Death Valley...part one

For Crystal's birthday we did a day trip to Death Valley National Park.  Our original plan was to make a run through Titus Canyon (it's a 4 wheel drive route) but the road was closed with the rains and snow last week.  So we moved onto plan B and enjoyed the desert with all the other visitors.  Our first stop was Stove Pipe Wells, that's where we found out why Titus Canyon was closed.

Not far from there is the Mosaic Canyon hike.  It's quite popular apparently.  It doesn't look like much at first...but...it's a really neat hike up a narrow section with a congomeration of rocks and stone.  I can see how this place got it's name, Mosaic...the layering and mixes of types of rock are just amazing.

The forces of nature have been busy here, there is no doubt.  The power of water filled with rocks and debris that rushes through here must be incredible to witness.   Having never seen that myself, I am able to see the results of such power.  The trail works into a 'narrows' section, the stone has been polished smooth by wind and water. 

At one point many years ago, someone put in a "ladder" into the stone.  I'm thinking that the opening to the right was not there at the time and a person had to climb up the rock to get further up the canyon.

Cassy, of course, had a great time exploring.  She runs ahead, comes back to see where we are, and runs ahead again.  She puts on a lot more miles than we do.  She is a happy girl when she gets out, for sure.

In part two, we'll continue the adventures on our day trip to Death Valley.

A day at Gunsight

Last weekend we headed out to California for the day to explore around Gunsight Mine with some friends from work. The weather couldn't have been any better...no wind, about 65 degrees and sunny...just awesome!

Dave and Sue were supposed to go on the ATV club's outing in this area but Dave ended up having to work, so they asked if we would go out wth them for the day. It was really nice to be out with a tiny group instead of 12 or more. Got to do a lot more exploring instead of just riding. Found some interesting old remains from the mining era. Having read some on the area just made what we found more interesting. Explored the Noon Day and War Eagle while we were out there also. Ended our day at the China Ranch Date Farm for root beer floats. Yummy!

On another note...noticed a wobble on the front so I took the truck to the tire shop. Two of the tires were starting to seperate wouldn't you know. Well, now we have new tires!