California – TooBusyForWork

The area around Death Valley

We stayed at The Pads until 17 March. The heat wave that hit the Western US hit us hard, so there was limited sitting outside and a lot more car trips. One took us Oatman, home of the (very tame) wild donkeys. They are famous for just walking up to people looking for some of the alfalfa pellets the stores sell. The community supports them through veterinary care and just generally spoils them. This time there were more donkeys on the road into town than in the town proper.

Oatman is a fun little tourist trap. We were there during the week, and it was still so crowded we couldn’t find a place to park. Here’s a video I took of most of one side of the street. The other side is equally crowded. Sorry for the portrait mode.

https://youtu.be/p6asGj36EtI?si=NFXKj76qf8aMSi6t

We also took a trip to the China Ranch Date Farm. It is a working date farm that is pretty impressive. Their date shakes are famous, and are the best we have ever had. In addition to the farm, they have a lovely desert landscaping. They also protect part of the Amargosa River that comes above ground for a while, disappears below ground, and then comes back above ground. Fascinating biology all around it too. We bought a bunch of dates to take home.

One of the interesting views is the wash you drive through to get to the ranch. Here’s a video of that to give you just a feel. There are a number of small mine diggings all around plus a few larger tunnels that are fenced off.

https://youtu.be/tllv9mf88dU?si=Vem-iwdO-_k34t3G

We also visited Shoshone again. Obviously we ate at the Crowbar, but we also visited the old mining dugouts. Shoshone is at the southern end of Death Valley, and the summer temps are brutal. The miners in the area discovered they could dig into the soft rock for a temperature-controlled dwelling. These are mostly protected as historic structures. Note the smokestacks sticking up.

After such an enjoyable sojourn in the Death Valley area, we decided to head out before the temps got unbearable. We took the south route to Baker, CA then up the long grade to Nipton, CA on our way to Needles where we planned to spend the night. But for only the second time in 106,00 miles, I got a check engine light on the motorhome. After some investigation, we decided we should head to Las Vegas and Velocity Freightliner service. They have done work for us before, and, while expensive, they have a good reputation. We stayed at the North Las Vegas Elks Lodge until our appointment on Monday, 23 March. It was one of those good news/bad news things. What was wrong (low pressure at the turbo) was easily fixable, but parts are on a 60 day lead time! We need a new VGT and the manifold needs new gaskets and such (leaking). Sigh. Parts aren’t awful for a diesel (just under $4000), but labor brings the total to over $10K. Ouch! But no one ever said a diesel Class A is an inexpensive hobby. We thought about it overnight, staying in Velocity’s RV spot, and decided to leave the motorhome with them and just drive home in a couple of days. We are now at the Clark County Shooting Range with FHUs and a nice view of the city lights. We got a storage unit for the RZR so we can use the pickup bed for boxes. It is a good thing we decided to get it fixed here. Even driving the 15 miles to the campground put enough stress on the engine that the AC turned off! We plan on leaving Thursday after dropping the MH off at Velocity. They have a very secure storage area surrounded by a high voltage electric fence!

On to Death Valley!

We left Quartzsite on Sunday, 8 March. We spent a night at the Elks Lodge in Needles as usual to get the laundry done and tanks cleared out. We took the route through Searchlight, NV and the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. It has the most amazing Joshua Trees we have ever seen. They are a different species/subspecies than the ones in January Tree National Park – more branches. They look much more like trees! Of course the issue is the road is a narrow 2 lane and we had a very big motorhome towing a pickup – couldn’t take pictures. I did get one picture of a multi-branched yucca that was blooming though. The Joshua Tree blooms were very similar and very abundant.

We arrived at Death Valley and got a nice spot in Sunset Campground. It wasn’t one of our favorites (the ones on the east end of the campground), but it wasn’t too far from the end. Lots and lots of people in Death Valley for the flowers! It isn’t as big a super bloom as it was 10 years ago, but it is a really nice bloom, more than we have ever seen for sure. Tuesday we drove north towards Stovepipe Wells with a detour to Beatty. Wednesday we drove south towards Badwater Basin. Today we drove south all the way to Ashford Mill ruins. The best flowers were seen today! I am just going to dump a bunch of pictures on you though to give a feel of the area.

Badwater Basin and Lake Manley with the tiny people for scale

Telescope Peak and just a hint of the salt pan

Death Valley pictures are not complete with a view from Artist’s Drive

Swaths of colors, mostly yellow, were everywhere

Yellow, but don’t ignore the mountain colors either!

And we even spotted the lovely Desert Five Spot!

Low to the ground. There is a tiny insect inside if you look carefully

Yesterday we decided it was getting too hot in the Furnace Creek area, so we moved to “The Pads,” a boondock area just outside the park on the way to Pahrump. It contains the concrete pads used for worker housing at the nearby Billy Mine. The housing itself is all gone, but the pads remain. It is a beautiful spot and 3000’ higher than Furnace Creek. That means temperatures a good 10 degree cooler. We actually had to turn the heat on for a short while this morning, mostly because I am a wimp.

I will end with sunset this evening from our campsite.

In the Southwest again thank goodness

I left off on 29 December in New Mexico. We spent the night of 30 December in another Elks Lodge parking lot, this time in Gila Bend, AZ.

Oh, and just outside Gila Bend the motorhome hit 100,000 miles! Not bad for 7.5 years almost exactly. I got a quick picture from the passenger seat, so excuse the quality of the picture.

We made it to Quartzsite on New Year’s Eve, and we decided to stay at Rice Ranch, a full service campground right across the road from the legendary “Big Tent.” The price was just under $40 with tax since we still got December rates; I think the rates double in January! It is just a huge gravel lot with a few palm trees, but it is clean and relatively quiet this time of year. We asked for, and got, a spot as far from the road noise as possible which was nice. We got our laundry all done, our tanks cleaned out, our power at 100%, and we went into the LTVA area ready to boondock for quite a while. One of our RVing friends was already there.

We had a tiny spot of rain that first day, so we got a lovely rainbow.

That first evening in in the LTVA we were treated to one of Arizona’s truly spectacular sunsets. The colors are real, not touched up. The skies are this color frequently.

We were also treated to a rocket launch from Vandenberg. All day long it was relatively clear, but the clouds came in an hour or so before sunset. Since I didn’t take a video, you will have to trust me that the bright spot the arrow points to is the rocket flare.

It might seem as it if is “all sky all the time,” particularly after the next picture, but we really do get beautiful skies in Arizona in the winter. In the summer, there is frequently a lot of smoke from fires which makes the colors intense but adds a haze. The sky was clear for this photo of the Goodyear blimp on its way to the Fiesta Bowl this weekend.

We did try to go on a UTV ride with our club, the Arizona SunRiders, but the office where we needed to pick up our Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) permit was closed on Friday, 2 January, for the holiday. Sure would be nice if the CRIT ever published this information! But we did drive around the area some, just wandering through the various LTVAs. They are busier than they were last year at this time, and there are more and more tents, cars campers, and van campers than I have seen. I think housing prices are just so outrageous for renting or purchasing that a lot of people adopt a nomad lifestyle out of need, not desire. Lots of people obviously down on their luck. The local food pantry is trying desperately to handle the influx, but it just isn’t big enough.

Monday I went to my first meeting of the Greater Quartzsite Ukulele Orchestra, and it was great fun. Not at all professional, a bit on the uneven rhythm side, but enjoyable. I knew all but a few of the chords, and I caught up on those with my handy dandy chord chart. The vast majority of the players use standard ukulele tuning and chords, but my baritone ukulele uses guitar-like chords. I am enough of a musician I can handle playing with just the chord names, and I don’t require the tabs to be written on each song. Good thing, because they weren’t there LOL! Our next concert is 29 January, and I think I will be ready for it.

I did get to go to the Quartzsite Quilters sewing day on Tuesday though. I had cut all the pieces for the last three months of the Kona Block of the Month I still had to finish, and at the quilting group I pieced the October block. I also got part of November done, but by the time I had taken out the third poorly sewn seam, I decided it was time to stop for the day! October isn’t my best work either, but it is good enough for me. It will also look better when pressed.

Wednesday, 7 January, we went to the SunRiders monthly meeting before packing up the motorhome for the short trip to Indio, CA and the Western Region FRVA rally. So far I am not impressed. There were not directions for which gate to use to enter the fairgrounds, and there were no signs directing us either. We got lucky and found our way. The organization is really quite poor at communication. I found out one of the sessions I wanted to attend had moved to a new location quite a bit away from the one in the program, and it was only know through word of mouth, not anything from the organizers. I could go on, but I won’t. I will say this isn’t a rally we will return to!

We are getting decent solar and we have enough water, so we are going to do at least one load of laundry tomorrow, probably just shirts. If I have enough water, we will also do towels, but that is quite tentative. But it is also nice to go into a boondock situation that anticipates weather swings knowing you have lots of both short sleeved and long sleeved tops. You never know in Quartzsite!

After Death Valley – KOFA National Wildlife Refuge

We left Death Valley on 1 March and went back to the Needles Elks Lodge. We did the necessary tasks of laundry and grocery shopping, then we headed to our favorite spot in KOFA along King Road. This spot is so pretty, sitting between two rugged mountains. Except for a friend that pulled in a couple of days after we set up, there was nobody within 100 yards.

The first picture is on the north side of our campsite.

This is just a bit to the side, just as the sun was almost gone.

We did go back to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge one day. This time we took the highway, and our friends took the 4WD road. We beat them by only 5 minutes or so. The paddle cactus blow was just starting to bloom in the garden there. I think it is a Beavertail cactus, but I am not foolproof on identification.

At least some of the cranes were still there, but a lot have already headed south.

There is so many places to ride the RZR here! The landscape is generally more vegetated than in Quartzsite, so here is a sample.

One of the key things the Fish and Wildlife Service does is maintain watering spots, known as tanks, for the wildlife. Here is a natural catchment area that has been enhanced. In prolonged dry spells, they will bring large water trucks in and fill the basins. I am quite impressed; the trail in was rough and narrow.

Sadly I came down with a massive back spasm while we were here that resulted in a trip to the ER in Yuma. Some heavy pain meds (400mg Gabapentin, an injection of an NSAID, and a Lidocaine patch), and I was able to walk out. But I sure didn’t do much the next few days! It was over a week before I felt 75% recovered, so we didn’t get to ride as much as we wanted.

We headed back to Quartzsite on Monday, 10 March. I finally got some more sewing done. Here is my in-process inspector saying I better get going!

Goodbye Death Valley (for now)

“Goodbye Death Valley!” That supposedly was the phrase uttered by one of the 49ers that were stranded there. I think she said it as prayer of salvation, but Kevin and I are always a bit sad. It is a fabulous place.

We did do a few things since I last posted. I am trying to make new bag covers for the collapsable chairs we keep on the RZR, and it isn’t as easy as it might seem! I made one, and it is waaaayyyy too big, so I marked what size it should be and soon to rip out the stitches of the big one to remake it. Not my favorite task, but ripping is part of sewing so I will see it through. While I was involved with that, Kevin hiked Golden Canyon with our friend Ron. He said it was lovely, but I don’t have the pictures. They left pretty early, and he was still hot when he got back about 3 hours later. We definitely had a heat wave.

WHen you have been to a place as many times as we have been to Death Valley, you tend to not re-visit the places that are nice but not awesome. We hadn’t been down 40 Mule Team Canyon for four years or so, because it is one of those “nice” places. The last couple of years it had been closed due to flood damage. We had a good short trip this time. The interesting thing about this little canyon is the amazing yellow mudstone backed up by black intrusions of volcanic-related rock. It was absolutely the wrong time of the day to capture this, so I increased the contrast so it might be at least somewhat visible.

We also took a drive down Greenwater Road, a dirt/gravel road that goes to Shoshone, CA. It cuts off just before Zabrisky Point. We were surprised at how many boondock campers there were. It is definitely a place where you could be by yourself if you had a very small rig. We only saw a couple of spots we would have fit in, and it was a long way from any of the standard Death Valley sites. The road ran through a broad valley most of the way with lots of creosote.

The first mile of the road was bad washboard, but it smoothed out to quite mild washboard. We stopped in Shoshone for lunch with an absolutely fabulous green chile burger at the Crowbar. Highly, highly recommended! Not only did the burger have thick slices of green chile and Swiss cheese, but the fries were divine. We rolled out rather than walked, but it was worth it. We then visited the lovely little museum next to the restaurant. Nice set of exhibits of Anglo settlement and mining, but also some good information about the local tribes and even some seriously pre-historic mammoth bones that had been found nearby. A university in California had returned them to Shoshone when they ran out of room. There were also tracks of some of the mega fauna that lived in the area 600,000 years ago. The mammoth track gives a good idea of how big they were, but I forgot to take a picture of the camel tracks which were very surprising.

We are back at the Needles Elks Lodge for a couple of nights. I had a video class on the Moda Block of the Month for March this afternoon, so we are waiting to do laundry tomorrow. It will probably take all day! Then we are going to a boondock site along King Road in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Beautiful site, but a long way from anywhere. We expect to spend a lot of time driving the RZR around.

Taking a break from Quartzsite

We are now staying at the Elks Lodge in Needles, CA. Definitely a sad town, but the lodge is nice. We are on our way to Death Valley, arriving there tomorrow. We have been busy here doing laundry (lots and lots of laundry!) and cleaning up the incredibly dusty motorhome (lots and lots of dust!). In between I took a Zoom class about machine binding offered through the Arizona Quilt Guild. Well worth the time and money. I love Zoom classes!

To catch up on what we have been doing since the last post, it has mostly been quilting, driving back and forth to Parker for Amazon packages and good food, and a bit of relaxing in the warm weather. The temps have been in the 70s for a couple of weeks now, and the nightly lows are mostly in the upper 40s, even into the 50s. We haven’t used much propane recently! Kevin got his new drone out again since the wind was down, and I love the pictures.

The first one is from above our campsite looking toward La Posa South LTVA. You might have to zoom in a bit to see the much more crowded area. I don’t go boondocking to be 30’ from my neighbor! We much prefer the less crowded areas. The second picture is our campsite. Motorhome, outdoor kitchen, truck, RZR, and the Clam shelter make a comfortable resting spot for a few weeks. The blue covered tripod has Kevin’s telescope on it, trying to keep it out of as much dust as possible. The third photo shows a picture using the telescope on a clear night with a full moon. He’s been figuring out how to use the tracker with the telescope.

As usual, the cats are a big distraction. They both like lying on my legs with the “magic blanket,” but they are not always cooperative about it. A look at Minnie’s face here says that Luna is taking up far too much space!

I did finally get the practice pieces from the feathers quilting class bound as a cat bed. Minnie says it is marginally acceptable, but she still prefers the blanket.

I forgot to mention something we actually did buy at the Big Tent – a microwave toastie/panini maker. Pretty handy little gadget. The ham and cheese sandwich shown was made in 2 minutes in our low powered microwave. We now use 3 minutes. The cute thing has a silicon outside and metal grates inside. The metal grates absorb microwaves and heat up, but the silicon keeps the contraption from sparking. I am quite pleased! We have had “grilled” sandwiches a number of times now, and this gadget it a keeper.

We left Quartzsite on Wednesday ahead of some rain and wind that was coming in. We spent Thursday night at the Elks Lodge in Parker, just to see how it was. Kevin would like to transfer to a Lodge he can be more active in, but the Parker lodge is quite small. We arrived in Needles on Friday night, and besides cleaning, laundry, and shopping, we also visited the Goff Historical Center. It was called “Goff Schoolhouse” the first time we visited a few years back, but it was definitely misnamed then. Yes, the schoolhouse is an historic building that is part of the museum grounds, but there is so much more! Lots and lots of mining history and general history about the Mohave Desert and the Mohave Road. Fascinating stuff.

The schoolhouse was the center of the Goff community when it was busy and active with mining, ranching, railroads, and WWII training. Little is left of that except the schoolhouse these days.

A few of the more unusual exhibits are working stamp mills that have been restored. Very impressive! The vast majority of stamp mills in museums are incomplete and definitely not in working order. It was a true labor of love to restore the mining equipment at Goff. The first picture of the two stamp mill shows how they worked taking in 2” pieces of stone and breaking them up into dust. The dust was then washed and moved to chemical vats for separating the gold or other precious metals. Goffs no longer uses aresenic and cyanide, but they do have water tables for separating. I would love to come here some day when they are operating the mills. The ten stamp mill is the big buy with huge wheels for moving the stamps.

I have also been quilting a lot. I got all the squares for my Christmas quilt made up into twosies before, but I made them all into 4 blocks and then combined a number of those into 16 blocks. I still have quite a few more to do, but I am making some good progress.

I will end with a glorious Arizona sunset. They just can’t be beat.

Finally – San Diego with some of the grandkids then FMCA Convention

When I last posted, we were on the way to San Diego to visit with my oldest son, his lovely wife, and my three oldest grandkids. We stayed at the Mission Bay RV Resort. It is a pretty nice place for an urban RV park. It is right next to Mission Bay, and there is a public beach that adjoins the park. Of course the sites are narrow, but that goes with being in an expensive area.

The grandkids and their parents (twin girls 14, boy 10) arrived with their parents on Sunday late afternoon. We had a lovely dinner, then the kids went with us to the motorhome. It was the first time we have had five sleeping in the motorhome, but it worked well. The girls slept on the air mattress in the sofa, and the boy slept on an air mattress on the floor. They were up late to their bodies (central time zone to Pacific time zone) so everyone slept late the next morning. We met their parents for lunch, then we went on a whale watching tour. We actually saw a lot of various whales plus two types of dolphins. I, of course, got zero pictures! I get a bit seasick, so I stayed outside on the deck and ate my candied ginger. I got by, but I didn’t feel well enough to run around the boat for pictures. Turns out my grandson also gets seasick! Poor kid.

We said goodbye to my son and DIL, and we went back to the motorhome. The next few days were just and the grandkids. We went to the San Diego Zoo of course. I had so much fun looking at the kids I didn’t get too many pictures again, but I did get some. There was the obligatory koala picture of course.

As on our first trip a few years ago, I was as impressed with the plants as I was with the animals!

here are the three famous kids at the entrance. Sorry about the dust reflections,

We spent time wondering around the piers. The kids were quite impressed with the Disney cruise ship in for a turnaround. We also bought souvenirs there.

There was a lot of time spent at the beach watching the surfers and playing “sandpiper” – waiting until the wave came in then running away like the sandpipers do. They had a lot of energy! There was also time spent building in the sand and collecting seashells. There was a pool at the campground too, and they also spent time there. Even though the girls are 14, they still had fun on a “12 and under” playground. There were a lot of them around. We met the adults on Friday before they flew out. I hope they had enough fun to go with us again.

After San Diego we went to the FMCA convention in Tucson at the Pima County Fairgrounds. It is always a fun time. We came in a bit earlier than most because Kevin was volunteering with the security team. Here is what the Fairgrounds looks like empty. Then think of it full of over 1000 motorhomes and trailers! The blue spot is where we were parked.

I felt a bit bad for the speakers at the opening ceremonies because the sky gave them some heavy competition! What a glorious Arizona sunset.

I taught a class at the convention – sewing oven mitts. What a great group of students! Two were using borrowed machines, one person had never used her brand new machine, and three were experienced sewists. Luckily I had a few helpers who hadn’t brought their machines but wanted to see what the class was. They helped the folks who were having trouble with their machines. At the end everybody finished at least one mitt and was almost finished with the second. The experienced folks finished both. See the mitts they finished, and looked at those fabulous smiles! That was the best part of the whole thing!

After all the excitement of San Diego and the Convention, Minnie was not alone in wanting to rest a bit. I will write about the other locations we have visited tomorrow.

Wind and more wind everywhere we go! Death Valley and Anza-Borrego

We left Quartzsite and headed to Needles for an overnight stop at the Elks Club there. We dropped off the RZR at a storage unit we rented there plus some other assorted things we won’t need in the next few weeks. We then headed to Death Valley National Park, one of my absolute favorite locations. However the wind kept blowing. Ourr first day was only light breezes, and we got pictures of the famous and ephemeral Lake Manley left over from Hurricane Hillary.

There was too much wind to get a reflection on the lake, but it was quite impressive. It went on for miles.

Lake Manley with Telescope Peak behind it

But then came the really big winds! Our little weather station clocked 46 mph, and it is always lower than actual. We brought all our slides in and just turtled up. The wind was incredible. No tents were left standing without broken poles, though I didn’t see any RV awnings broken this time. The wind was so strong it actually blew Lake Manley downwind! The lake moved away from the parking lot at Badwater Basin and also farther to the north. It changed color from blueish to a murky brown from all the dust blown in. You can compare it with these pictures.

We had come to Death Valley for the Dark Sky Festival, and the storm resulted in all the big outdoor activities being cancelled on Friday and Saturday, though indoor activities continued. Sunday was just breezy though, and there were a few outdoor activities that went on. The festival was FABULOUS! If you like science at all, put it on your list. The seminars and presentations cover everything from how a Mars Rover operates to how Black Holes are formed to how geologists study Badwater Basin to find biological signatures they can search for on Mars or the Moon.

We did find time to go to Artists Palette where we were sheltered from the winds. As usual the colors were spectacular. One of the big changes we saw at Death Valley was there were more colors in the rocks/mountains than before. The rains had washed off years and years blown dust and exposed a lot of rock that had been hidden.

We then headed to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a place we had never visited. We have been missing out! The park is famous for their spring wildflowers and their gigantic metal sculptures. Both were totally worth the reputation.

I am not going to post the 100+ pictures I took yesterday and today, but these should give you a taste of the area. Oh, and there was wind, a lot of it!

There are many acres of wildflowers scattered across the area. The desert here has had >5” of rain, and everything is green.

Hardly any of my close up pictures came out due to the wind, but I do have a few.

We also took the tour of the metal sculptures. A local large landowner envisioned the sculptures spreading across his land with three types of sculptures – some from the fossil record of the area, some of animals still alive (not necessarily living locally), and some of mystical and fantasy.

The Indian Head is an example. Sorry for the shadows. But the close up shows some of the detail.

Close up showing construction and the earrings

The most famous sculpture is the dragon. It extends on both sides of the state highway, but the head is the most spectacular.

My favorites were the scorpion and grasshopper facing off. Look at the grasshopper winds and the little appendages on his legs – amazing!

Today we took a scenic drive plus decided to look for desert piles, not nearly as plentiful as the other flowers and found in different locations. We took a side 4WD trip to Font’s Point with a fabulous view of the Borrego Badlands.

And we found the lilies! Each blossom lasts just a day.

There were other white flowers in the area too. This is the best picture I got with the wind. I did say the wind continues to roar, didn’t I?

And of course there were cacti. I saw numerous Beavertail cacti loaded with blooms, but only one already blooming. It was along the Coyote Canyon 4WD dirt road. They are such a glorious color.

Also along the same road we finally found an ocotillo just starting to bloom. In another week this plant will be lovely with red blossoms sprouting from the tips of the limbs.

We also took the nature walk at the Visit Center. I discovered a new-to-me cholla cactus. This picture shows is in conjunction with the flowering plants growing between its prickly thorns. Almost all the cactus had this type of relationship with flowering plants. I think the spines protect the flowering plants from being eaten.

Tomorrow we drive to El Cajon for the night then on to San Diego on Saturday to meet my three oldest grandchildren and their parents. Everybody is set to go on a whale watching tour Monday, then the parents take off for their mini-vacation while the kids stay with us until we all meet up again on Friday afternoon at the airport. Wish us luck!

Death Valley and the Amargosa Valley

We left Hi Jolly Tuesday morning. It was still windy, but we were hoping we could make it the relatively short distance to Death Valley without being blown off the roads. We got just outside of Needles, and the highway signs were telling us “High Profile Vehicles Not Recommended.” We ended up stopping at the Needles KOA after a short trip of just under 100 miles. It is actually a nice place, and we have stayed there a number of times before. Luckily the wind died down some that night, and we made it to Death Valley and Sunset campground comfortably. We did have to cross some mountain passes on the way, and they were snowy. Luckily the snow had stopped, the roads plowed, and brine had been applied to them, so it was easy traveling. I don’t like brine on the motorhome though! We couldn’t find any place to wash the rig, so we just had to leave it on until we left.

We have stayed at Death Valley so often that I don’t take nearly as many pictures as I should. We got our favorite site – right on the eastern edge of the campground with no one between us and the mountains! It was windy and cloudy much of the time, so pictures weren’t that great anyway. I did get a couple of lovely sunrise pictures, taken from the steps of the motorhome.

We spent most of our time at the Dark Sky Festival. As usual they had great speakers from NASA, Goddard Space Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, James Webb Space Telescope, and others. There were photography sessions and astronomy sessions too. We did get one trip into Pahrump for supplies, and it allowed us to eat at Chat Thai, a great little place we try to get to every time we are in town. Kevin tried to get some pictures at night, but clouds came in all nights but one. Sigh.

We took one long trip to the Ubehebe Crater, a steam crater resulting from ground water being instantly vaporized by a magma pipe only 2000 years ago. If you look really carefully you can see four tiny dots of people who walked down to the bottom. It gives an impressive sense of scale.

After the fun of the Festival, we headed to the Longstreet Casino in Amargosa Valley, just 7 miles from Death Valley Junction, so we could relax with power, dump tanks, and do laundry. What a nice place! We spent Wednesday and Thursday nights here, and we will never stay in Pahrump again! The sites were all gravel, but they were roomy and they had planted a native tree between campsites. There is even a swimming pool and petting zoo! We had dinner (so-so) and breakfast (better) at the restaurant. While we were at Longstreet we took a side trip to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. It is always a surprise to find so many springs in the middle of the desert! It is truly a tiny hidden oasis of springs, ponds, and a small reservoir.

A cabin marked simply “Archeology project.”

Jack Longstreet was the person the casino was named after. He was one of the classic western folks – part outlaw, part miner, part rancher. He hid out in a cabin he partially dug out of the soft rock in the refuge. It was well hidden.

The springs and ponds are the real story though.

The pupfish are very small but very blue. Look carefully to see them.

Some of the famous pupfish (though not the Devil’s Hole pupfish.)

The land was developed as a ranch, and they bulldozed sand dunes and pumped water causing significant habitat degradation. The ranch was sold to Las Vegas property developers who wanted to build a few thousand homes here! Luckily the Nature Conservancy was able to purchase the land and transfer title to the National Fish and Wildlife Service. The reservoir below is one of the remnants of the ranch. The dam is in poor shape though, and the reservoir is kept pretty low. The tiny black dot bottom left is a duck.

We left the Casino and are now spending two nights at a Boondockers Welcome location in the Moapa Valley northeast a bit from Las Vegas. Nice guy, but the winds have been so bad! My allergies are flaring up miserably, I am coughing my lungs out, and I am mostly hiding in the motorhome with the HEPA filter running. If it doesn’t clear up in a couple of days, I will have to resort to the steroids I have stashed.

We had lunch today in Overton, NV at the Inside Scoop, a combination sandwich shop and ice cream store. Look at my sandwich! Actually this is the half I took home. The sandwich was massive and tasted delicious for both lunch and dinner!

We are still trying to figure out how to get to Page. The short way is through southern Utah, but it is looking cold and snowy along part of it. The other way is dropping south towards Kingman and Seligman, but it is a lot farther, and there is some bad weather there too. We will decide tomorrow.

End of 49ers Encampment and heading home

Warning – another picture heavy post!

We finally got all the work done on the Jeep, and it was expensive. Just part of the joy of MH ownership, and we have been pretty lucky until now. There has been so much travel to Las Vegas that we really didn’t want to do a lot more travel. That is the excuse I am going to give for not hitting the big tourist spots in Death Valley this time. We didn’t even do any of the 4WD trips! We did get to some of the historical presentations, all the music acts, and some other presentations.

We also took time to buy a Blackstone grill while in Las Vegas. Kevin has been looking at them, and the Camping World there had one at last year’s price, a significant savings. So far we are enjoying it. Kevin has made hamburgers, fajitas, and grilled potatoes. It is a bit of a pain to clean, but that should get better as the seasoning improves. Kevin installed a propane tap to the MH so it is easy to attach an external device to the MH’s propane tank instead of having to use a separate propane bottle – handy.

We headed into Beatty, NV one day to go to their famous candy store. And of course we bought a bunch of nuts and candy. They have some things hard to find anywhere else. Right at the edge of Beatty we found two of the famous donkeys. They are a standard sight here, and very popular with tourists. They are truly a dreadful thing in the wild though, displacing the native big horn sleep.

Heading back to the campground, I took some pictures of Death Valley at sunset.

Near the bottom of Sunrise Pass looking south

There really is no way of showing the vastness of the park. The picture above shows probably 30 miles.

From the Texas Springs Road showing the salt pan to the north

Looking from Texas Springs Road above Sunset Campground, NPS Visitor Center foreground right.

The huge alluvial fans coming from the mountains are amazing, this one shown above is probably 5-7 miles wide. They are a very distinctive feature of the park, and they show up everywhere.

With all the beauty around us, you don’t generally stay at the campground to “camp”. It is more a place to rejuvenate, eat, and sleep. That’s good because the campground is basically a big gravel parking lot. It is cheap though – $7.00 a night with our senior pass. There are flush toilets (no showers) plus a dump station with fresh water. This year there weren’t nearly as many people attending. They didn’t even open the first overflow camp area until Thursday, and normally they have all three overflows open and occupied by Monday or Tuesday.

Another thing about the Furnace Creek area is the legendary fuel prices, generally the most expensive in the country.

Also in the park (but regulated by NPS contract), the price for regular gasoline is $4.86 at Stovepipe Wells. Outside the park in Nevada at the casino, the price was $3.88. It is well worth the time to drive the 35 miles to Nevada! The Furnace Creek prices are the best advertisement I know of against unbridled capitalist greed. Stovepipe Wells is just as far from distribution sources, and they charge more than $2 per gallon less.

One thing nice about Nevada and California is they allow both medical and recreational sale of cannabis. I was able to refill the gummies I use to manage the residual pain in my shoulder for a much better price than I can going to Illinois at home. Using them I have been able to stop the ibuprofen that I have been on since surgery, giving my belly a much wanted relief. I take 10 mg each night, and I also take CBD gummies to reduce inflammation. The combination has really helped. I have to use the gummies because there is absolutely no way I am smoking anything!

Getting back to the Encampment, the biggest event is always when the wagon train comes in. This year they had 14 wagons travel the 100 miles from the far southern edge of the park to Furnace Creek. I will just post the pictures without captions because they are pretty self-explanatory. They are lead in by the Marine mounted color guard from 29 Palms. Each of the color guards trains their own horse, chosen from mustangs sold by the BLM. Impressive!

We left Death Valley on Sunday. We spent Sunday night at the Seligman, AZ KOA. Monday we stayed at Lavaland RV Park in Grants (nice brewery associated with it), Tuesday and Wednesday we were at the Tucumcari KOA waiting out a wind storm, and tonight we are at Mustang Run RV Park on the west side of Oklahoma City. We will spend Friday night at a Boondockers Welcome site near Kansas City, then home!

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