RHYOLITE AND DEATH VALLEY

We both slept very well last night.  We didn’t hear much road noise either so that was good.  I jotted down some geocaches this morning while Aileen chatted with her friend Wendy from Salmon Arm.  We wandered off toward Rhyolite and did 6 caches in addition to photographing Rhyolite.  From there we headed to Death Valley.  The light was terrible so after we had a bite of lunch on the side of the road, we turned around.   We stopped on both sides of Rhyolite for two more caches.  One was near an old cemetery.  We had heard donkeys braying during the night and today just before we got back to the RV park we saw a herd of wild burros.

I spent some time logging my finds and then jotted down some more.  I went and grabbed two of them before supper and three more after.  My second one after supper was up on a steep hill so I decided to leave my camera behind.  Wouldn’t you know it, just as I got to the top, there was a gorgeous sunset.  I did enjoy experiencing it and didn’t have to work at getting it captured.  It was getting dark so I took a mine road back to the car.  Just before I got to the car, I heard a loud blowing sound which startled me.  I couldn’t decide where it came from then I heard it again and it was a wild burro that seemed to be afraid of me.   I found the last cache of the night by flashlight.  I could see to walk but couldn’t read the GPS without the light.  I got to within a meter and was at a grove of trees so started shining the flashlight up in the trees and there at face height was a fake bird sitting on a mini mailbox.  When I opened the mailbox, there was the cache inside. Neat!

This cement couch is part of an outdoor art exhibit at Rhyolite.  Aileen and Mitzy are trying it.  There was a geocache under it

More of the art exhibit.  This is The Last Supper

It took me about ten tries to get this photo.  There is an eight foot chain link fence with a foot or more barbed wire on top around the whole building.  My three and a half inch wide lens can't get through a two inch opening so I used my self timer and put the camera and tripod way over my head.  It took that many tries before I finally got it framed correctly.  I heard a few comments from the other visitors, of course.

Not sure what the story was on this

This nicely preserved building was open to the public and the following two images were taken inside

Corkscrew Mtn in Death Valley National Park

For my geocaching brothers in law, John F, John H and Jim G.  This is how they hide the caches in the barren rocky desert.  There is a large ammo can buried in the rock pile. 

On my way back down to the car.  When you click on the image to enlarge it, can you see the car in the center way down at the highway?

If you look closely in the center of the picture, you will see part of the city of Beatty, NV

Some of the wild burros near the RV park we're at