Death Valley Road Trip Nov 2012
Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:16 am
If one lives in Southern California, a visit to Death Valley National Park is mandatory at some point. Since Mary and I had no commitments for Thanksgiving, we decided that this holiday break would be a good time to go. Daytime high temps of 80-85 were predicted, with overnight lows of 45-50. Ideal. Let's do it.
Starting from the inland Los Angeles basin, we headed over Cajon Pass to Victorville. Stopped for gas in Barstow, then turned north on Hwy 127 off the 15 at Baker. By the way, Hwy 127 is a blast to drive in a bus (probably any other vehicle as well). At Death Valley Junction we headed west and descended about three thousand feet into Death Valley.
Once into Death Valley proper, we stopped at the Visitor's Center at Furnace Creek, then got some fuel for us and the bus. Toured Badwater Basin to the south, with side trips to the Natural Bridge and Artist's Palette Loop. Heading back out of the valley, we stopped at Zabriskie Point on our way to Dante's View, a climb of over 5000 feet from Furnace Creek. We got to Dante's View just in time to see the sun set over Telescope Peak.
Following the example of that fearless explorer from the Great White North, glasseye, we spent the night in the parking lot at Dante's View. It was windy and cold, but the bus kept us cozy and we weren't bothered by Mr. Ranger.
Camping at Dante's View allowed us to get a ton of photos of the dawn over Death Valley. Here is a shot just before sunrise looking north toward Furnace Creek.
After leaving Dante's View, we went back to Furnace Creek to check out the official campgrounds (Hint: never stay at Sunset CG, it is just a big gravel lot with RV's. Texas Springs and Furnace Creek are decent though.). Then we headed to the north end of the valley to visit Scotty's Castle and Ubehebe Crater. Here is the bus at the Castle:
Got up really early the next morning to see the stars after the moon went down. Took off at dawn heading to Stovepipe Wells. We had the road and the views to ourselves.
At Stovepipe Wells, we dumped our extra water in preparation for the 5000 foot climb up and over Towne Pass on the way to Panamint Springs. The way up was slow (some of it in second gear). The view on the way down was marvelous:
Another bit of advice: the gas in Death Valley can be a little on the spendy side, so plan accordingly. Here is the sign at the gas station in Panamint Springs:
The route from Panamint Springs took us south through the Panamint Valley, over another pass on the Slate mountain range, then through Trona, California. Trona has the distinction of having an 18 hole golf course made entirely of sand. The 'green's are just a finer grain than the rest of the course. I'm not sure what they have for sand traps, but I can tell you there are no water hazards. We hit Hwy 395 in Ridgecrest and made our way back to Victorville and home from there. Total trip mileage: 550.
Our Westy bus did well. One little hiccup, literally, occurred after leaving Natural Bridge. The access road to Natural Bridge is about one mile long, gravel, uphill, and washboard all the way. Not fun in a bus. The way down was faster but dustier. On the way back to Furnace Creek after exiting the road to Natural Bridge, the engine started cutting out. What the heck? I babied it on acceleration, but it still cut out a lot. At Zabriskie Point I stopped to take a look at the engine. Wires and connections were all good. Points looked okay. Idle was fine. Just before I closed the hatch I saw that the cover for the AFM was off (I have mine taped rather than glued in place). Crap, did I get a bunch of dust in there? Is that the problem? I blew all the dust out, then cleaned the wiper track with a little gasoline on a q-tip. Luckily, this seemed to work, and we made it up the 5000 foot climb to Dante's View with something like four minutes to spare before the sun set. So why was the cover of the AFM off, you ask. Good question. I had fiddled with the AFM settings a week or so ago and forgot to put the cover back on. So the bus trouble was, once again, due to operator error.
That's all for now. Next planned adventure is a trip to Big Sur over Christmas. Tim
PS: Number of ACVW bus sightings this trip = 0
Starting from the inland Los Angeles basin, we headed over Cajon Pass to Victorville. Stopped for gas in Barstow, then turned north on Hwy 127 off the 15 at Baker. By the way, Hwy 127 is a blast to drive in a bus (probably any other vehicle as well). At Death Valley Junction we headed west and descended about three thousand feet into Death Valley.
Once into Death Valley proper, we stopped at the Visitor's Center at Furnace Creek, then got some fuel for us and the bus. Toured Badwater Basin to the south, with side trips to the Natural Bridge and Artist's Palette Loop. Heading back out of the valley, we stopped at Zabriskie Point on our way to Dante's View, a climb of over 5000 feet from Furnace Creek. We got to Dante's View just in time to see the sun set over Telescope Peak.
Following the example of that fearless explorer from the Great White North, glasseye, we spent the night in the parking lot at Dante's View. It was windy and cold, but the bus kept us cozy and we weren't bothered by Mr. Ranger.
Camping at Dante's View allowed us to get a ton of photos of the dawn over Death Valley. Here is a shot just before sunrise looking north toward Furnace Creek.
After leaving Dante's View, we went back to Furnace Creek to check out the official campgrounds (Hint: never stay at Sunset CG, it is just a big gravel lot with RV's. Texas Springs and Furnace Creek are decent though.). Then we headed to the north end of the valley to visit Scotty's Castle and Ubehebe Crater. Here is the bus at the Castle:
Got up really early the next morning to see the stars after the moon went down. Took off at dawn heading to Stovepipe Wells. We had the road and the views to ourselves.
At Stovepipe Wells, we dumped our extra water in preparation for the 5000 foot climb up and over Towne Pass on the way to Panamint Springs. The way up was slow (some of it in second gear). The view on the way down was marvelous:
Another bit of advice: the gas in Death Valley can be a little on the spendy side, so plan accordingly. Here is the sign at the gas station in Panamint Springs:
The route from Panamint Springs took us south through the Panamint Valley, over another pass on the Slate mountain range, then through Trona, California. Trona has the distinction of having an 18 hole golf course made entirely of sand. The 'green's are just a finer grain than the rest of the course. I'm not sure what they have for sand traps, but I can tell you there are no water hazards. We hit Hwy 395 in Ridgecrest and made our way back to Victorville and home from there. Total trip mileage: 550.
Our Westy bus did well. One little hiccup, literally, occurred after leaving Natural Bridge. The access road to Natural Bridge is about one mile long, gravel, uphill, and washboard all the way. Not fun in a bus. The way down was faster but dustier. On the way back to Furnace Creek after exiting the road to Natural Bridge, the engine started cutting out. What the heck? I babied it on acceleration, but it still cut out a lot. At Zabriskie Point I stopped to take a look at the engine. Wires and connections were all good. Points looked okay. Idle was fine. Just before I closed the hatch I saw that the cover for the AFM was off (I have mine taped rather than glued in place). Crap, did I get a bunch of dust in there? Is that the problem? I blew all the dust out, then cleaned the wiper track with a little gasoline on a q-tip. Luckily, this seemed to work, and we made it up the 5000 foot climb to Dante's View with something like four minutes to spare before the sun set. So why was the cover of the AFM off, you ask. Good question. I had fiddled with the AFM settings a week or so ago and forgot to put the cover back on. So the bus trouble was, once again, due to operator error.
That's all for now. Next planned adventure is a trip to Big Sur over Christmas. Tim
PS: Number of ACVW bus sightings this trip = 0