Somewhere on a desert highway

Leggy and I went to Death Valley and around the Mojave and Yosemite area last weekend. Pictures and narration are in the works, but for now...here are a few of our adventures in motion. It's a little long, but I couldn't resist the 360 panoramas. We went to the flattest place on the planet, The Racetrack (home of sailing stones); we found old miner's clothing and eating utensils and went in half a dozen mines (tailing wheels and stamp mills included!); we spotted coyotes, tarantulas, and rabbits; we ate cold supper, and we saw Ubehebe crater. We also dabbled in Darwin and Cerro Gordo...both of which deserve a return trip. Varney rarely leads us astray, but this time we found stuff that I'm sure Varney doesn't even know about.



This trip only increased my obsession with buying waterless property to call my own. I even have the Cerro Gordo caretaker's number programmed into my phone.

Butte Store and more (Part II)

Our second day was just as full. Here is one particular Miwok grinding rock.

All around the grinding rock area were the manzanita copycats accept for the fact that their under bark was bright green. So cool.

This is the inside of a gigantic Miwok round house.

The Kennedy Mine had four tailing wheels (two still standing) that help carry the ore up and over the hills to the mill. This is the Kennedy mainframe looking through the tallest tailing wheel.

Sheep Ranch was cool. We almost crashed Allen and Allyn's reunion. The old gas station was a highlight.

A little closer to Yosemite is Chinese Camp. The main grouping of abandoned buildings were all connected to chicken coops. We were able to go inside some of the buildings.

Leggy picks stickers from her socks...a major theme of this trip.

Knight's Ferry was a nice surprise. We went to see the covered bridge, and discovered some fortress type buildings.

Mucky muck.

The bridge was covered to keep the wood from getting wet and expanding and cracking.