Death Valley

made it to DV at dusk, it was a barren yet scenic drive from Vegas

Our DV campsite (full of RV's and older folks who were all super laid back, they even had free live music at night.)

random coyotes roamed the flats around our campsite during the day and at night they got together and made quite a ruckus.

it was fun to bike around and check out all the sites

Here we found an old borax mining site

Here we are, in the deserts of southern CA.

this was one of the best places to get out and enjoy the hot sun, Abs was soaking it up!

Joel got a bit hot and sweaty

walking out into the massive salt flats (5 miles across and 20 or so miles up and down the valley.

Pure salt! Abbi always has favored salt over sweet.

sun about to come up at our DV campsite

checking out the salt creek and the elusive mud puppies.

we couldn't see any of the mud puppies but it was still cool to see this creek running down the bottom of DV...it was mostly salt water.

Here we discovered our 1st Joshua Tree (actually not a tree but a version of the Yucca plant) just up the canyon from our 2nd camp spot (4,000') in DV

Biking up the canyon from our 2nd DV camp spot (wildrose camping area). Here it was about 20 degrees cooler than down in the valley!

remnants of old mining activity

Hiking around our camp spot looking for abandoned mines and cool photos

Here's a cool pic of a cactus

Our camp spot at wildrose. We had access to water and lots of privacy.

Figured we'd advertise while driving the last week or so. Don't think we'll get too much interest until we put it on ebay.

Abs updates the finances...no entries needed for income...just lots of food and gas.

Joel practices his paparazzi skills

some old charcoal ovens at the start of our wild rose peak hike.

Near the top of wild rose peak...it was a bit more strenuous than we anticipated.

At the summit of wildrose (10,000' or so) We could see the bottom of DV behind us to the east and Mt. Whitney to the west (the lowest and highest points in the continental US)

Abs thinks about something...enjoying the view

...while I dry out my socks

good morning!

getting ready to drive to Joshua Tree

en route we discovered a real ghost town

town jail, morgue, and hotel if available.

reportedly the power wagon ditched by Charles Manson as he fled from the cops near the ghost town of Ballarat

one of the only structures still "standing" in the ghost town

 Well, we are still in Joshua Tree National Park. Unlimited rock climbing. Cold nights (38-41 degrees) but warm (if you stay out of the wind) and sunny days. $10 per night camping is slowly getting old. Tonight may be our last night here. We have been exploring housing options in Pasadena...we don't really have a next destination before we arrive in Pasadena. I think we may just try to park our rig at a local grocery store or campground while we look for housing. We'll try to post all the cool pics from our climbing at JT soon.