Death Valley

Dear Briggz,

            Eager for warmer weather we worked our way to the Mojave Desert area with a destination of Death Valley. The roads to get to Death Valley were challenging in that there were road closures due to flash flooding that had occurred some four weeks prior to our traveling on them. I much more appreciate the men and women that work for the DOT back home. Four weeks and the road was not even touched! Gumby and Pokey had their work cut out as we definitely took the road less traveled, and perhaps it may have been the road NEVER traveled.  I will leave it at that and if you want to hear more about that, just ask any one of us.

            Death Valley is hard on vehicles. The uphill climb entering the valley from the west has a very steep grade. Signs along the road tell motorists to turn off their air conditioners to help prevent their cars, trucks, or RV’s from overheating. It winds for a climb of over 4000 ft.  An equally impressive downhill that will grind your brakes followed, and then you see it…

You can view the desert floor for miles, and far off in the distance there are mountains on the other side.

our campsite

the view from our site

            An RV park named Stovepipe Wells is where we stopped. We planned to stay for 4 nights. Death Valley is an appropriate name. It is so dry and hot that it does not seem possible for anything to survive out here. Miles of arid desert, and the only oasis is the few hotels or campgrounds that have somehow over the years found a way to pipe water into the desert. We took a couple trips while we were in Death Valley. One was Scotty’s Castle, an incomplete hotel resort that was the brainchild of a so-called miner. He duped forks into buying shares in his mining business and used the money to build his own fortune. Did I mention that he never found any gold or any other precious ore in that mine. The “Mine” was a complete scam. He teamed up with a fairly wealthy gentleman from Chicago and the idea for the resort was born.

 

            We also visited the Ubehebe Crater. This is the remnant of a volcano that erupted which strewn chunks of lava rock throughout the park. It is about 500 ft. deep and  a half mile wide.  It was cool to be able to walk along the craters edge.

We hiked through the Mosaic Canyon with it’s narrows and limestone.

We also took the time to visit the ghost town of Rhyolite. With the mining boom, those miners built this town. It had a school, a bank, among other municipalities that all towns have. As the Borax mining slowed down, so with it went the town.

                                                      Then it happened, the Shutdown…   

We were on our way to Badwater to head to the lowest, hottest place on the planet, and the barricades were up. The federal government had closed us out! Well that is really where our tour of Death Valley ended. We were planned to leave the following morning, so we hung out at the pool, had lunch and prepared for our next voyage. Where that will be, who knows???

Talk to you soon.