Desert Destination: Death Valley Part 1

 If you want to visit the desert, Death Valley certainly fits the bill! It is one of the most beautiful desert locations in the world.

After we had exited Titus Canyon, we drove down into Death Valley proper. Desert Boy was not impressed. I asked him what he expected to see, and he said a barren valley where everything was dead. I told him that was coming.

First, though, we had more important things to do: put up our tent and go swimming. I was worried that the campgrounds might be full as it was spring break for a lot of schools, but we had quite a few sites to choose from.

Furnace Creek Ranch lets campers swim for a fee, and the kids could not wait. It was hot, about 85 degrees (which is not really hot for Death Valley), so after picking up a junior ranger booklet at the visitor center, we headed to the pool and spent much of the afternoon there in the spring-fed pool. Ah, that's a good way to spend an afternoon!

 Next was a picnic dinner of hot dogs roasted over the stove (I was lazy and did not want to build a fire, plus, as I mentioned before, it was hot!).

 We had some free time before the evening ranger program, so we went to the Borax Museum and the displays behind it. They were mildly interesting, and since they were free, worth it.

 They had a cool old engine from the Death Valley Railroad. I thought Desert Boy would get a little more excited, but he was tired of looking at things. So we jumped on our bikes and headed down the bike path to the Borax Twenty Mule Team exhibit.

 The Twenty Mule Teams are one of the iconic symbols of Death Valley, although most people probably couldn't tell you why. If you ever pick up a package of Borax soap, there's a good chance you'll see an illustration of the Twenty Mule Teams on it. Since we've started making our own laundry soap with Borax as an ingredient, Desert Boy recognized them.

 The evening light was beautiful.

Taking our bikes was a great idea, as Desert Boy really likes bike riding. I do too, as we can cover more ground yet still get some exercise.

Next was the evening ranger program about the night skies. The highlight was meeting up with a couple rangers who have been working at Scotty's Castle for the winter. I so much enjoyed seeing them and hearing their stories.

Then it was off to our tent for a good night's rest. We all slept well. I woke up early, so I climbed up a nearby hill and watched the setting moon as the sun's rays spread across the valley.

 The parking lot campground (that can hold about 1,000 RVs) was only partially filled. Our campground, which was mainly tents and smaller RVs, was mostly full. I'm not used to camping in such a crowded campground, but it worked out fine.

 I wanted to make the most of the early morning light, so I rousted the kids and got them into the truck, telling them we would eat breakfast later.

 We went to Zabriskie Point, one of the most photographed places in the park.

 The kids had fun running around.

 We were joined by quite a few other people on the overlook. Can you see our shadows waving?

We ate breakfast and then headed to Badwater. This is the part of Death Valley Desert Boy was imagining.

 It was only mid-morning, but the day was turning out to be hotter than the day before. We passed a group from Backroads bicycling, and I didn't want to be part of their group on this day.

 Coming from the high desert where we still had snow, Desert Boy and Desert Girl were not thrilled with the heat or the fact that they were now 282 feet below sea level. Whew. Maybe they won't ever consider doing the Badwater Ultramarathon, considered the most difficult ultramarathon race. Why so difficult? Well, it's 135 miles for one thing. It starts at Badwater and ends at the Whitney Portal, which is 13,000 feet of cumulative vertical ascent. And the real kicker? It's held in July, when Death Valley air temps may be 120 degrees F, and ground temps even higher. Runners run on the white line painted on the road so they won't burn their feet and get into huge coolers (or even coffins) filled with ice water at rest stops.

A fifteen minute stop convinced them that they had seen enough, and I wasn't about to argue.

More tomorrow...

A Little Pet

 The kids were delighted to go see their friends' pet yesterday. What was it? Oh, just your regular, friendly 'ol pet. Or maybe not. It wasn't a dog. Or a cat. Or a fish. Or a guinea pig. Or a turtle. Or an iguana. Nope, they had a...

 ...pet rat. And the kids could not wait to hold it.

 I tried not to show my expressions as they experienced the wonder of holding a rat, feeling its whiskers brush their fingers, watching its ears twitch...

 ...or letting it climb up on their heads. Both kids had to do this. I just kept my mouth shut and pressed the shutter button.

This might not have been my idea of a good time, but they definitely thought it was.

And with that, have a good day!

Desert Destination: Tule Hardpan and Fossil Mountain

After our recent rock climbing adventure on the Ibex Crags, we took out the bikes and headed out on the Tule Hardpan, also known as the Ibex Hardpan. If you've never ridden a bike on a hardpan (playa), it is the bomb. You can go anywhere you want, it's perfectly flat, and it just feels great. The last time we biked on this hardpan, Desert Boy was just a toddler and we had an alien experience (click the link to see more!).

Desert Girl gave the playa a try on her little bike with training wheels, but soon decided she'd rather ride with mom. I guess I should add that when I say perfectly flat, I don't mean perfectly smooth. The playa has plenty of mud cracks, and it's best not to have super inflated tires or you will have a bumpy ride.

 So while my husband took a rest, the rest of us rode around the "island", a projection rising from the middle of the playa. Someone had planted three flag poles on the top, which seemed rather out of place to me. I'm not sure if it's some group or remnants from when they filmed part of the movie John Carter out here (which I have yet to see). As I noted in another post, playas have all sorts of uses.

 Someone had dug out a low spot on the playa, which gathered water for animal use. Desert Girl just barely resisted getting wet.

 After our little bike ride (which I could have continued much, much longer--did I mention how much I like riding on playas?), we packed up the bikes and headed around the south end of Ibex Crags and the Barn Hills to Blind Valley. Our destination?


The mighty Fossil Mountain, in the south Confusion Range. Nearly the entire mountain is made of fossils! Here's a link to a very brief geology of the mountain. Many of the fossils are from the Lower Ordovician Pogonip Group and include brachiopods, cephalopods, trilobites, and echinoderms. Dr. Lehi Hintze (who wrote the marvelous Geology of Millard County) and his coworkers used the area to establish fossil zones for rocks of this age that are a reference to paleontologists all over the world. He noted that because this area was at the edge of a sea, the wave action caused many of the fossils to be in pieces.

 We drove to the end of a four-wheel drive road and then headed up the wash towards the mountain. It didn't take us long to start spotting fossils.

 Here's a cephalopod.

 I'm not sure what this is, but it looked pretty. I wish I knew more about paleontology, because I mainly just look for pretty things but don't understand much about what they mean. Nevertheless, I appreciate that very different things used to live here, and that the landscape has changed so much over the millennia (although I'm looking for a word that means even bigger time changes--geologic time is so hard for my mind to grasp!).

We happily spent about an hour looking around.

Someday we'll have to hike all the way up the mountain. Summitpost says that it takes about two hours;  I think it would take me longer because I'd be stopping frequently to look for fossils!

Sleepy

This is how I felt a lot this week!

Desert Girl's wearing her tutu--she insists on a dress almost every day and dances around the house. it is  so cute.

Desert Girl is at the stage where afternoon naps don't always happen, so sometimes she just plays until she passes out--wherever she is, and then sleeps the rest of the day and the night. It's an awkward stage.  And it can make for some memorable temper tantrums.

We are enjoying some wonderful warm weather, and the garden is starting to look good. I'll post an update soon. But for right now, I'm going to take a cue from Desert Girl!

New Food: Green Smoothies

First, we have some winners! The winners of a free digital magazine subscription from Zinio are: Sara H., Susie R., Gayle R., Jeff N., Andrew S, Shae, Moi A., Lila A., and Andrea. Congratulations! You'll be receiving an email soon.

Now, on to some green stuff.

If you would have asked me a year ago to make green smoothies and feed them to my family, I would have laughed and thought, Ew, that's just too much of a nature nut thing. 

But just a few days ago, I was ready to give them a try. 

What changed? 

Well, since we've been eating more real foods and a lot fewer processed foods since the beginning of the year, I've felt great. I've had lots of energy, have hardly gotten sick, and have had fun experimenting with food. 

I've come across some very inspiring websites and blogs. One is Unconventional Kitchen, which has a 30-day Love Your Greens Challenge starting May 1. It's free and promises to double your energy, get your glow, and rock your skinny jeans. 

I'm ready to rock my skinny jeans, for sure. Even though I've been eating healthier, those winter pounds haven't come off, and I'm not thrilled with them.

So I signed up, and the welcome email had a recipe for a pineapple-grape-banana-spinach-yogurt-lime and water smoothie. I had all those ingredients, so I pulled out the old blender and put them all in. I wasn't so sure about the spinach part, but went ahead and followed the recipe, blending all the ingredients. Lo and behold, we ended up with a big container with an Incredible Hulk hue to it. It was a little bit scary. It was a little bit exciting. I grabbed the camera. Maybe this would turn out worthy of a blog post.

I gingerly poured the smoothies into several cups. Then I had Desert Boy try it first. I was too much of a wimp, too scared to find out what drinking spinach would be like. He took a little taste and smiled. I let out a sigh of relief. Maybe this was doable. Then Desert Girl gave it a try. She liked it too. Then it was my turn. I worked up my nerve and took a sip. It was better than I expected. When my husband came home, he also tried it and liked it. We poured some of the smoothy mixture into popsicle molds and downed the rest. Maybe this would be worth repeating.

I was out of grapes, but had strawberries, so two days later, I repeated the recipe with smaller amounts of everything.

Desert Girl was an eager helper as we blended up the ingredients. It took a long time to get those frozen strawberries blended! We still have to learn the art of blending.

Being a chicken again, I let Desert Girl do the first taste testing.

She drained it! We all enjoyed some and had enough left over for me to finish off the next morning at breakfast.

So far our green smoothy experiment is going well. I'm looking forward to the 30-day challenge and expanding my eating horizons. If you'd like to do it with me, I'd welcome the company!

For those of you experienced with green smoothies, what's your favorite recipe?