Dan's Day 2

We got off to a cloudy start this morning. "The Old Man of the Mountain" is in profile gazing skyward as we leave the refuge.

Upon reaching Death Valley the sky was blue once again.

Devil's Cornfield is on the edge of sand dunes and on our route to Mosaic Canyon.

The plants are arrow weed. The stalks were used as arrow shafts by native Americans.

Heading into Mosaic Canyon Forge on, intrepid tourist. And check out those rock walls.

Explorer pointing the way......

Only a goat or an agile 17 year old .....

Goat boy made it to the top safely and back down the same route. It was important to see what was up there.

Pondering.....

It's always nice when someone offers to take a photo of you together. We returned the favor.

The exit and view of the valley to the north.

The emcee introduces "alluvial fan". The clouds moved into the valley at noon.

The first spring flowers for 2009 - Desert Gold

Ubehebe Crater - depending on what one reads it is 500, 600 or 800 feet to the bottom. and steep, steep trail to see "Little Hebe"

Little Hebe and cold grandson. We had planned to walk around the perimeter of the crater but the combination of high wind and 45-degree temperature caused us to rethink that plan. It was just too miserable and as we could see everything from here....

The return path from Little Hebe and an inside wall of Ubehebe.

Scotty's Castle at a cost of $1 million in the 1930s.

And one last stop for today - the geoglyph.

Dan's first day in NV and CA

Dan flew to Las Vegas last night and today was his first in sunny NV and CA. We have five days to tour and pack in as many great memories as possible. Pop worked today and will again tomorrow. Dan and I are on our own.

We began the morning with a stop in Shoshone to see miners quarters that were hollowed into the limestone hills in the 1920s and occupied into the 1960s. The interiors are not quite six foot. Those are lantern niches in the wall behind Dan.

A more recently added attraction and fun photo op.

There are about 13-14 "homes" making it a real neighborhood. A few had holes in the ceiling with chimney pipe to draw out smoke from winter fires.

More interesting rock. Next stop was the Shoshone Museum where, among other interesting things, there is a collection of bones from wooly mammoth found in the 1950s in Tecopa. The Tecopa mud hills are a wonderful spongy surface for walking.

Tens of thousands of years ago this area was Lake Tecopa making the mud understandable but why hills of mud rather than flats????

Next stop was China Ranch where we ate our picnic lunch, took two hikes and had delicious date-banana shakes.

Below the date farm we found Rainbow Mountain. The sun was too high to capture the multitude of colors in all their glory.

The next trail climbed for breathtaking views.

A happy grandmother......

Dan said he could see his home in New York from here.

"Jeepin" on Big Dune - 2/8/09

Big Dune was our destination for the afternoon. There are 5 square miles of dunes of which the centerpiece is a 1.5 square mile complex star dune that tops at 500 ft. It's a playground paradise for ATV'ers. We have been here a few times in recent years to watch the activity. The surrounding area is covered with toy haulers most weekends. The action goes on into the night.

The Jeep normally would not fare too well but with all the rain the sand was hard......it was too good an opportunity to let it pass.

This dune is not the tallest nor the steepest but it's not too shabby either.

Too steep for the Jeep but not too steep for goats (did someone say old?) who want to see the view and the action from the top. Look at all these tracks - no area left unexplored.

Coming down the hill on foot and remaining upright was a lot trickier than driving. I call it the sideways shuffle.

Tucki Mine and Death Valley Floods - 2/7/09

Can this truly be Death Valley? We left Ash Meadows Sat. morning with a quiet steady rain which didn't disappear when we reached the valley floor. Note the water running along and across this main north-south route. Here we are below sea level. Being intrepid (or is that stupid?), we continued to the Tucki Canyon, up over the pass at 4900 ft. elevation and down the other side .6 miles to the Tucki Mine. Snow was forecast to 5000 ft elevation so there was a good chance that we would see snow. Look at the size of the flakes! Truck remnants from active mining days.

And mine shacks

Cottontop or Mohave Redhead cactus with snow.

On the return trip we took a sidetrip up Sheep Canyon to see this beautiful arch.

The Nova Formation. A handy shelter from the weather, if needed.

Once back down to lower elevation and out on the road we found that the park service had closed the road back down to Stovepipe Wells. Fortunately it was "dummy locked" and I opened the gate for Vic and closed it behind us. We continued back down to the valley and towards home.

Hmmmm, this is getting serious.

The following day we read that this wash is the drainage for an area 4.3 square miles in size. It was just beginning to work up a head os steam.

As Paul Harvey says, "Here's the rest of the story"........upon arrival at Stovepipe Wells, we were stopped by park police to tell us that we could not continue further. The road was closed due to a few feet of mud and debris that had washed across beyond there. He was quick to agree that the Jeep would not have a problem - but rules are rules.

Although home was less than 1.5 hours away, first to the south and then east, our detour would take us first to the west --- way west. That was at 4:30pm. We rolled in here safely at 10:30pm with a dinner of oranges, dried fruit, nuts and jerky. There is a reason that we carry survival food and this is it.

Today, Monday the 9th, most of Death Valley is still closed for mud, debris, flooding, snow or ice. The road we needed to get home is now the only one open.

Furnace Creek, the official reporting station in the valley, gets on average from 1-2" of rain per year. Saturday they had 1.23" and since July 1, 2008 they have had 2.07".

Our grandson Dan is flying in on Weds. At least some of my plans for Death Valley destinations will have to change. He certainly will see it differently than it has been seen in a number of years. The best laid plans......