Driving down from Beatty to Stove Pipe Death Valley the highway travels down a massive alluvial fan.  Of course we had to go out and see what was over the next ridge.
From Stove Pipe we drove 15 miles on a rough sand and gravel road to Marble Canyon.  We walked through the massive cut in the rocks even though 4 wheelers could drive through.
The water had cut down to some spectacular layers of diorite.
This is looking back down toward the valley floor and beyond to the Funeral Mountains on the east side of Death Valley.

We stayed in Beatty NV for the first half of the week and explored places close. We found a less traveled entry into Death Valley on the Nevada Side.  The road dead ended at the Bullfrog mine about a half a mile in. 
Just out side of Beatty is the 1903 ghost town of Rhyolite.  This boom and bust gold mine town had a population of 10000 at is boom and the school was just finishing construction when the gold ran out and the population plummeted.  The town lasted only a few years. 
I keep getting attracted to the red barrel cactus.
Just above Rhyolite we adopted this little valley/canyon. Great place to hike and paint.  We climbed to the top of the valley and into the next on a well worn burro trail.  
Another beautiful sunset in Nevada just outside of Death Valley.

I'm about a week behind in my posting.  Hard to find fast WiFi out in the wide open spaces of the West.  These images are from our first taste of Death Valley driving from Lone Pine CA to Beatty NV.  This red volcanic canyon runs into the west side of Saline Valley, one of the two valleys in Death Valley.  The colors were spectacular.  It seemed as if the volcanic rock had been squirted out of a tube of cadmium red deep.  

Traveling from Bridgeport south to the little town of Lone Pine the Sierras towered off to the west. We kept expecting them to run out. Lone Pine turned out to be a two night stop.  We drove just out of town to the west and climbed into the Alabama Hills spread out below Mount Whitney.  Turns out the Alabama Hills were discovered by Hollywood years ago and have been used for movies regularly.  It seems that the Lone Ranger rode out of these hills during his weekly opening.  We enjoyed painting and hiking.  
Ran in to our first barrel cactus in the area.  Fun to see and amazing that we could see 14000' high mountains at the same time.  We never did actually see the very top of Mount Whitney due to constant cloud cover.

Looking west out over Sacramento and beyond the Pacific. I've always been interested in mountains.  I had forgotten how much.  Traveling from Carson City to Sacramento was all about mountains.  We reached passes around 8000 feet and fortunately no falling snow.  I was surprised by how many passes in the Sierra Nevadas are closed for the winter.


Driving from Sacramento to Bishop CA back on the east side of the Sierras the dry climate and empty spaces returned. I wonder how much you would have to pay to own this beautiful ranch. California real estate is incredibly expensive.
Mono Lake, a million year plus old lake, is a salty inland sea that has been drastically lowered due to diversion of water to LA.  Before the diversion millions of ducks used the lake during migration. Geologically very interesting with tuffa towers exposed due to the lower levels of water.

It seems so many miles ago when we drove across Nevada, I guess about a week ago.  Driving from Ely to Carson City is an endless rotation of vistas and back down to the valleys.  Climbing over passes every forty miles or so.  What incredible blue skies and clear air.  The west is so wonderfully empty.
This is Sand Mountain just east of Fallon, Nevada.  Looking in the opposite direction is a huge salt flat.
South of Fallon Annie and I spent the day exploring the ruins of Fort Churchill.  It was built in the same rectangular fashion as the other forts that we have visited.  The buildings  are controlled by the available material, in this case adobe.  

The Carson River ran near the Fort and through Carson City and became an important subject for art and exploration during our delightful weekend stay with Marianne and Aaron.

Sorry about no images.  Seems that this Blogger sight is not uploading lately.  We are fine, spending the day next to Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the lower states, 14492 feet. Going to stop here in Lone Pine for a couple of days and paint.  I will keep trying to upload images.