flowers, the valley floor and the Panamint mountains. 

Road side view. Desert gold. This is a much smaller display than a couple weeks ago. 

Lots of tourists viewing the flowers. Have to watch where you are driving. 

Lake Manley is still here. It does not look much smaller to me. With this heat wave it should evaporate soon. 

Desert gold and colorful cliffs. Happy hour on the patio at Judy and Jill's casita.

Sunset from Furnace Creek Inn.

The dining room was sold out, we only had a reservations for 4, so three of us had dinner at the bar with a lovely view of sunset. I  like the menu at the bar much better than the dining room. The pond by the casitas at night. 

Not really  a good week to visit Death Valley. The Inn has a beautiful pool we will be using.

March 10-15 2026 Shoshone, California

 High of 80 and sunny.

Aliens have landed in Tecopa! We took advantage of the sale at the hot springs, campground, dump and soak for $5. We dumped the bus, and then soaked.

$5

The desert tortoises are out. We got home to Robbie digging a ditch in the yard. The washer waste water was routed to come up in this area. Judy want's to park her car here, but not with washer water coming up under her car. Robbie dug down and put in a leach line. Thanks Robbie.!

Robbie installing pipe and John and Robbie filling the hole back up. Now it is safe to park the car there. Jill came in today. Judy picked her up in Vegas and we had dinner at the Crowbar tonight. 

Sunset. Egad, it is getting too hot too early!!

Sunset. 89 and sunny. I finished this basket. It is made from local grasses and dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads gemstone bears and the center is a bear I fused with murrine I made. It is 7 1/2 x 7 x 1 1/2 inches.

 Cool clouds this evening. Sunset.

Dinner on the palm patio tonight. Brian gave a nice talk at the museum today with old photos and memories. 

We have friends from the Bay Area here. We are starting our annual family Death Valley trip. Before dinner we moved the big tent shelter around so Judy can park her car under it. Then we had a nice happy hour and dinner on the Palms Party Patio.

We attended Judy D's painting workshop. Lots of fun. These are  what I painted. 

I finished another masterpiece. It is made from dyed pine needles, glass and gemstone beads,  polyester thread and the center is a raven sandblasted and painted on slate. 

March 7-9, 2026 Shoshone, California

 High of 73 and sunny.

Little Black Mountain with phragmites and blooming brittle bush. Close up of the blooming brittle bush on Little Black Mountain. 

Desert gold off the Aqua trail, phacelia off the White trail. Amargosa river on the Aqua trail. 

Wash full of brittle bush. Judy enjoying her new patio. It is done. Great job John. 

First dinner on the finished patio. Palmer Palms Party Patio set up for a dinner party. 

Appetizers on the patio. Desert gold with Tecopa Peak.

 Desert gold with Tecopa Peak. Desert gold on the Old Spanish Trail

Roadside desert gold and phacelia. Phacelia  in the foreground and desert gold in the distance in front of Tecopa peak. 

Phacelia on Hwy 127.  Phacelia with some roadside flowers. 

Phacelia.