Things settled down enough that I got my camera out of the van. Still need to clean the van.
Before I left, this turkey vulture shows up on my neighbor's lawn. Is that an omen about Death Valley?
Entering Striped Butte Valley. The Butte is not very impressive from here.
Alongside the Butte, still nothing special to see.
From the Geologist's cabin, the reason for the name, Striped Butte, becomes obvious. It is also obvious why a geologist would build a cabin here.
At night the burros come to the spring near the Geologist's cabin. You can hear them braying for hours.
Carl Mengel's grave at the top of the pass. It is all downhill from here.
A view back into Striped Butter Valley from near the top of the pass.
I was a day early, so I spent my Friday hiking over Mengel pass to Barker Ranch and back. ~14 miles round trip and 3 1/2 quarts of water. I was disappointed when I got to the Barker Ranch site.
All that is left is the site. The Park Service cleaned up all the debris. So sad.
Just past the Ranch site is this garbage dump. The U shaped piece to the left of the yellow Jeep body is the back quarters of a Corvair!
The next day, everyone came over the pass and we all gathered at the Geologist's cabin.
The Crew at the cabin.
The next day we wound up at Warm Springs. The reason people used to stay there was the talc mine.
The opening to the mine is barred. It was big enough to drive a semi into the mine. Honestly, it doesn't look safe enough to enter if the gate weren't there.
Wire mesh and rock bolts on the roof of the mine.
After Warm Springs, the group split up. yvrr and charley56 headed for greener pastures - or something like that. I left about 1/2 hour after they did and headed towards Furnace Creek and a shower. The rest of us were going to meet up in Furnace Creek and then head towards the Racetrack.
Came over a rise and what did I see? A couple of SMB's in the road.
Jack and Charley under Charley's van. It was cold and the wind was blowing about 40mph. In about 10-15 minutes they had Charley back on the road.
We met back up in Furnace Creek after my shower. Brad (Jeep guy friend of Tapatio) had gotten a flat and he and Joe/Claudia were heading home. Woodbee, Chris Thwaites and I spent the night at Mesquite Springs and swapped lies around the campfire. Next morning we headed for the Racetrack.
Just before you leave the paved road, you come to Ubehebe Crater. An ancient volcanic feature in DV. It is about 2.5 miles around, so I started hiking around the crater.
Looking back across the crater. Center left are two white specks, my van and woodbee's van.
About half way around the crater, you get a good view of Little Hebe crater.
Then we headed out to Racetrack. We had a really nice night out there. The wind stopped, we had a great campfire with a couple of other campers and an exciting game of night Boche Ball.
That is all the pictures I took. I go to visit with the great people on this forum, not to take pictures - so that is what I did.
Mike
Sportsmobile (AKA Money Pit)
Linear Mode
