After a nice long trip it is hard to get back in the routine, especially updating the blog.
I think a synopsis will have to do for this trip as there wasn’t any internet available so no daily updates were possible.
I left home about 7:15 AM on Oct 18th headed for the Boron rest stop on Hwy 58 East of Mohave. Traffic was light and I arrived about noon after a short stop in Mohave for food and fuel.
Dick arrived about 12:30 and we decided to go on to Baker and spend the night behind the Mad Greek Restaurant in their big parking lot.
We used the 19th to go over our schedule for the trip and to make sure all was ready when the remainder of the crew arrived.
Everyone else arrived before dark so we had a meal together at the Mad Greek.
On the 20th we moved to Las Vegas where we will spend the next four days.
Saturday we drove to a petroglyph site South of Boulder City which is situated in a canyon. This was an easy drive with some very good rock art. On Sunday we drove South of Las Vegas to Sloan Canyon, another petroglyph site which is located in a canyon and requires a 1.1 mile hike and some rock scrambling to view the extensive rock art. Here the petroglyphs are located on individual rocks with only a few on panels. Lots of real nice rock art here.
Rock Art in Sloan Canyon.
On Monday we left Las Vegas and drove to Pahrump, NV where we topped off our fuel and proceeded to the Tecopa BLM camping area. Our site of the last few years was unoccupied so we circled all the rigs. This site has spectacular views but can be nasty if the wind blows and blow it did but only for a day. No one got much sleep while the wind blew as the RV rocks so much that you wake up with every large gust.
We had four 4x4 trips scheduled here and we managed to do all of them. A new map showed us all the allowed 4x4 corridors through the wilderness and the National Park.
Saratoga Springs.
Picking our way down China Ranch Wash.
Railroad cut through China Ranch Wash.
A well earned date shake at China Ranch.
While in Death Valley we took several 4x4 trips. The most spectacular was a long trip to Panamint Valley and up Pleasant Canyon with a return down South Park Canyon. We saw lots of mining areas, cable ways to remove ore from high on the mountains, wild burros, mines, old cars, and cabins which are available for anyone’s use. Just hoist the flag while you are there to let others know the place is occupied.
Cable in Pleasant Canyon.
A very rough road in South Park Canyon.
We explored an area where we had found early man evidence last year. This area has many sites which coincide with the areas in other parts of Death Valley.
Rock Alignment in Death Valley.
We visited the old town sites of Furnace, Kunze, and Greenwater which are within Death Valley.
The last 4 days in the valley were spent partaking of the events that are part of the Death Valley 49er days. The finale is the playoffs for the fiddle contest winner on Saturday night.
We left Sunday morning Nov 13 and again drove to Baker and a spot behind the Mad Greek where we watched all the southbound traffic on I-15 which was stop and go. The heavy weekend traffic from Las Vegas slows in this area and creates a 60 mile backup because of the Agricultural Inspection Station north of Barstow, CA. Even though no actual inspection takes place, all vehicles must slow to pass through the station.
I drove home on Monday Nov 14. I had a little wind but still made it hear by 1:30 PM.
