Category: National Parks

Ron had always wanted to visit the Racetrack Playa.   Ton was a little nervous as the park service puts out very severe warnings about the road and particularly mentions long stretches of sharp rocks.  Ron had done some research and several other Tigers had made it out there, though all of the owners had complained about the washboard condition of the road.

We started the day by visiting Ubehebe Crater.  The crater is about  a half mile across and 700 feet deep and is a result of a recent magma explosion in the park.  The crater is quite impressive and a reminder of how suddenly things can change on the planet.

We set out for the playa and Ron thought it could not be much worst than yesterdays drive thru Titus Canyon.  In some ways he was right and in some ways he was wrong.  The road itself was pretty straight forward with no particular narrow places or washed out sections of road.  Looking at it it was a typical gravel road you find in the west.  But the washboard was the worst Ron had ever experienced and really beat up the truck and the people inside.  We creeped along at 10 miles per hour most of the way and still felt like we were inside a blender.  

The valley approaching the race track is really beautiful and you feel like you are really on your own.  For the day I think only about 5 vehicles including us went out to the Playa.  About 6 miles from the Playa you come to Tea Kettle Junction where there is a tradition of hanging a tea kettle with your name on it.  We were not aware of the tradition and did not have a tea kettle to leave.

Finally we arrived at the playa.  How the rocks moved used to be a mystery, but apparently in November a group from the Scripps Institute were out there and saw the rocks actually moving.  To make a short story of a long story it apparently takes a combination of a wet Playa, freezing temperatures that causes ice to build up on the rocks and high winds, and suddenly a 60 pound rock will move on it’s own.

The drive back was no more fun than the drive out there, but we made it back in one piece.

Right as we settled in to go to sleep it started raining.  Death Valley only averages two inches of rain per year and we were there for a significant rainstorm.

it was quite  warm last night and we enjoyed a good nights sleep without a heater.  After we got going we started the day by touring the Golden Canyon.  It was a short walk but quite nice.  Even at 8:30 it was starting to warm up a bit.

Next we went to the Devils Golf Course.  It is on the valley floor and consists of thousands of small humps with salt deposits on the top.  It was interesting but a little disappointing for Ron as he was expecting something with more of a golf theme.

We had visited Artists Point on our first visit about 10 years ago.  We had enjoyed the drive so were looking forward to visiting again.  This time Ron was a little disappointed with the drive.  Ton pointed out that the light was much better in the evening and the last time we had been there in the evening.

The last thing we planned was to take the Titus Canyon road.  This is about a 25 mile drive thru the Grapevine Mountains on an unimproved road.  The last time  we did it in a car so we thought it would be a relatively simple drive.  It turned out to be much rougher than it must of been last time, because I do not think we could have gotten a car thru the road as it was today.  Still it was  great fun and Ton wore out the battery on her camera taking pictures, and Scout handled the road very well.

We are getting used to the drive from Joshua Tree to Death Valley as this is the fourth time we have done it in the last couple of months.

On the way out of Joshua Tree we stopped at Skull Rock.  The Skull Rock Trail is a short trail that highlights the non-cactus plants in the desert.  Skull Rock really does bear an amazing resemblance to a skull.

We drove from Joshua Tree to Death Valley on a back road that passes thru Mojave National Preserve and  Baker California.  We were planning to fuel up in Baker as it had the cheapest diesel in the area  last trip. Despite fuel prices dropping everywhere else on this trip, the fuel in Baker had actually risen to over $4 per gallon so we passed and drove on towards Death Valley, if we were going to pay an exorbitant amount for fuel we decided we would rather do it in a small desert community, then a large community right on the interstate.

Today we visited Dantes Peak in Death Valley which is an overlook above the main valley.  From 5000 feet you are looking the length of Death Valley and can also see for miles back towards Las Vegas.  We stayed up for sunset and Ton got some nice shots.

We had planned to head to Zabriske point for sunrise, but everyone overslept.  In the end we got there about an 90 minutes after sunrise.  Zabriske point was the highlight of our first trip to Death Valley, and Ron in particular has fond memories of the place.  We were happy to see that Dang and Noi were more up about Zabriske, so Death Valley had a happy ending.

We had originally intended to target Tehachapee for the day, but when Ton realized we would be there around noon, she extended the drive to Bakersfield.  After arriving about 1pm we checked into Orange Grove RV park, which is a great commercial camp ground including you own orange trees in each site.  If you are in the area I highly recommend you check it out.  As it was still quite early we headed to Costco to fuel up, and see if there were any secret things in Bakersfield that we had not seen in other Costco’s.  Yesterday California raised their gas tax by 12 cents per gallon, so even with the Costco discount we had our most expensive gas on the trip at $2.80 per gallon.

We were pleasantly surprised this morning, it turns out we both slept well.  We’re not sure if it was because we were really tired, or if the freeway noise acted as a kind of white noise, anyway it was one of the best nights sleep of the trip.

We let the traffic die down for a bit before heading out.  It was easy to know when traffic had lightened up as all we had to do was look out the window of Scout to get an up to the minute traffic status.

As we were heading to Death Valley the GPS was routing us thru Pahrump Nevada.  Ron finds the name fun to say, and by the time we got there, everyone was coming up with different reasons to include Pahrump in the conversation including at one point a chorus of Little Drummer Boy.

Death Valley is one of Ron and Ton’s favorite parks.  It has a stark beauty that really appeals to us, and we were looking forward to introducing Dang and Noi to it.  I don’t know if we oversold the park or they hit a wall, but they did not seem as impressed as we hoped.  They did enjoy sunset at the dunes, before we headed back to the campground for the night.

We are both still struggling a little bit with our medical issues so it is time to head home so we can see see our proper Doctors.  Ron prefers to drive home east of the Sierra Nevada mountains rather than deal with the heart of California so we left San Diego and headed north and east towards one of our favorite National Parks to spend the night.  

The drive to Death Valley was pretty uneventful, even the traffic from San Diego to San Bernardino while dense was moving pretty well with no significant slow downs.  After you get out of the southern California metropolis, you quickly get into the Mojave and go from bumper to bumper freeway traffic to almost no traffic as you travel thru the desert.

When we arrived at Death Valley we checked in to see what had reopened after the shutdown.  It turns out only a couple of the campgrounds have been re-opened so we are in a big gravel lot across from the visitors center with about 100 other RV’s.  We took a walk and Ton got some nice sunset pictures, and we had a couple of short conversations with some of out other campers before settling in for the night.

I woke early and prepared Scout for the trip to Las Vegas.  As I was leaving the park we drove by Zabriske point and it was sunrise so I pulled in for a quick look at what is my favorite view in the country.  While beautiful it was different than yesterday and colder with some wind.  I took one picture and then moved on for the day.

With an early start I rolled into Las Vegas about 9:30 am and the check in for the campground was noon so I got directions to a car wash to knock some of the grime off of Scout.  I can now touch the side of scout without having to wash my hands.  A quick stock up at the grocery, and I headed over and the campground let me check in early.

I met my son Alex for an excellent Mexican meal at a Freida themed restaurant in the arts district.  The arts district is an interesting part of Las Vegas.  It looks to me like the old downtown before gambling took over the town, and Las Vegas was a rail and cattle stop.  After the meal we walked the four or five blocks looking at some funky stores and bars that could fit into Portland, Seattle, or San Francisco.  Las Vegas’ little center of hipsterdom.

I woke up early and decided to head over to one of my favorite places.  Zabriske point overlooks the gold canyon, and after today I think it is my favorite view in the US.  I have been thinking about places that I really enjoy, and Zabriske point at sunrise is hard to beat.  My writing style (military log book may be the best description) does not allow me to do justice to the beauty of Zabriske point at sunrise.  The way the light cascades over the desert and hits the different colored light is magical to me.  I could spend days on end watching sunrises there and never tire of it.

Now that I was up early I had to decide what to do until my first planned event of the day which was a ranger talk at the old borax production site and mine.  I headed over to the visitors center to watch the park movie to get some ideas.  The movie was good and I enjoyed it but I did not get any ideas.  So I finally just started driving north up the valley to see if anything drew my attention and before I knew it I was near Beatty Nevada which is the closest source of reasonable fuel so I decided to head over there to top off Scout.  The fuel at the center of the park is $5.37 a gallon which must be close to the most expensive fuel in the US.  There are two gas stations in Beatty one was $3.20 and the other was $3.09 when I tried the $3.09 the pump told me to go see the cashier.  The cashier told me that their system was down and they could not do credit transactions, I asked about debit and she told me with a bit of an attitude that it was the same system and today was cash only.  I went down the street and paid the higher amount with a credit card.

I ended up being late for the ranger talk due to my running around Beatty.  I watched the last few minutes.  A lot of the people at the talk were like me attending every talk while they were in the park so I was beginning to recognize faces.  One guy told me I had to try the Indian Fried Bread Taco at the Timbisha Shoshone reservation in the park.  The Timbisha are the native Americans who lived in this area.  I decided to follow the recommendation, though I doubt this is really traditional fare of the tribe  as beans, cattle, and corn would not have been native to this area.  But as some one in France when I asked if a dance was traditional, he said no, but it could be in a hundred years.  So Fried Bread Tacos may be traditional Timbisha food in 100 years. I now have had one, and I can cross it off my list.

I spent the afternoon hiking Mosaic Canyon a nice flash flood canyon with interesting rock formations.  The road to the trail head was a mess and gave Scout a workout, but the first 400 yards of the trail were worth the drive.  The ability of water to carve the rocks in the west never ceases to amaze me.   The rest of the hike was nice but not super spectacular.

I ended the day with a nice ranger talk at sunset at Mesquite dunes.

I started the day by heading over to the visitors center to see what ranger talks were available today.  I was there as they opened and one of the Rangers was running up the flag for the day.  I talked to her on the way back in after the flag was done, she told me there were two talks for the day and she was leading one of them.

So with a little time to kill until the first talk at gold canyon, I decided to do a little exploring.  I had noticed a sign for another campground above the one we usually stay in here. The problem with Sunset campground is that there is no electricity so all of the big RV’s run their generators all day to power all of the stuff in them.  They require generators to be shut down from 7pm to 8am, but nothing ruins sitting outside to enjoy the sunset than the buzz of three or four generators running around you.  The Texas Spring campground costs $1 more than Sunset but is generator free and prettier so I moved up here and bought two nights.

The first talk of the day was in gold canyon which is one of Ton and my favorite hikes in Death Valley.  The person leading it was not a ranger but a young man on an internship at the park.  He took the duty very seriously and one thing I learned is that some of Star Wars 1 The Return of the Jedi was filmed in the canyon.  Besides that I learned a great deal about fan canyons which Death Valley is famous for.

The second talk was at Badwater Basin which is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at 280 feet below sea level.  It is one of the must stop photo stops in the park.  Besides being the lowest spot in the West it is also an interesting salt flat, and does have a spring which is 4 times saltier than sea water.

I returned to Texas Springs for sunset and climbed a hill above the campground to watch the sunset.  Since the mountains on the west side of the valley are about 5000 feet higher than the valley but quite close, sunset happens about an hour and a half before the light fades which is kind of weird.