From Fields I continued south into Nevada, thru Denio, Winnemucka, and Battle Mountain and stopped for the night in Austin, NV. The weather was threatening rain and/or snow so I checked into a little motel in Austin, the Lincoln Motel. If you're ever in Austin, NV, do NOT stay there - it was a real dive. The room wasn't particularly clean - so much so that I brought in my sleeping bag and my own pillow and slept on the bed rather than getting in their sheets. But I got laundry done that evening and didn't have to camp in the rain or snow, so it worked out OK.
On Wednesday Oct 17 I continued south over a mountain pass, driving thru a few snow flakes with a dusting along the road, so I was glad I hadn't camped. I went thru Tonopah, NV and down to the north entrance of Death Valley National Park, near Scotty's Castle, a 1920's mansion.
I drove thru the park to Furnace Creek where the main visitor center is and bought my annual pass for national parks - actually nowadays it's one pass, good for all federal lands. I set up camp at the Texas Springs Campground and had a lazy evening.
Thursday Oct 18 I went sight-seeing in Death Valley - what an amazing place. I sure had succeeded in following the sun - it was hot, in the 90's, and I was slathering on the sunscreen to protect my fish-pale Oregon skin. I went to Badwater, the lowest point in the US, 292 feet below sea level. It's one seriously bleak and hot spot.
Then I hiked to the Natural Bridge, about a mile up a really neat canyon. I sure drank a lot of water on that short hike! It was well worth the effort tho.
I took the Artists Drive which goes past some amazingly colored rock formations. There's one spot called Artists Palette where there are red, orange, yellow, green, pink and purple rocks. Picture's just don't do it justice tho so I won't bother posting any. I also hiked about 2 miles up Golden Canyon, which was a really nice desert canyon.
After all that hot desert hiking I was dusty and sweaty, so I went and payed the Furnace Creek Ranch Hotel $4 for the privilege of a shower. That was one of the best showers I've ever taken - it felt so good to be clean! (Might have been one of the longest too...) Then I stopped by the visitor center and asked the ranger on duty where in the park I could see petroglyphs. He told me about a nice panel of petroglyphs at Klare Spring, on the Titus Canyon Road - a 27-mile long, one way, four wheel drive road from just over the state line in NV, thru Titus Canyon to the main Death Valley park road. I'd be fine in my old Jeep he said, even tho I have highway tires on it. He assured me it wasn't really rough, tho they recommended only high clearance vehicles take it. Well, anyone who knows me and petroglyphs, knows I went for it.
Friday morning, Oct 19, I started out with a stop at the visitor center to get online and get a little caught up with my blog. But I only had a little power in my battery, so I posted what I could, then headed off to see the petroglyphs. While I drove I plugged my computer in thru an inverter to my cigarette lighter to charge. I drove up the highway to the turnoff for Titus Canyon Road, and unplugged the computer at that point since I couldn't secure it very well while it was plugged in and didn't really want a projectile computer on the bumpy road. The first part of the road was fine, washboardy but fairly level. Then it started climbing up the mountains, thru Red Pass. The road got steeper, and narrower, and bumpier, on these tight switchbacks perched on the side of the mountain.
I'm not very good with heights and at this point I was creeping along at 5 miles an hour, saying to myself "Aaargh, what have I gotten myself into?" In the picture above, the road switchbacks off to the left, to give you an idea. I made it tho, slowly inching thru the scary parts, and got down from the pass. I had earned my petroglyphs!
I took lots of pictures, but of course photos of petroglyphs rarely come out very well. After admiring the petroglyphs for a while and hiking around Klare Springs a bit, hoping but failing to see the big horn sheep the ranger said might be there, I continued on down the road. It went into the Titus Canyon narrows, which was just unbelievable. The canyon was barely wider than my jeep in some places and kept going around tight bends. I felt like I was in a twisty turny maze (for those of you who ever played that old computer game). Imagine my surprise, when I came around a tight bend in the canyon and there were hikers in the road in front of me - they looked a bit surprised to, and had to stand up against the edge of the canyon for me to get by. Half a mile or so on I came to the parking lot on the park road side of Titus Canyon Road - I'd made it!
Now that I was back on pavement, I plugged the computer back in to charge some more, and did a bit more sightseeing. I stopped at Stovepipe Well and hiked out to the sand dunes.
Then I headed back to my campsite for a nice relaxing evening. Not fated to be - I hadn't really thought that Death Valley is weekend driving distance from LA. The nice quiet campground had been invaded by the hordes. A large, rowdy group had moved in a few sites over from me. Oh well, such is life I said. And at least they didn't stay up too late. Saturday morning I packed up my camp and was thinking about camping in the back-country, on another 4WD road where there were more petroglyphs. But the ranger said they were expecting really high winds that night, so I thought it might not be a good idea to be by myself in a really remote spot, and set up camp on the other side of Texas Springs Campground from the rowdy group.
Then I drove over to the Stovepipe Wells General Store to see if they had a better selection of food then the Furnace Creek store, with the computer plugged in and charging the whole way, so I could update my blog that evening. I really wanted a steak or chicken breast to grill for dinner, but their selection was as pitiful as Furnace Creek. I bought some ice and went to put it in my cooler. Some idiot had parked on my passenger side, only about 6 inches from me. There were plenty of other spots in the lot too - Aaarrgh! I couldn't get to my cooler, so I moved my Jeep to another spot where I had room and put the ice in my cooler. Then I got in my Jeep to drive off and sightsee some. Click, click, click. Oh, #&*@$! I sat there cussing for a minute. I'd bought the blasted thing new tires, new brakes, had its oil changed and all its fluids checked before heading out on my trip. But had I thought to have it's battery checked? Of course not. And here I was driving around in 90+ heat, with a 6 year old Oregon battery, the AC blasting, the stereo on, and my computer charging. Am I an idiot or what? Anyway, there's a resort next to Stovepipe Wells General Store, and their security drove up in their golf cart and jump started me. I headed back to Furnace Creek where there was a full-service Chevron. It's 3 or 4pm Saturday afternoon by the time I get there, and the regular mechanic is off for the weekend. No, they don't have any way to verify that it's just my battery, and not the alternator or anything else. The cashier looks at my battery and doesn't think they even have one the right size. I must have looked pitiful, cuz he went and looked and found one that'd fit and installed it for me. He didn't really know what he was doing, he hands me a washer saying he can't get it back on the battery mounting bracket cuz the new battery is a bit taller than my old one. Well, on a Saturday afternoon in Death Valley you take what service you can get and are grateful to have your car running again. Mind you I wasn't entirely confident that I didn't just have a new battery with enough juice to start the Jeep a few times. So I didn't dare plug in the computer to charge til I got it checked out. And that's why I didn't get caught up with my blog in Death Valley.
I'm gonna go sightsee now - it's getting chilly sitting in the shade, I need some sun! More tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment