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:
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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!