Spring 08 Roadtrip - Day 3

Day 3 - May 24

Beatty NV - Lathrop Wells - Pahrump - Bob Ruud Memorial Hwy - 190 - Furnance Creek - StovePipe Wells - Panamint Springs - 136 - Lone Pine (Best Western)

I had a good sleep after my Death Valley Road venture, and started off my day at 9 AM with the great memoirs i had. Today's Day trip involved driving on most of the paved roads of Death Valley and with the weather being good, wanted to do some good hikes around Furnace Creek Area. 95 was a straight highway stretch (real good for riding motorcycles fast :-) shhhh !!!) Pahrump town reminds you of the old country towns you see in movies with few houses, shack shops, shabby gas stations, car junkyards and farm lands. So, i get into Bob Ruud Memorial Hwy, i would say another paradise road for motorcycles. Cool drive, with great views of the valley, it merges onto 190 which is the official scenic byway into Death Valley (Furnace Creek). Really it is, as the true nature of Death Valley is revealed here. I forgot to mention that both these days the temperatures were pretty cool enuf, max going to 90's when i was at that backroad. Taking pictures along the way, i stopped at Zabriskie point, which gives a far better picture of the valley, mountain dunes, and myriads of colours of stones. Incidentally, there were lots of visitors too. It was around 12:00 PM and so i had enough time for a 2-3 hour hike. I approached Furnace Creek Visitor Center and got a hike trail around the area. Starts from Golden Canyon Trailhead off Badwater Road and makes a loop to Zabriskie Point and then to Gower Gulch Loop and finally out on Badwater Road.

So i started my trail, the camera mounted on top of the tripod, tripod on my back and enjoying the view. Indeed the name is deserved given to Red Cathedral where the mountain walls are completely red and uniform in nature and looks like a cathedral wall. The colours of the dunes were flamboyant enuf to catch your eyes very quickly. The trail was really good and i collected lots of colourful stones. Kind of deviated for a while but came back to track. Made it pretty slow and steady and completed the hike in 2.5 hours (can be completed in 1.5 hours easily).

This day I intended to be pretty chill, enjoy more of the valley and not do much of driving. So, i wanted to drive down Badwater, but i have not yet planned any road/map for the Sequoia National Park, so thought of checking into hotel pretty early and start working on it. Remember Death Valley is a place which is below sea level and goes upto -180 feet. I went on 190E and stopped by Stovepipe to take a view of the Sand Dunes.

Well, Death valley is more of getting into backroads, doing several hikes and exploring the ghost towns. Driving on the paved roads does not give you much insight into the beauty of the valley. So, i would say to be prepared for 2-3 days at least at Death Valley with a high rise vehicle to really explore it. I thing i missed was the Skidoo ghost town, which i realised only after coming to Lone Pine.

From Stovepipe wells i went onto Panamint Springs. Actually i had a misconception that i would be able to see some good hot springs on the way. It is not the case. There is a small cute resort at Panamint Springs and a RV park, else there is nothing much to venture around in a car. You can see the red Panamint Springs is supposed to be 10-15 degrees cooler than the rest of the resorts. The last 2-3 miles of drive into Panamint springs was great with windy and narrow roads. Boy !!! i kind of got attached to super windy/narrow and steep roads. Actually, there is a lot to see at Panamint, if you do backroads and get into the old mines or do lots of hikes.

Another place which i missed was Badwater Basin (salt base) which is the lowest elevation level @ US. (-282 feet). I am not sure how i missed it, it never came to my mind. Well, something left for next time isnt it ?

i called it the end of the day and proceeded towards Best Western, Lone Pine. A stretch of 190 was very very windy and scenic before meeting 136. I did not take the 190 but detoured into 136 with the awesome view of Owen's Lake and the streaks of sunlight peeping between the clouds and falling on the almost dried lake and the Basin. Death Valley, is a different form of nature and more of it can be explored only by hikes and backcountry roads. A good learning experience for next time.

Checked into the hotel, decent one but bit costlier. The town is pretty small, 4-5 blocks. I took a stroll around the town, filled gas (for the car and the gas tank) had a good jalapeno burger at Carls Jr. Started off with some research on the remaining 2 days of trip involving SNP and KCP, and then went off to bed.

This was the map of the day

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=6924098859252282090,36.263730,-116.003110%3B8956234908796126280,36.304399,-116.426314%3B8017512544835490600,36.639836,-117.030907%3B14088790181299945115,36.376819,-117.592558&saddr=550+E+Highway+95+N,+Beatty,+NV+89003+(Motel+6+of+Death+Valley)&daddr=NV-160+%4036.263730,+-116.003110+to:CA-190+%4036.304399,+-116.426314+to:CA-190+%4036.639836,+-117.030907+to:CA-190+%4036.376819,+-117.592558+to:36.610016,-118.065948&mra=mi&mrcr=4&mrsp=5&sz=10&sll=36.561497,-117.892914&sspn=0.462175,0.845947&ie=UTF8&ll=36.433437,-117.832489&spn=0.46294,0.845947&z=10

Not much of a distance covered today. Around 240 miles for the day. I wanted to take this day pretty light on account of the great adventure encountered yesterday. Overall it was great. I will definitely return to Death Valley again to explore the backroads and the hikes. I would love to do some dirt racing too.

Checked in at Best Western. Pretty decent but a bit pricy. Well, i had pre booked and its my first roadtrip. Learn, learn, learn from your experiences. Neat little town about 5-6 blocks. Got to a store to buy some stuff for the rest of 2 days. Had a good Jalapeno burger at Carl's Jr, filled up both the tanks (all geared for Sherman Pass Road the next day) and called it the end of the day. Well, today i bought one pint of JD again and had a refreshing good drink. Tomorrow' trip was pretty straight forward with surprises awaiting only on Sherman Pass Road / J41 ..