Death Valley

When I look back on my last couple posts it makes me realize that California is the craziest state. Within a couple weeks I did winter skiing, spring horse back riding and now a drive through the desert. Last week I went on a 5 day motor-home trip down to Death Valley with all four of my Grandparents. It was originally planned as a fishing trip but lots of rain and cooler weather convinced us to head south instead of north. Death Valley was an amazing place for taking pictures and hiking and I really enjoyed spending sometime with my grandparents.

The Photos
1 Grandpa Lon and Papa Jensen standing in the "Devils Golf Course."
2 A macro shot of an old desert bush.
3 The Vixen parked at Badwater below the sign showing where sea level is.
4 The lowest point on our continent. -282 ft below sea level.
5 Walking through Golden Canyon.
6 Watching the sunset from a hill above our campground.
7 Artists Palette, a crazy collage of different colored mineral pigments.
8 Halfway through my hike uphill from Golden Canyon to Zabrinski Point.
9 An old mine shaft... without roof support...
10 Dante's View, elevation 5,475 ft. This is one of the best spots because you can see the entire valley stretching out north and south. Also when you look over the edge you can see Badwater (the place with the lowest elevation) almost straight below you.
11 The old abandoned teahouse over looking Furnace Creek, CA.
12-15 The dunes I hiked through and some self portraits of me jumping off the highest one I could find.
16 The Aerocruiser crossing some wide open country on our way home.
17-18 The last two pictures on this post are of the LAN party we had at my house a couple weeks ago and a shot from yesterday of my shopping trip with the Wickstrom girls.


This is my last week here in California and I've been trying to fit in everything that I didn't do in the last 3 months! I'm finishing up my online classes. Physics and Copyright Law ended up being a lot easier than I imagined they would be. I guess they don't really expect us "Art Majors" to know much about math. I've also been trying to spend as much time as possible with friends before I start out on my long drive next week. This will probably be my last post from California for awhile. Let me know what you have all been up to lately!

Snow and Sunsets

Just posting a quick update to the blog. I've recently added a couple links on the right. The first is the Kirkwood snow report and then I've got two links that I'm planning on changing every now and then. A link to an upcoming movie that I'm looking forward to seeing and "The Random Link." This link should be clicked with caution, because it's guaranteed to always be something strange...

The photos that I've posted are of:
1-3 A nice sunset
4 Me standing in a big ditch
5 Out riding
6 An unusual snow on the coastal mountains
7-8 Windmills up in the hills
9 Arlon and Keith trying to see through the whiteout conditions we ran into on the way back from Kirkwood.

This is the only picture I've got from the ski trip the three of us went on yesterday... but man what a day it was. The high of the day was 13 degrees and the powder was more like what you might find in UT or CO. Super light and deep. There was a ton of powder up there and it really started to come down as we were leaving. The ski season isn't over yet! I just hope some of this storm makes it through to CO where I will be skiing with the Balgaard Bros at the end of the month.

Spring Showers and Flowers

My time left here is getting shorter, I only have just over 3 weeks left. Lately I feel like California is trying its best to convince me to stay. The weather has been rainy but every day we have times when the sun breaks through and everything looks so fresh and clean. All of these pictures were taken yesterday at sunset. The sun came out of the rain clouds as it was setting and all of the blossoms in the orchard across the street lit up. The last two are of our cat Merlin (the least evil cat we've ever had) and the house.

As my time is getting short here I seem to be getting busier. This next week I have to get ahead in school so I can go up to Northern California on a fishing trip with the grandparents and then on the day I get back I'm having a LAN party with some friends. Should be some fun times.