Miscellaneous pictures (January to April 2007)

While I have been too busy to update this weblog very often, we have been managing to get out and about and visit various places. In January, we visited Pismo Beach State Park while the Monarch butterflies were swarming. There were literally thousands of butterflies -- perhaps millions -- in the park, many content to hang on the many eucalyptus trees.






Two relatively close-up pictures of the butterflies.






From whence they came...




On to Death Valley National Park for these pictures, taken April, 2007. The first two show charcoal kilns near Wildrose, in the Panamint Range looking away from Death Valley. These 10 igloo-shaped kilns were used when silver mining was active in the area.






The picture below was taken near sunset at the sand dunes just east of Stovepipe Wells.




Finally, Death Valley itself is seen in the background, from Zabriskie Point.