January 17, 2017 Death Valley, California

66 sunny and only a little bit of wind today. We hiked Gower Gulch to Golden Canyon.

Here is the map. The hike starts at the parking lot for Golden Canyon. We went up Gower gulch. It is very colorful. The sun was so intense that the photos came out pretty washed out.

A road going to an old mine. John in Gower gulch.

We swung around and headed back toward Golden Canyon. John with his halo highlighted by the shadow. Manly beacon is the high point.

Looking back at the badlands and forward as John heads down the trail. We had lunch at the high point.

Red Cathedral and John heading down the trail.

John dropping into Golden Canyon. It is the most popular trail in the park. It is a gorgeous canyon, very colorful.

Golden Canyon. Reds and yellows.

Golden is very narrow at the mouth.

January 16, 2017 Death Valley, California

Low 70’s, sunny and windy.

We headed up a canyon we had not been to before. Echo Canyon. It has a rough road up through a narrow canyon, then to a gold mine and ghost town. The trail description  says you can take two wheel drive high clearance. We were not sure how far we could go.  Very pretty canyon.

Layers on the canyon wall. Inyo mine ghost down. The mill was taken down, but all the parts of a stamp mill were there.

Plus a few buildings.

This one had stone steps and the remains of a cupola. The sign for Echo Canyon, the narrow gorge cuts through the Bonanza king formation. All over the high walls erosion has carved innumerable caves, spire-framed overhands and hollows, producing an eerie landscape. One of the arches seen and a hollow barrel cactus.

Another building in the ghost town. These hills always look like they are deflated to me.

The afternoon light made the canyon wall shine. There are a couple miles of this very narrow canyon at the beginning of it.  A lot of it was loose gravel that you had to keep going in so you didn’t sink in.

The Needles Eye seen from both sides. It is the biggest ‘window’ in the canyon.

Narrow canyon, wierd strata on the walls.

Historic artifacts at the ghost town dump, brittle bush blooms, and a cool shadow on a rock. The road was pretty rough in spots. I would never have taken the car up it, but John did a great job.

The last rays of sun over the Panamint mountains into the main Death Valley . We stopped at Furnace Creek Inn to have a cocktail and watch the sunset.

January 11-14, 2107 Shoshone to Death Valley, California

 

Lone Pine is done! Three new stitches for me, the diamond fern stitch, the popcorn stitch and the Indian wrap. The center is a slice of a pine cone my sister made for me and I set it in resin. The rest of the pine cone and another, plus shells newly set in resin for future projects.

Cute little basket. I wanted to try starting one from a knot of pine needles and used a palm inflorecence around the edge. Sunset tonight.

The almost full moon rising over Lake Robbie. We drove into Pahrump to resupply. Seems like it was raining last time we drove this direction.

And it was still raining when we drove down to Death Valley with the bus. It was 63, cloudy, and a bit rainy in the valley. But  the next morning we had a whole corner of the campground to ourselves. Today was sunny and 70’s.

Yesterday I rode my bike up Mustard Canyon.  It was dark and gray so I took these photos with the special effect in my camera. The canyon walls are yellow, hence the name Mustard Canyon.

Sunset only had one little dot of pink. John is changing all the lights over to LED lights.

I am learning some bead stitches so I can maybe use them in my baskets. On the left is the crossweave stitch, the middle is the right -angle weave and the end is layered crossweave. The view from the campground.

Sunset on the view from the campground. John relaxing before BBQing dinner.

Sunset on the Panamint mountains, the view the other way from the campground.