After an icy trip from South Dakota to Arizona, we finally arrived at Gold Basin, the first stop on our winter adventure. During the 30’s this area was filled with hopeful miners, the gold nuggets dispersed ages ago throughout the gravel and sands that ran off from the Grand Canyon. The morning dawned cold (low 30’s) and so still you could hear Las Vegas, a good 60 miles away. Here is a Joshua tree in the early morning light. I hiked to the top of a small mountain and got a view all the way to Lake Meade and a view of the valley leading down to the beginning of the Grand Canyon. Supposedly a meteorite zoomed down this valley and scattered fragments, one of which Ron might have found – we will ask John to look at it to determine if it is so. Also here is a picture of a beautiful purple rock which I just can’t identify, although I saw a stringer of it between shale (shist?) layers. What do you think, John and Elizabeth? Ron got busy metal detecting and loves to do this – he gets an adrenaline rush from wondering what the sounds he hears could be. The Joshua trees are so unique, they look a lot like animals and people if you look long enough (maybe I’m getting loopy in the desert!) So with rain the forecast, we decided to go to Los Angeles area to see the family.