Death Valley

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Death Valley is nothing but rocks, dirt and beauty. During our visit the temperature usually ascended into the 90s as we descended into our air conditioned trailer. We would wake up before sunrise to be able to get in some hiking before it became too hot to be out.

Our first full day in Death Valley we started off as tourists and driving to some of the usual sites. We started with “The Devil’s Golfcourse”. Located in what was once a salt lakebed, then on to a drive on a 9 mile one way rough dirt road called “Artist Drive” which winds into some beautiful pastel colored hills. We saw all shades of brown, red, pink, blue & greens thanks to the different mineral deposits. It looks as if someone splashed huge buckets of paint on the hills. Then we had killed enough time to meet the ranger for our ranger guided hike through Gower’s Gulch. This took us on a 2 mile hike through a canyon, badlands and old mine tunnels. By this time it was almost noon and the sun was really beating down on us. We went back to the trailer for lunch and a rest in the cool air. About 4pm we headed out again for a hike to the “Natural Bridge”. We drove to the trail head and hike up (why is everything always up???) a canyon caused by water runoff to a complete stone bridge shaped by water running down the canyon during heavy rains. Very beautiful, especially because the sun was sinking in the sky and we got some really beautiful shadows on the cliffs. The sinking sun reminded us we had planned to see the sunset at Zabinski’s Point which is a most beautiful view point that looks over a mountain range. We jumped in the truck and raced the sun to the lookout point. Sun won. But it was still beautiful by the time we dragged ourselves up the hill (up again, see what I mean?) We also had an appointment to see a slide show at the visitor’s center about the geological oddities of Death Valley. It started at 7 and we were on time for that, Mike was very happy as the auditorium was air conditioned. At 6:30pm it was still 85F degrees here.

This morning we woke at 5AM had some coffee and drove up to a trailhead near our campground. The place is called Mosaic Canyon and is the most beautiful hike we have had so far. The walls of the canyon are mostly marble which has been polished by the water and wind and occasionally the canyon walls get so close you have walk through single file. Some of the canyon is also what they call conglomerate which is many small rocks mixed together with mud which hardens into solid rock, kind of like cement. But when the smaller rocks are marble and other colorful stones it looks like the canyon was decorated with mosaic artwork. A small part of the canyon provided additional entertainment in being an echo canyon. Very cool. After the 4 mile hike we headed back down the valley to our campground and fixed a sausage and eggs breakfast. Rough life huh? We are staying in until this afternoon when we’ll drive north to visit a ghost town and drive through a scenic canyon area.

Titus Canyon Drive or as I like to call it Mr. Toads Wild Ride. We made it back alive to tell you about it. We headed out at 3pm and aimed for Beatty Nevada. The gas station here in the park is charging $2.50 a gallon for diesel (captive audience and no competition) so we decided to head for the nearest town to gas up and visit the sights in that area of the park. We found the gas station ($1.89, that’s more like it) and headed back into the park. The ghost town wasn’t much to look at. It was started in 1906 as a mining town and didn’t last long. So, not very old and not much to see. At 5PM we started on the road to Titus Canyon. The drive is advertised in the park paper as a dirt road requiring high clearance for your vehicle axles. What they don’t tell you about is the steep drop-offs, hairpin turns and big rocks in the road or how long it takes to drive it. It is a 26 mile one-way washboard dirt road (meaning no turning around). We couldn’t turn around. It took us 2 hours to drive the road. Since we misjudged how long it would take us to do the drive we did the last 5 miles of in darkness. We did the hairpin turns in daylight and I had a really good view of the drop-off just outside the passenger door. YIKES!!!!! We were crawling up and down the side of mountains. Talk about an off-road adventure. To give you an idea of how rough the road was, our tailgate was shaken off it’s brackets and fell open, hanging there by the cables. But to be honest what we did see was beautiful and we plan to go back tomorrow and hike in to better view the last bit of it which is probably (I’m guessing) some of the best parts of the canyon. When we finally came out onto the regular road we had to pull over for awhile, first to rest and relax from the ride and second to make sure the SUV we had passed earlier also made it out. They were originally ahead of us but suffered a flat tire about 10 miles into the road. The ranger told us those roads were “tire eaters” and they weren’t kidding. We rested and saw them come out safe. Distance is very deceptive in Death Valley. A mountain looks close by and in reality it’s miles away. When we came out of the Titus Canyon road we saw the lights of our campground then we saw a sign that said our campground was 20 miles away! We’re home now, it’s 7:30 and time for showers and supper. We haven’t turned on the TV since we arrived. (We aren’t so noble, we just can’t get any reception), but we don’t miss it. The scenery is keeping us busy enough.

Our third day in Death Valley has us both almost exhausted. I think a combination of the heat and all our activity has wiped us both out. We headed north to check out another campground we will probably use our next visit here. We went to Titus Canyon and hiked in a few miles. Very beautiful as usual, with solid walls of rock towering over us; and as we were hiking out we were treated to the spectacle of 2 airforce jets doing some training exercises right above us. Another special moment was when two large crows flew about 40 feet above us; we could actually hear the sound of their wings moving through the air. We both just stared at each other, amazed at how distinct each sound was. Everything about Death Valley had a special beauty and peaceful atmosphere.

Wow, Death Valley was really a great experience. We are definitely going back there again. We left too many canyons unseen. Unfortunately, driving out of Death Valley was as exhilarating as hiking in Death Valley only not in a good kind of way. When I was researching Death Valley on the internet I had read the best way to drive out of the valley was on highway 190. Sounded good, especially as our campground was already on the route we would take getting out. First, let me set the stage. Remember, Death Valley is a dry lakebed at sea level surrounded by mountains so we expected to go up some hills. We left early while it was still somewhat cool and headed up. The first stretch was a long uphill haul that kept us at 15 miles per hour until we reached the foot of the mountain range. We’ve never hauled the trailer that slow before. We even stopped and tried to drain all the water out of the trailer to lose weight. It wasn’t really that bad, we actually got up to 20 MPH at one point. When we reached the foot of the Panamint mountain range I saw a sign that said any vehicle with a trailer length over 30 feet is not advised for this road (our trailer is 33 feet). I was driving the first leg of the journey and only glanced at the sign. I assumed it was for commercial type trucks (this kind of signs usually are and don’t often apply to RVs). I was to regret this decision during the next 20 miles, I mean really regret it, with cursing involved. We started driving up into the mountains and the road kept getting steeper and steeper. We had to reduce to our cruising speed to 10 MPH. So far our engine and transmission we hanging in there. So many times on our journey we were thankful we had a temperature gauge for the transmission installed. It has kept us from burning up our transmission multiple times when hauling uphill. As we climbed higher an interesting thing happened, the road kept getting narrower, the road shoulder smaller and rock walls closer to the road. Soon we entered an area where there were many tight twists and turns and on some of those hairpin turns and S type twists the turn would be so tight the road would bank up at an angle like a roller coaster does when it turns. Now combine the road surface banking to the side with the zero shoulder with the rock walls almost within touching distance and us towing the beast. I am very amazed we didn’t scrape the sides of the trailer on the rock walls. We couldn’t go back, there was no place to turn around, no side roads to take and other cars bunching up behind me. I’m sure they didn’t appreciate going 5 to 10 mph, but there wasn’t much I could do except what they were probably doing. Cursing me out for being stupid enough to take this huge trailer on this small mountain road. There were no pull-outs or turn arounds for me to get out of the way and let them pass. Once we were out of danger and the mountains were behind us I pulled over so Mike could start driving and I could collapse.

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Photos

The Devil's Golfcourse
Salt crystals and dried mud. You could easily cut yourself on the sharp cyrstals imbedded in the mud.

Mosaic Canyon
This place isn't totally dead.

Is it real or is it a postcard?
It's real.