Death Valley

[FishPOET]

Tracy and I left Norco at 4pm on Tuesday January 1, 2008. We headed for Baker and the North up Hwy 127 to Death Valley Jct and East on Hwy 190. We spent Tuesday night 1-1-08 approx 9 miles West of Death Valley Junction on Hwy 190 in what looked to be an old campground of some sort. There were 40 flat cement pads in a series of paved roads at N36° 20.448 W116° 35.921.

We were on the road Wednesday morning at 9am. We entered Death Valley National Park and gassed up at Furnace Creek Chevron ($3.63 per gallon of 89 unleaded).



We continued North on 190 to Scotty's Castle Rd and continued North on Scotty's Castle Rd to Scotty's Castle. We paid $20 each for the combo tour. The inside tour started at 11:45am and the underground tour started at 2pm. They are very interesting tours and I highly recommend both of them.





We backtracked a couple of miles to Mesquite Spring Campground and we spent the night there. Mesquite Spring Campground costs $12.00 per night for flush toilets, fresh water, table, fire pit and dump station.



The coyotes in this part of the park slowly walk in front of your vehicle making you stop. They are hoping for a handout. This little one finally let us pass but the he ran after us for almost a mile.

[FishPOET]

We were on the road Thursday morning 1-3-08 around 9am. Our first stop was Ubehebe Crater. We walked to the bottom. My guess is that it is more than 500' vertical drop in 1/4 mile of decomposed lava.





View from the bottom of the route back up.



From Ubehebe Crater we took Racetrack Rd South to Teakettle Junction. Racetrack Rd is 22 miles of severe washboard. It took us over 2 hours to reach Teakettle Junction (17 miles).



A view of the Eastern Sierras from near Teakettle Junction.



5 more miles South to "The Grandstand" a large rock outcropping in the middle of the dry lake.



A rock and it's trail



View from "The Grandstand" back towards parking.



We headed North back to Teakettle Juntion. We took a short detour to Ubehebe Lead Mine.





Once back at Teakettle Junction we headed South on Hidden Valley Rd. Another short detour to see Lost Burro Mine.



South again on Hidden Valley Rd for approx 17 miles and we spent the night at 5000' at Calmet Mine.

[FishPOET]

The winds blew 20-30mph most of Thursday night. We woke up Friday morning to overcast skies and temps in the high 40's. We took Hunter Mountain Rd which climbs to over 7200' at the pass before heading down towards Saline Valley Rd. The temps at the top had to be in the high 20's and with wind chill the temps were down near 0°







Once down we took Saline Valley Rd to Hwy 190. Hwy 190 to Panamint Springs. Gas was $4.40 per gallon 89 unleaded. We had enough gas to make Trona so we drove on by. We gassed up in Trona. We took the short detour to Ballarat.







Back on the road again to Ridgecrest, East on 178 to Hwy 14. South on Hwy 14 to Ricardo Campground in Red Rock State Park.



Ricardo campground is $12.00 per night for toilets, picnic table, fire pit, water and a dump station.

Tracy thinks the walls look like they are full of gargoyles.



It rained all Friday night. We were on the road at 10:30am on Saturday. We waved as we drove by the Meet N Greet at the Bass Pro Shop around 12:30pm. Back home at 1pm.

All the pics can be seen here:
http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...lley/Jan%2008/

[Mitch]

Doug,

Fantastic photography! After checking out these pic's I will have to go to Death Valley this spring. Thanks for sharing your adventures.

Mitch

[Materdaddy]

Great report there Doug! I always have (and always will) enjoy seeing your fun trips jeep or no jeep it seems like you have a great time and see some really neat stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Now I'm just wondering what you were doing up at 3 in the morning posting your run report! Go to bed and post it in the morning!!!!

[womb raider 940]

cool pics. i am sure gargoyles live in there somewhere!!