From one Valley to the next (03-28-12)

   Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada is one of those places that everyone says we need to go, so here we are.  If it looks “otherworldly”, it’s with good reason. 

This was the site of the planet Veridian III in Star Trek: Generations, and it happens to be the location where Captain Kirk takes his final breath.

The Wilson Cell phone antenna that we bought is doing it’s job, and is the only reason we have any internet and cell coverage.  The minute we move the phone 2 feet away from the antenna, our coverage is gone.  Except when we’re out on the trail, apparently.  We were out hiking yesterday, miles from anywhere, and the Paul’s phone actually rang! We had a nice chat with our daughter while we hung out on some beautiful red rocks.

This park is only about 60 miles from Las Vegas, but it’s a world away in atmosphere and attitude.  We drove through the city on the way here, but didn’t stop at all. 
I’ll post more once we’re not in the park, because as it is, I have no idea if this will post, with the pictures in it.

Leaving the Valley of Death (03-23-12)

But before we left, we also saw….

Mosaic Canyon- a limestone canyon that was crushed and heated to the point that it literally turned to marble.

 The Badlands with designs made of salt crystals

 Lots of beautiful Hummingbirds

Intriguing rock formations

The Ghost town of Rhyolite- complete with the Porter General Store

A dust storm that rivaled a snow storm

 

Vivid and colorful canyons (Desolation Canyon)

Snow on the hiking trail

and last but not least, after 4.2 miles hiking in the cold and snow, with 2000 feet of elevation gain, topping out at over 9,000 feet…

We had the awesome 360 degree view from the top of Wildrose Peak.

Death Valley, Part 3 (03-21-12)

I’ve been hearing about “Scotty’s Castle” since we got to Death Valley.  Honestly, I was ready to skip it altogether- it’s a tour of a mansion that was built here in Death Valley.  So many people said we should go to it though, that I changed my mind and we took both the house tour and the basement tour (it shows all the underground tunnels, electrical set up etc).

Let’s see if I can give the short version of the story behind the castle.  First of all, it was never owned by Scotty, nor did he ever live in it.  It was built and owned by millionaire Albert Johnson and his wife Bessie.  Scotty was “Death Valley Scotty”- a con man that convinced many investors, Chicagoan Alfred Johnson included, that he owned a very productive gold mine in Death Valley.  Sight unseen, many businessmen invested thousands of dollars, which Scotty promptly spent lavishly, in order to appear wealthy.  Alfred got suspicious and decided to trek out to CA from Chicago to check on his investment.  He, of course, discovered Scotty’s deception, but having been a businessman stuck in an office who always wanted an adventurous, cowboy life, he enjoyed Death Valley, Scotty’s company and especially his tall tales. They became lifelong friends and Alfred continued to “invest” in Scotty’s mine. Alfred and his wife ultimately built a vacation home, but Scotty would brag about the house as if it were his, and Alfred didn’t contradict him. He enjoyed the “show”. Often when there were visitors, Scotty would say goodnight, head to the bedroom, then walk out the door and go to his own modest house. Scotty also told people that the house was built on top of his mine, and Alfred would have the servants go to the basement and bang pots on the wall to prove that there were miners down there.

In 1931, several years after construction had begun, the Federal Government informed Alfred that he was actually building on the wrong plot of land- about a mile from his actual property. Alfred stopped building immediately, and after several years and an act of congress, he was allowed to re-buy the land.  He used the house until his death, but he never finished building it.  The picture shows half of what should have been the pool, but it was never finished.




All of the tile had been purchased, as well as all the tile to finish all of the outbuildings, and it all still sits in the basement tunnels.
Alfred was an engineer, and an innovator, so the house is full of gadgets and systems that were well ahead of their time.  Building a castle in the extremely remote area of Death Valley was challenging, to say the least.  Alfred used local materials and his engineering skills to build a castle that could survive the desert heat. That made the tour interesting (especially for Paul), but too involved to detail in a blog post!  Suffice to say that the tour did turn out to be very interesting and well worth it!




Once the weather cleared, we were able to take our drive through Titus Canyon. It’s a rough road through a beautiful canyon.  We had originally intended to hike up some side canyons along the way, but the weather was still cold and there weren’t too many places to park the truck. There were several places that I just closed my eyes and trusted Paul’s driving as we drove on the narrow road with sheer cliffs.  Not much maneuvering room for a long wheel based dually.








Once we got over the pass, the views of the canyon were amazing.  The colors are very vivid.

The rest of the drive was through a canyon with steep, tall walls.

I’ve had to rush through this post- we have extended our stay by another day or so and I bought 24 hrs of internet at a ridiculously high price, and then we went swimming all afternoon, so I have only tonight to get this finished.

Death Valley, Part 2 (03-17-12)

Post delayed due to lack of internet

  Who says it doesn’t rain in Death Valley?
Today it rained in Death Valley.  We woke up to a pretty fierce storm, with wind gusts of 50 mph.  There wasn’t a lot of rain here in the valley, just enough to make mud, but the mountains are sporting a new layer of snow.





We canceled our hiking plans and headed into Beatty,  the town over the mountain, to fuel up the truck.  Once we were up the hill, it started to sleet, and it rained almost the whole time we were in town, and all the way back to the campground.  This picture, taken in the valley itself, shows the rain on the windshield, and our trailer is somewhere in that huge dust cloud that built up all day long. Twice we had a dirt devil ( a mini tornado of dirt) come over the trailer. One time when we were outside, and we were immediately covered in sand and couldn’t see.

The way everyone talked about Beatty, I thought it was a bigger town, with more services- like a grocery store. It did have better fuel prices- $3.99 per gallon vs the prices in the park (pictured).  No grocery store there though, just a small mercantile that sold fruit and veggies by the piece, and didn’t have much selection.



When we first got to Death Valley we stayed in Sunset campground, which is dry camping. That means we had no electricity, water or sewer, just our own tanks and our generators. It was a bit too hot to do that, but we survived (more importantly, the cat survived).
We’ve now moved down the road about 25 miles to Stovepipe Wells Campground, and full hook-up.  We are all much happier, although the weather has changed and it’s now 55 degrees outside.  

Before we moved, we hiked 2 miles up Willow Canyon, to one of the few running waterfalls in Death Valley.  The hike in was a disappointment after the beauty of Golden Canyon. It was just a rocky dry riverbed all the way up to the first waterfall.  It got more interesting after that, and it was fun to see actual water flowing. It was also cool in the shade after hiking in the hot sun for an hour or so.

The really cool part was when we went to leave though. Walking down the trail we came upon a family of Desert Bighorn Sheep.They had been on the trail, but headed up the steep sides of the canyon when they saw us.

 

  They would walk a little, then stop to take a look at us, then move on again. That made the whole hike worth it. We basically froze where we were, except to get the camera out, and were able to watch them for quite a few minutes before they went out of sight.  I even got a few videos.

Death Valley, Part 1 (03-14-12)

Death Valley is not at all what I expected. I guess I’ve always pictured the “valley” but didn’t give much thought to the fact that it’s tough to have a valley without the mountains! I also had in mind a completely desolate area, with the sun constantly beating down on everything below, and overbearing heat. That’s partly true, and would probably be even more true if we were here in the summer, when the temperatures reach 130 degrees. As it is, we came at a great time of year. On the days when it is really warm- in the high 80s, we head to higher elevations, where it’s much cooler.  It was in the 50s at Dante’s Peak, but in the mid- 80s at the trailer yesterday.  One of the hikes we want to do still has snow cover, so we’re putting it off for a few days. The key is to get up and out early in the day.  It hasn’t been overly hot in the mornings, but by afternoon it’s pretty steamy. Or it would be steamy if there was any moisture in the air, which there isn’t.  The humidity is about 11%. Very little moisture makes it’s way to Death Valley-with two inches of rainfall per year, it’s the driest place in North America.  The weather approaches here from the Pacific coast, but the clouds have to go over several mountain ranges before reaching this valley.  When the clouds reach the mountains, they dump their moisture on the western side, leaving a “rain shadow” on the eastern slopes, and blocking most of the moisture from reaching this valley.


  Death Valley has the lowest elevation in the United States-the Badland Basin is 282 feet below sea level.  Ironically, about 100 miles away is Mount Whitney, the highest elevation in the lower 48, standing at about 20,200 ft above sea level.
The precipitation that does make it here never leaves. It evaporates, leaving the minerals behind. Part of the basin is covered in white minerals- mostly table salt.





Our first day here we drove down Artist Rd. at sunset and were there in time to see “Artist’s Palette” lit up pretty nicely!  It’s hard to see how vibrant these colors are in a picture, but it was pretty amazing.









For our first hike we took the Golden Canyon/Gower Gulch trail, for a total of 6 miles and lots of hill climbing. For perspective, there is a person in the picture above- in the center, bottom half of the photo- looks like a small dark blot. The views were spectacular on this hike.  The mountains here have a texture to them that I’ve never seen anywhere else. Whichever way I turn my head, it looks like a painting.  It’s the first time I’ve thought that maybe a 3D camera would be a nice thing to have!


 

Tecopa Hot Springs, CA (03-11-12)

I have a feeling that when we move  to Death Valley National Park tomorrow,  we may have cell phone  reception, but we probably won’t have internet for a few days, so  I figured I’d get one more post done.
 
We arrived here in Tecopa Hot Springs early enough in the day so that we could go exploring a little bit.  We found the China Ranch Date Farm. This place is an oasis in the middle of  a desert.  Literally. The Old Spanish Trail, a “highway” of sorts back in the mid 1800s when trails were traveled on horseback, runs through the property.  Back then it was owned by a Chinese man, who grew crops and raised animals to feed the men in the mining camps. That’s how it got it’s name, although obviously he is long gone.  The property is now owned by a family that grows dates of all kinds. 

They sell date bread, date butter, and date just about everything else you can think of, including……date ice cream. It was actually delicious!  Of course, I never met an ice cream I didn’t like, but still….

The reason that we stopped here was not for the dates or the  hot springs,  although we have also been enjoying the hot springs, which, at this RV park, are small, private pools in small rooms.   We stopped because we wanted  to  hike along  the Amargosa River.

The Amargosa is a rare desert river.  Although it’s 185 miles long, very little of it flows above the ground, and this area is one of the two spots where it does.  We thought our hike was going to be about 6 miles, but it ended up being over 9 miles.  Luckily for us, it was a partly cloudy day because when the sun was out, we were certainly reminded of the fact that we are in a desert.  It was really hot. It was a nice hike, with lots of great scenery, but we would have maybe turned around after a while if we hadn’t been trying to get to the waterfall. I’m not sure I really believed there would be an actual waterfall, but sure as heck, there was:
:
So, our stay here has been a short one, but we’ve managed to cram a lot of activities into one and a half days. One weird thing about this area- the high mineral content in the water, which is what makes it therapeutic, also makes it pretty undrinkable. Most of the RV parks in this town advertise that you must bring your own drinking water.  Ours didn’t, so we didn’t, so we’ve been drinking it, and even with 3 filters, we can taste the minerals.  Oh well, it won’t hurt us, it just doesn’t taste good.  Most of the locals buy their water or have a reverse osmosis set up. Apparently they’ve been told there’s no way to make the water much better than it is.  Strange.

Barstow, CA (03-11-12)

Barstow is a pretty small, desert town, past it’s prime, like so many of the small historic towns we’ve been to,  but it turns out there is plenty to do in this area.  We spent a week here and didn’t do or see everything. Some places that we saw, we could have passed on, had we known what they really were- such as the Calico Ghost Town.  As far as I could see, we paid an entrance fee for the privilege of shopping in their stores.  It’s a partially restored ghost town, but  most of the buildings that were open had actually been converted to stores, and the buildings that housed the museum, town hall and blacksmith shop were closed.

In it’s heyday, Barstow was part of the “Route 66” phenomenon.  Once Henry Ford started cranking out automobiles at an amazing pace, the American people realized that the road system in this country was not developed enough for people to use their new cars the way they would like.  The Federal Government stepped in and created the Federal Aid Road Act, to help states fund the new highway system that was required.  Route 66 was one of the results.  It follows old wagon and railroad trails, from Chicago to Los Angeles, and like the wagon trails before it, was a symbol of freedom and adventure to the American people. It was used by many to head west to California, in search of the American dream.  As the road grew in popularity, businesses popped up along the way.  Everything from Gas stations to restaurants and lodging could be found along Route 66.

Years later, with ever more cars on the roads, larger highways with more lanes became necessary,  and with the building of Interstate 40, Route 66 became obsolete, as did many of the business along it’s route.  Nowadays people drive on Route 66 to enjoy the historical significance of it, or to just plain get off the boring, mundane interstate and have fun on the road.
Barstow has three decent museums- the Rte 66 Museum, the Twenty Mule Team Museum and a railroad museum.  They are all free.  Of course, they are only open a few days a week, but that’s ok, the price was right!

Having had our fill of indoor activities, we found ourselves heading to Rainbow Basin to do some hiking.   Our hike into Owl Canyon was awesome.  The rock formations here are like nothing we have seen before.

The colors are amazing!

We hiked deep into the canyon, happy that we had brought our GPS with us!

There were a lot of rock climbing opportunities, most of which I declined, but Paul had a great time climbing in and out of the canyon and over huge boulders.  He is actually in the picture above, leaning against the protruding rock formation.

We have now moved on from Barstow to Tecopa Hot Springs.  You can probably guess what this town is known for.  We are on the edge of Death Valley, near Area 51, according to the locals.  I must admit I had a chill go down my spine when I heard that.  We have absolutely no cell phone coverage here, and only have the internet through the campground Wi-fi. The locals say that whatever the government is doing here, it is the cause of no cell signal.  Anyway, if you don’t hear from us again, you can assume we were abducted by aliens!

The three B’s

Borax, Boron, and Borates.
Borax= Borax is a company, and a common name for the mineral.
Boron= the 5th element in the periodic table, and a town in California.
Borates=  minerals containing boron, commonly used in many household products.

When I was a kid I remember Borax being a soap (Borateem) but really it’s more of a performance enhancer.  43% of all Boron is used to make glass-   fiberglass, Pyrex, insulation, crystal etc. 17% is used in detergent, bleach, soaps etc. 12% is used in ceramics, enamels, glazes, etc. and 5% is used in fertilizer. It’s an essential ingredient for plant growth.  It’s even used as a flame retardant, in circuit boards and in cosmetics.  Quite a versatile mineral.

I mention Borax because huge quantities of the stuff have been found in this area of California, (including Death Valley National Park) and we have spent the last two days learning about it. Actually, this place is loaded with minerals and ore, including gold and silver.
     In 1881, Aaron Winters, of Death Valley, was told that the white stuff all over his land might be Boron. He heard from a stranger that if he were to pour alcohol and sulfuric acid on the ore and ignite it, if it’s boron, it will burn green.  It did, and the frenzy for Boron began.  Really, I want to know, in a time when cell phones, or even regular phones, didn’t exist, there was no internet, no cars, etc., how does someone find out that if this thing burns green, it’s worth a lot of money??  And how do they figure out how to even use it in products??
      Anyway, the land was soon sold to prospectors, and eventually fell into the hands of Francis “Borax” Smith, who consolidated the properties with his own and created Pacific Coast Borax Co.   Now all he had to do was figure out how to get the borax out of the valley and over to the railroad in Mohave.  It was 165 miles of desolate, road less, barren land, with summer temperatures reaching 130-150 degrees.

The solution was the 20 Mule Team. 

The wagons were custom built, at a cost of $900 each.  They were the biggest, heaviest and strongest wagons ever seen. Weighing in at 7800 lbs, each could carry 12 tons of borax.  There were two wagons  in each “train”, followed by a water wagon.  The most experienced drivers, called “skinners” were hired to haul the borax, and the mules were well trained for the job and even responded when called by name.  In order to turn corners without cutting it too tightly, 6 of the mules were taught to jump the rope and walk sideways  (depicted in the picture)  so that the wagons would follow the path behind the team. They could cover 16-18 miles a day, making it a 10 day trip through the desert to deliver the borax.

The mule teams were used for 5 years to bring the borax out of death valley, until the railroad was brought into the valley.

Although times have changed,  borax  is still  being mined  in  this area.  The mine  is  now owned  by U.S Borax Inc. and it’s one of  the two  largest borax mines in  the world.
After  spending quite a while in the Twenty Mule Team Museum,  we drove out to the mine and spent an hour or so in the visitor’s center.  They charge a $3 entrance fee per car, which we thought was pretty strange, but then we saw that they donate all the proceeds to local charities. 
Here, instead of mules, the borax is trucked out of the open pit mine in massive trucks  that can each haul 240 tons of material. The tires alone  are 11 feet tall.

Mojave Preserve (03-04-12)

170 miles later, we have driven through the Mojave Preserve, which encompasses most of the Mojave Desert.  Our first stop was the Kelso  Dunes. The highest of the dunes is about 650 feet tall.  What makes them unique is that they are “singing” dunes.  When you run down the steep slopes, the dunes make a sound similar to a small airplane flying overhead. 

 people skiing down the dune

After hiking for a half hour and still feeling miles away from even the bottom of the large dunes, I gave up and took out my camera.  We could see people walking along the top ridge.  As we watched, they “threw” themselves over the side and skied down the slope.  That’s the best way to make the singing sound, so I am just as happy I didn’t hike all the way up- there’s  no way I would have thrown myself over the edge. No more broken bones for me, thanks.  Paul was able to produce the sound to a lesser degree on a smaller hill, but I didn’t hear it.

We stopped at the visitor’s center before driving through the rest of the park.  They had a diner type restaurant there, so we each got a piece of home made pie (a la mode, of course). 

This area has been formed and influenced by past volcanic activity and one of the unique results was an accessible lava tube. A lava tube is created when lava cools slowly as it streams across the land.  The top of the lava flow cools faster than the lava beneath it, and when the lower lava continues to flow, it leaves behind a tunnel, called a lava tube.  There’s a ladder to climb down in order to gain access to the tunnel itself.

We walked the short distance to the end of the tube, where we could see holes in the lava that allowed the sunlight to stream down into the tunnel.



end of the lava tube



 

We had to drive 5 miles down a dirt road to get to it, but it was worth the trip.

Aiken Mine

After exploring to our heart’s content, we continued down Aiken Mine Rd. until we came to the abandoned Aiken Mine. It’s really more of a rock quarry, and had clearly been abandoned years ago.

It was now getting late in the day and our plan of hiking a few short trails wasn’t going to happen.  Instead, we drove on through, enjoying the unique landscape of the Mojave Desert.

Cinder Cones-a steep conical hill formed above volcanic vents



unusual shapes dot the landscape



some of the lava is full of air bubbles, making it very light.