Brrrrr!

It was hovering right around the freezing mark when I got to Michigan last Wednesday, but hasn't been above 12 since then. Nights are dipping well below zero and with wind chill most days it's been too cold for any sane person to be outside more than a few minutes. Still, there have been snowmobiles running up and down the frozen river. Those guys must have heated suits or something.

Still, the snow is beautiful and it's been sunny for most of the week. I went for a short walk on the river today in the sun and it felt great. There's a good 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, too much to make it much fun walking in the woods, but the snowmobile tracks on the river make a decent place to walk.

The dang battery in Dad's car has died yet again. Maybe it's just from the cold. Or, more likely, the rats have moved back in, trying to keep warm. Glad he's got my trusty old Subaru as backup.

We had a nice visit yesterday from cousin Randy, who I hadn't seen in a few years. If you ever see Wysong pet products, that's his company.

Also a visit from a guy that dad met, I think, through something having to do with his propane. Now this guy comes out and plows Dad's driveway (which is nearly 1/4 mile long) and won't take any payment. Plus brings him fresh eggs. I've probably commented on this before, but this seems to be a common thing here: it seems that everyone who does any business for my dad ends up befriending him and then stopping in to check on him. I just don't see that happening out where I live. This time Dan, the plower, brought wife and kids to visit too.

Chores accomplished for Dad this week: Stocked up on groceries, pet food and pet meds; cooked three big batches of soup for the freezer; mopped and vacuumed; cleaned the bathrooms, fridge and kitchen; shovelled a path to the garage; re-ordered prescriptions. I won't be back until June. I hope he'll be OK. I do worry about him.

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Dante's Ridge

Here are the pictures from my hike on Dante's Ridge my last day in Death Valley.

The trail traverses all of those up and downs over to the bottom of the red rock ridge.

The most difficult part of the hike was negotiating all of these rocks.

Not the best trail

Red rock, blue sky

The trail makes a startling change from red to white.

Changing from white to red

Look at those colors!

Dante's ridge

Lots of this intense orange and green lichen on the north side of rocks.

Neon lichen

 

Looking down on Badwater basin. At more than 300 feet below sea level, it's the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere.

Badwater basin from dante's ridge

 

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Back to Civilization

I'm spending the night in Sin City tonight, awaiting my early flight to Michigan in the morning. How's that for contrast? 85 and sunny to 25 and snow. I'll be happy to head home to the Whidbey Island's temperate climate in another week.

Yesterday I did a very challenging 8 mile hike, first driving up to about 5000 feet and then hiking along Dante's Ridge, with stellar views both right and left for most of the way. Lots of steep up and down, lots of rocks. and not a single other person after the first half mile. I'll post pictures later as I am too tired to mess with them tonight. And last night I barely had enough energy left to chew my dinner.

I drove down to the southern exit from Death Valley this morning, through Pahrump and on towards Las Vegas. Just a few miles outside of LV I happened upon Red Rock Canyon, so did the 13 mile scenic drive through there. Not enough time to really explore there, but I'd like to go back.

On into Las Vegas to return my car. The car return facility for all the different rental care companies is separate from the airport by several miles. You enter this huge facility and then pass all these different signs, turn here for Hertz, here for Alamo, etc. I turned in where it clearly, so I thought, said turn here for Dollar, but when I turned it wasn't Dollar at all, and there's no clear way out. After several unsuccessful manuevers I was directed to go through the "do not enter" sign which led me to the Dollar exit. Where I had to provide my ID and get permission to exit, as I had forgotten to buy gas, and the charge is some ridiculous thing like $19 per gallon if you don't return with a full tank. After finally returning the car, I found there is no shuttle from the car rental to the hotel, you have to take the shuttle back to the airport and then pay for a shuttle to the hotel. Already being a bit irritated, I decided to opt for a taxi. It can't be more than 3 or 4 miles to the strip, but still cost $20. Then the room at the Luxor, which I thought was a pretty good deal for $60, has an added $26 "resort fee". Oh well, it's only money.

I spent a bit of time wandering around a few casinos tonight but had to get out of there as the smoke really irritates my cough, and anyway it only took me 30 minutes to lose my $40 limit on the slots. One time years ago on a business trip I won about $400 on the quarter slots and I keep hoping for a repeat. That was back when the payoff came out in real quarters, which made it a lot more fun.

Las Vegas is fun but 4 hours is about my limit.

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Wild Rose Canyon and Mesquite Dunes

It's my last day here already! The day after I got here, I thought oh no, 5 days is way too long, and I'm never coming back here again. Now I'm wanting to come back, with camping gear. This is mostly because of the drive I took yesterday up to Wild Rose campground. This is about 20 miles off the main road, up at 4100 feet. The drive there is just beautiful, and fun, with lots of hairpin curves and hills. And there are trees! And water! I can only imagine what the stars must look like there at night. There's a trail up to Wild Rose peak, which is supposed to have great vistas, but it's an 8 mile round trip and I only had time to do about the first mile. I've been unable to get myself going before noon, which is limiting since it gets dark about 5:30.

from the trail to wild rose peak

charcoal kilns at wild rose

I love the charcoal kilns. They're beautiful works of art and look like they belong in the landscape.They were built in 1877 and only in use for about 3 years, to supply fuel to a silver mine 30 miles away.

The drive to wild rose

On the way back I stopped for a sunset hike at the Mesquite dunes.

mesquite dunes

The mountains light up at sunset

I am so grateful to a Japanese gentleman I met my first day here. He had found an abandoned hiking stick and gave it to me. It has been very useful navigating the rocky trails here. I would definitely bring one with me next time!

I am getting a little tired of eating at the 49er cafe, the one and only dinner choice here. Well, there is an expensive fancy restaurant too, but I'm not in the mood for that, as the 49er is expensive enough, at least $15 for most entrees. And there's only about 8 choices of entree. Last night I had a green salad and a cup of soup, for $23. The previous night I'd ordered a small green salad ($7) to go with my pasta. Last night I just wanted a large green salad for my entree ($14) but when it came, it was exactly the same size as the small salad I'd gotten the night before. I complained, so they brought me an extra plate piled with greens.

 

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Falls Canyon

Yesterday I did a 6 mile hike up Falls Canyon. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The falls at the end of Falls Canyon

200 Feet Below Sea Level

Here I am, 200 feet below sea level at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. It's 70 and sunny, of course. I almost brought my raincoat, northwesterner that I am, but the weather forecast shows 0% precipitation for the foreseeable future. And it is dry, dry dry here. The recommendation is to drink at least a gallon of water per day.

If I came here again I think I would stay overnight in Las Vegas before driving here. I got into Vegas about 3:30, got my car and hit the road, thinking I would stop outside of Vegas and stock up on some groceries and have dinner. It took me an hour just to get out of city traffic, and then there was nothing, nothing, and more nothing, until I got to Beatty, which is just one step up from nothing. Settled for a mini-mart pizza for dinner and drove on in the dark, hoping my gps was correct, as I had no map. By the time I got here about 7:30 I was grouchy and had just enough energy to walk over to the general store and get snacks and beer. And a bottle opener, as I'd left my keys with my trusty bike/bottle opener/key fob at home.

Yesterday, after sleeping in too late for breakfast at the restaurant here (and it goes until 11am. I was tired!) I got a sandwich at the store and took off for a hike at Golden Canyon. I'd done part of this when I was here a few years ago with WomanTours, but this time I did a 5 mile loop. The first mile or so is one of the most popular hikes in the park so I had plenty of company. But when I turned off to do the alternate loop back through ---- gulch, no humans for the rest of the hike. Just a lizard, a few dusty green plants (desert holly, I think), red rock, pink rock, green rock, yellow rock, blue sky. And silence. Nice.

And about that dry: I must've come close to downing the recommended gallon of water but still did not have to make a pee stop in 4 hours of hiking. And yet I never felt sweaty.

After that I took the short, steep drive to Artist's Palette. Hard to believe I actually rode my bike up here the last time, and enjoyed it. I am so out of shape right now it just doesn't sound fun. The view here doesn't even seem real, so many colors: light green, avocado green, pink, mauve, yellow. Pictures really just don't show it.

 

 

 

 

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