THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Death Valley to Calico California

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

March 14, 2013.

Time to leave Death Valley, it has been some experience.  The images will remain in our memories for many moons.

We will head back to Furnace Creek and leave the park, heading via Shoshone California to Calico California.

After just 3 days of limited amounts of vegetation of any kind, I was shocked to see, some kind of grass.  (By the way, we did see quite a few wildflowers growing along side the roads when we left the park, just could not get any photos, there were no pulloffs or safe places to stop for photos.)

For lunch we stopped at Shoshone California, just a spot in the road, whose residents provide fuel (at well over $5.00 a gallon no matter what type of fuel), a bar/burger saloon, a grocery store/convenience store and a museum.  I may have missed a business or two, but, you get the idea, blink while driving through and you will miss it.  And, what a shame it would be to miss it, it has all that wonderfully hokey history stuff and old junk that I adore photographing!  These photos, by the way , were done with the iPhone, I left Sony Too in Jolly, as I was busy with the fur kids.  It was too hot to leave them in Jolly, so, they got to go into the courtyard of the saloon and rest in the shade while Man and I had lunch!

Nice flowers in the flower bed next to the building, my view during lunch.  Not too hard to take, eh?

Over in front of the museum, oooo, old rusty stuff, love love love, the filing station pumps!

The car from another point of view, OK, the artist in me loves this.  Per the signage, it is a 1937 Chevrolet.

This museum had the most interesting collection of rock and explanations of when it was formed, great stuff.  I did not take the time to photo it all, really should have, it was very well done!

I cannot resist taking photos of the unique land forms. So many miles, so many delights!

I look out that side view mirror a lot during the day, the view can be awesome!

Vast, I say it over and over again, vast!  Miles and miles of, pretty much, nothing.  Gives me the creeps thinking of breaking down out in this vastness, with NO cell service!

Center of the photo, more road miles to travel before we reach our destination today.

Our home for the next few nights, Calico California.

Yep, a ghost town.  Calico is now a county park/campground.

Parts of the campground are IN a canyon.

Close up of some campsites for tents, etc.  No water here, and this is across the street from Tana's campsite.

Close parking, and, I do mean, CLOSE!!!  Those yellow painted cement poles are the markers of the sides of your campsite.  These campsites can not be much more than 13 foot wide.  Tana is 12 foot wide when the slides are open and we took up ALL of our campsite, except maybe a few inches on either side.  Jolly is 22 foot long, bumper to bumper, we could not park Jolly cross wise without extending into our neighbor's campsites. Everyone knew how it was, we parked Jolly cross wise for part of the weekend.

Here is the entrance side.  I was careful when opening the door, it was rather close to another one of those yellow concrete poles.  I knew it would not hit, that said, I felt it wise to be careful.  Besides, I might be the one running INTO that pole, not the door.

Man and I had to work hard to get Tana into this parking spot.  I have some additional photos of the close parking I will share with you another time.  My desk window looked right at a canyon wall.  The wall was only feet from the window, sorta a "reach out and touch me" sorta thing!

The weekend filled up the campground, we guided a large Motorhome into the site next to us with iPhone lights at night.  Turn your iPhone on, keep it on, it puts out some great light, if you wiggle it, it sends off a flicker of light that can be seen in rear view mirrors.  When someone is 4 or 5 inches from us as they are backing in, I will flicker that iPhone a lot!  LOL

It was our first experience camping in a canyon, and so, we embraced the experience and had some fun with it.

We will visit the ghost town and Peggy Sue's Diner while we are here.  On Sunday, we will wait for all the other rigs to leave so we can hook up and depart ourselves.  Yep, it was close, and it was an experience!  Not sorry for the experience.  Not one bit!




.

THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Golden Canyon And The Power of Water, Death Valley

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

March 13, 2013

OK, both Man and I will admit it, by the time we got to Golden Canyon, we were T*I*R*E*D.  Very tired. It had been a long day and it had been a bit over 90 degrees F.  We had been to Dante's Peak, and Badwater Basin, learned about borax and driven two different but awesome drives, the 20 Mule Team and Artist Drive.  We still had a LONG drive back to camp, so we approached Golden Canyon with little energy or interest, and only slightly more determination to at least stop and see what it was all about.

First tho, I wanted to share this land form that took my breath away, just before we reached the canyon.  Take a look, and then try to breath!

So, we found the turn off, to Golden Canyon:

Let's have a bit of photographic back story first, shall we?  Sure, it's your blog Carol, go for it!  OK, lets!

On the drive to Scotty's Castle there was a display about water and the power and the changes it makes in the landscape.  And, as usual, the photo does not show the depth, I still need that 3D camera!

Of course, I did the zoom with Sony Too:

Now, back to Golden Canyon.  We decided to walk into the canyon, just a little, being all tuckered out and all.

Man holding the canyon walls up, or something:

He climbed into this crevice/land form, the shadows were deep, or was he hiding?  Canyon walls were tall, what, let's guess at 25 to 30 feet??

What have we here?

A closer look, from a different angle.  I see blacktop pavement on top of natural land forms.  Do you?

And, up the canyon a bit more, you can see more pavement on top of natural land forms, with what is obviously some very serious water damage/wash out.

Not knowing the real back story on this pavement and such, I am going to hazard a guess.  At some point they had paved the walking surface of the canyon for tourists and hikers.  There was a rain storm, somewhere high in the mountains, or water from melting snow.  It came pouring down this canyon and washed out most of the walking surface.

No, never under estimate the power of water.

We actually went into the canyon about as far as that guy at the top of the photo.  However, the long day convinced us it was time to call it quits before we got hurt.  Being tired and hiking in that kind of terrain not the best idea.

So, we climbed back into Jolly, drove many miles back to Furnace Creek, filled up the fuel tank AGAIN and drove back to Stovepipe Wells and Tana and rest. Our last evening in the valley produced a lovely sunset.  I took oodles of photos of course, and then, I decided to try something different, a panoramic sunset. I think I like it.

We have packed lots into 2.5 days in Death Valley, we must leave, there is no room at the inn, all the full hookup campsites are rented, therefore, it is time to move on.  We missed seeing some things, there were any number of hiking trails we could have investigated, IF we had more time.  We do feel we learned the essence of the park. Our imaginations have run wild with the vastness, the stark and almost colorless beauty, the reality of what life here in the summer must be like.

We won't be forgetting Death Valley and it's magic and mystery anytime soon.




And, I have just realized that Death Valley may be the only National Park Man and I will ever camp in.  Many of the parks do not have campsites large enough for Tana and Jolly, many do not have electrical hookups and even tho we do enjoy boondocking with our MOC friends at Quartzsite, we rarely have weather that is favorable for that and the fur kids health.  It  is either too hot or too cold to leave the fur kids in Tana for hours on end with out benefit of heat or air conditioning.  Yes, Death Valley is a special place.

.

THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Artist Drive, Death Valley

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

March 13, 2013

It has been a rather long day, we have been driving and driving, I have taken mega amounts of photos, by the end of the day, there will be well over 630 photos!  YIKES!

One of our last stops for the day, our last in Death Valley, will be to drive through Artist Drive.

This is a drive that is all about the land forms and colors.  As you can see, the color and forms begin right away.

We drove in a way and stopped at a pull off.  Many were hiking/walking up the hill, we did too.  For my efforts I snagged this panoramic.  The lighting conditions at that moment sure tossed a lot of red into this one, eh??

Back on the one way road, there was a sign that read, "Dip", and yes, indeedy there was one:  You can see just a hint of the flooding that had closed Artist Drive when we first arrived in the park.

And there were curves too. In the far distance you can just see the white (salt) of the valley floor.

This is what we came for, pale colors, delicately arranged by Mother Nature.

Panoramic, still cannot capture the beauty, but, I have fun trying:

Never can take enough photos of such beauty:

Sony Too zooms:

As we head back to the main drive, more evidence of the rain and flooding as well as a magnificent display of land forms, colors, textures, rolling hills and sharp protrusions.  Glorious!

One last stop, a long ride back to camp and our visit here in this magical and strange land called Death Valley will be over.



.

THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Badwater Basin, Death Valley

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

March 13, 2013

The turn to Badwater, 17 miles of a drive you will probably never forget, bizarre, weird, eerie.  You will note there is some green under the sign, yes, they water that, it is at one of the hotels in the Valley, palm trees, an oasis of sorts. Smacks your eyeballs, shocks your senses, it is so different than everything else.

Yes, we are driving on Badwater Road and yes, we are already 195 feet BELOW sea level.

This is what 200 feet below sea level looks like:

And, so is this.  It was about 90 degrees here, it is so flat and barren it almost paralyzes my mind.  Add another 20 to 30 degrees (top temperature ever recorded here, they say, was 137!).  Killer valley, death valley, aptly named!

When we reach the basin, Jolly's GPS told us we were 283 feet below sea level, pretty close to the 282 the park says you are.  That is close to 29 stories below sea level.  I did say this entire experience was rather other-worldly, didn't I?

Now, this is taken from the parking lot looking away from the basin.  There is this tall hill/mountain.  On this "hill" the park service has a sign that shows where sea level is.  Can't see it??  No, I could not either.  My poor attempt at showing you where on the hill the sign is, says, "Left, is a marker, for Sea level.  Really!"

So, let's enlist the help of much of Sony Too's zoom features, ohhhhh, there it is!  Still is not all that easy to see!  Remember, it is over 29 stories higher than I am standing!

Looking north(ish) up the basin, the salts and some water of Badwater Basin.  There is even just a touch of a reflection of the "hill" in that water.  This is called Badwater Pool, the water is so salty mules and such will not drink the water.  It is the home however of pickleweed, aquatic insects and larvae.  It just so happens to be the home of one of Death Valley's most rare animals, the Badwater Snail, who only live at the edge of the Death Valley salt flats.  I did not see any snails, but, they are supposed to be there.

This is looking west(erly). You are allowed to walk on that pure white area past the boardwalk.  I have no idea how far it goes.  The fur kids were with us, and at 90 degrees we could not leave them in Jolly.  So, we did not wander out very far.

A panoramic does not express the vastness, the strangeness, the truth of Death Valley.

Down on the walkway, breathtaking in such a different way.

From the board walk, looking back to the parking lot, can you see that Sea Level sign??  No, me either!  But, I can tell you it is about 1/4 of the way down that "hill".  Another way to look at it, only 1/4 of that hill would be ABOVE water if this basin were filled level with what we consider to be sea level.  Hope you can swim!

On the drive back to camp we will make two more side trips, one into Artist Drive, where I got to fill up the soul a bit with some pastels that were stunningly beautiful.  Our last side trip of the day would be a quick stop at Golden Canyon where the true power of water made itself know.  Coming soon - -




.