Five days of traveling and sightseeing! This trip takes me from Riverside up through Ridgecrest/Trona and into Death Valley staying at Panamint Springs. While I stay 2-1/2 days in Death Valley I take in the following sights: Panamint Springs and Dry Lake Bed, Stovepipe Wells Sand Dunes, Devils' Corn Field, Scotty's Castle, Wildrose, Ubehebe Crater, Zabriskie Point, Furnace Creek, Golden Canyon, Devils' Golf Course to name a few places. After 2-1/2 days I had decided earlier to pick up and head over to Owens Valley and stay in lone Pine until the 5th. While in Lone Pine I visited the following locations: Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, Bishop, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Alabama Hills, Mt. Whitney Portal and Cottonwood Creek at 11,000 feet! below are some photos from the trip and my little story to go along with them, enjoy!

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Death Valley in July? You must be kidding me! So there I was at the end of June sitting at the fire station thinking about all the fires going on, my girlfriend in Missouri taking care of her sick mother and me having vacation in a week while everyone else is stuck on duty because of the fires.

Now the problem is is that I'll be on vacation the week of July 4th, ooh everything will be booked. So I started thinking about where to go. Well since I'd been east to Nevada and Utah three weeks prior I didn't want to do that again. I thought about heading to Flagstaff, AZ but I had done that a year and a half ago. It was time for somewhere new. Where could I go to get away from it all??? Hmmm, DEATH VALLEY! So the planning starts. First thing is look at what campgrounds are available. I settled on one in Panamint Springs on the western edge of the park, this eliminated pulling the trailer up the steeps grades into the center of the valley. Panamint Springs also has a restaurant, gas station and the RV resort is full hookups. So the trip begins and I enter the valley early Tuesday afternoon on July 1st. What's the first thing I notice? You ain't gonna believe this, but it's all the smoke from the fires in Northern California. The valley is socked in and you can't see the mountains from the valley floor, just peachy! So I get to camp, setup, it's about 103 right now. I decide to make the best of it and explore as much as I can for future trips. Even though my new Canon 40D was itching to be used, these weren't good conditions to shoot under.

On the east side of the dry lake bed I headed north and came across these abandoned cars. In the background you can see the smoke from the fires.

I do some more driving around to the west and east, grab a few geocaches then head back to camp for the night. Here's a shot of my campsite. I think there was only one other camper in the campground! LOL At 8pm it was 111 degrees, but dry and the a/c in the popup was actually making it more than bearable with the two extra fans I brought.


The following morning I take my time getting up, look outside, yep still smokey! The staff told me the day before I got there is was clear as a bell and that the smoke came in the prior night, it figures! But I head east and pass through Stovepipe Wells, the dunes, the corn field, south through Furnace Creek and head to Zabriskie Point. It's about 7:30am and it's already 95 degrees. Here's two shots looking south and east.


I head north and pass through an area called Twenty Mule Team Canyon. A colorful area and neat exploring. I then head back north into Furnace Creek and head south on Badwater Rd. This takes me down to the Devils' Golf Course then back up to Golden Canyon. Before Golden Canyon is a lava formation called "The Mushroom" you can see why.



Next I take the road back north and head up to Scotty's Castle. This has got to be one of the most boring drives ever. Then you get to this little oasis, Scotty's Castle. An interesting place, but I wanted nature! So I head west over to the Ubehebe Crater. I'm driving up and don't see much of a crater. I circle around this hill thinking "this is it?". Then I crest the hill and start back down and WHOA the crater appears on my right out of nowhere, did I mention it was big? See photo #2!~ Not a bad shot for the sun being in my face and the haze. I spend the rest of the day driving around in the heat, the high got to 144 today. I headed west and through Wildrose Canyon and back into Panamint Springs Valley. This last shot is at sunset on the east side of Panamint Springs.

The following morning I decided to get up at 4:30am to make sunrise at the sand dunes in Stovepipe Wells. The alarm goes off, I hope up, grab my stuff, shake the cobwebs off and head out the door. Hey it's already 88 degrees! I start heading east when I notice my radio clock, 2:30am! My cell phone alarm was still set for Utah time zone, SOB! Oh well, I stop at the dry lake and do some star watching and try and take some photos, not successfully I may add! The stars are insanely bright out here and the Milky Way was very visible. I wish I had a decent photo, it was awesome. I even saw several shooting stars. Anyways I get to the dunes very early, take a little nap and wait for a 1/2 hour before sunrise to head out. All the time worrying about all the snakes out there just waiting for me to step on them, great! The walk was further and harder then I thought, but the sand was actually fairly firm. I didn't see a single snake anywhere, found a nice spot and laid back on the cool sand, enjoy it while I can right? The sun pops up and I start taking photos and walking around snapping photos. If I wasn't alone I would have gone further out into the dunes, but I only had one liter of water and already that was going to be barely enough for my short trip. Here's two photos from the dunes.


I head back to camp, pack up and head out of Death Valley and onwards into Owens alley. Death Valley was good experience for my first time there. I can only imagine how awesome springtime here must be! Two side notes, one on the restaurant and one on the RV park. First, the restaurant at Panamint Springs was really good! I went in there at about 5pm my last night and ordered an ice tea right off the bat, it came in a HUGE mug! I then ordered a bacon burger with fries ($16) and a side salad ($7). Kind of pricey I'm thinking. My salad though was the best salad I've ever had. It had everything on it and was great. My only complaint was the plate for it was way to small, things kept falling off. The burger and fries were incredible also. Everything was so good I ate everything, I was stuffed, but I couldn't stop. At the end my bill was $23 so I must not have been charged for the HUGE ice tea. I'm getting hungry thinking about it.

Now the RV park. The first night about 0130am I woke to silence. Oh oh, where's the a/c and fans? Something is wrong, thank god I got the surge protector. I check it and it's flashing, not in error but in system testing before restarting. I get out and test the circuit breakers on their box, check the 15amp outlet, it's fine so I connect to it instead of the 30amp. The rest of the trip it never tripped again. The wireless internet was good, not great, nice to have. Gas was $5.91 here, at Stovepipe Wells it was $4.81 and Furnace Creek $5.59. Now the weird, when I unhooked my grey water hose I noticed a smell, it just smelled back, rotten. I coiled it up and placed it in the trailer and a few minutes later the trailer smelled bad, I had to get this hose out now. It was like it was off-gassing! I ended up having to throw the hose away, anyone have any ideas what happened. I only used this for draining my sick. I used their clean bathroom and showers for my personal uses. Anyways, off to Owens Valley! 
In Lone Pine I stayed at the Boulder Creek RV Resort. A nice park, clean, nice spaces, trees, wireless internet, cable TV, full hookups, swimming pool, spa, store, weekend BBQ's, etc. This was also an area I had never been too, or at least since I was 8 years old and the only memory I have is visiting camping in our trailer right on Mono Lake, I don't see any campgrounds on the lake anymore. And I remember visiting Bodie Ghost Town. I didn't see either of those places on this trip. As I head into Owens Valley it's full of smoke and haze too. I figured as much, not to worry though as time went on it got clearer and clearer. My last afternoon it was pretty clear and the morning I left it was real clear, just like in DV. I would say I should have waited two days to start my trip. On Hwy.395 just north of Lone Pine I grab my first shot of Mt. Whitney.


Most of the first afternoon is spent in Alabama Hills, but the haze made for mostly undesirable photos. I headed up to the Mt. Whitney Portal and was amazed at what I found. Trees, snow, campgrounds, a little lake and then this waterfall!


On my second day I catch this other shot of Mt. Whitney near the Alabama Hills, the weather is getting better.


On July 4th, my last day, I head north through Independence (they were in full 4th of July sing of things), through Big Pine and into Bishop. In Bishop I stop at Erick Schat's Bakkery. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of breads, pastries and condiments that could be bought here. I ended up getting a sandwich and sitting at their outside tables relaxing for a bit. I then headed back into Big Pine and headed east up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Quite the drive, but some great views and the trees are interesting, but not the best time of day for me too shoot photos. Here's three from the area.


Now it's time to head back to camp, reload on ice, check email and think of what to do next. When I originally came into town, see first photo, I saw these switchbacks south of the campgrounds. What the hell, I'm adventurous, time to explore! This road was steep and scary to say the least, but at least it was all paved. It ended up taking me to a place called Cottonwood Creek and the Golden Trout fishing area, dunno all about that. But there's campgrounds, horse riding areas, etc. At 11,000 feet it's pretty cool!


On the way back down I got these two shots. The first one is looking north at the Alabama Hills and Lone Pine and the second shot is of Lake Owens.


Finally with some good light I head down to shoot Alabama Hills in the late afternoon. One could spend days exploring this area and off-roading all over the place. The first shot os yours truly! The other three are just various spots in the hills. This area is also called Movie Flats, it's where a lot of old western movies were filmed.


This first shot is taken from 9,000 feet on the road to Cottonwood Creek looking at the RV resort on Hwy.395. And the last shot is of my campsite.


Overall a great trip that took it's toll on my pocket book thanks to the gas prices. Now I'll have to eat Top Ramen for the rest of the month. I found out 113 degrees in Death Valley is nothing compared to 100 degrees in Riverside with 25% humidity. I'll take Death Valley anyday! All these areas I visited I can't wait to return to under better circumstances and hopefully with my girlfriend, or I'll have to find a new one, sorry! I wnet from 200 feet below sea level to over 11,000 feet in elevation. The popup worked great with a few problems. One curtain got ripped down by the slide out rollers. This caused two problems, the curtain and the roller having to be taken apart to get the curtain out and now I can't figure how to get it back together, easily at least. Actually that's it plus still trying to keep flying bugs out of it at night, not that I had many this trip. I did get attacked by a Mt. Whitney Mosquito up at the portal. By the time I felt it, killed it (leaving me with bloody fingers) it got me twice. Two of the biggest bites I've ever had, but neither itch, so that's ok he gots his! Death Valley in July is not the horror people think it is. It could have been 10 degrees hotter and as long as you have power and an a/c unit you'll be ok! Until the next trip, so long..........