Death Valley Trip - Day 4 (Saturday, November 25, 2000)
- Rhyolite, Titus Canyon Narrows and Darwin Falls -
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| The ruins of the Cook Bank. (Rhyolite, Nevada) |
We packed up our camp in the morning than drove east into Beatty, Nevada for some gasoline. After that, we stopped at the nearby ghost town of Rhyolite, a town that had up to 10,000 people from 1905 to 1912. Everyone was gone by 1919 when the gold of the Bullfrog strike was no longer profitable to mine.
The first building we visited was Tom Kelly's bottle house, built in 1906 out of the most available materials at the time. A Bureau of Land Management volunteer "ghost" was on hand to greet us and tell us the story of the house. On one side was a miniature town done with glass shards. The other side had a display of historic town photos.
After walking around outside the bottle house, we went to the town's main street to see other ruins. The main street included the two story concrete school, the three story Cook Bank, and the Porter Brothers general store, all without roofs. The front facade was the best preserved part.
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| My friends at the entrance to a mine in Leadfield. (Death Valley National Park, California) |
Continuing down the road, we reached the L.V. & T. Depot, the only other fully intact building besides the bottle house. We then walked down another road to the jail. Other than that, there were various pieces of other buildings left.
We left the area, taking the unpaved road that lead to Titus Canyon Narrows. The steep road up to Red Pass was a bit of a challenge to navigate, but we got through without much danger. We first stopped in the ghost town of Leadfield, where we left the car to explore. I had been to the town before, but had not discovered the barred mine shaft until this trip, climbing a slope to find it.
Our next stop along the road was some petroglyphs by the road, near a spring. We had to climb a bit up the slope to find the really good ones. Soon after this stop, the car entered the narrows. Driving through the narrow, winding passage was fun. Li-Li tried to describe it, saying it was "like Disneyland."
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| Darwin Falls at the end of a box canyon. (Death Valley National Park, California) |
Back on the pavement and in Death Valley, we continued on over Towne Pass to Panamint Springs. There, we found a friendly family owned restaurant where we had a good late lunch outdoors in the wonderful weather. However, when we had to use the restroom, we were directed to one of their motel rooms because the one in the restaurant was not functioning.
When we left town, we didn't have to go far to get to the trailhead for Darwin Falls. I was quite curious to see the only year-round waterfall in the desert park. It turned out to be a lovely hike along a stream into a box canyon, where the spring-fed waterfall was flowing quite well.
The sun set as we drove off in our car. We left the desert and climbed over Tehachapi Pass, then stopped in Bakersfield, where we decided to stay in a motel for a change. As luck would have it, we found a great deal at the Econo-Lodge. We checked in, then ate at the local Sizzler before going back to our room to shower and sleep.
Contact me if you have any questions or comments about this trip.
| Document last modified January 06, 2009. Copyright © 1995-2009 Andrew Sawadisavi. All rights reserved. |
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