DEATH VALLEY

After Shoshone we headed to the China Ranch Date Farm.  I am glad someone else was driving I would never have found it.  You have to go through very narrow canyons with only rocks looking back at you.  It took us about 15 minutes to arrive.  It is found in a beautiful piece of the Mojave Desert.  It was beautiful with its date palm trees, cottonwoods and willows by a stream. The Old Spanish Trail is within walking distance and the historic Tonopah & Tidewater railroad bed. They have a store where you can buy everything made of dates.  Everyone loves the date shakes, but I find them super sweet so I filled up on the samples of the breads they make.  I have come to learn that I don't buy sweets because I will go home and eat them in one day.  They had a   very small motel where you could stay overnight. As you can see in the picture they cover the date seeds so the birds don't eat them.

They had these old cars and I what I would call a shack, you wonder how they lived in them.  Of course it doesn't get cold down in this valley.

Next was off to see Badwater, the name comes from the salt that is in the water then dries in the heat, you can't drink it. It is the lowest elevation in the U.S. 282 ft. below sea level.  You can walk out onto the flats where it is wet.  There was a hole dug so you could see the water just under the surface.  The sand was as fine and hard as some of the beaches in Florida.  You could walk for miles if you wanted to.  There was actually water in a little pond by the walkway.  As you can see by the picture that says sea level way up the cliff just how far below sea level it is and where I was standing. You will have to make it bigger to see it.

It was quite warm there as you can see.  I felt the salt and it, of course, was very sharp and gritty. We were trying to fit a few things in so we didn't have time to walk out on the flats.  When you go by yourself you can take the time to check it all out. Next stop was back to the Sunset Campground in Furnace Creek where the singles group was parked for the Death Valley Days.  I had Happy Hour with them and then drove back to my motorhome.  We did meet the wagon train on our travels that day and got to talk to them and find out how they survived.  It didn't look like they were suffering, they told us they trailered most of their things to the next stop.   One day we went to Titus Canyon three cars with four people in each, plus 3 dogs. We went up over 3,500 ft. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Beatty for a breakfast Buretto before we started.  There was far too much so it was lunch that day.  This canyon was a one way drive and after going through it you wouldn't want to meet someone on the way.  It is a very rough and narrow road, sometimes so narrow you could touch the rocks. It winds up to the top of the mountain and then down so four wheel drive is a must.

Our driver stopped a lot along the way and I took so many pictures it is hard to pick what ones to put on here.  The road to the left is what we traveled on up the mountain and you can see what beauty you find in the middle of nowhere
There were mines all along the road and you found them by looking for the tailings in front of the mine.

About half way along the canyon there was an old ghost town called Leadfield with mines all around. A couple of tin buildings and as you can see by the picture a little hovel that someone lived in.  Again it is warm there so they didn't need much.  It is hard to believe that it would take them  days to get supplies in, it took us over four hours.

There were Petroglyphs along the way and you had to watch closely. I loved the rocks that were in waves, it is hard to believe that over millions of years the rocks formed that way from pressure they look bent. Near the end of the Canyon the road was so narrow that you had to be careful not to take your mirrors off.  As we went we had to let people pass us they seemed to be in a hurray.  The last picture was eroded by the rain washing down the canyon and wearing away the rock over millions of years.  You wouldn't want to be caught in any canyon if there is rain in the mountains.  I was going to go up to Death Valley for the 49ers days, but was not feeling very well so hopefully will catch it in 2010.

Please bare with me regarding the pictures they won't go where I want them.  Any questions let me know and I will answer them.  I was going to do Scotty's Castle on this one but ran out of time and space.  Enjoy