Seattle to Death Valley

[Photog]

We have been to Death Valley twice before, and we can't get enough of the spectacular scenery. This time, we are attending a week-long photography workshop, put on by Rocky Mountain School of Photography.

We are going to take 4 days to get there, & 5 days to get back. This will give us time to enjoy the drive and the workshop.

Today (Nov 6, 2008) we started out from Tacoma, with a stop at the bank, for travel funds. All good trips start out with some type of sponsorship. In this case, our checking account is sponsoring the "expedition".

After a 100 miles, I like to do a quick check for any issues, tighten down things that rattle, or in this case, clean the Fall leaves out of the fresh-air intake.

Since we are still on the interstate, and major highways, the fuel & water cans are empty, and strapped down for minimum wind resistance. These will be put to use, before we enter Death Valley, on Sunday.

We stopped at a friend's house in Vancouver, Washington, for lunch; spend a couple hours talking politcs, travel and photography. Then we head south, across the Columbia River bridge, on I-5.

Side trip to a shop in Portland, for Cindy. The Fall colors are everywhere in this area.

One more stop for Cindy, before checking into the motel in Roseburg, Oregon, for the night.

As much as I would like to be doing this whole trip, with a self contained vehicle; we are not completely prepared for that yet. So I have made all the necessary arrangements, for lodging throughout the next two weeks. We could use all our backpacking gear, and stay in campgrounds, or hunt for places in the National Forest; but .....

Friday, we will be traveling from Roseburg, OR. to Susanville, CA.

Saturday, we travel from there to Tonopah, NV.

Sunday, from Tonopah through the north end of DV, and down to Stovepipe Wells. We will stop by Crankcase Junction, and Eureka Dunes, before heading on to Stovepipe Wells. We have all day, as the photography workshop does not start until 7:00pm on Sunday.

Edit: No Crankcase Junction or Eureka Dunes. The park roads were flooded by snow & rain, the morning before we arrived. Re-route and enter through East entrance.

 

[XXXpedition]

i share your love for death valley. We've been there many times. like your pics with all the fall colores.
sven

 

[rctr03]

have a great trip, looking forward to the photos!
jimmy

 

[cnskate]

Good time to go, it's raining like crazy up here. I'm looking forward to your pics. We're thinking about doing the same trip in April.

 

[BKCowGod]

DV is absolutely my favorite misunderstood barren wasteland. I go down there every chance I get and believe I will never explore all of it no matter how hard I try.

 

[Photog]

Good time to go, it's raining like crazy up here. I'm looking forward to your pics. We're thinking about doing the same trip in April.

Our first two trips were in March & April in previous years. The flowers can add a nice touch to the extreme landscape in Death Valley. The flowers can also be a distraction from the larger view, when using your camera there.

I hope you get the chance to be there when the flowers are at their peak (March usually).

 

[Photog]

Friday was an easy drive; but still 1/2 of it was on interstate.

Even the rest Areas have nice fall colors

We stopped in Weed, Calif., for fuel etc.

Then it was time for the 2-1/2 hour drive over the mountains to Susanville, Calif. Here is a shot of Mt. Shasta, just after sunset.

 

[XXXpedition]

cool trip, keep the pics coming.........

 

[Photog]

Being in Death Valley, we have very limited service. I am trying to get the next set of pics uploaded to Photobucket, and then post the next couple days of our tour.

 

[ntsqd]

There's a store in Weed that has some really cool t-shirts & bumper snickers.

 

[Photog]

NTSQD - We saw those cups, etc. "High on Weed"

We stayed in Susanville Calif. Friday night, and are up early Saturday, to head for Tonopah, NV.

The air was cold, and people were heating with wood, and burning leaves. Cindy took this shot, as we were driving.

When we arrived in Reno, NV, we had to stop a couple places. First was Cabela's, then find a needlework store for Cindy, and get a bite to eat at a Sonic Burger joint.

They do a great job creating the atmosphere at Cabela's.

I was able to find a needlework and knitting store for Cindy, both, next to each other.

We finally left Reno (4 hours), and were on the road again.

It had been grey and gloomy all day; but as the sun was setting, the clouds opened up in the west, and the sun lit up some rain to our east, and gave us a rainbow, just before dark.

And some interesting cloud formations.

Then we had about 2 more hours of driving, in the dark, to reach Tonopah, and our next hotel.

 

[XXXpedition]

:victory: :victory:
keep the pics coming ))
love the reoprts

 

[Photog]

Sunday morning now, and I am writing this in a Word Document, because internet access has been interrupted. We pack up our stuff, and I take the first load out to the rig. What do I find, here in Central Nevada; SNOW.

We will hang out here for a couple hours, and wait for the plows to clear the roads. Almost 9:00am now, and there is eight inches on the ground. There is a little table and chairs out the back window of our room.

 

[Photog]

Some more pics of the snow, on the way to Lida.

Well, Sunday morning, we were going to approach Death Valley from the north, coming in from Lida, to Crankcase Junction. We found Lida without any trouble. It is a very small place, and it looks like the ranch is for sale. Not much here. A little out of focus, shooting on the run.

The history marker says this was Indian Territory, and a contact point for white men. There was a small mine here, and we saw some bits of the mill, along side the highway.

The Tule Canyon road was not marked, from Lida. The map shows one road, and the GPS shows that it splits into 20 different directions. The dirt roads were sloppy, slippery, and many sections were washed out. We are traveling alone, so we didn't venture into the back roads leading from Lida into Death Valley.

We backtracked over to Gold Point. The map showed a better road leading from there, over to Crankcase Junction. When we arrived in Gold Point, we were unable to determine exactly which of the 5 roads exiting the back of the town, was the one we needed to start in on. It didn't look like the kind of place that you wanted to end up on someone's mining claim. The sign says the population is 27. None seemed friendly enough to point us in the right direction. Maybe I just didn't know which door to knock on.

We needed to be in Stovepipe Wells by 5:00pm, and it was now 12:30pm. We decided to drive around, through Scotty's Junction, and Scotty's Castle. When we arrived at the park gate, they said the Grapevine Road to Stovepipe Wells was closed, due to flooding that morning. If we wanted to get to Stovepipe Wells, we would need to drive back out to Scotty's Junction, down to Beatty, and come into the park from the east. Every direction we turned, there was some type of problem. But we still had enough time for this unexpected detour. Out we go again, around to Beatty, stop for gas and a hoagie sandwich. No trouble this time, and we arrived in Stovepipe Wells at 5:03pm, Sunday. Our photography workshop starts at 7:00pm (2 more hours). Now we can relax, unpack, etc.

 

[conifers4]

Keep it coming:clapsmile