Nevada

The Nevada ghost town of Rhyolite was established in 1905 during a gold rush and lasted only until 1920 when the richest ore was exhausted. It is about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas and a major tourist attraction with an outdoor sculpture park near the entrance to the town. This group of statues is one of the most notable and is part of grouping that includes a ghost with a bicycle and another with an artist's palette.

The ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada is just across the border from California in an area known as the Bullfrog Hills. Rhyolite is a former mining town and this is the old train station on the now-abandoned Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad.

Here's another photo from the Nevada ghost town of Rhyolite, this of the remains of the Overbury Bank building.

It has been quite a year with four hospitalizations and a lot of recovery time, but I finally feel like I can keep up with posting and replying to comments. My apologies to those of you whose comments and good wishes I haven't replied to over the past five months. I've taken up posting where I left off. This is one of the old grave markers in the cemetery of the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada. The background shows some of the Bullfrog Hills around the town and one of the few identifiable graves in the town cemetery.

Ash Meadows is the largest remaining oasis in the Mojave Desert. It is in Nevada east of Death Valley National Park in the Amargosa Valley and is home to many unique plants and animals. This is Longstreet Spring, one of the many springs in the area and home to one of the species of Pupfish that are found in the refuge's springs (see inset). What is especially interesting is that where Pupfish are found each area has its own species. Both photos were taken by my wife.

This wildflower was photographed along the road in the Amargosa Valley, Nevada, on the way from Death Valley National Park to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Its botanical name is Stanleya pinnata. The inset shows a close-up of the flowers.

This is the bark of a Mesquite species, I believe the Screwbean Mesquite, photographed at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada.

This is the area at the north of Ash Meadows and the trees are a species of Mesquite which in the wetter areas grows in dense thickets (see insets). The mountains are part of the Delamar Range.

These are Screwbean Mesquite at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada. The orange clump on the right is Desert Mistletoe, very common on these trees.