Road Trip 12

We  have been spending this winter period looking forward to Trip 12. Making plans and arrangements.
Our first call is to spend a week in Florida to meet up with our old Floridian Friends at the Harpers Hideaway Bluegrass Party.

Black and Blue Grass Party

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, nothing morbid about it - just a day when everyone goes shopping. Everyone except Debra, Rich and their friends who gather for a Bluegrass Party in thier back yard.
We loved being there and enjoyed playing bluegrass music and joining in with all the fun, oh and the food as well.

Packing up in Phoenix

Wednesday 14th November
We had a pleasant and quiet drive down to phoenix, stopping once for a drink in small café, where we weakened and indulged in a short stack of pancakes, which were very good, but also very big for a short stack (2 pancakes). We arrived at West Palm RV in good time, set up and had lunch, followed by a quick relax then off to the pool for a swim and jacooze. The temperature is now a much mor.e equitable 75 deg F.
We have worked for 4 days and cleaned and organised the rig, it has been placed in storage in Tempe, about 3.5 miles from the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. We took a nice easy taxi ride to the airport and an uneventful flight saw us land at Oakland airport in the afternoon. Rich came and picked us up and we had a lovely reuniting with our friends in San Leandro.

South Rim of The Canyon

On Tuesday we woke up to find that the thermometer had plunged to 18.5 deg F! It was still sunny, but cold, cold, cold, still we are up over 7000ft. This prompted us to make the decision to go to the Grand Canyon today and push on to Phoenix tomorrow. We got out our warm clothes, packed our normal picnic lunch and set off, it is a 52 mile drive from Williams to the South Rim, on an almost dead straight road, across high desert scrub land, not the most interesting of journeys. We arrived at the GC, parked and walked to the edge at Mather Point, to once again be stunned by the beauty of the vista, now we can compare directly the North and South rims. We now favour the South as you can see more of the GC, you can see the Colorado at the bottom and with the sun behind us the view appears clearer. The downside is that there are many more people there (if that is not being too snobbish). After visiting the Mather Point we took the car and drove along the rim road to the west as far as Hermit Rest, where there is a small café and gift shop, so we could get a hot drink, as it was still cold. Having now seen the South Rim of the GC we now drove back along the same straight road to Williams. Having now accomplished one of our goals we felt happy to drive on to Phoenix the next day.

Route 66 - The Story Continues

Monday 12th Nov
We made the decision to take a long journey today, we would go to Kingman and then decide whether to go to Lake Havasu (and see London Bridge) as planned or take the longer ride to Williams and perhaps visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon – guess which we did, especially as it meant that we could cruise the longest section of Route 66 still drivable, from Kingman to Seligman, via Peach Springs. So we were back into taking pictures of Roadside Americana. We even stopped at The Rusty Bolt, a famous biker shop in Seligman, owned by Angelo Delgadillo, one of the inspirations behind Cars the Pixar movie. I went in and the guy showed me round, even showed me the Blue Peter Badge they were given when Blue Peter filmed there.
We arrived in Williams just as it was getting dark, set up at the Railroad camp RV park, where the Grand Canyon Railway runs through the middle of the campground and went to Denny’s for dinner. Phew a long day. We had driven a massive (for us) 288 miles.

Pahrump and the Curious Line for Lunch

Sunday 11th November
We now have to zoom down to Phoenix, some 500 miles away, to store the rig. Our first stage is to return to Pahrump, to Saddle West Casino, where we can empty and clean tanks. We arrived by lunch time, having driven via Shoshone, so that we could see the southern part of Death Valley. As we were leaving the trailer hitched we planned to eat first, then shop then go to the RV park. Where to eat? Casino Buffet of course, the best one in Pahrump being the Golden Nugget. So we pulled in by about 1.00 only to find the carpark full, still shouldn’t be a problem. We get inside and find a big line for the buffet. Why? On checking out we find that there is a meal special. $5.00 buffet and Veterans eat for free. Then we twigged, today, being the 11th November is Veterans Day and for whatever cynically dubious financial reason Casinos provide free buffet for Veterans and cheap buffet for others. So although the line was long we were happy to wait as there were many veterans in line to talk to. One even gave us a T-shirt that had been given to him by the casino. So it was more of a party than a queue for lunch. After lunch we shopped and camped.

The 49er Encampment

We have come to Death Valley for two reasons
Firstly because we want to explore the area, but secondly because there is a festival going on, called the 49ers Encampment, visiting now means that we can combine both aims in one go.
So a bit about the 49ers then some stuff about Death Valley.
The Death Valley 49ers are a group of people who have a link to Death Valley and look for ways to  raise awareness of Death Valley history, culture and environment (check out their web site). Their Big Thing is an annual festival called the 49ers Encampment. We had wanted to attend this festival last year, but couldn’t fit it in, so we timed our visit to Death valley to make sure we could get to it this year. Although we were not quite sure what it was all about we knew it would be fun and we were right. Because it is so popular we arrived a week early to ensure a camping space, this also meant that we got to know our neighbours real well, they were lovely people. One side of us John and Jim, a couple of lads away from home and having fun – Horseshoes was their thing. Ruth and Ed on the other side were lovely and treated us like their own kids. We very quickly we met many other really nice people.

In the week before the Encampment there was the Pre-Encampment, with some music and activities. Every night a group of musicians would play in the centre of the Sunset Campground, it was mostly Country music, but fun any way. I managed to find a few people to jam with.

The festival proper seemed to focus on a music genre we knew little about – Western music, not Country and Western. This genre is all about cowboys, pioneers and the campfire culture. Many of the songs are story based, about pioneer days, wrangling or outlaws. They tend to be lyrical, often with minor chords and the guitar is the main accompaniment. In fact the festival itself seemed to be about cowboy culture. Every day they had demonstrations of horses, wagons, mules trains, pioneer dress, as well as Western art and crafts. In the evenings there was a concert featuring a number of Western style singers. Alongside this was a fiddle convention, which is basically a music competition for different stringed instruments, the main one being fiddle, as fiddle is the instrument of choice for square dance, which is the cowboy style of dancing. So there was plenty going on.
One of the features of the weekend was the demonstrations by the Twenty Mule Team, (see separate blog), which shipped the borax from the mines at Furnace Creek 167 miles to the railhead at Mohave.

The days start early, 7 and 8.00 for competitions, as afternoons tend to be hot and its siesta time. I was encouraged to enter the horseshoe competition by John and Jim, as they are somewhat fanatical about the game. It was fun, I was a novice, but managed to win my class, due to expert coaching from my support team.

In all it was a really good festival, we learned a lot about cowboy culture and had great fun. But sadly on Sunday farewells had to be said. Yes, tears again I am afraid. The truth of this is that when you are on the road, for every wonderful friend you make you must at some time make a sad parting. Made more poignant as although many of the friends we had made had been coming to the Encampment for many years, at least 2 people/couples mentioned that this would be their last one. We are left only with the memory of these people and our happy times to put in the treasure box of our journeys. This, I remind myself, is one of the reasons for recording our travels. We hope that these memories will stay fresh through our own remaining years.

Twenty Mule Team

Inevitably, even in the desert, there is a local history, of which much is made. In Death Valley the big thing is Borax. Borax was discovered and uses for borax were discovered in the 1870’s. A borax mining company was set up in Death Valley in 1881. Fortunately it was close to Furnace Creek, which had a year round spring, so water was available. The major problem was that the borax had to be hauled out to a railhead, the closest being at Mojave 167 miles away. To do this large wagons pulled by huge mule teams were developed, capable of hauling twenty tons of borax. Thus was born the Twenty Mule Team, a name that has become synonymous with Borax for the past 130 years. In America it is a brand name that stands alongside Coke Cola, although it is a much smaller company. During the 49'er Encampment we have been lucky enough to see a twenty mule team in operation, it is quite long and quite impressive. Considering the standard of road in 1881 (almost non existent) we are impressed that these wagons not only were able to operate and carry borax that distance, but that some of them are still around today (though the operating wagons were built later, around 1920. Not only did we see the wagons in operation, but also went to a talk about how they operated and their history, very interesting.We were very impressed with the famous (in the USA) Twenty Mule Team, so we have included a few pics of it.

Fun things to do in Death Valley

Driving in Death Valley could be great fun, there is a paved road that runs right through the valley, however many interesting features are on side roads, which are unpaved gravel. We tried to drive a couple of these and fond that they were just too rough for us, we value our little Chevy too much, so missed out on some sightseeing, however while we have been here we have revisited Badwater.

As well as Badwater we took two other side trips when in Death Valley, on Sunday we drove out to the  Mesquite Sand Dunes. We drove 25 miles north along Death Valley to Sweetwater, not much of interest here, just a motel, restaurant, store and RV park, however just a couple of miles before reaching Sweetwater we visited the Mesquite Sand Dunes. These are a small area of sand dunes, maybe only a few square miles and relatively low, up to a hundred feet. They are very interesting though. They have been formed where the North winds are forced to divide between two valleys, Death Valley and its neighbour, when the wind slows down it drops any sand it is carrying and so the dunes form.
We had a quick walk to the dunes, where on looking carefully I was able to find some sand tracks, the ones I now recognise from Coral Pink Sand Dunes, of the Tiger Beetle, or similar, lizards and Kangaroo Rat. What I did find for the first time was the track left by the Sidewinder Snake, which moves across the soft steep sand dunes in a series of sideways hops, leaving a characteristic series of tracks.
From there we travelled further north hoping to visit Titus Canyon, a 27 mile unpaved road, we only planned to do the final couple of miles up to the canyon entrance, however after leaving the paved road the gravel track was so uneven that we turned back after about half a mile, so that was a canyon we missed. On the way back we took the Rhyolite Loop, which takes us up about a thousand feet above the valley floor, giving us a fine view of the North end of Death Valley.

On Tuesday we drove out of Death Valley as Dante’s View gives some excellent views of Death Valley. On the way we stopped at Zebriskie’s Point, the name alone is worth the visit, however is an overlook that gives lovely views of the rock strata within which the borax is found, being a very soft rock it has been easily eroded by the rain which falls there, producing some very convoluted dendritic rock forms. On from there we climbed 4300 feet up to Dante’s View, an overlook which is directly above Badwater. The views of Death Valley are wonderful, you can see as far as the Mesquite Sand Dunes to the north, look down on Badwater and across to Telescope Peak. On the way back we took the Twenty Mule Team loop which winds through the old road used by the mule teams a long time ago.

Side Trip to Badwater

Or first side trip in Death Valley was to revisit Badwater, the lowest point in Death Valley.
On the way there we encountered some coyote, quite unphased by the road traffic.
We took three side trips when in Death Valley, the first was about 17 miles south to Badwater, which we had first visited in 1997, then it was August and about 127 degrees in the sun, now it is November and about 90 degrees in the sun.
On the way there we were amazed to see coyote by the side of the road, totaly unphased by the presence of cars and people.
We parked in the now modernised and enlarged car park and walked out on to the Salt Lake, it looks very similar to a frozen lake that has been ploughed and sprinkled with dirt, except where people have walked and here it has turned into a smooth white pathway. We walked out about 100 yards and realized that it would be exactly the same if we walked for a couple of miles, so turned round and walked back again. It was interesting to see that where people had dug little holes water gathered in the bottom of them, like digging in the sand down on the beach. Right by the road, which must be the lowest point, of 282 feet below sea level, the water actually broke surface and there was a small lake. Death Valley is served by a number of springs, those that spring from the West side are new water from rain and are seasonal. Those from the East side are what they call Ancient Water, as these springs are fed from deep underground and the water may have been trapped there since the last ice age, these springs run all year round, sometimes the water is contaminated, like at Badwater, with unhealthy minerals, such as sulphur, sometimes they are warmed by hot rocks underground, such as at Shoshone and Furnace Creek, sometimes they are good drinking water, again such as Furnace Creek.
Badwater is along the valley floor, the ground on the valley floor is divided between the salt flats which contain a lot of water (just dig down in the salt about 6 inches to find it) and solid ground, which is alluvial sand/rock/mud which has been washed out of the mountains either side, these alluvial fans are gently sloping, smooth surfaced land forms, which spread from the rock walls of the valley sides. It is here that the complex history of Death Valley becomes apparent. The area is now desert, yet the majority of landforms are water derived. The salt lakes are remnants of a much larger amount of water. Evaporation from large lakes is needed to concentrate that amount of salt. The alluvial fans all start at about 600ft. These alluvial fans are laid down in water, rock debris is washed down from the mountains and tumbles into the lake, once under water the debris is deposited more gently, providing these massive flat expanses of sand and mud, now hardened to a sort of soft rock. This evidence suggests that at one time Death valley, not too long ago, was a lake about 600 feet deep and had a much wetter climate.
Even in that inhospitable environment we found a little spider living on the salt flat, also Sally found a lovely dragon fly resting on the Chevy radio antennae, very interesting.
On the way back from Badwater we took the side trip to Artists Pallet and enjoyed the interesting rock formations with their many different coloured sand and mudstone rocks
One of the most fascinating places on Earth (sweeping statement, but true)