The Adventures of T&A

Joyce wanted to take us out to brunch this morning at Red Rocks Casino.  The casino buffet is quite famous for it’s size and quality and we were not disappointed.  I had never been in a casino before and pretty much had a sensory overload with the lights, noise and people.  This was one of the smaller “neighborhood” casinos, not like the big ones on the Strip.  We stopped by a Flea Market and we got some new sunshades for the truck (Big Red needed some new sunglasses).  

We got back to the house and Andrew and I headed for the Strip.  Joyce insisted we take her car, it would be easier than trying to deal with parking our truck with the bikes on top. She also gave us a tip on parking on the Strip… all the Casinos have free valet parking, you just need a dollar tip when you pick up.  We valet parked at Bellagio an went in to find the ceiling covered in glass flowers by glass artist Dale Chihuly.  I talked with a concierge about the glass flowers.  He told me that it was $10,000.00 per flower, about $10 million for the ceiling.  I joked that they had it paid off in a week… he said it was about ten days.  Bellagio takes in about a million a day! Cha-CHING!  We wandered around Bellagio‘s conservatory, full of real flowers and oversized sculptures of birds, butterflies and bug.  The center had a huge Banyan tree from Florida.  I came all the way across the country to find a banyan tree! They were always a problem in Ft Myers, where they can take over a whole yard.  Bellagio was very nice, very classy!  We wandered around the hotel and saw the entry to the wedding chapel, but it had weddings lined up, from the looks of the reception halls nearby all labeled with weddings.

We walked down the Las Vegas Strip, saw Caesar’s Palace, The Mirage, Treasure Island, The Venetian.  We stopped to watch a free show outside of Treasure Island, but it was too windy to run.  We asked later and found out that that many shows spray water high in the air and if it’s too windy, EVERYTHING gets soaked. 

We went  into The Venetian.  This club has built canals both inside and outside and has gondola rides with singing boatmen in silly outfits.  The ceilings were adorned with elaborate paintings.  We stopped at the Prada shop to see what they knew about the “Marfa” location…. At first, the well groomed, high fashioned salesclerk wanted to know what country “Marfa” was in… Texas?  No, Prada has no stores in Texas.  I had to let her in on the joke that “Prada Marfa” was really an art project in the middle of the desert.  She found it humorous, once she realized they weren’t really using the “Prada” name illegally.  

We stopped at a restaurant called “Tao” claiming to have “Spiritual Dining” and a “Religious Nightlife”.  Well, when we saw the prices we said “Lord Have Mercy”!  We asked at an information desk about where THEY eat and they pointed us to the “Grand Lux Cafe” where the prices were a bit more reasonable and the food was good.  The “Beautiful People” we saw waiting in line for the Religious Nightlife didn’t seem very Zen.

We were able to catch the next showing of Treasure Island’s show “The Sirens of TI”.   In Vegas style, it’s a sexy, over the top, scantily clad chunk of Cheesecake (with a bit of Beefcake for the ladies) with enough pirate action to keep the kids happy.  We walked all night, we saw the Volcano at the Mirage erupt and the dancing waters at Bellagio were beautiful.  We also walked down to Paris and looked into an elevator ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but didn’t want to pay $20. bucks for the privilege.  We played the nickel slots for a little while, we each put in a dollar and Andrew cashed out $2.65.  I was tired and just played until the money was gone.  Not many people leave Vegas a winner, but Andrew’s up $1.65!!  Wahoo!

We got in about 1:30 or 2:00am.

We left our remote BLM site and headed toward Las Vegas.  We stopped in Pahrump, NV to check email for a minute and on our way out… it happened again!  We were driving along, minding our own business, and a sign jumps up in front of us and says: “Winery, Free Tasting!”, and before we knew what was happening, our truck was heading down a road toward a winery!  Pahrump Valley Winery has some pretty decent wines.  We talked with some folks there who had their own RV touring company.  In some places, you would caravan with other RVer’s, in other places like Mexico, your RV would be chained to a flat bed train car and you’d sleep there on the rail car.  They had tours all over the US, Mexico, Africa and Europe.

Andrew tried to get us a room on the Vegas Strip thru “Priceline” for $30.00… and it came back with “no accommodations found in that range”.  You could almost hear the computer laughing at us!  He also called a relative in the area, Joyce and George Contarsy and, even though it was short notice, they insisted we stay with them.  We were at Red Rocks Canyon when we got a call from them, so we left without seeing Red Rocks.  We’ll be back.  

We got to Joyce and George’s place just as they were going out to a show.  Andrew and I talked about going out, but instead we got caught up on our computer stuff.  We’ll do the Vegas Strip tomorrow.

We started this morning before daybreak and drove to Zabrinski Point for the sunrise.  The day started kind of cool, but warmed up quickly.  We did a longer hike, about 5.5 miles, at Golden Canyon-Gower Gulch loop.  The loop took us on the backside of and through the badlands we had seen this morning.  The colors of these badlands are beautiful!  Reds, oranges, greens, purples, all set off with golden, white and jet black lava.  The hike lead us down a wash and to a 20 ft dry waterfall.  The trail skirted around it, but did give a nervous bit of exposure.  

Our next stop showcases the colors of the badlands, the Artist’s Palette.  This drive takes us through some of the most colorful mountains I’ve ever seen.  A kiosk there describes some of the minerals that causes these outrageous colors to form.  

Next stop, the Devil’s Golf Course.  This is part of the salt basin where the salt and minerals is so concentrated that the crystals create bizarre, jagged formations.  It is said that only the Devil himself could play a round of golf on this course.

We were getting tired and it was getting hot, but we had a couple more stops to make.  We hiked about a half mile up to Natural Bridge.  This is in a wash and the rocks didn’t look real sturdy.  It would erode quickly if too many rains hit it.  Since Death Valley only gets less than 2 inches of rain a year, this still may be here a while.  

Our final stop in Death Valley was Badwater Basin.  This is the lowest point in the park at 282 ft below sea level and falling.  We got there with 2 buses and several other vehicles.  It’s funny, we only run into crowds at certain places and usually see only a few people on the trails.  We did notice a lot of foreign tourists in the last few days, especially French.  And I thought all of Europe vacationed in August.  (Not that you would want to see Death Valley in August, when the temperature can reach 115-120 degrees).  

We made one more uneventful stop before leaving the park at the Ashford Mills ruins.  This area had a lot of mining at the turn of the 20th century and as a result, has a lot o old mine shafts and mining ruins.  It’s hard to imagine being out here in 1910 or 1920, trying to find riches in gold in the summer heat of 120 degrees.  It’s reported that even at night, it may only drop to 100 degrees.  However, the Native Americans of the area, the Timbisha Shoshone, had lived in harmony with this environment for centuries.  In fact, they were upset that the white settlers named thier homeland “Death Valley”, since they drew life from it.  

We left Death Valley and found some BLM land just outside of the park.  The south side of the park gets almost NO traffic!  We’ve seen very few cars on the road.  It’s warm enough that we both used the solar shower to wash off layers of sand, salt, sweat and sunscreen.  We had a desert kit fox visit us, curious about the smell on the ground where I had poured out some liquid from cans at dinner.

Next stop- Vegas, baby!!

A beautiful cold morning on a ridge, with a snow capped peak on one side of us and the salt basin of Death Valley on the other side.  We did some foraging, we gathered pinion nuts (pine nuts) to roast and eat later.

We drove past stone beehive shaped charcoal kilns on the way out.  These turned pinion pines into charcoal for smelting ore in 1879.  Their remote location and restoration is part of why they still survive.

We drove out to the town of Skidoo and found a lot of nothing.  All we found were rusty cans and a few broken bottles, no structures, no ruins, not even a foundation!  We also saw a mine that had partially collapsed and other mining ruins in the area.  I’ve found that “ghost towns” don’t photograph well without some ruins.

We drove out to Mosaic Canyon, a beautiful, narrow canyon made of marble and a conglomerate stone called “mosaic breccia”.  A beautiful hike, but after the narrows, it opened out and wasn’t as interesting.  We didn’t bring enough water on this hike and it was getting hot fast.  The temperature changes here radically with elevation.  

We stopped for gas before continuing and found it had jumped to $3.74 per gallon!  Inside a park this remote we had few options, we had to just grit our teeth and pay up.  

We stopped at the Harmony Borax Works, a historic borax mine from the early 1900’s.  They called borax the “white gold” of Death Valley and mined it for use in laundry soap and lots of other things.  This is where the “20 Mule Team” logo became famous on some soap powders.  They used 20 mule teams (the actual amount of mules tended to vary) to haul the borax from the mine to market.  

We stopped at an interpretive boardwalk on a salt spring where pupfish live.  This area used to be a fresh water lake and as the water evaporated and the salt and other minerals from the surrounding mountains flowed down, this area became more salty.  Most animals left or died as the water changed, but these pupfish adapted to the salt water.  They were tiny, about the size of my pinky finger.  

We next went to a place for sunset called Zabrinski Point.  This overlooked some incredible multi-colored badlands.  We thought this might be better at sunrise.  We camped nearby down Hole-In-The-Wall canyon.

The shop got the parts and finally got our truck fixed about 2 pm.  The hotel was patient with us in the room after our 11 am checkout.  On our way out, we saw a sign claiming Tonopah as the home of the Stealth Fighter.  It seems that testing for the Stealth was performed at night from 1982-1987 and then it was moved to New Mexico.  We headed back into Death Valley Park, but it took several hours to get where we wanted to be.  Death Valley is a huge park, a million acres or more!  We had driven passed the Visitor’s Center at 190 ft below sea level.  We drove to a free campground in the park, Mahogany Flats, a ridge at 8133 ft elevation.  We were looking at the face of a beautiful snow capped peak.  The 7 mile hike to Telescope Peak, elev. 11,049 ft,  began here, but it was covered in snow.  The hike description recommended crampons, ice axes and winter mountaineering skills for this hike.  I guess we’ll have to miss it this time.  Leave it to us to find SNOW in Death Valley! 

The service station had to order parts (of course!) so we are here in a cheap hotel for another night.  We unloaded our cooler and kitchen into the hotel room and just made ourselves at home.  The room has a microwave and TV and we’re able to get our computers out and update some photos and videos.  All we need is an internet connection and we can upload.  

We continued on our way from Teakettle Junction to the Racetrack Playa.  The Racetrack Playa is the location of the famous moving rocks.  There are rocks on a dry lake bed that move, leaving tracks in the mud behind them. It’s been guessed that the small amount of water that gets here allows the ground to become slippery enough for the wind to blow these rocks.  We saw several rocks that had clear tracks on where they had been!  Weird!

Andrew was checking a map to see if there was another way out to avoid the washboard road.  We talked to a ranger we passed on the road and he said that the road Andrew was looking at was far worse than the one we came down.  He said we shouldn’t even be out here without 2 spare tires and then told us some automotive horror stories from the park: if you break down on a dirt road, a tow truck may refuse to come and get you, if they do, it can cost $1,500.00 to $2,000.00!!  If you break down in a remote area of the park (and there are LOTS of remote areas) you may be stuck with your car for 3 or 4 days before anyone can get to you.  And there is NO cell service in the park.  He told us that just yesterday, a brand new Volvo SUV broke a tie-rod end (a part that holds the wheel on) on the road we were on.  We were anxious to get off this road and onto pavement.  On our way out, we smelled something wrong on our truck.  We got off the dirt road ok, but we ended up breaking both rear shocks.  We had to get this fixed, so we asked at a gas station about a service station (that won’t gouge us!) and they sent us to the town of Tonapah, Nev, about an hour away.  We got a cheap hotel room next to a full service garage in Tonopah.

We started this morning at Scotty’s Castle.  This is a vacation home built by Chicago millionaire Albert Johnson and his wife Bessie in Death Valley around 1920’s and 30’s.  Johnson was first brought to Death Valley by a veteran of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show by the name of Death Valley Scotty.  Walter Scott, “Scotty”, convinced Johnson to invest in a gold mine in Death Valley.  Johnson fronted Scotty money for mining, but never saw any gold.  When Johnson went to Death Valley to investigate the gold mine, his asthma improved and he fell in love with the desert.  And Albert and Bessie were quite enamored with the entertainer, Scotty.  This house has all the original furniture and draperies and rugs, some built especially for the house.  They had built a bunkhouse and a guest house, also many guest rooms.  There was an enormous swimming pool partially built, but never finished.  It was to be filled by one of the springs on the property.  We did an underground tour, too.  There they stored the custom tiles for the swimming pool and extra furniture.  There were windows see underwater into the swimming pool.  This house had tunnels under the house with plumbing, wiring and some tunnels may have been to access other buildings or parts of the house without going outside.  Although Johnson funded the building of the castle and the name was officially “Death Valley Ranch”, Johnson always allowed it to be called Scotty’s Castle.  The Johnson’s died and left the property to a religious charity with the stipulation that Scotty be cared for.  Scotty is buried on the property, overlooking his castle.  

Next we went over to Ubehebe Crater, a massive volcanic crater long dormant.  Andrew hiked around the rim, but the wind was too much for me.  the wind had to be 50 mph and I saw lots of people get out of their cars for a minute, fight the wind and leave.  We next went towards the Racetrack Playa.  

The Racetrack Playa is the location of the famous moving rocks.  There are rocks on a dry lake bed that move, leaving tracks in the mud behind them.  This playa, dry lake bed, is at the end of 27 miles of the worst washboard dirt road we’ve ever seen.  We’d been warned at the visitor’s center that 2 spare tires are recommended for this road.  Surprisingly, we saw many people on this road, some going down to the playa like us and some coming out.  It was getting late when we made it to Teakettle Junction, about 20 miles.  For some reason, people started hanging teakettles with notes on them (and in them) on this sign post.  We found a place to camp for the night at the junction.

A beautiful morning, no quaking or shaking last night.  It is supposed to rain today and it looks like some clouds are moving in.  All of the dirt roads here are impassible in wet weather and we are about 5 miles down a dirt road… and there  was a “Closed Road” sign when we left the pavement.  We thought it would be best if we got out of here before it rains.   

We drove over to Death Valley National Park.  On the way we saw the terrain and flora change as we left the coastal valley and entered the desert.  We could tell we entered the Mojave when we saw hundreds of Joshua Trees. As we went over one mountain range into a desert floor below, we drove thru a huge dust cloud kicked up by the wind.  The desert usually gets gets gale force winds during the spring and 60 mph gusting is typical.  We stopped at the park office to get maps and current info (several roads are closed).  We headed out to some BLM land just outside the park in Nevada for the night.

We drove into Carrizo Plain National Monument.  This is a large valley flanked by mountain ranges, one of those ranges, the Temblor Range, is formed by the San Andreas Fault.  We drove down a dirt road to a Visitor Center, asked a few questions and had lunch on the tailgate.  While we were having lunch, several people stopped to chat, asking us about where we were from, our camping setup, what’s for lunch.  Funny, it seems that the further we get from the city, the friendlier people get.  

Driving thru the Plains is really beautiful now, the wildflowers are all blooming and the green hills are splashed with various yellows, golds, purples blues and oranges. We stopped at Soda Lake, an ancient salt sea bed that evaporates in the summer leaving a salt crust on the shores.  We saw it with some water and a host of bird life.  We drove next to Wallace Creek, which runs right across the San Andreas Fault.  In 1857, this area had a big earthquake that shifted the creek 30 feet!  The creek now has 2 right angle turns in it.  We also saw a pair of rattlesnakes mating on the dry creek bed.

The sun is setting and this looks like a good place to camp.  So we camped within a few hundred yards of the infamous San Andreas Fault.