Around Again

Jackson Mountains from Jungo Road

Seems to have become a ritual, to wander out into the wilderness on the shortest day of the year.  Into the big empty.  

Jungo Flats on the Winter Solstace

Maybe this more accurately indicates today's low point.  Barren ground, black horizon, temperature dropping, darkness descending.

Forty Mile Desert

Low Point of the Year

Death Valley 2011
282 feet below sea level

Thirteen point seven billion years later, it is early evening, and Stuart and I are sitting on the table of camp space #11, looking across the road at #12, our annual Mesquite Springs campsite.

There is a Class B sitting there, and parked in front is a shiny new 1963 Volkswagen Beetle.  It was dark green with a British Columbia license plate.  There's no one around over there, but we know they are in, we can see the glow of their TV screen.

We're thinking that by using the right mind control technology we can urge them to pull up stakes and leave in the morning.  This might work because we did exactly the same thing last year.

Just before dark, this little German gentleman come's over and says, "we are leaving in the morning, and I'll come over and let you know so you can move to our spot. It's the best one here".

When the wind came up on our fourth day in the valley, it was a real reminder that Death Valley would be a very different place if you were traveling in a mule drawn wagon.  The rock above provides some indication of the wind's effects.  It had been moved several hundred yards in looping arcs and long straight skids, across the playa, leaving a 14 inch wide mark in it's wake.

The racetrack playa, in the Racetrack Valley, is the home of these mysterious rocks streaking across the ground. The trip to this remote valley is a 60 mile round trip of rough wash-boarded gravel road. 

Stuart on the Racetrack

While we were there, 10 to 12 other people visited the Racetrack, and I think I saw every one of them lay down flat on the playa.  Some did it right away, and others waited until they had done some roaming about.  I tried it flat on my back.  Seems to be some sort of primal urge. 

Stovepipe Wells

We did have an opportunity for a little downtime one evening.  We sat on the tailgate drinking coffee and eating crackers, and watched evening settle over Stovepipe Wells.  They seem to do a really good job keeping the light pollution to a minimum.  There were hundreds and hundreds of people staying within 1000 yards of us, and there was almost no sign of them. The only lights are the few around the Inn.

 

Death Valley 2011

Its been a long time since I posted anything here. This time the seven month delay was because I wanted to upload a video to YouTube and embed it here, but every time I tried to upload it I found that my internet connection was too slow. I would try to upload it at home, or at my office, and I would get a message that it was going to take 160 to 180 minutes. And then the upload would time out before it completed. The DSL connections I'm getting are very, very slow, so I'm doing something about that, but that's another story. I got the video uploaded by taking it to Great Basin College and using their fiber optic broadband connection. Took 6 minutes.

So, Stuart and I made another April trip to Death Valley, did some camping, some exploring, and had a great time. While we were up near the crest, on the eastern side of the valley in the Funeral Mountains, near the former site of Chloride City, this is what we across:

Based on the help provided by Sam Hipkins, in the comments below, we now believe these are Crotalus Stephensi - Panamint Rattlesnake

Late June Wildflowers

 

Mule's Ears

 

 

Great Basin Garden

 

 

Lupins and Irisis

 

Some of the images from a June 27, 2010 trip over Hinkey Summit in the Santa Rosa Mountains. Much like the rest of the desert in the Great Basin, there is a beautiful but brief explosion of color each year.

Aquereberry Point

A view of Badwater, the lowest point in the United States, from Aquereberry Point.

Pete Aguereberry, the miner that built the trail to this spectacular viewpoint, was apparently one of the very few good guys that populated Death Valley in it's early mining days. Late in his life Pete built the trail to this "Grand View" of Death Valley with a wheel barrow and his hand tools, so he could share the view.

This is Bill, having a look:





Badwater
Close up, sort of.

This is the bottom of Death Valley, so people like to walk out and see for themselves. 282 feet below sea level.








Rhyolite Ghost Town














The train depot at Rhyolite badly needs structural repairs. Administrators with the BLM need to develop a new visitor experience. The chain link fence with the razor wire on top that surrounds the entire building makes it look more like a crime scene than a historic treasure.