Bad News!

Water is rare and precious in Death Valley.  Imagine a surveyor’s disappointment when he couldn’t get his mule to drink the water at Badwater Basin. He wrote on his map “bad water” and the name stuck. But Badwater pool is not poisonous, just salty which make it undrinkable, but not inhabitable by certain critters designed for just such an extreme environment as this (pickleweed, aquatic insects, and larvae).

Ancient water fills this pool year round. Much of it began as ice age snow and rain hundreds of miles away in the mountains of central Nevada.  The runoff seeped into porous limestone bedrock and began a long underground flow through a regional conifer. It merges her at Badwater along with the fault line at the mountain’s base. Salts dissolve from old deposits and flow to the surface, making the spring water “bad.”

 

Badwater Basin is the lowest point in the United States at 282 feet below sea level. 

Here’s a close-up of the water.  Apparently, a very rare water snail lives in this water and you are not allowed to get nearer to the water than the boardwalks.

This is a close-up of the ground that is off the hard-packed salty surface in the next photo.

You can actually walk out quite a way into the basin on this hard-packed, salty surface.

After that amazing day visiting Mesquite Dunes, Harmony Borax Works, Furnace Creek Visitor Center, Golden Canyon, Artist Drive and Badwater Basin, we were blessed with this amazing sunset.  I took pictures as it developed so you could see how the colors deepened as the sun continued to set over the mountains.

 

And, finally, the sun has set and now the sky has this sephia look to it.  A perfect black-and-white photo!

 

Revelation 22:1-5 // Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.  And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

“Hello” Death Valley!

We had checked the weather report for Death Valley and found that the highs were in the mid-90s with evenings in the low 60s.  Not really too bad since we were going to have full hookups (50 amp—ample for running the A/C all day!) and the resort had a pool … I’m down with that!

We had to crawl up two passes over 4200 feet … and they were looooooooooooong, slooooooooooooow crawls! 

Here we are at the national park entrance sign. 

Our first stop after entering Death Valley was at Father Crowley Overlook.  Not really exciting, but it was the first “official” stop inside the park.  We forgot to read the sign, but maybe Father Crowley is who they named Crowley Lake after?  Just guessin’ here!

Death Valley isn’t amazing because of its individual scenic areas, it’s stunning because of the overall stark and startling landscape which, quite frankly, is challenging to capture in snapshots. If you have never visited Death Valley, add it to your “bucket list”.  (Their season is October through March.) 

Death Valley is a land of great extremes which characterize this hottest, driest, lowest national park.  The extremes in temperature create scenic vistas and ecological niches that host startling biological diversity. Death Valley may appear to be a vast, empty wasteland, but to the aficionado it is a place of wonder.  The colorful and rugged terrain shouts tales of cataclysmic forces that thrust rock layers upward and opposing erosional forces battling to tear them down. 

Death Valley is considered the hottest spot on earth.  Why, you ask?  I thought you’d never ask!  Low elevation is one cause, but the valley’s enclosing mountains recirculate hot air and keep it from dissipating at night. Summer daytime highs often reach 120° and lows may not drop below 100° at night!  The hottest recorded daytime temperature was 134°.  People who were here at that time recorded tales of swallows just falling out of the sky!

Another interesting tidbit of information about Death Valley is that geologic forces make the highest point in the lower 48 states—Mount Whitney—just 100 miles from the lowest point, Badwater Basin in Death Valley.  Simply amazing!

It is a fantastic encounter with the natural elements.  Sunsets transition to the deepest rich red. This photo was taken from our campsite on our first night.  Some nights we did not have a colorful night sky display while other nights we were mesmerized. 

 

Once the sun sets it becomes pitch black at night and the sky is stuffed with more stars than you can imagine.  We would set up our chairs outside the RV and silently sit there just to stare at the night sky.  The Milky Way was clearly evident … it was the first thing I said when I got out of the RV, “Gary, I think that’s the Milky Way!”  And the Big Dipper sat there just right above the horizon, so very easily recognizable.  I wish my camera could have captured the sky for you, but it’s just not that sophisticated. 

 

The night sky made me think of my dad, Chuck, who passed away last year.  He was an amateur astronomer and could have told me what all the star clusters were that I didn't recognize.  My dad would have really enjoyed sitting outside in the dark pointing out all the different star constellations to us.

Although I couldn’t take pictures of the sky, I did take a number of pictures while we were simply driving down the roads in the park to try to give you an idea of what this harsh landscape looks like.  Here’s the first sampling starting with our drive into Stovepipe Wells (sitting 5 feet above sea level) which is where our campground was located.

 

Here are some shots of our motorhome in the RV park while we are preparing dinner on the BBQ. We have our TV trays set up outside so we can catch the sunset while we eat dinner.  Evenings were a wonderful, balmy 60 degrees ... I loved the evenings in Death Valley.

 

 

Here is Gary bar-b-queing at the campsite under Sadie's supervision, of course!  (P.S. Our RV in this  pic is on the extreme right!)

Gary has MASTERED (and I do mean "mastered") the art of campfire marshmallows!  He makes the absolute best ever and we have been enjoying a couple every night that we had that bag (which, alas, is now empty).  We do not use a gas grill, but still enjoy a nice charcoal grill which does make for some awesome marshmallows.  Check out these beauties ... yum! yum!

At both Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek Campgrounds you can make reservations for the RV sites (Stovepipe has 14 full hook-up sites) so we made reservations since full hook-ups were something I wasn’t willing to forego especially in Death Valley.  Both Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells have hotels in addition to their campgrounds with restaurants and swimming pools.  If you need to stay “connected” to the outside world, your best bet is Furnace Creek.  I had no cell reception at Stovepipe and the Internet is very slooooooooooooooooow (and that’s an understatement!).  But, at Furnace Creek you can get wireless inside the Visitor Center and I had cell reception there too.

Oops, I digress!  In tomorrow’s blog I’ll get back to our sightseeing adventures with our first stop at Mesquite Dunes!

 

Psalms 8:3-9 // When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!  You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.  O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

 

On the Road Again!

Hello there, my blog-following-friends!  We were “down” for a while, but after some map and soul searching, we decided that we needed to hit the road again and find out what the scuttlebutt about Death Valley was all about.

We got passes for the Carson Valley Swim Center and I’ve been taking the water aerobics classes while Gary has been lane swimming.  The water aerobics classes are not for sissies!  My sisters and I did a few in Palm Springs, but that was wussy stuff compared to these classes in Carson!  They also have this awesome “therapy pool” set to a lovely 85°!  After we swim, we spend at least 15 minutes in the therapy pool.  Oh yeah, I love being retired and having the luxury of doing an hour class and then follow it up relaxing in the therapy pool. Honestly, it just doesn’t get much better than that!  By the time we finish swimming and therapy pooling it, the morning is shot … but who cares … we’re retired!

Anyway, I digress, because we both were talking to people in the therapy pool who kept telling us that Death Valley is one of their favorite places (really???).  So that did it, with those recommendations and my itchiness to get back on the road, we made the decision to head down south back into California (eek!).

On the road again, driving down 395 (boy, have we seen that road a lot through the years), we stopped in Bishop, CA at Brown’s Town Campground for one night. 

Fall colors are everywhere along the 395 and they are absolutely, abundantly evident here in the campground.

This is a view from our campsite looking over the golf course towards the eastern Sierras.

Brown’s Town Campground was kind of cool.  They have this strip of “miniature” old western buildings that contain the laundry facilities, restrooms, and some building are just for historical reference.

We took off the next morning to venture into the renowned Death Valley National Park which you’ll start reading about in our next blog!

Isaiah 49:11&13 // "I will make all My mountains a road, and My highways will be raised up … Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people and will have compassion on His afflicted.

Where have you been???

Ha!ha!ha!  Should the question REALLY be, "Where have I been?"  Have you been wondering where we've been hiding?  Now I'm driving almost 50% of the time when we're out on the open road. Here's my "hello" to you from Elko!

We drove straight through from Elko to Gardnerville, NV and have been in a period of "down time" getting stuff done.  We were so blessed our first night here with the loveliest of sunsets.  Check out this beauty taken from my sister's front lawn.

We spent a few days just kicking around and then my seven sisters and one sister-in-law took off for a week in Palm Springs.  It's our annual Girls Weekend (well, not really a weekend, but it's hard to lose that name!). I drove to LA with my two sisters and we had a slumber party at my sister Kitti's condo in Old Torrance (right across from Torrance Bakery).  There were five of us who invaded her husband's space -- David was a good sport about it.  The next morning, I spotted Cassie and Glen McCarter in front of the bakery.  What a wonderful surprise.  Unfortunately, it was a very short "hello" as we were leaving for Anaheim.

You're never too old for the Magic Kingdom ... supposedly the happiest place on earth!  My feet, however, did NOT think of it as the happiest place on earth! 

Here's Disneyland, all decked out just for Halloween.

 

 

The most amazing thing to me was, here we are at Disneyland, on a Thursday (mid week) in early October, and it was crowded!  What's up with that?  Why aren't these kids in school?  The average wait time for a ride was about 45 minutes.  We decided to forego riding together and wherever we could we stood in the "singles" line which was way, way shorter and made it a whole heck of a lot faster getting on a ride.  This cut our ride wait time down by at least 20-30 minutes on a ride!  I highly recommend going in the singles lines.

We bought the tickets to go between California Adventure and Disneyland.  We rode four rides in CA Adventure (Radiator Springs Racers, California Screamin', Soarin' Over California, and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror).  My two favs were CA Screamin' and Tower of Terror!  Then we spent the rest of the day (from around lunch time on) in Disneyland. We actually got on every ride that we wanted to enjoy!  It was 11 hours of fantasy fun by the time we got back to the hotel for the night.

 

Can't remember what ride this was, but we sure had some sister fun!

 

We always plan dinner out one night.  First we went to have a drink at PGA West (pictures below taken there) and then we went to the Cliff House for dinner.  We decided to split a bunch of appetizers rather than each order a separate dinner.  Scrumptious!

 

All of us!

 

Here I am with my sister Trisha, sister-in-law Lori, and sister Jeanne.

Sisters Joani and Nancy

Can you say, "Retired!"?

 

Lovely Lamoille Canyon

As I promised, in this blog you are going to be surprised by just how beautiful this lovely little canyon is located 20 miles from Elko in the Humboldt National Forest.  I took over 100 pictures and struggled significantly striving to select just the right photos for your viewing enjoyment.

Lamoille Canyon is the largest valley in the Ruby Mountains, Nevada’s wettest mountain range.  It is approximately 12 miles long and was extensively sculpted by glaciers in previous ice ages.  This spectacular byway winds around the base of the 11,387-foot Ruby Dome, and climbs through the glacier-carved canyon to 8,800 feet. Four geology-interpretive panels lead travelers past meadows bursting with blazing wildflowers, abundant wildlife, waterfalls, and avalanche chutes. Mountain goats, big horn sheep and an array of birds can be seen carefully perched in the rocky outcrops above (uh, really … we didn’t see any!). However, we did glimpse two deer as they ran across the road in front of our vehicle—but no goats or sheep.

We caught the canyon at a perfect time.  There was snow on the mountain tops, a dusting of snow at lower elevations, and the leaves were changing color covering the canyon slopes with paint brush strokes of gold, red, and green.

Our first stop up this carved-out canyon was this picturesque picnic area with easy access to Lamoille Creek.  Check out the lovely gold and reds in the creek photos below.  The dogs had a great time exploring and it was very difficult to get them back in the car!

We continued our drive up the valley and at almost every turn in the road, we pulled over to take a picture.  There were very few cars on the road so we could easily stop in the middle of the road and take a picture without worrying about holding up any traffic.  Here is a series of photos from the drive up and then back down the canyon.  Enjoy the breathtaking panoramic views and spectacular fall colors!

Once again, the “Gorilla” came in handy and we took our picture by the Lamoille Glacier Overview.

As we finished our drive, we stopped just below the picnic area and took this photo of the valley floor below.  This valley is home to the cities of Elko, Spring Creek, Lamoille, and Carlin.

Psalms 145:14-16 // The LORD sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down.  The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time.  You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.