After spending Christmas with family in the Bay Area, we woke up before the crack of dawn on December 27th, packed up the Xterra, picked up Grace and Alonzo, and headed south for Death Valley, embarking on our last adventure of 2005!
Several hours into our 400-mile journey, we happily traded highways and towns for fields of cactus and desert scrub.
Finally, we caught our first glimpse of Death Valley's vast desert vistas, salt flats, and mineral-enriched mountains.
This rusty, bullet-hole ridden pickup truck somehow fit in perfectly with the barren landscape.
We arrived in Ballarat, an old mining ghost town with a few dilapidated buildings and a "museum" where we purchased a $0.25 Mountain Dew in exchange for some advice on off-roading conditions in the area.
Armed with $0.25 worth of information, we headed with confidence up Pleasant Canyon's rough and narrow 4x4 trail.
An hour and a half later, miles from civilization (i.e., Ballarat ghost town!), our trusty Xterra got a spectacular flat tire...
...No worries, though. We got the flat just as we pulled into our destination for the evening, a rustic cabin built and maintained entirely by local volunteers. We unfurled the cabin's American flag to indicate the place was occupied, set up camp chairs, and celebrated a successful first day with wine, cheese, salami, and pears.
Before the chill of night set in, Alonzo started a fire in the cabin's wood-burning furnance. The cabin also came with a propane-powered gas stove, sink, solar-powered lights (perfect for playing poker later that evening), and cots. And, as promised by one of the locals we met in Ballarat who helps maintain the cabin, there was even an outhouse, complete with toilet paper and seat covers, "which the ladies will LOVE!"
Sunset view from the cabin, looking back down Pleasant Canyon.
The next morning, we replaced the Xterra's flat tire with a spare, put away the American flag, cleaned up our trash, packed everything back into the car and headed out of Pleasant Canyon.
On our way out, we explored a fascinating mining ghost town.
In addition to fallen buildings, old machinery, and boarded up mine shafts, we also ran across rusty tanks labeled "Cyanide Poison."
Grace, exploring an old mining building.
It took the entire morning to make our way out of the mountains to Furnance Creek Visitor Center where we spent a logistics-heavy afternoon stocking up on water and fire wood and finding someone who could fix our flat. Afterwards, we had just enough time before dark for Artists' Drive loop, where we hopped out of the car every few minutes to explore the mineral-filled mountains.
Eunice and Ryan, stealing a smooch while checking out the cool terrain.
Grace and Eunice, posing in front of salt flats below sea level as the setting sun hits the distant mountains.
We were treated to a picture-perfect sunset as we headed off-road to our camp spot for the night in Echo Canyon.
Alonzo and Grace cooked up delicious dinners, night after night. Steaks one night, chicken curry another, spaghetti with clam sauce the next night. Talk about eating in style!
We woke up the next morning and saw for the first time what a spectacular canyon we had stumbled upon as our campsite.
After packing up and navigating washboarded roads out of Echo Canyon, we headed north, stopping to scramble down to the bottom of Ubehebe Crater, an old volcano.
A close up of Death Valley's desert holly which flowers in the winter. Its silver-colored leaves reflect sunlight, allowing it to survive in low moisture, intense sunlight environments.
On our way to the "Racetrack," we stopped at quirky Teakettle Junction, where a hand-painted sign clutterred with tea kettles told us we were still 6 miles from our destination.
Finally, we reached Death Valley's mysterious "Racetrack," a vast, dry lakebed to the west of the Panamint mountain range. We grabbed lunch on top of the "Grandstand," large rock formations located on the north side of the Racetrack.
After lunch, Grace and Eunice wandered along the sun-cracked floor of the Racetrack.
Close-up view of the cracked lakebed.
View of the Grandstand.
Scientists believe that the phenomenon of the Racetrack's mysterious "moving rocks" is caused when rain wets down the lakebed and a strong wind blows the rocks along the ground, creating lines in the lakebed. To this day, nobody has ever actually seen the rocks move (except for Grace, who claims she saw movement out of the corner of her eye!).
Sometimes, the rocks move in clusters...
That night, we took a bumpy, off-road path to Lost Burro Mine, where we camped out in the Mad-Max-esque remains of an old mining ghost town. Our coldest night yet, we huddled by our campfire while star gazing.
Grace and Eunice, warming up in the morning sun in their terraced tents before venturing out for breakfast.
Steps away from where we camped are the remains of the Lost Burro Mine cabin.
We walked past the cabin up a trail and hiked around the mountains until we got a bird's-eye view of the Racetrack and Grandstand.
Alonzo, Ryan, and Grace at the highest point on the trail.
On the drive away from Lost Burro Mine, we stopped for lunch while enjoying our last views of Death Valley and the surrounding mountains.
We hightailed it south to Red Rock State Park where we caught a dramatic sunset before pitching our tents for our last night of camping. The next morning, we packed up and headed to L.A. to celebrate New Year's Eve.
After five days of off-roading and camping, we drove through pouring rain to Beverly Hill's funky Hotel Avalon. When we opened the back door of the Xterra, the doorman said in horror, "You don't want to move ALL of that to your room, do you?!" After getting cleaned up, grabbing some food, and taking a disco nap, we met up with our friend Jon to ring in 2006!
We celebrated New Year's Eve at an L.A. club and then headed back to the Hotel Avalon for some "high-stakes" poker which lasted until 4am. After sleeping in, we drove to Monterey Park to hang out with Eunice's mom, her cousin Vincent (on the left), and her grandparents. Armed with 200 frozen Chinese dumplings in our cooler and a $5 haircut for Ryan, we finally headed back to the Bay Area...
