Dave and Iz Take on the West

Here are our pictures from China Ranch in California. It was a little bed and breakfast at an oasis in the middle of the desert. It was beautiful and one of our favorite places so far because there were adventures right out our door. On our second day there we had Stretchoween! Paige was a bumble bee.

Reed was graded bedding.

Shelby was the face painter, here she is turning Andi into a puppy.

Liza was something scary, we think a vampire zombie.

We had tipis to stay in!

Dave and Iz slept outside on the lawn chairs each night, it was really nice!

Our dining room.

The view from China Ranch.

More costume pictures. Here is Andi's finished puppy face, she was being her dog Gizmo. Andi took her cute pills and went to cute school!

Izzy was a lion. RAWRRRRRRRR!

Halloween was our day off so we went on some great adventures. In the morning Davey and Izzy went on a really fun adventure run and climbed up hills and through canyons, it was exciting! There is a beautiful valley with mountains and canyons to explore right next to China Ranch, it is only a five or ten minute walk!

We went into Slot Canyon.

It was an amazing canyon and we got to climb around a lot.

David CS up on a rock.

China Ranch has two dogs, Bob and Major. Here is Major, he came with us on our adventures.

Shelby sitting up high. She was a bottle of Hinds ketchup and her last name is Hinds!

Dave and Shelby.

Shelby, Liza, Sam, Jen, and Andi walking through the canyon.

The valley, in the background is Rainbow Mountain, it is really cool. A few days later on one of our runs we decided to climb Rainbow Mountain and it was quite the adventure!

Artsy water pic.

We went to a little waterfall, it was very nice to jump in.

China Ranch is a date farm, so we got to eat a lot of dates that week, and we even had date shakes!

Leslie left and Ed Meyer joined us again. On our first day with Ed we went to look at some Precambrian sedimentary rocks and talc mines. Here are Iz and Dave in a cave.

Here are some stromatolites, they are formed from algae, this is some of the first life on Earth!

Mega ooids! Dave's finger for scale.

Tarantula!! Ariana and Isabel saw a tarantula during our mapping project the next day.

These cool plants were growing all over the place, they are very funny looking and we like them a lot.

Artsy brunton shot.

Mine shaft.

We are now Flagstaff and watching the election. We'll put up a post about Flagstaff in a couple of days. We have three more nights here and then we camp at the Grand Canyon for two nights, it's going to be cold! We come back to Flagstaff for our last night and then Boo, Lil' Mama, and Twinkle are coming out to the Grand Canyon!

David and Isabel

Here are our pictures from when we were in Death Valley. On our drive there we stopped at this cool road outcrop and figured out the volcanic activity and the faulting.

The next morning we drove up to 5000 feet and had a view of the valley.

Dave.

The group looking out on Death Valley.

Dave being a hipster.

In the afternoon we drove down to Badwater, 282 feet below sea level!

Dave and Iz TAKE ON THE west (Liza is pointing to the west)!

Sea level up on the cliffs.

Dave and Iz at Badwater.

Then we went to Mosaic Canyon, it was very beautiful. Here is Leslie telling us about the canyon.

Artsy bungus shot.

Another wonderful picture of John.

Walking through the canyon.

John Underwood, our TA.

Artsy shadow high five.

Izzy up high.

Liza and Andi.

Dave up high.

Our last stop of the day was huge sand dunes!!

Gerben rolling down.

Dave rolling down.

Joey rolling down.

Sand dunes!

Izzy running.

And still running.

Artsy ridge pic.

Dave's shadow, Joey, Izzy, and Gerben.

Looking back.

On our day off a few of us hiked Telescope Mountain. Here is a cool tree.

Isabel and Jenica.

Iz and Davey.

The boys, Dave, David CS, Sam S, and Reed.

Izzy in her suit.

It was a beautiful view!

The next day we split into two groups. Our group measured a fault scarp and a coyote walked right by us! The other group measured gravity on either side of the valley.

We used a stadia rod, an auto level and a tape measure.

On our last day in Death Valley, we swapped from the day before. The gravity people walked 10 kilometers across the salt flats. Here is Claire carrying the gravimeter.