backlog from the desert

Didn't have internet access while in the desert, so i can't update this. In Las Vegas right now, so i'm on a dialup, so here's a bit of backlogged entries.

a day of extremes
today was definitely a day of extremes. i accidentally woke david at 4:45AM when i went to the bathroom in the motel room. that resulted in denise waking up too. it took a bit over an hour to get on the road, primarily because the motel 6 parking lot was really dumb, and we had to park far away from the room, which then resulted in me having to haul stuff a long distance, over multiple
trips.
the drive from ridgecrest to Death Valley was really scenic. enroute to the valley proper, we took a 6 mile gravel road to the charcoal kilns. the road to the kilns was rough, and led into a canyon that had gotten fresh snow the night before. as we drove further along, the temperature outside continued to drop, and the snow on the road accumulated. by the time we had reached the kilns, it
was 23F outside, with about 2 inches of snow on the ground. we ran outside briefly, in shorts, and then went back to the car.
as we drove into the valley to stove pipe wells, the temperature gradually rose, and it was 60F by the time we got there. we decided to drive to the southern most point, and work our way back, which meant driving about 60 miles to Badwater. we did stop briefly about half way there in Furnace Creek, to pick up a park map,and look at the park museum.
badwater was alot of fun. badwater is the lowest point in the western hemisphere at 280 feet below sea level. in addition to there being a pool of high saline water (badwater), there is a huge salt flat where the water has evaporated, leaving the salt behind. there was a newly constructed boardwalk
around the water, and then we were able to walk out onto the salt flat. david had a lot of fun.

we spent the rest of the day checking out the sites in the southern end of the park, and spent the night in stove pipe wells. the view from the motel room was gorgeous. there was only one resteraunt in stove pipe wells, and it was ok. david was completely psycho at dinner, and refused to eat
anything other than water, bread, cheerios & applesauce.
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a barren, desolate place
this morning i ended up waking up at 5am, needing the bathroom again. but rather than using the bathroom, and risking waking everyone up, i went outside the motel room. the deed went ok, but it was very cold outside, and the cold woke me up completely. i tried to fall back to sleep, but couldn't, and decided to watch the sun rise over mountains. it was still quite chilly outside, but i persevered, and got some gorgeous views of the sun rising.
once we got on the road, we went to the sand dunes just outside of stove pipe wells. these dunes are over 150 feet tall in places, and are composed of very fine sand, which is nice & soft to play in. we had lots of fun playing in the sand (hundreds of miles from a beach).
after a short stop at a salt creek, we drove about 40 miles north to Scotty's Castle. The castle was nestled in a canyon, and was gorgeous, especially considering how remote it was. after the castle we drove about 10 miles west to Ubehebe Crator. It was amazing.
Its this 1/2 mile diameter crator that was created a few thousand years ago, when magma rose up encountered an under ground
pond, which spontaneously turned to steam, causing a massive explosion, and the resulting crator. the crator was huge, and probably deeper than it was wide.
the landscape surrounding the crator was completely devastated, and covered in lava rock. it was also extremely windy. i hiked half way around the crator, and got some amazing views.
aferwards, we drove to Gold Point Ghost town (in Nevada), where i am right now. The drive,
was about 70 miles, along some of the straightest, flatest roads i've ever seen. I really wanted to push the car up to 100MPH, but Denise wouldn't agree, so i didn't. I did drive much of the way at 80-85MPH though. The town is extremely isolated (prolly a good 50 miles from any other civilization). Our cabin does have electricity, but the running water has been turned off for the winter.
Anyway, this is actually the remnants of a real ghost town that did silver mining town.
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more updates to come....