December 27, 2019 Death Valley, California

Today we woke up to blue skies, sunshine and snow on the Panamint Mountains. Later in the morning the wind came up and blew dust higher than the mountains in the valley. 

The wind blowing dust on the valley floor. Father south there was still wind, but not much dust. Even water where there usually is none.  

Boulders in Sidewinder canyon and snow on the peaks. We came back to Sidewinder Canyon to hike the rest of the slot canyons we didn't hike last time here. There are 6 slot canyons off this canyon, we only hiked three last time. This time there is snow on Smith Peak at the end of the canyon. 

We started in the tight, dark, narrow high walled canyon that we didn't have time to explore last time here. John in the mouth of the canyon. You find yourself playing peep a boo with the light above. Occasionally you find yourself literally wrapped in rock; it is all around you.

 John took this of me under a natural bridge. John and I climbing different dry waterfalls. 

 John in the the undulating walls of the canyon. John with some colorful rock formations in the slot canyon. 

Looking down at John from one of the dry waterfalls. At this spot in the canyon it curls tightly back on itself, like a switchback. We came in the right side, turned around and out the left side.  It is dark in there, that is why the photo is so bad. 

Evening light on one of the other side canyons. This canyon is described as starting with a tall occlusion of angular blocks. The threshold is a vaulted chamber. The blocks are bigger than cars. We were too worn out  to climb over more rocks. Another one we will have to come back to.  

The view out of the mouth of another small canyon.John found this great place in the sun in the main canyon for lunch. 64 degrees and sunny, it was heavenly. 

December 26, 2019 Death Valley, California

Today it was cloudy and rainy. Good day to hang out. Here is a drawing of the new plans for Furnace Creek Ranch. They have built the left side of the photo including the building with the cupola on top. They are now working on phase two, 80 casitas pictured in the right side of the photo. They tore down a historic western/mining kind of place and put up a cheap modern mix of styles that look like a cheap casino complete with the buffet. Made a parking lot into a lawn, fountain and palm trees- there was never enough parking before, now there is even less. They tore out a historic date palm orchard to put the casitas in. And in the picture they have palm trees where the golf course, campground and visitors center  is now. They are putting in hundreds of palm trees. Guess they don't know it is a desert with very limited water.  Oh well they didn't ask me. We've been coming here for over 20 years and it has been wonderfully the same until now. 

This is what the casitas will look like. Does not exactly match the faux southwestern of the rest of the village. They are more Victorian. This is one of the entrances to the buffet, ice cream shop and gift shop they put up. 

Some nice native american baskets in the museum.  Death Valley is celebrating it's 25th anniversary of being a national park. it is the hottest in the world, driest in north america, and lowest spot in the USA. 

This 5th wheel has a rear and side deck. Pretty fancy, but it has been too cold to make much use of it right now. We went up to Furnace Creek Inn for a holiday drink. This is the remodeled lobby. 

December 25, 2019, Sidewinder Canyon, Death Valley, California

We hiked in the southern part of Death Valley. We drove past Badwater. The place was packed. Cars parking up and down the road. People walking out in front of cars not paying attention.  There was a crowd (line of dots in the middle of the white salt pan) hiking out to the water in the normally dry Lake Manley. The big storm at Thanksgiving dropped lots of water there.  Another shot of water in the normally dry Lake Manley.

We hiked up Sidewinder Canyon. A new one for us. We started in the parking lot at -250 feet below sea level. John in the mouth of the canyon. The canyon walls are layers of fanglomerate which is layers of rocks that came out the canyon mouth with water and mud. Then they cemented together over millions of years. It looks like dirt with rocks in it, but it is cement with rocks in it. Then the mountains uplifted taking the fanglomerate with it. It snapped into vertical fractures that eroded to into slot canyons. There are 6 slot canyons off the sides of Sidewinder Canyon.  

This is the mouth of one of the slot canyons. Very high walls with a narrow canyon. Countless cobbles are entombed in the walls. sharp boulders poke out like ancient booby traps. The canyon was pretty long and steep. We climbed up and up over lots of rocks.

John at the mouth of the canyon on the way out. The slot canyons are narrow, dank, claustrophobic places. They split over and over again into a labyrinths of stone. It was cloudy when we started the hike, but the sun came out mostly in the valley. The canyons were too narrow for us to have sun.  

John in another slot canyon. This one was also pretty long. All of them go up very steeply and it is a lot of work to climb them. Looking at the sky and clouds above.  

There are huge rocks hanging off the canyon walls, looks like they are just ready to drop on us. But the fanglomerate is like concrete and they are in there pretty tight. John in a long winding passage of a slot canyon. 

The mouth of the second slot canyon. We would be like a dot at the bottom this the walls are so high. The walls of the main canyon converge into a sinuous passage. John walking the narrows of the main Sidewinder canyon.  

John walking the narrows of the main Sidewinder canyon. The narrows lower walls are nicely polished, bulging and undercut.   

The narrows of this canyon went on and beautifully on. John took this of me in the narrows of the main canyon. The turn of the canyon was so overhung it was like a cave.

  I took this of John in the narrows of the main canyon. Where I was standing in the turn of the canyon it was so overhung it was like a cave. I am looking out at John from the spot where John took the previous photo of me entering the overhanging cave turn of the canyon. This is another side slot canyon. It was getting dark so we only went part way in. We will have to come back and explore it. 

John took this of me near the mouth of the canyon. The canyon was so narrow I could reach out and touch both walls at the same time.  The walls of the canyon were so high and the canyon so narrow there was very little light in there. It was more like spelunking  in a cave than hiking. A spot where some light came into the slot canyon.

 John took this of me in the narrow slot canyon. Back in Death Valley it was near sunset. 

The clouds lifted partway off the Panamint mountains and there was snow on the top. Rocks hanging on the side of the canyon. It felt like they would drop on us at anytime. Conglomerate rocks and rocks exposed at the top of the canyon. Small plants are starting to come up. Hopefully this is a sign of a big bloom this spring.