Canyon Colors and Castles

Death Valley seems to be another place that holds on to it's secrets and requires some exploring to find the diversity and beauty.
When we arrived the sun was painfully bright, the campground was a hot, gravel parking lot and everything looked too bold to approach.  In just 2 days we began to see that it would take weeks to even see a little in all the interesting areas of the park.

We got just a taste of the beauty of the canyons on our hike.  The rock colors that stripe the cliffs and mountains in bold contrast with one another were beautiful.  A road winds through one area that is called the Artist's Palette.  We'll see that next time.

Terry and I don't usually take 'house tours' on our travels, but Ranger Kate's offer to be our guide at Scotty's Castle in the north part of the park (about 50 miles away) changed all that!  What a treat to see her in action, fully costumed and coiffured as a news reporter of the early 1930's.  The story of the multi-millionaire who fell under the spell of Scotty, a 'Buffalo Bill Wild West Show' con artist is fascinating and Kate's tour wove you in the intrigue.  As you will see the Chicago couple who built the 'castle' that bears Scotty's name spared no expense on their desert get away.   Nice place to spend a little time!!

If you ever get a chance to visit Death Valley in the winter, don't miss it!  There is a lovely Furnace Creek Ranch Resort with swimming pool, restaurant and gift shop.  There are hookups in the Furnace Creek Campground if you have reservations.  Plan to stay a few days to glimpse the history and beauty that is so much more than you will first find.

Weather Permitting---3

From 2 snow delays to an onward rush from near heat exhaustion, the weather has sure called the shots on this journey.

It was 103 degrees on Friday (March 15) at Death Valley NP.  So the 5 days we planned to be there was shortened to 2.  We packed a lot in, but saw very little of the park and hope to return some winter.

 
We went on a great hike through the Golden Canyon on a water course that came down from the Red Cathedral at the end of the trail.  More pictures later of the amazing rock colors and shapes.

Most special of all and our main reason for coming to Death Valley was a tour of Scotty's Castle by our dear friend, Ranger Kate.  She arranged the schedule to lead a tour for us and then played  a special song from her programs at Great Basin, "Don't Fence Me In" on the Welte-Mignon Organ just for us as the tour ended.  We were honored and thrilled by her kindness and our 'custom' designed tour.  Here she is in period costume as the tour began.  I'm sorry you can't see the seams in her stockings that  'finish' off her costume.

This is a short update and I hope to share more later about Death Valley NP, an amazing place!  We are on our way to Oregon now from Winnemucca, NV and are spending the night in a rest area with a fantastic view.  Stay tuned!

Too Much "Dam" Fun!

We have enjoyed 7 days of pure delight with our Great Basin friends!  The day we arrived at Lake Mead on our circle of the campground we spotted our hosts, Jerry and Deb Otto also hosts at Great Basin our first year there.  Nate, Anna, Evan, Anna's mother and 9 day old, Grace greeted us at their home with an invite for supper.  Anthony came down from Las Vegas on his day off on Tues. and again for supper on Sat. at the Boulder City Brew Pub with Nate and family.  Then yesterday Kate came from Death Valley NP and we all got together at Nate and Anna's for a dinner party and game night with a short visit from Charles who was on duty.  Our lives have been so wonderfully touched by such fine friendships!

In between all this excitement Jerry and Deb helped us find a nice little campsite with a good view of the mountains.

  We toured Hoover Dam, an amazing engineering marvel!  Standing above it and looking down makes one have the greatest respect for those who built it and the 96 men who gave their lives in the process.  Such incredibly dangerous work!!  The canyon it fills is so deep!!


We've had some lovely, sunny and warm days for great walks and time to sit outside just reading and relaxing!  We took these pictures of the lake on a cloudy day without the sun glare of the desert!

 We really like the town of Boulder City.  I especially love that they have a Line Dance Class I can attend tonight at 7 pm.  I can't wait!  At 8:30 in the morning Anthony will meet us for a hike on the Old Railroad Trail (with 7 tunnels) that carried supplies for the building of the dam.  If we make it to Hoover Dam there is an ice cream shop there at the end!  How sweet is that?

Pretzels, Pinyons and Bluebirds

Leaving the 'cabin' and family in Sparta is never easy for me.  My sister, Ann, sent us off this time with about 10 bags of snack goodies for travel;  everything from corn blueberry muffins to big chunky pretzel sticks.  We didn't even have to think about purchasing and packing up snacks for a week.  Neither of us had munched on pretzels for years and now we are hooked on their crunchy snap for a quick perk up when the miles for the day are seeming just too long.  We found replacement pretzels at the grocery in Roswell, NM and will keep some with us.  Thanks, Ann!

Roswell, NM is a lot more than alien, UFO yard art and toy shops.  There are 2 really nice art and history museums we would return to visit,  an interesting blend of warehouses and older western style buildings and all the shopping we needed right at hand.  The birding seemed good too- roadrunners on Main St. and Eurasian Collarded Doves at Bottomless Lakes.

Our travel yesterday was lots of slow climbing from 3,400 some feet in Roswell to 7,474 feet here at Bluewater Lake State Park just west of Grants, NM.  With head winds during much of the time we were gas guzzling too!  We had a nice lunch break at Camping World above the Rio Grande west of Al-B-Q (Albuquerque) with a view back to the city and the Sangre de Cristo Mtns.  We love brewing a pot of tea with lunch in our 'little house'.  It just seems so civilized!!!

 

Arriving at Bluewater Lake State Park with only 14 electric hookup sites and a prediction of a 16 degree night, we were thrilled to find a hookup site.  In fact, no one else was in the hookup area at all.  The sites are on a hilltop with a view of Mt. Taylor in the distance.  It was windy in the view spots so we found the protection of some trees.  I opened my door to get out and looked down to find a beautiful pinyon pine cone.  We were back at near the same elevation as Lower Lehman at Great Basin and among the pinyon pines again!  There is a comfort in familiar terrain!  So we will stay a few days.  There is an amateur radio contest for Terry today.   He is enjoying it as I write.

The sunrise this morning was beautiful even at 21 degrees.  On a later walk Western Bluebirds flitted through the pinyons. We are looking forward to a walk to the creek canyon and along the lake shore.  It's only 48 now, but should get to 63 this afternoon.

We plan to stay here until Monday and leave for Kingman, AZ.  (Where are you Anthony?)  Then on to Lake Mead on Tuesday, March 5.  Can't wait to see "our buddies" there and Grace too!