Death Valley

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Nov. 7, 2018

Our arrival in Death Valley Furnace Creek area coincided (strictly by accident) with the Death Valley 49ers Encampment, a week long celebration of western heritage. While there were plenty of camp sites available, they were in Sunset campground . Sunset is basically a parking lot with the occasional bathhouse and everyone in Sunset had generators. We picked a spot next to a camper with some of those Harbor Freight solar panels out thinking maybe they were the exception to the rule.  They were nice people, we talked to them for a short time. When dinner time came around they cranked up the loudest generator of them all. Not knowing any better we’d signed up for our usual 2 nights to start. Oh well, we were here so we’d make the best of it.  

$5.85! Can you say... Price Gouging?  $3.69 in Barstow, CA, $3.31 in Pahrump, NV

There was another campground in the Furnace Creek area (Texas Springs) about a quarter mile up the hill and behind Sunset that we thought was tents only. The next day we said what the heck, let's check it out anyway..  There is a tent’s only section, but also a mixed tent/RV section with plenty of nice large sites available and NO GENERATORS ALLOWED!. We seriously considered just eating the one remaining night camping fee we’d already paid for in Sunset and move to Texas Springs right then and there.  We decided to stick it out for one more night then move first thing in the morning. The generators never interfered with our sleep, it was just annoying in the afternoon.

Our campsite in Texas Springs.

Texas Springs campground.

We stayed in Death Valley 6 days, here's some pictures...

Example of Tilted block faulting on Hwy 190 leading to the park. 

This was the afternoon we arrived, it never got this warm again.

Badwater Basin

282 feet BELOW sea level!  Lowest point in North America.

Sea Level marked on the cliff above the Badwater Basin parking area.

Natural Bridge trail

On the Natural Bridge trail.

Ubehebe Crater trail

The Ubehebe Crater rim trail was our favorite.

Artists Drive

Highlight of Artists Drive.

Misc. pictures

20 Mule Team exhibit at the remains of the Harmony Borax works.

Coming next, Valley of Fire SP Nevada.

Lone Pine, CA

Oct. 29, 2018

We arived in Lone Pine about 11 am, hoping to pick up the water heater we ordered 2 weeks earlier before the Post Office closed for lunch.  They had our Amazon package, but NO water heater. After a quick email to the supplier, they said it was due to arrive the next day.  It did arrive the next day but I couldn’t pick it up until late in the afternoon.

I was going to take pictures of the install process, but I got so involved I forgot to take any.  Although it took much longer than anticipated (it always does) all went well and we have hot water on tap again.

While there’s free boondocking in the Alabama Hills north west of town, but we stayed in Tuttle Creek BLM campground, $4 a night with the senior pass.  We stayed here in June of 2017 and loved it. Tuttle Creek is one of those places with great views in any direction you look. To the west are the craggy Sierra’s with Mt. Whitney.  

Morning light on the Eastern Sierra's

Sunrise over the Inyo mountains.

View from the camper window.

To the east is the valley 1300 ft below and the multi colored Inyo mountains.

To the north and south of us was the plane we were sitting on with the mountain range receeding into the distance.

Tuttle Creek is all dry camping with vault toilets and a central water source in every loop.  It’s one of our favorite BLM/Forest Service campgrounds,

The Alabama Hills are famous as a movie location since the beginning of movies.  Mostly westerns but also films as diverse as Star Trek, Star Wars, Iron Man and the campy Tremors in 1990. The Museum of Western Film History chronicles the local movie history.

A few miles north of Lone Pine is the Manzanar National Historic site.  Manzanar is one of 9 “relocation camps” hastily constructed to house Japanese Americans from the west coast during World War II. Over 10,000 people lived at this site from 1942 till the camp closed in 1945.

The only original stuctures that remain are the stone guard shack and Gym / Meeting Hall (now the visitors center) completed in 1944.  There are reconstructed Barracks, Mess Hall, Latrine, Fire Station, Guard Tower and Barbed Wire Fence.

The unearthed Merritt Park






Reconstructed barracks

"Monument to console the souls of the dead"

While we were in the Bishop Visitors Center we learned of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory near Big Pine, CA, about 50 miles north of Lone Pine.  The first Monday of the month they have a tour open to the public. We made a day trip of it visiting the Big Pine Canyon and the home of the Palisade Glacier , the southernmost permanent glacier in North America.  While seeing the glacier would have required a long hike, we did have a nice view for a picnic lunch.

The Radio Observatory tour started at 1 pm and consists of a 30 min talk followed by a tour of the 130-foot/40-meter radio telescope constructed in 1968.

View from the cat walk on the 40 meter radio telescope, about 50 ft up.

We spent 7 days at Tuttle Creek and Lone Pine. Of course the star of the show is the views.

More pictures from the Lone Pine area...

Downtown Lone Pine on a blustery day.

Hiking the Arch Loop trail in the Alabama Hills.

Mobius Arch with Joan and Mt. Whitney.

looking East through the Mobius Arch

The mundane events of a traveling life.

Coming next Death Valley NP.

Bishop, CA

Oct. 27, 2018

After leaving Standish we took 3 days to get to Lone Pine, CA.  One night at Washo Lake State Park outside Carson City, NV.

One night at the Gardnerville, NV Wal-Mart, no picture.

And two nights at a county park north of Bishop, CA.  We wanted to spend some time in Bishop and get a feel for the place.  Joe, the guy at the Visitors Center, gave us enough stuff to do for a week.  We’d only planned to spend 1 day in Bishop so we picked a few things to do and saved the rest for another visit.  The only thing we didn’t like about Bishop was the lack of reasonably priced camping.  We scouted a free BLM site, a $2.50 a night (with senior pass) BLM site with great views of the mountains but a rough road leading in and the $14 a night county park we ended up staying in. 

The free BLM site had a long washboard road with a couple of sharp turns we didn’t think we could make with the camper.  The other BLM site, named “The Pit”,  had a pretty level road but with a lot of grapefruit sized rocks that made for, well, a rocky (as in rock and roll) drive in.  While the price was definitely right and the views were great, we thought it may not be worth any potential damage to the camper.  The last option, the county park, was the easiest to get to (paved road) and we were getting tired so that’s what we picked. 

From a distance it looked like a pretty nice place, on a creek with some green area and lots of trees. Up close though, not so nice.  It’s at the base of a large dam with steep rocky cliffs on either side.   Visions of a dam burst with a wall of water racing down the manmade canyon sweeping us away in the middle of the night.  There’s even signs warning of that possibility, during the spring runoff.  Okay, little risk this time of year.  Then there’s the threat of a boulder rolling off the cliff and crushing us in the middle of the night like a bug.  That threat was still real, but what are the odds…!  Those green area were places you couldn’t pitch a tent or park a camper.  The rest was talcum powder like dust.  And finally the creek that, according to the web site, draws fishermen, also draws mosquitos, LOTS of mosquitos, that come out at dusk, right when we were setting up!  Now, being from Florida we’re familiar with mosquitos but haven’t had to deal them with in… well, several years. 

By the way, all these campsite are in… “Pleasant Valley”!

Campsite in Pleasant Valley

Fall colors in Bishop city park

Twins, same year, same color, each with a topper, one from Florida (ours), one from Texas.

Bishop is a nice little town and we'd love to come back and spend more time.

Coming next, Lone Pine, CA