Ben's Blog

Las Vegas / Death Valley trip

We went out to Las Vegas in late January. I was excited to use my MiMo 7” USB monitor. There’s just one cable between the laptop and the monitor, and no power cable:

The first thing we did Tuesday morning was visit Grandma:

On the way to Death Valley, we stopped at the Lathrop Wells rest area:

Wednesday morning, I headed out to the dunes near Stovepipe Wells before dawn. While I was running around up there, I ran into another photographer who turned out to be from Westchester. Small world!

Later that day, we hiked up Golden Canyon:

Mechel found a fence lizard. At some point the lizard managed to run up his sleeve. Mechel was not happy.

Red Cathedral:

Baila climbed up quite high:

Mechel and I climbed a long way up a slot canyon off of Golden Canyon. Here Mechel is heading back down:

Panorama from the entrance to the Golden Canyon Parking area (click on image to see full size):

That afternoon, the kids went swimming:

Later that afternoon, I went back to Golden Canyon, and poked around on “Nemisis”, the hill that defines the left wall of Golden Canyon (shown at fall right in the panorama above):

I went to the visitor center and saw a road runner:

Sunset over Texas Springs campground:

Mud:

I walked along with Baila on her bike at dusk. We visited the airstrip next to the ranch:

Thursday morning I went up to Zabriskie Point before dawn:

This panorama was captured before local sunrise – only the Panamints are in the sun (click on image to see full size):

Trish took this photo while horseback riding:

Our hotel room at the ranch:

We walked through Harmony Borax Works:

Next we headed up to Mosaic Canyon:

I love this photograph of Abbey – it looks like she’s doing a zombie impersonation. “Nnnuuurrgg… Brains…”

The kids were hiding:

Trish provided security for the hike:

Next we drove back to the dunes near Stovepipe Wells. Since I had already been to the dunes Wednesday morning, I stayed back and made lunch while everyone else went out to the dunes.

This raven watched me making lunch, waiting for me to drop or spill something:

Trish captured David and Mechel jumping off the dunes:

After I finished making lunch, I went out to get them:

After that, we drove back to Las Vegas and had a big family dinner:

Friday morning, we went to see Grandma again:

We then went to a nearby park where we met Aunt Sharon and Sam. Their dog Oscar was a big hit:

On Monday, Trish and the kids went with Bubbie and Zaydie to Lake Mead: