Death Valley Trip, Spring 2008
2008
This trip was all about three highways, California 178, 190, and 155 - a week in Death Valley with tour around Lake Isabella. While in Death Valley, each day we visited a different place - this journal entry covers locations not already mentioned in the 2004 journal entry.
Going home we crossed the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range between Lake Isabella and the San Joaquin valley over the Greenhorn Summit on Highway 155. Going west the route takes you through picturesque rural communities, up through tall trees to winter resorts, and back down to emerald ranch lands complete with bounding sheep and contented cattle. If you love tight technical twisties, you'll love this road for its winding and hairpin turns but keep in mind that it is a slow route due to the steep grades designed to keep the road true to the contours of the landscape. Honestly the combination of snow on the sides of the road near the summit and the sand strewn to provide traction for the cars was a rolling heart attack for me. On the other hand, Highways 178 and 190 may become my favorite riding places even though some sections can be quite windy.
Riding in Kern County is wonderful - scenic, lots of elevation changes, a mix of twisties, sweepers, and straight lines around Lake Isabella on Highway 178. We stayed at the Kernville Inn and took the Wildrose branch of 178 up to the intersection that I balked at in 2004.
Wildrose - to the Kilns or to a shower and a beer?
Wildrose Kilns
I've heard that one way to stay young is to do something that scares you every day. Riding up to the charcoal kilns on the GS made up for at least a week of winter doldrums. The Wildrose Charcoal kilns are located in Wildrose Canyon on the western side of Death Valley National Park. You can access the Wildrose Canyon road from either California Highway 178 or 190. The last 3 miles of the road to the kilns are unpaved, the last half-mile to the kilns is gravel. Although Peter did manage this road on his VFR, going downhill in the gravel was not a comfortable ride. I talked to myself as I rode in, "stay on the gas, nice and easy, good girl, you're doing fine, don't touch that front brake, good girl, more throttle, nice and easy...". The ride out was a surprise; the bike hasn't really spoken to me since I bought it, but I got the distinct message that if I didn't give it more throttle that it was going to fall over. The engine did stall - a kind reminder that more gas was needed now. The front end felt light, so I stood on my pegs and heard in my head "so, finally, you're getting it!". I rode out standing on my pegs - finally understanding why the GS is built the way it is.
The ten charcoal kilns were built in 1877 using a Swiss engineering plan and Chinese labor. The charcoal produced by the kilns was to be used as fuel for two silver-lead smelters that George Hearst’s Modock Consolidated Mining Company had built in the Argus Range 25 miles to the west. The kilns operated until the summer of 1878 when the Argus mines, due to deteriorating ore quality, closed and the furnaces shut down. The Wildrose kilns employed about 40 woodcutters and associated workmen. The town of Wildrose was more of a temporary camp located somewhere nearby, and was home to about 100 people. The charcoal was hauled to the smelters by pack train and wagon. Each of the 10 kilns stands about 25 feet tall and has a circumference of approximately 30 feet. Each kiln held 42 cords of pinyon pine logs. After burning for between one and two weeks, the logs would produce 2,000 bushels of charcoal. The kilns are in beautiful condition partially due to being in service for a short time, and because they have been kept in good repair by restoration projects.
Six of the ten kilns
Detail of the front opening
Scale of the front opening (and a lousy picture of me, but necessary for purposes of setting scale)
Detail of the rear opening
Golden Canyon and Zabriskie Point
When you are in the Death Valley National Park you are looking up at the formations most of the time. From Zabriskie Point, you can overlook a wide area of badlands and canyons landscape. The name Zabriskie comes from Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, who in the early 20th century was the vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, whose famous Twenty Mule Teams were used to transport borax from the company's mining operations in Death Valley.
Zabriskie Point Click the picture for a larger scale.
If you want to walk in the dry wash maze, hike through Golden Canyon. Golden Canyon is a short gorge that cuts into brightly colored sandstone rocks in many glowing shades of orange, gold and red, with the ever-present deep blue sky above making the hues seem especially sharp and intense. Once there was a paved road running up the whole length but the seasonal floods have eroded the paving away. If we had remembered to bring hiking boots with us we could have hiked this trail about a mile to the base of high sandstone cliffs into a natural amphitheatre known as Red Cathedral. Most people turn back at this point. If you've got stamina, there is a longer trail that forks south and continues through the multicolored badlands beneath Zabriskie Point, a trip of 4 miles in total.
Red Cathedral
Artist's Palette
This is a short, paved side road off of Badwater Road that takes you through a desert rainbow of colors in the eroded clay deposits of ancient lakebed sediments. The colors are most pronounced late afternoon. If you have traveled in the desert you expect to see reds, yellows, and browns and black hues, but in the Artist's Palette you will also see green and violet hues. The colors are produced by oxidation on the minerals in the sediment. The one-way road is quite narrow and twisty at the near end.
Badwater
Badwater allegedly got its name when a surveyor couldn't get his mule to drink from the salty pool. Coming into the valley, you'll see deposits of shimmering white stuff on the ground that looks like it might be snow, but especially when it is blazing hot, you know it can't be snow. The white stuff at Badwater is sodium chloride - yep, table salt. You can walk out on the salt flats - you can feel the salt crystals crunch under the soles of your boots.
Badwater Saltflats, 282 feet below sea level
The low elevation isn't due to river erosion, movement in the Earth's crust is responsible for the depth of the valley floor.
View of the Amorgosa Moutains from Badwater
Scotty's Castle - the Engineering Tour
To keep Scotty's Castle open and operating, the Park Service charges a fee for the inside and underneath tours of the "castle". In 2004 Peter and I toured the inside - now we wanted to see what provided the electricity and hopefully, see the tunnels that we had heard about. A word to those of you who are claustrophobic - the tour starts in the Sea Horse room next to the unfinished pool where you can see sunlight, and there's plenty of space all around but as you travel further towards the center the tunnels get rather narrow. Fortunately we were only given a peak down a long narrow corridor, I would not have been able to stay with the tour if we had ventured any further in that direction. A person in our group asked why there was a full length mirror at the end of the corridor. Our guide sheepishly speculated it was left over from a Hallowe'en prank that some of the Rangers has played on their buddies while they were trying to traverse the quarter mile of tunnels.
I recommend taking the house tour first, then the engineering tour so you can see the water supply systems and the generators that provided electricity for the home. We think about solar power as a new innovation, but Albert Johnson, the builder (and owner) of this desert home had solar panels running in the 1930's. Years later the Park Service had to remove the asbestos components from the solar power system - it is dismanteled and no longer running but your tour guide can power up the Pelton Wheel and show how the local stream was able to generate electricity.
This tour gives you a lot more insight into Albert Johnson, a millionaire trained in civil engineering. He died before he finished what we have come to know as "Scotty's Castle". When you look at the various architectural sketches of the unfinished pool and gardens you get a sense of the dreams of a man living two lives, one in a starched collar running a life insurance company in Chicago, the other in jeans, directing the construction of his Western vacation home in which he escaped the cold Chicago winters.
March Desert Flowers
What's the big deal about wild flowers in Death Valley? Compare the two photos below of the same landscape - the one of the left was taken during the summer when the triple digit temperatures scorch the life out of anything unlucky or foolish enough to be out during the day without water and sun protection. The picture on the right is after the winter rains. There's something reassuring about life re-emerging (most) every year from this desert. In early March at the lower elevations you'll likely see these flowers: Desert Gold, Purple Phacelia, Gravel Ghost, Mojave Brevaflora and my favorite, the hard to find Desert 5-Spot. Just south of the Furnace Creek Ranch, at the 106 mile marker (on the east side of the road) you'll find several Desert 5-spot plants. They open and close with the sun, so to see the five bright coral spots inside the purple petals, you need to find the plant when the sun is high.
These four photos come from birdandhike.com. I'm grateful to the people who take the time and effort to make these images so that I can just ride.
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 In the Summer |
 After Spring rains
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 The view that stops RVs, cars, and motorcycles |
 Desert Gold
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 Desert Gold
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 Purple Phacelia
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 Gravel Ghost
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 Desert Five Spot
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Best Time to Visit Death Valley
Spring is a wonderful time to visit Death Valley - the rains are mostly done, and the temperatures aren't like to reach triple digits. Tent camping at this time of year might be pretty darn cold at night. Even during the day you will often need a warm jacket! If you are credit card camping, make your reservations for March at Furnace Creek Ranch, or the Inn (very expensive), or even Stovepipe Wells in December or January. Room choices will be slim by February. If you are a member of AAA, their travel group may have rooms available that you won't find on the Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells web sites. I mention these two properties because they are run by Xanterra - an organization committed to reducing the impact of tourism in our National Parks. I'm a recycling freak - I pick up plastic bottles and aluminum cans and carry them with me until I find recycling bins. Xanterra sites seem to be the only commercial places in Death Valley that support recycling.
Xanterra is just about finished with the installation of one of the largest non-utility renewable energy systems in the U.S. - a one-megawatt solar photovoltaic system at the Furnace Creek Ranch site. They had to relocate a large number of their date palms to make room for the solar panel array.
Newly replanted date palms need to be staked for support against the winds until their short root systems get established
A section of the photovoltaic system
Xanterra expects the solar photovoltaic system to provide 30% of the power needed for the Furnace Creek site. The panels will be managed by a computer system that will synchronize the angle of the panels to the position of the sun. There is a open question about how Xanterra will keep the panels clean - the blowing sand and the bird droppings will need to be cleaned from the panels regularly if Xanterra is going to get a steady return for their US$8.5M investment. Solar makes sense for Death Valley and I'm glad to see Xanterra making the commitment to make it work. It will be very intersting to go back next year and see how this investment in sustainable power is turning out.
Peter and I have ridden just about every paved road in Death Valley National Park; what's tantalizing now is the park's off-road experience, like Titus Canyon, the West Side Road, and the path to the Racetrack. This summer we will focus on acquiring dirt skills instead of taking a long trip. I started taking bio-identical hormones at the beginning of the year - the hot flashes are nearly gone and I'm getting sleep. Sleep and a radical change of diet have put me on a path back to a normal state of mental health, which means getting back to learning to ride dirt!
The next entry will most likely be about Rich Oliver's Mystery School.