Whitney Pocket, NV

Where? About one hour north of Las Vegas on I-15 is the city of Mesquite in the Virgin Valley. Head east about 30 miles on the rough but paved Gold Butte Road to Whitney Pocket, an area of orange, pink and yellow rocky outcroppings in the desert nestled beneath the Virgin Mountains.

Whitney Pocket

Our campsite among the colourful rocks and joshua trees. There are several "dispersed" campsites in this area and other campers (mostly ATVers) come and go. We spend Christmas here.

Grady loves it here, climbing the rock faces and rolling around on the flat, rough sections. His climbing skills are greatly improved following our week here.

Many different lichens grow on the rocks, including moss which you don't expect to see in the desert. It's very wet here for some reason, perhaps they've had a lot of rain recently.

We spend several days just scrambling around on the various rocky outcroppings. This is a typical formation, similar to the "beehives" found in nearby Valley of Fire State Park.

Little Finland

About 20 miles from Whitney Pocket, down the very rough Gold Butte Road and sandy Mud Wash is an area known as Little Finland where unusually eroded sandstone shapes haunt the silent desert. I love this photo because it creates a wonderful illusion.

Much of the orange sandstone is streaked with white, probably gypsum deposits.

One of the "goblin" creatures overlooking the valley.

Another unusual, more elaborate shape. This block is about five feet high and eight feet wide.

Part of the ridge, with the eroded shapes towering into the clear, blue sky.

Looking south down the length of the half-mile ridge. The palm trees at the base of the cliffs look as if they've been planted here specifically to add a splash of green to the otherwise red/orange landscape. You might have trouble seeing him, but Brad is the blue dot on the cliff edge between the nearest two palm trees.

Gold Butte Road

The old mining location of Gold Butte, which was active only from 1905 to 1910 when gold was found in the area. There's really not much left here except a few concrete pads and rusted sluicing equipment. Although this photo is kind of boring, I include it because this area is so different from nearby locations.

Between Little Finland and Gold Butte Road is a short but interesting slot canyon known as the Seven Keyholes.

Death Valley National Park, CA - Part 2, Furnace Creek area and Emigrant Canyon

Sunrise from our campsite in Furnace Creek, the most popular and central part of the park (and the only place in the park that has cell service). Palm trees on the valley floor, snow-capped mountains in the background. This ominous little cloud becomes an overcast day.

Dante's View

Close to the south of the park, Dante's View provides stunning vistas of Death Valley looking north towards Furnace Creek as pictured here and south towards the park boundary. From this height (5,475 feet), it is easy to see the salt flats of Badwater right below us (-282 feet), the lowest spot in North America, and the Panamint Mountains to the west. Today, the wind is blowing like mad making it cold and me wishing I had put my hair in a ponytail!

Echo Canyon and Inyo Mine

The 4x4 road up Echo Canyon takes us 10 miles east into the Funeral Mountains and the Inyo Mine, now mostly rubble. This structure looks like part of the conveyor system bringing the rock down the hillside to be crushed and processed. Some old buildings still stand, but others are in ruins.

One of the mine shafts which is actually angled downward. Many shafts are still here and to our surprise are not fenced or closed off; some even drop straight down, so we have to be very careful.

In the canyon, the Eye of the Needle is more visible on the trip back down to the valley.

The Eye of the Needle from the other (sunny) side looking up the canyon.

Emigrant Canyon Road to Aguereberry Point and the Charcoal Kilns

Another stunning view of the valley from Aguereberry Point in the Panamint range looking northeast. Yes, we're wearing coats now as it's barely above freezing, but thankfully not windy.

A view of the badlands just south of Furnace Creek, taken from Aguereberry Point looking due east. It is in these clay hills that we can hike Golden Canyon or drive Artist's Drive. The colours and folds are just amazing.

The Eureka Mine Camp along the road to Aguereberry Point. Pete Aguereberry (the point nearby is named for him) mined this area ALONE for 40 years, taking out roughly $175,000 in gold. He was not a wealthy man, but he managed to survive, happily I would assume, in this harsh environment.

The Charcoal Kilns near Wildrose Peak. Yes, lots of snow up here. The road was totally snow-covered for the last 1/2 mile. And it's cold - coats are on again. Wood was burned in these kilns to make charcoal and shipped to a nearby mine to use as fuel. You can still smell the burnt wood inside the ten kilns.

We have a stunning sky driving back from the kilns. You can see the snow in the higher peaks (highest in the park is about 11,000 feet), but the desert floor is barren and back at Furnace Creek (almost 200 feet below sea level) it's 60F (16C). It's all about elevation.

Mesquite Dunes

Mesquite Dunes near Stovepipe Wells in the park are not very high (about 100 feet), but are beautiful especially in the late afternoon sun with the backdrop of the Grapevine Mountains.

Desolation Canyon

Only a few miles south of Furnace Creek is a hike up Desolation Canyon. Here, the colourful badlands resemble Artist's Palette which is in the same area. The soft hues of green, pink, purple and gold stripe the clay-cemented mudstone hills.

And so ends our journey in California after two and a half months.  Fitting I suppose to end it in Death Valley!

Death Valley National Park, CA - Part 1, Mesquite Springs area in the north

Ubehebe Crater

If you follow this blog, you might remember that we were here last year, but it was late in the day and we had no time to explore. So we vowed to return and here we are. Ubehebe (YOU-bee-hee-bee) Crater was formed only 2,000 years ago by boiling steam heated by magma inside the earth that caused such pressure that the ground exploded and created this crater. Let's take a walk around the rim, counter-clockwise. This view is from the parking lot looking southeast.

Here we are climbing up the west side of the rim which is the higher side. From this view, we are looking northeast.

Half way around now and looking at the parking lot (it's half a mile away, so don't be surprised if you can't see the vehicles). The lines leading from the parking lot into the bottom of the crater are trails. Yes, some people actually descend the 500 feet, but they have to climb up to get out. This view is looking northwest.

At the lower rim, we are now looking southwest, into the mid-day sun.

Brad on one of the paths that leads to the bottom. He didn't go far, just enough for me to get a photo. Such a cheater!

The explosion that created Ubehebe Crater created many other craters in this area. These are two others to which we hike on the way up to the high rim peak on the southwest side. Actually, we sit at the top overlooking these craters to have lunch.

Scotty's Castle

Yep, we stopped at Scotty's Castle last year too, but didn't see much as it was about a half hour from closing time. This time the Visitor Center is open and in it is Al Johnson's old 1914 Packard. He was the wealthy owner who built this castle and named it after his friend, Walter Scott, aka Death Valley Scotty. You can read about Al and Scotty's lively history. It's hard to believe, but Al toured his wife and friends around Death Valley in the 1920s and 1930s in this vehicle. Back then, the roads were worse than the park's rough 4x4 roads of today, so I don't know how they did it. What's impressive about this car is its size - it seats seven!

Scotty's grave high on a hill above the castle. He sure has a great view. The text says "I got four things to live by: Don't say nothing that will hurt anybody. Don't give advice--nobody will take it anyway. Don't complain. Don't explain." Words to live by.

Death Valley Ranch, aka Scotty's Castle, as seen from Scotty's grave.

The clock tower beside the main house. The clocks on each side all read a slightly different time, and the Westminster Chimes rang the quarter hour at 3:10. Well, it is about 100 years old!

The Racetrack

The Racetrack is our main reason for returning to Death Valley this year. The unpaved, 4x4 road heads out into the desert from Ubehebe Crater and it's a rattler - rattles your teeth, truck and everything else for 27 miles each way. The drive takes us about 1.5 hours - each way, but we are determined to knock it off our bucket list. Six miles from our destination is Teakettle Junction. One of these kettles is from as far away as Russia (people write messages on them).

Just before we get to the Racetrack is the Grandstand, an outcropping of bedrock on the flat playa. The views of it as we approach show the size of the dry lake bed.

A couple of motorcyclists cross the playa to the Grandstand.

It is difficult to choose which photos of the moving rocks to show. The effect is incredible. Once a complete mystery, scientists now believe they understand why these rocks slide across this playa, although studies continue.

The theory is that heavy winter rains occasionally flood the playa and then the water freezes on the clay surface. As the ice melts into chunks, high winds, which often funnel down this valley, blow the ice floes into the rocks, moving them.

Some of the rocks, a few of which are up to 500 pounds, move great distances. Some move in straight lines while others perform 90 degree turns, and others wiggle around. Many tracks end with no rock, implicating thieves.

It is easy to see that the rocks begin from a hillside (at the top of this photo) of very blueish stone at the south end of the playa. What an amazing place to visit.

Death Valley is a huge park. Although we fuel our truck before entering the park, simply driving to our campsite and then up to the Racetrack leaves us with not enough fuel to return to our campsite. But, we carry an extra 10 gallons in containers wherever we go for times like this. Fuel is available in the park, but is a one-hour drive from our campground and it's expensive. I think I should have taken the picture and Brad should have filled the tank.

Tecopa, CA

Tecopa is known for its hot springs and many resorts have sprung up around them. This is the "Wild Tub" which is the only one in the area, besides the mud spring, that is free and not enclosed in a building. It really is in the middle of nowhere and Brad is thoroughly enjoying himself.

In a small valley outside of town is the China Ranch, a working date farm. Its name comes from the Chinese man who originally owned this piece of dirt beside Willow Creek. He raised cattle but either sold or was run off the land around 1900. The name "China Ranch" stuck.

The date farm, seen here surrounded by the dry hills, has a very interesting history. The palms were planted from seeds in 1920 by Vonola Modine (ancestor of Matthew Modine, the actor) having never seen a date palm before. Many of the original trees stand today, as do their offspring.

Many hiking trails surround the China Ranch, and we hike much of the Amargosa Canyon Trail to the slot canyon and waterfall. Here, I am standing just inside the slot canyon which is only a few hundred yards long, but still interesting with the porous, volcanic rock.

Brad climbing the dryfall at the "end" of the slot canyon. He would pick today to wear grey.

Brad standing over top of the lower waterfall. Another one just above him falls about three or so feet. This is the Amargosa River providing much needed hydration to this parched landscape.

On the highway to Pahrump, Nevada is this interesting roadcut. Note the streak of black obsidian, a glass rock created by volcanic activity. Brad is fascinated with this and spends part of a day climbing it and collecting a few small specimens.

Well, we do see the strangest things in the desert. In the "town" of Tecopa Hot Springs we find The Gypsy Time Travelers. We don't see their show of story-telling and blacksmithing, but what does intrigue us is their RV which was custom built by the owner. It is fantastic, complete with wooden turrets and porthole windows.

This micro-brewery and restaurant are owned by the fella who owns the town of Tecopa. We stop for a burger and beer (both great, by the way) and eat overlooking the pond. It is a lovely setting, except for the mosquitoes! Afterward, we enjoy a half-hour chat with the owners around their campfire. Only in the desert...