December 27-29, 2018 Death Valley to Shoshone, California

Today we have wind again 20-30 mph. The Funeral mountains  are obscured by all the blowing sand. I went to Stovepipe resort and paid for a shower. That includes the pool. It was pretty sheltered there and warm. But I have had a lot of sun the last few days. 

I am so bad. I go around and look at all the flattened tents in the wind. I remember trying to sleep in the wind in a tent. It was miserable.I am so bad. I go around and look at all the flattened tents in the wind. I remember trying to sleep in the wind in a tent. It was miserable.

These roof top tents seemed to do pretty well in the wind. The dome in the middle was flapping and rocking . These two roof tops are on top of trailers. Interesting concept. Blowing in the wind.

I finished the basket. It came out great.  I will take some good photos of it when it is not so windy and dusty outside.A blown over  dome tent. The other tents are holding their own. The big tent  bit the dust. I notice later that it was gone.  Bet they headed for a motel room somewhere. This guy even brought a year. He tows a trailer and set up a cyclone fence, carpet inside of it and privacy screen on the side. 

At sunset the blowing dust just melded with with clouds. Sunrise this am. I am not usually up this early but this time of year sunrise is about 730 and with all the wind outside I went to bed early. What really got me up was the flying saucer looking cloud. . . .

They call it Death Valley because nothing grows on the valley floor here. We drove by Furnace Creek, 190 feet below sea level. The fuel was 5.18 a gallon. When it is below 42 degrees our heater uses diesel fuel. It is supposed to be  below freezing this week in Shoshone, so John wants to fill up. We bypassed Furnace Creek fuel.  

Furnace Creek Inn with the new casitas below it. They planted a ton of palm trees too.  Zabriskie point was packed, people parked all the way to the highway. We did not go to any of the usual tourist destinations here, so missed all the crowds.  

Mt Charleston over Pahrump , NV. We went through Pahrump on the way to Shoshone to get fuel-only $3.20/gal  and then resupplied at the grocery store. The masterpiece done. 10 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches. Pine needles, some of them dyed. A steer skull in the center. Glass horse head and seed beads. There is cowhide wrapped around the outside with gem chips.  

I whipped out this smaller one while driving yesterday. About 4-5 hours. I am about out of smaller baskets. This is 4 1/2 x 3 inches. The center is a piece of fused glass I made and the beads on the outside are glass.  

Sunset mimicking a palm tree and sunset looking east. 

December 25-26, 2018 Death Valley, California

John looking in Santa's covered wagon for gifts.  Santa hadn't loaded up yet. The xmas elf at the gift shop giving John a candy cane since he was such a good boy this year. 

Christmas gift from the government. All visitors centers, campground and sites are closed due to the shutdown. John spent the day smoking pork for dinner. It came out yummy. It started out 70, sunny and a bit  breezy. 

I spent the day making bread for dinner and then in my lawn chair working on the masterpiece. On the side will be this hairy cowhide tacked in with copper tacks. Above it will be a line of turquoise and what ever else gem chips I think will look cool. The cowhide is because there is a cow skull in the center and horse head beads around the top. It became very windy and clouded up. The sand dunes were blowing in the wind.

Blowing sand to the east , sand to the west and sand here in the middle with us. Sunset had to find it’s way through the cool looking wind clouds.  

We drove the scenic road to Grotto Canyon this afternoon. It is this great slot canyon.

The sand dunes are still blowing through the air.  They will be pristine in the morning. 

Me in the mouth of Grotto canyon. Grotto canyon is very deceptive. It lures you in with this almost climbable dry fall. The next one is much higher, an overhang and harder. But people usually pile up rocks and logs and you can get up. You walk always, then come to an unclimbable fall. I have been up at least 4 times thinking this time I will make and never do. Today we didn’t even go up the first fall. 

The view of the Mesquite Sand dunes from the Grotto Canyon road is wonderful. We drove down at last light and stopped to watch. The road through to park to Beatty looks out of place here. The light was just right so we could even see all the caution signs. 

Nice light on the phone poles. Sunset on Mesquite Dunes. 

Sunset on the smaller of Mesquite dunes.  Down at the dunes the parking lot was full and there were hundreds of people walking on them.  During government shutdown the bathrooms are closed. Of course people have dumped trash outside of them. Not too bad, I suspect someone is coming by daily and cleaning up.

Stovepipe Wells is at sea level. Someone made this nice rock sculpture of SPW in the campground.  What they have to say about the shutdown- basically enter at your own risk, there is now one to clean up after you or rescue you.

Stovepipe campground is open, the privately concessioner resort  across the street is taking care of the restrooms. All the rest of the campgrounds in the park are closed. The campgrounds and entry to the park is free since there is no one to collect the fees.  Coyote dreams of food before and after people feed them. Keep them wild. Today I had some more lawn chair time working on the basket. The cowhide is now all around it and I put gem chips around the top of that. I will had hanging turquoise below each copper tack. Then it will be done. John thinks there is too much bling, but I like it because there is so much bling.

December 23-24, 2018 Death Valley, California

The new solar panels are wonder fun. There are 10 now-1185 watts. A good day of sun recharges the battery. We still need the generator to run the microwave for  very long, the oven or the AC. But don’t need to run it hours each day to totally recharge the battery. Spent a lot of the day in my lawn chair in the sun- high 60’s and worked on the basket. Still going to add some bling.  Hairy cowhide, copper tacks and turquoise. It is 10 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches. 

Not enough clouds for a sunset, just kind of a pink glow.  The eve of Christmas eve dinner on the desert. John BBQ’d shrimp. We had twinkling xmas lights on the table. 

This cool rooftop tent pulled in next to us. The most elaborate of these that folds up the smallest that I have seen.   It is a habitat  by Overland Adventures.  Base price $8,900.  We went to Keane Wonder Mine today. It was a very successful gold mine. This is the bottom of the tram. 

The Keane Wonder Spring is just north of the tram with an arch above it.  Looking down valley from the spring at the pools.

Warning mine hazards. There used to be cyanide tanks for separating the gold from the ore here.  Salt crystals by the spring. On the way there we drove by the parking lot to the Mesquite sand dunes and it was packed. Water rushing down hill from the spring. One of the deep wells the mine built at the spring. It is built out of timbers.  Another warning sign over another well opening. I love the icon below it. It shows I think a person crawling with a headlamp on and a red line though it. I think it means do not crawl into the shafts.  

One of the many mine openings that are all over the area. Looking through the arch from the backside and looking up at is from below. Looking down canyon into Death Valley. 

The route through the canyon was mostly these huge rocks and dry waterfalls.  Interesting rocks and  a capped shaft. Below is John standing by a HUGE boulder.

All of the rocks were shiny and glittery. We were walking around a big gold mine. Looked like gold was everywhere, but I think it was just shiny rocks.  Pitted rocks, bumpy rocks, colorful rocks. A shiny nugget looking thing in the rock.This one rock in my hand is the only one that glittered in the photo. I used the sparkle filter on my camera.  Blooming flower and a barrel cactus. 

 The sky, clouds and scenery were gorgeous. John standing on the rock foundation of something. 

This pipe ran from the springs to the mine. If you look close in the photo you can see the bottom of the tram at the bottom right, a water tank and up the hill are the tram towers. 

Last light on the Funeral mountains on our way home.