Me on top of the valley. First stop of the trip. We came in the back way through Olancha.
Lone desert flower. Some sunflower thing. I used to know it's name. Feeling ambitious? Look it up.
Amargosa Opera House. This opera house exists because of Marta Becket a ballet dancer from New York City. She moved out to Death Valley Junction in the mid forties because of this building. Her vision was to move from New York and turn it into an opera house and perform all her original art here. So, she did and she does. Throughout the years she has performed every weekend her original shows, mostly one woman shows. She is 83 years old now and performs a show called the sitting down show. She doesn't dance anymore because of a back injury. She sits on stage now relating her life story and how she ended up in Death Valley Junction and sings songs from various shows she performed througout the years. Oh yeah, she's also a painter. The video displays the murals she painted on the inside walls of the opera house; an audience of sorts. Very ambitious, prolific, determined, creative, talented, brave woman. Check out the link above to the opera house and read all about her yourself. You should also look up Death Valley Junction on a map; it's out in the middle of nowhere.
Marta Becket's mural art.Scotty's Castle
My first trip to this place as an adult.
John at the top of Ubehebe Crater.The last stop of the trip besides Stove Pipe Wells Inn for dinner. John hiked to the bottom of the crater while I waited in the warm car and watched Shawshank Redemption on my ipod.
The only two spots in Death Valley I have left to visit are the Racetrack and Eureka Sand Dunes. It probably won't be until we get a four wheel drive; they are both about thirty miles of dirt road to get to them.That's all folks.
Bye for now.
