DEEP INTO THE CALIFORNIAN DESERT AND DEATH VALLEY

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DEEP INTO THE DESERT AND DEATH VALLEY

Driving out of LA felt OK. Back to nature for us!
Tecopa had Hot Springs in the middle of the Desert of California, with summer temps of 120 degrees F. We stayed for 2 nights to re-group after LV and see if we got a knock on our door for Halloween but alas even though we put the Pumpkin outside with a candle in it, but there were not many young people in this mining ghost town, so we ate the chocolate treats ourselves. Visited a date farm in the desert on Ronald’s (house sitter) recommendation for a date shake and they were as good as he said they would be and took a plunge in the hot springs - Ouch!

Death Valley California- the hidden Desert Oasis below sea level.
Well we had been in the cold and expected to stay that way as we headed North West but as we entered Death valley through the Armagosa range we were surprised to find 85 degree heat at 243 feet below sea level, here in the oasis at appropriately named Furnace Creek camp ground. We dry camped here for four days i.e. (no power except battery, water from on-board tanks, and retain all waste water in on-board tanks) with 2 lots of nice neighbours, one, who taught us how to put out our awning for the first time and a the other the Camp Host, Larry, who was by himself so we had him over for dinner one night.
We ran into the 58th re-union of 49ers who are a group of people who get together for 2 weeks in Death valley every year since the 1949 centenary and celebrate 1849 when the first settlers made there way through the valley and lost many lives due to heat and salt water. (you can understand how when you see the place, and we were here in the winter!!) There were approximately 250 RVs of every shape and size partying on in the desert. The hiking was great on the salt Lake at Badwater, up the Golden and Mosaic Canyons, out to a 700 foot sand dune in the morning cool, just on sunrise, onto Scotty’s Castle, a run down to the bottom of the crater of a Volcano and out to the Racetrack - a dry lake in summer that freezes in winter and has rocks that move backwards and forwards across the earth leaving trails in the soil with no explanation of how they move - Corrie reckons it is a Martian playground. All of these hikes were up massive sedimentary alluvial fans of rock that flowed from the ranges above and in some years break loose in winter and wipe out 50 Kms of road as they flash flood - stunningly beautiful hidden secret and a warm spot as fall progresses.
We also went to the opening night of the Opera at the Armagosa Opera House at Death Valley Junction for 15 dollars to see an 83 year old Vaudeville star still performing and have cup cakes with pink or blue icing after the performance - we think she should have retired at 70 and charged people to visit the Opera House to see the murals she had painted on the inside which were very good instead of still doing a one woman show - it was a ‘interesting’ cross section of mainly local people of the desert 60 of us in all.
We took another Ronald and Alexa recommendation and retreated to the balcony of the ‘up market’ Furnace Creek Inn for sunset over the Panamint range Margaritas and dinner to celebrate our upcoming 4th wedding anniversary- it used to be the residence of the senior executives of the Borax company that mined Borax in the valley - very quaint but elegant as an Oasis.

North or South to cross the Sierra Nevada - this was the question.
After 4 days we reluctantly leave Death Valley and on advice of the park ranger we decide to go around to the south instead of over 11,000 feet+ Tioga Pass to Yosemite that has already had snow on it. Our targets are now Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite but we need to do some research on where we will store the truck and RV while we are back in Australia so south to Lake Isabella. As we climb out of Death Valley we travel across the massive alluvial fans and climb and climb and climb back up to 4000feet with cactus and giant panoramas at every bend, down to 1000 feet and back up to 4000 feet and off the other side to be greeted by the Sierra Nevada with the highest peak in mainland states Mt McKinley at 14,000 feet plus already sporting the first fall snow cover. These days our truck worked hard, and it performed really well.
Lake Isabella and Bakersfield yielded the info we needed for long term storage and after several lovely nights in the Orange Grove RV park on the outskirts, and stocked with beautiful fresh Californian oranges we were allowed to pick from the 20 foot orange trees on either side of Revvy, we headed north up Interstate 99 on the coastal Californian plain to Sequoia National Park.

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