02-11-2018 Leaving Tucson Heading North

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When Sunday morning arrived, the gorgeous clear skies over Tucson were showing a bit of gray.  Clouds were coming in.  We didn’t know at the time that there was a lot of rain heading towards the big city in the desert, and as the days passed with extended weather reports from friends and news sites, we knew how lucky we had been.  Our entire time so far had been gorgeous.  Sunny, warm, temperatures much above normal, no wind.  Who could ask for more?!

Leaving Tucson, we knew the best way out of town was on the interstate.  To our delight, I-10 at 9 on a Sunday morning was beautifully quiet.  Note to self, always leave big cities which require freeway travel on Sunday morning.  I was driving so we missed photographs of all the amazing freeway overpasses and bridges between Tucson and Phoenix.  Even the fences are covered with gorgeous sculptures, some in cement, some in rusted metal.  We enjoyed all the art along the highways, both in Arizona and in Nevada.  Next time I’ll have Mo drive this section so I can get some photos.

(The two photos here were taken from the internet just so you get the idea.)

I have noticed this trend growing in many places where we travel.  Made me wonder what it must be like to be a freeway graphic artist and to see your designs bigger than life in such a public venue.  Almost as much fun as the mural craze that seems to be everywhere as well.

We were still not absolutely sure about our route home.  I had checked the weather going north along Highway 395 in California, and it looked a bit iffy.  The fastest route would be to take Highway 95 directly north from Las Vegas to Reno, but geez that part can be boring.  We thought maybe we could boondock in the Alabama Hills if we could get through Death Valley.  Both of us remembered some of the climbs in and out of the valley.

The route we traveled from Tucson to Minden, Nevada

We decided to head for Phoenix, and then north, with no real idea of how far we could or wanted to go and where we might end up that night.  Beatty, Nevada was the goal, and then Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley, but who knew the timing.

I used the freecampsites.net website and found quite a few boondock sites north of Kingman.  I couldn’t believe how big Kingman was, and as we passed through, the boondock sites didn’t look all that welcoming.  We continued north, thinking we could find something.  Once again, freecampsites.net led the way.  We saw a big parking lot available across the street from the Hoover Dam Casino, just east of Boulder City and set a beeline for a free night spot that shouldn’t be terribly crowded.

Turned out to be a perfect place, and we never even bothered to cross the highway to visit the casino.  Dinner was once again some excellent leftovers from the freezer while we watched the sunset and settled in for the evening. A few rigs rolled in during the night, but they weren’t terribly loud.  By morning there were a few trailers, and some car and tent campers scattered around the edges of the big space.

Our plan was to continue north and then cross Death Valley, with a stay at Stovepipe Wells, but the weather had other plans.  It was COLD, and when we drove into Beatty I think the daytime temperatures were in the low 40’s, with a hard freeze predicted for the night.  I called Stovepipe Wells, where we were told all sites were taken, and we did a quick rethink.  We had passed a decent looking park on the way into Beatty, so gave them a quick call, and sure enough there was a space, full hookups.  Death Valley Inn RV Park was a good choice.

It was still early in the day, and as we thought about our options, it seemed like a good thing to relax early and spend some time playing and exploring.  We have been to Death Valley a few times, and the things we would see there are sights we have enjoyed in the past.  Something different would be fun.

We headed for the tiny Visitor center in town, next to the cheapest gas in town, and gathered up some brochures on local interesting things to see and do.  Rhyolite is a ghost town that is fun to explore, but we had already done that a few years ago.  We decided to explore some of the back 4 wheel drive roads, and found an interesting loop that meandered past old mining cabins, through “Secret Pass”, south to the desert, and back via the highway.

We explored the old Flourspar Cabin at a mining site before continuing up the road

The 8 miles to Secret Pass was challenging, but that is why we were out there.  I was a bit of a wreck actually, as Mo crawled over the big, pointy rocks, with me jumping out now and then to move some especially big ones.  Once we were past the bad part, it didn’t seem so bad.  I think for me it was the unknown factor of whether the road actually continued through.  I didn’t like the idea of having to back up and out over those rocks and ditches and eroded dry streambeds. 

When we got to an easier part, I started taking photos, and Mo asked why in the world we didn’t get photos of the scary parts?  I was too busy holding on and gasping! 

Of course, we didn’t have a good local map, and the phone map quit working about half way through.  We just kept going, and following our noses, found our way out of the mountains and across the desert back to the highway.  It was fun, and something we love to do when in the desert.  No flat tires, no getting stuck in sand or creekbeds, and beautiful views.

We had seen Big Dune on the way north to Beatty, and our dirt road intercepted the highway just a few miles north of the road to the sands.  We traveled the washboard gravel just 6 miles with the dunes looming in the distance.  This dune is incredible, a star dune out in the middle of the flat desert, and I loved it much more than the dunes in Death Valley.  Maybe because it rises all alone from the surrounding space, or maybe because it isn’t overrun with people, or at least it wasn’t when we were there.  Unprotected the way the Death Valley dunes are protected, it was covered with 4 wheeler tracks, but when we were there on this mid week afternoon, there wasn’t a soul around.

Mattie had more fun than she has had in a long time.  Something about soft sand makes her completely joyously crazy, and she ran around like a wild thing in the wind. 

She does the same thing at ocean beaches, and in big soft grass as well.  The dune was lit from the west with the late afternoon sun and the backdrop of dark clouds was a photographer’s dream.  Gorgeous!

On our way back, along Highway 95, we finally spotted the wild burros that were touted in the brochure.  All along our route we had seen burro apples, but no burros, so we were glad to finally see them.

A great mural in Beatty along the main road into town

The next morning was cold, so we took our time heading west toward Death Valley.  Stovepipe Wells was busy with tourists, and I stopped in at the Visitor Center and General Store hoping for a really good sweatshirt to add to the one I found at Chaco Canyon 4 years ago.  No luck.  I am pretty specific in what I want, and I guess my current version will have to suffice. 

I was glad we didn’t stay there, with all the people, visiting all the beautiful sights we have seen before.  It was enough to pass through this part of the valley and to save wandering around in the back country for another trip. 

Look closely to see the MoHo winding down the grade toward Panamint Springs

We knew about the long grade up from Stovepipe Wells, and then back down to Panamint Springs, not horrible, but definitely long.  We decided to unhook early on rather than waiting for the really big hill west of Panamint Springs.  Mo went ahead in the MoHo and I followed in the Tracker, making it much easier to stop along the way for photos.

We negotiated the really steep hill up from Death Valley toward Lone Pine without any mishaps, and stopped at the top for lunch and a walk with the dog.  The sun was warm coming through the windows, but the wind was really cold!

As we approached the intersection with Highway 395, I was again enthralled with the magnificent view of the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Often at this time of year, the highways are snow covered, but this year the snowpack in the Sierra’s is extremely low.  It was our window in time to travel one of our favorite highways without being worried about the storms and snows.  We have been in serious snow storms with chains required on this road as late as Memorial Day!

We didn’t stop along the way, passing places we have visited in the past, reminiscing about good food, beautiful hikes, historic sites.  Many good memories along this route for us, and it was fine that on this trip we simply passed through viewing the incredible scenery.  We were heading home, and no matter how long we are out, when it gets close to home time, we tend to move along fairly quickly.

There is just so much to see and do along this highway, the list is huge.  It deserves a month, preferably in warmer weather, not just a day.  We will return.

Our destination for the night was Minden, Nevada, where we had stayed at a new park back in 2014 on our way home from Florida.  At that time, it snowed on us, April 1, and we were happy for hookups.  This time the prediction was for temperatures in the teens, and once again we were happy for hookups.  I called ahead, and was glad I did since Silver City Resort seems to have developed into a very popular place in the last 4 years.  Most of the people there are in for long term visits.  That surprised me because it can be cold in this area south of Reno.

When we woke up the next morning, the temperature was 12 degrees F, the Tracker was covered in thick frost, and even the MoHo had frost on the lower sides.  We had turned on our tank heaters for the first time in a long time.

It was time to figure out our home route, and we cooked a nice breakfast while debating whether to take our chances over the northern mountains or give up and cross the Sierra’s over Donner Pass and travel home via I-5.  Decisions, decisions!

 

Sunrise~Sunset~Sunrise~Sunset….Swiftly Go the Days…Saturday May 4

Many of the more well known sites in Death Valley are around the Furnace Creek area, where we finally managed to work up the nerve to leave the swimming pool and air conditioned MoHo to venture out into the heat.  By 5pm it was only 96F or so, and even with the air going full blast, the inside of the MoHo was at 86F, cooling from the afternoon interior high of 91.  Yeah, we are only 30 amps in the MoHo, nice when trying to find a spot to hook up in remote areas, but not as good as those big 50 amp rigs with two air conditioners in hot country.  Getting outside and into the Tracker was a test in endurance until the air conditioning in the car finally caught up.

We only had a short mile to the Old Borax Mine works just north of the ranch.  Even though I had been to Death Valley before, I was surprised to be reminded that the famous 20 mule team borax wagons only operated out of the valley for 5 short years.  We drove through Mustard Canyon, but the overcast skies muddied up the mustard yellow color of the Furnace Creek Formation mud and silt left over from the 3 million year old lake sediments. 

Of course, we had read the memo, and knew that sunset would be a great time to drive the 27 miles to Dante’s View.  As we continued south past Zabriski Point toward Dante’s View, we took the one way side road into 20 Mule Team Canyon. It was just a short 5 mile loop, but incredibly fascinating to see the old sediments and the beautiful colors against the darkening skies. The storm looked like it could really do some damage, in spite of the fact that the valley only gets 2 inches of rain annual at the most.

Along the way south to the view point we passed huge open pit mines that were just outside the boundary of the park.  On the narrow road we kept seeing signs saying “no trailers allowed” and then a few miles in, there would be more signs proclaiming “trailer parking”.  Sure enough, at the top of the very narrow winding road, we saw a motorhome.  It was a small one, a rental of course, but still the sign DID say no motorhomes or trailers.

We read the memo about sunset, but neglected to remember that we were again traveling from below sea level to more than 5,000 feet elevation.  Hmmm.  We are in sea level clothes at cloudy high mountain temperatures.  We weren’t the only ones at least.  There were some carloads of hardy souls waiting for the sunset, and some of them even had the foresight to bring along some fleece.  Not us.  The wind was blowing hard, the skies were dull and smoky from the huge Camarillo fires, and it was cloudy.  The most fun was watching the sunset watchers.  Several carloads gave up and left, but there was this thin line of clarity just over the mountains to the west that made me think that something wonderful might happen if we were patient enough.

It did.  It wasn’t what I would call a spectacular sunset, but it certainly was a magical one.  We watched the glowing red orb appear in the opening in the clouds as it dropped toward the mountain and then something funny started happening.  As we watched, a thick, black, solid image appeared on the lower part of the sun.  It didn’t look anything like a cloud, but something was definitely in the sky there between us and the sun that was really cool.  Looked kinda like a coyote sun to me.  It was worth the wait to then watch the clouds along the mountain horizon light up as though they were rimmed with Christmas lights.  Maybe not whole sky spectacular like some sunsets I have seen, but definitely different and definitely amazing.

We slept well considering the heat, and again the air conditioner ran all night with lows in the mid 70’s.  The pre-dawn alarm was set and woke us to skies that were still a bit gloomy, but the eastern horizon looked as though light might find a way through.  Zabriski Point is one of the more famous viewpoints in the park, the one closest to the Furnace Creek Inn where people have come to marvel at the desert since the early part of the last century.  Now the parking lot is down low and you must walk to the viewpoint, but old photos show old cars all lined up there to see the sunrise.  Taking photos of a Zabriski sunrise is probably a requirement for any landscape photography course.

Once again it was fun watching the watchers.  It tickled both of us to see all the different morning bed hair, on both men and women.  Some people even hauled chairs and thermoses of coffee to wait for the light.  Of course there were lots of cameras, lots of languages being spoken, and lots of tripods.  I didn’t have mine, and instead used the interpretive signs as a makeshift tripod.  Next to me, however, was a photographer.  In capital letters.  He had some kind of large format camera, the kind that always excites me and yet is so intimidating.  I don’t even know if these cameras still use film, but I assume so.  Do they have large format digital cameras now?  It looked like a Hasselblad 4x5, the coveted camera of my university photography classes.  I have no clue what they cost now. 

I wanted to pick his brain but he was concentrating of course, using meters and such, and taking lots of prep photos as he waited for the light.  I’ll bet his photos are better than mine, but a lot more expensive as well!  I had fun fooling with exposures, and did a lot of really slow shutter speeds playing with the light. 

Once again, as the light brightened and flattened out the shadows, it was time to return to the MoHo for a nice breakfast and a long, lazy swim in that fabulous pool before we checked out at noon to leave the valley.  We will definitely go back, I am sure, probably a bit earlier in the season, however.  Our drive north was a return over the two big grades that we drove in on, and we both agreed it would be a lot easier to just unhook the Tracker.  We unhooked in Stovepipe Wells and ground our way up the hills.  I drove the MoHo and Mo followed in the Tracker.  The ups were definitely not as scary as the downs.  I had to put it in 2nd because the automatic downshift just didn’t go low enough on the long 9 percent grade dropping into the Panamint Valley.

We hooked up again at the top of the grade, a few miles east of highway 136, still a bit dicey but nothing we weren’t used to traveling in the MoHo hauling the Tracker. The skies were cloudy and as we left the valley the temperatures cooled to the 70’s and the winds were getting really strong.  We we descended into the Owens Valley the dust from the dry alkali lakebeds made eerie dust devils and we worried about the paint getting blown of the rig.

It was still early when we reached Bishop, and there was plenty of time to take the drive up Sabrina Canyon which we had missed the last time we passed through a few days previous.  The light was opening up a bit, still cloudy, but at least a bit of sunlight to make the mountains glow.  The canyon was lovely, and Bishop Creek has a lot of forest campgrounds along the way.  The creek was full and there were lots of folks fishing.  Once at the dam, we negotiated some construction barriers before rounding the corner to the ‘lake’.

The lake was gone.  We found a huge pile of boulders, lots of sand, and a couple of small puddles where the lake used to be.  The water rights are owned by Southern California Edison Co, and the water goes to LA via the aqueduct along with al the other water in the Owens Valley.  There was a boat launch and resort with private docks, signs saying “keep off dock” and they were about 30 feet in the air, the boats al lined up at the closed resort in the dirt.  There are no plans at this time to refill the lake.  I can’t imagine just how awful this must be for the owners of that lodge, much less the people of Bishop who probably loved the fishing and boating on “their” mountain lake.  It was a dam, and dams are being removed everywhere. I do get that part in some respect, but we can’t undo the damage that we have done by just pulling out the dam.

It is a bit like the controversy at Hetch Hetchy.  That valley will never again be the pristine valley that once rivaled Yosemite, even if the dam is removed and the water let out.  Here in the Klamath Basin, we have ‘reclaimed’ wetlands that have been unreclaimed, but they are nothing like the original natural wetland system that was once here.  One of the most controversial proposals in the Klamath Basin is the removal of 4 dams on the Klamath River.  I support that proposal, but looking at Sabrina Lake I can see what a hypocrite I can be as well.  I wish there was still a lake there. 

After that little disappointing side trip, we arrived at Brown’s Millpond Campground in time to snag the last hookup site. We had unhooked again before driving up to Sabrina Lake, so Mo took the Tracker to get groceries while I took the MoHo to check in and set up.  Once again I ran into some lovely Germans from Munich in a rental rig.  They were very sweet when they came over to ask, “Maybe you know this answer?”.  It seems that they saw the “city water” inlet for shore water and thought it meant water in the city, so they hooked up the water to the sani flush outlet and were in a panic because their toilet was filling up and almost overflowed.  I explained the difference between the two inputs to them as best I could, and once again Stacy at the campground came to the rescue with a bucket and bag saying they could empty bucketfuls from the black tank and dump them in the restroom toilets.

After all was good, they came over to thank me, and brought a big chocolate bar all wrapped up nice.  Ahh, European Chocolate!!!  Yum.  I would imagine that they might have a stash of those bars to thank people that they meet along the way in the twelve week adventure in the United States.  They had traveled from San Francisco to Yosemite and over Donner Pass and were on their way to Nevada and then to Bryce Canyon, but no desire to see Death Valley!

Our sunset was accompanied by high wailing winds and wildly bending trees that we ardently hoped wouldn’t fall on the MoHo during the night.

Dawn at the Dunes May 4

Current Location: home in Rocky Point with thunderstorms, sun and rain.  It is good to be home.

Escaping the heat isn’t the only reason for rising at dawn when visiting Death Valley.  Reading Galen Rowell’s book, “Mountain Light”, reminds me again and again about that “magic hour” when taking a photo worth remembering is possible.  He said, “I almost never set out to photograph a landscape.  My first thought is always of light”.  In spite of the fact that I am still photographing landscapes, and sometimes photographing in forgettable light because I want to remember where I have been, reading his words has reminded me to at least think of the light more than the “thing” I am trying to photograph.  With that in mind, I set the alarm for 5:30 am, even though I am usually awake by then, I didn’t want to miss the sunrise over the Mesquite Dunes near Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley.

We even skipped a morning beverage, running a quick brush through our hair, and putting on shorts and tank tops to fit the 70 plus degrees outside in the thin light.  The dunes are just a mile from where we were camped, so getting there wasn’t an issue.  The parking lot is big, and in the comparative coolness and lack of sunshine, it was OK to let Abby wait for us while we wandered into the dunes.  The hardest part about visiting a National Park is the lack of dog friendly space. There isn’t anyplace at all where a dog can walk except on the hot barren gravel around the parking lots.  Obviously heat is an issue as well, which is part of the reason we didn’t hike much in Death Valley.  We couldn’t leave Abby in the rig because she would bark and we couldn’t take her on the trails because of the rules, and we couldn’t leave her in the car because of the heat.  A problem. But on this sort of cool morning, she was fine, and although we could hear her barking from the distant dunes, there weren’t enough people yet around for it to be a big problem.

  The last time Mo and I climbed these dunes in 2004 it was in the middle of the night to the light of a full moon.  Today we read the interpretive signs warning of sidewinders, and wondered if we had even thought of that danger when we hiked out there in the dark.  The sun wasn’t to rise until just after 7, but there were other folks out there who had also read the memo.  Just about every single brochure about Death Valley talks about getting the best photos at dawn and sunset.  We saw more people on the dunes than we had seen anywhere in the park so far, except for the check-in office in Stovepipe Wells.

Another delight of early morning dune walking is discovering all the little tracks of the night animals that live in this amazing environment. We found trails of the kangaroo rat and some other interesting little tracks that I never managed to figure out.  At first we thought they were sidewinder trails, but when we saw photos of the real thing, we knew better.  Hiking in the dunes is a bit like walking on a sandy beach, times ten.  I wouldn’t want to spend a long day trying to go anywhere very distant in this sand.  We laughed a lot just trying to get up on a crest so I could wait for the coming light.  We saw a few hardy souls out on the highest dune, all of 140 feet high.

Comparatively, the remote Eureka Sand Dunes rise nearly 700' from their base and the Panamint Dunes rise 340 feet.  We didn’t manage to get to either of these sand dune fields on this trip, but next time around we plan to drive in from Big Pine on a long northern route that will lead us to the Saline Valley and the Eureka Dunes. I can’t quite imagine climbing a 700 foot sand dune, since I didn’t even manage to get out to the 140 foot dune at Mesquite!  Still, the light was wonderful, and watching the shadows shift and change was beautiful.  Our morning was a quiet one, with no wind and a bit of softness to the light from the filtered haze and smoke sifting into the valley from the Southern California fires.

When the sun was high enough to flatten out most of the shadows, we made our way back to the car and Abby.  Just west of Stovepipe Wells is a short  road leading 2.5 miles to a beautiful treasure called Mosaic Canyon.  At the head of the canyon is a day use area, and we knew that Abby couldn’t go there, so we hadn’t made it a priority.  With the cool morning light, however, we thought we should at least go look at it.  There were already a couple of rental RV’s parked there, but signs everywhere saying “no camping”.  Mo said go ahead, and she stayed with Abby while I wandered up the canyon trail for a look at the narrows just 1/4 mile distant. 

I am so glad I did.  I am a hiker of Utah’s slot canyons, and a lover of slickrock.  Instead of sandstone, though, this canyon is a study in metamorphic rock that has been polished and smoothed by wind and water in much the same way as the red sandstones of Utah.  The canyon narrowed nicely, but not so much that it required moving sideways to get through.  Still, it felt magical and I meandered along climbing slickrock here and there in spite of the silly Keen flip flops I had worn to hike the sand dunes.  They didn’t work quite as well on the polished dolomite stone. 

After my foray into the canyon, we headed back to camp for a nice breakfast and a bit of reading and photo management before our required 11am departure from the campground.  When we walked outside to disconnect and hook up the Tracker, it was breathtakingly hot.  Maybe only in the high 90’s, but at 10:30 in the morning, believe me, that is breathtaking!

Our move was a short 27 miles south to the Furnace Creek Ranch RV Park where we had made a reservation a few days previous.  The national park campground at Furnace Creek now has 21 hookup sites with electricity and water, but the campground was closed on April 16 for repairs.  Furnace Creek Ranch is quite the establishment, with a gift shop, a general store, a post office, a borax museum, a golf course, palm trees, grass, and water.  And yes, a swimming pool.

By the time we were settled into our site, it was 102 degrees, and the walk to the pool was just long enough to make that water feel fantastic.  The pool at Furnace Creek is fabulous, fed by warm spring water, crystalline and fresh and clear.  Most of the chaises were taken, but we found one to share because I had no desire to come out of the water at all.  It was a perfect way to end a hot afternoon in the hottest place on the planet.  A tidbit: It used to be thought that there was a site in Libya hotter than Death Valley, but it was recently determined that the 136 F temperature recorded there was in error, and the 134 degrees F recorded on July 10, 1913, at Furnace Creek in Death Valley is the hottest recorded temperature on earth.  You might not want to visit in July, although last week we heard the hottest temperature was 110 degrees F and That was in April.