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. . .