TEAKETTLE JUNCTION & RACETRACK PLAYA
Work was finished up for the week. The weather forecast look good. EVERYONE was running off to the Anza-Borrego super bloom, so it was time to load up the Subaru and head for the REAL desert; the Death Valley desert! I had only been to Death Valley once before about 3 years ago and it was a quick trip. After doing too much research, I was fixated on trying to conquer the road to Teakettle Junction and the Racetrack Playa. High clearance 4WD drive is highly recommended but I have successfully taken the Subie to many off-road areas around Las Vegas so I thought I would give it a shot. I had also hoped I could setup a minimal campsite and take another stab at some astrophotography with my 8mm fisheye lens.
Getting out of Las Vegas around 9am I finally got to the Racetrack road turnoff at Ubehebe Crater around 2pm after a quick lunch at Furnace Creek. I stopped to briefly speak with another dude who was from Cali in a Mazda 6. I asked him “You gonna go for it?” and he said no. He made the drive this far with intent but heeded the visual warnings that a front wheel drive passenger car might have issues. I digested his prudence and hit the road.
The washboard road and volcanic rock shaped like small boulder sized diamonds mandated caution and a VERY SLOW speed. Forty-five minutes later and less than 3 miles, I decided to turn around. The real issue is that a person is actually at least 75 miles from the nearest tow truck and not to assume there is a tow truck available. It would be days and $$$$$’s to enter this portal of adventure ill-prepared. Still on the list and next time in the right type of vehicle!
UBEHEBE CRATER
Ubehebe Crater (pronounced YOO-bee-HEE-bee) is located at the north tip of the Cottonwood Mountains. The crater is half a mile (one kilometer) wide and 500 to 777 feet (150 to 237 m) deep. The age of the crater is estimated from 2,000 to 7,000 years old. Actually, according to USGS, there are thirteenn overlapping craters here. The craters formed during a series of explosions set off as molten rock (basaltic magma) rising toward the Earth’s surface flashed groundwater to steam (phreatic eruption). Winds at the rim of Ubehebe are very strong and often gust above 50 mph (80 km/h).
The explosive magma-water interaction blasted pulverized rock high into the air so that the ejected deposits are comprised of both basaltic lava (about a third) and fragments of sandstone and gravel from the preexisting landscape (about two thirds). Debris from the explosions blankets an area of about 40 km2 (15 mi2). Research by CalVO scientists suggests the set of crater-forming blasts may have taken place in response to a single batch of rising magma. The eruptive episode probably lasted a few days or weeks and took place about 2100 years ago.
A newer study led by Brent Geohring believes rather than being several thousand years old, it and nearby smaller craters appear to have been the result of a series of explosions, the largest and most recent of which was 800 years ago.The dating method “is very cool,” said Kelly Russell, a volcanologist from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, who was not part of the study team.
The Timbisha Shashone Tribe have a long history in the Death Valley.
Philip Burnham retells the Timbisha Shoshone story of how the indigenous people came to find their home in what we call Death Valley. Burnham’s writing explores the fraught relationships between Native Americans and national parks. He goes on to explain that pioneers came through the same valley and saw it not as a gift but as a death sentence. Their hostile relationship to the land was reflected in the name Death Valley.
“One day, in the Time When Animals Were People, Coyote came to the valley. The people were small then, so Coyote kept them in a large basket he carried on his back. After a long journey, Coyote grew tired. When he came to a place at the north end of the valley, he set his burden down on the earth. The moment he fell asleep, the people climbed up out of the basket and ran away in all directions. The place where they emerged is called Ubehebe Crater today, and it’s hollow like the shape of a wosa, or basket. After Coyote woke up, he walked up and down the valley naming the places where the people could live. That’s how the Timbisha knew where to find everything they needed.” ref
MESQUITE SPRING CAMPGROUND
Feeling a little discouraged my Racetrack Playa adventure was not actualized, it was time to start plotting my base-camp for the evening. Astrophotography was still on the to-do list and I really did not want to drive all the way back to Furnace Creek where it would be heavily populated. I exited off Scotty’s Castle Road to Mesquite Spring Campground. The sign at the entrance 2 miles from the campground indicated the campsite was full but I was planning to just sleep in my car and I was hopeful I could at least bivvy in the area. The campground hosts were super cool and found me a spot by the restroom that was really small and perfect for me to just pull in and have a picnic bench to setup my camera, dinner, and meals.
My first drive through the campground I saw quite a few “tear drop” campers, and, with this being a more remote camping area I guessed these are avid campers; not just renters looking for a less expensive way to setup their lodging. In fact, I spoke with a handful of campers that come out here multiple times a year including a Thanksgiving tradition. I was invited to that tradition and I might just do it!
I would consider myself a regular, avid camper and you naturally do a quick assessment of the $14 (the hosts gave me a discount because I was a Veteran) you have invested into your lodging for the night. The spaces are spread out; meaning you have a reasonable privacy. The bathrooms are clean; two stalls and two urinals for the men. And, they have a cleaning station for your pots and dishes. You are far from the main road if there was actual traffic. Everything was well maintained and campsites are on a first-come, first-served basis.
As dusk settled in, I made sure all my camera batteries were being charged and now it was time to make some dinner. My minimalist camping playbook consists of a kettle and propane stove. I usually go through two kettles of hot water that allow for dinner and hot cider. Another benefit of not having camping spots too close together I could listen to some music while I ate dinner and did my astrophotography without disturbing other campers. I sometimes like to listen to music and I know how peeved I get when I am forced to listen to SOMEONE ELSE’S loud music that I hate unless it is some hot chicks. LOL
TITUS CANYON & FALL CANYON TRAILHEAD
The canyon is named for Morris Titus, who, in 1906, left the Nevada boom town of Rhyolite, near the California border (now a historic ghost town), with a prospecting party. While the prospectors were camped in the canyon, water supplies dwindled. Titus left in search of water and help, but was never seen again. The dream of profitable mining in the area was promoted by the grand-daddy of shucksters C.C. Julian, a Canadian being chased from the Los Angeles area in his more recent fictional mining get-rich-quick scheme. Julian promoted profitable lead extraction to investors from California using a poster of a steaming ships going up the Amargosa River which was bone dry. And, this was way before Photoshop! Julian had to bail after the investors heat got too hot and he fled to Shangai where he committed suicide in 1934. ref
Not being familiar at all with the area but after leaving the campground around 8am and getting a good start on the day, I decided to drive up the road and scout it out. Quickly changing clothes for the conditions to shorts and t-shirt with a quick bath of sunscreen, I was ready to explore. Even though I “read” the sign, I did not READ the sign. I left the parking area at approximately the same time as a handful of other hikers but, I saw no one or heard no one in the canyons. Regardless, I was enjoying the views and the relative ease of the hiking. I did hear a strange noise all of a sudden and sure enough a Lexus 4WD was approaching. I now know that you can only drive this road from Beatty, Nevada and it is one way. And, it also closes from May-October due to the extreme heat.
Knocking out a couple of miles I decided to head back still perplexed I had not seen any people. Once I returned back to the sign I realized that many and most “athletic” people opt to do the Fall Canyon hike.
Fall Canyon is one of many colorful ravines in the hills surrounding Death Valley in California; shaped by occasional flash floods that flow from the higher mountains beyond, the canyon is remote and little-visited; deep and moderately narrow for many miles, with occasional shaded, cave-like passageways of great beauty. Some of these narrow, twisting sections are enclosed by smooth granitic walls with an unusual bluish tint. As with most other Southwest canyons, the rocks are layered, but quite differently to the orderly slot canyons of Utah – here the strata are multi-colored, buckled, twisted and eroded, the result of ancient geological forces.
The character of the ravine remains similar for 3 miles. There are some features of interest such as narrowish side canyons and tight curves in the streamway with channels of smooth rock. The main canyon becomes deeper – up to 2,000 feet in places – with stepped cliffs and plateaus of increasing height towering above. At the 3 mile point, progress is interrupted by a 20 foot dryfall but this is quite easy to overcome, by scrambling up a slope on the south side. Thereafter the canyon becomes quite different, forming unusual narrows with sharp bends through smooth, dark, marble-like rock.
AMARGOSA OPERA HOUSE
An express breakfast and raspberry cobbler at the Mesquite Springs campground early in the day, and after 12,000+ steps of hiking, I was very hungry pulling into Furnace Creek for lunch. Perfectly sunny, 80 degree day with no wind invited the throngs of tourists to descend for lunch at the exact same time as me. “It will be a 45 minute wait sir to sit at the counter” was not what I wanted to hear. So, I went next door to the novelty store and purchased some Oreo’s and a Gatorade and hit the road. I arrived to the Amargosa junction maybe 45 minutes later and thought I had seen a “cafe” sign. The Amargosa Opera House, Motel and Cafe look like they have seen grander days but it is so unique you never forget it even if you drive by once.
If you want to learn about the Amargosa Opera House you will quickly find out that Marta Becket is the soul and clockwork that has bridged the stages of Broadway to this remote venue entertaining audiences with her one-woman, vaudeville-style shows for 40+ years. Ms. Becket (August 9, 1924 – January 30, 2017) and her husband, Thomas Williams, were camping in Death Valley in 1967 when a flat tire on their trailer forced them to find a garage nearly 40 miles away, in Death Valley Junction. While Mr. Williams was repairing the tire, Ms. Becket wandered over to a collection of buildings, including a hotel, that had been erected in the 1920s by Pacific Coast Borax, a mining company. ref
I plunked my hungry butt into a counter seat and quickly started up a convo with Travis, and said “burger and fries”? Nope, he said, but we have a BLT with home made bread. Boom. Got lunch ordered and started to get an immediately super cool vibe. Travis had hitch-hiked from Bishop, CA and volunteered for 6 month helping the new ownership get things squared away. In another six months he will be enlisting in the Marines and traveling the world. Both Travis and Jason were super cool but the love always comes from the kitchen. Bobbi is the General Manager and Super Chef extraordinaire. I guess she hails from Australia and found herself out here via Los Angeles. I LOVE stories like this. Do yourself a HUGE FAVOR and make sure you stop by on your way to Death Valley or on your way back or BOTH! Sometimes the great things are RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!
FINAL THOUGHTS
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.- Nelson Mandela
