On
Sunday the 29th of October we waited at Longstreet for
word from Bruce that our sites in Furnace Creek were open before we
drove into the park. Finally left about 10:30 and drove right to our
sites except for Jeff who had to wait for his site to empty at noon.
A warm day so no rush to set up camp. Slowly got things done.
On
Monday morning we drove to Cow Creek (where permanent staff lives)
looking for two grave sites that Jeff knew about. We walked down to
the salt flats and easily found the sites. They are just rectangular
rock piles with a board marker.
Grave sites near salt flats.
On
Tuesday we drove out of the park past Panamint Springs Resort to
Father Crowley Point on Hwy 190. This is an overlook of Rainbow
Canyon (also know as Star-wars or Jedi canyon) through which Navy
planes fly. When they go through they are below us and very close. It
must be a real kick for the pilots to do that. It certainly is a
thrill for us observers watching. We spent a few hours watching then
drove back to Panamint Springs for lunch. They do a real nice
hamburger and fries.
For
Wednesday we did a trip to Hole-in-the-wall canyon to recheck on some
petroglyphs. We do this periodically hoping that no one has destroyed
them. One particular rock is still there. Walking back to the
vehicles, Nobby took a different route and called on the radio that
he had found another petroglyh on a rock. Following the the route he
had been on we eventually found a total of 10 rocks with petroglyphs
on them. A great find! We are learning that we need to keep our eyes
open to things like that.
Petroglyphs on rock.
On
Thursday we hiked up Corkscrew Canyon with the purpose of checking
out the mine which none of us have seen for many years. We walk up a
wash in which there are some rocks with numbers on them. In the past
we have found three. We again found the three which always amazes me
that someone hasn’t removed them. The mine area is now closed by a
gate so we turned around and headed back. On the way, Bruce called me
and asked me to walk back to him which was about a ¼ back up the
canyon. He had stumbled on another marker which was unknown to us.
Because of the number sequence we now believe they may be one more
rock to find. Always leave something for next time is our motto.
Corkscrew rock marker.
On
Friday we stayed in camp and checked out the rebuilding of Furnace
Creek Ranch. They have removed all the old public buildings and will
replace the new facility with one 2 story building. They are also
redoing the Furnace Creek Inn and it will be renamed The Oasis at
Furnace Creek. A lot of money being spent on these 2 projects.
(To
be continued)
