Death Valley Sunday

9:00 am... We are up, have eaten, and checked out of the motel, are now sitting in the jeep in the Von's parking lot while Andrew and Lisa pick up last minute supplies... Steph and I are  bird watching... So far we have a fox sparrow, a brewer's black bird, and are having an intense conversation about the gulls... Are they Western or California gulls??? The spotting feature being the color of the feet, but the damn birds won't land....  Steph is calling them California gulls... Binoculars might help, but is a gull worth binoculars?

Now, three minutes later, we have added American Crows to the list (note, this is the Von's parking lot list, not a life list or the trip list... Those are longer and more interesting). Steph is studying ornithology, so "crow"  or "LLB" (aka little black bird) is no longer a sufficient monicker... They are "American crows" or "brewers black birds"

Andrew and Lisa have returned, and the adventure begins...

We head south... through the Owens Valley, The Sierras and Mt Whitney to the west.  South through Big Pine, Independence, and Lone Pine, heading east at Lone Pine across the top of Owens Lake... to Keeler...

Andrew and I had been telling the ladies about Keeler, and what an unfriendly place it was... This time we were proven wrong...  In the absence of a pitchfork wielding mob, packs of wild dogs, nervous residences peering through closed blinds we explored, took photos and enjoyed or detour... We discovered that Keeler now even boasts a recycling program, sponsored by the volunteer fire department.

Beyond Keeler, the road climbs, into the Argus Range... Towards Death Valley
Reaching the summit the road plunges down a canyon, at the bottom Panamint Springs... A roadhouse in the best outback tradition... A restaurant and bar, gas and a poorly stocked general store (with ice... you must sell ice) and a camp ground.   It is our base, our home, for the next three nights.

We check in, claim our sites, and put up tents... We empty the back seet of the jeep and set off into the desert... Across the valley, into the hills beyond...

At first, we turn south, across the dry lake on the paved road that would lead to Trona... But we turn off, eastward up a canyon... Past the ruins of an oasis a one time road house, climbing... We visit the charcoal kilns... A row of beehive ovens... We find A. Camp, a mine, now in ruins.... Beyond we stumble upon a point, a lookout, Death Valley below.   We back track, in search of a now abandoned road, shown on our 24 year old map, leading to Skidoo... Eventually we rejoin the main road and take the "official" road to Skidoo...  We find the official interpretive sign that tells us we have arrived in Skidoo, but don't see the mill that I remember, so wander more, among the mines, tailing piles and rusty cans and occasional abandoned car eventually on foot, eventually finding the mill below us on the hill side.

Having successfully completed our quest, we return to the jeep, and return to camp.

Now, near 8:00 at night, with dark fast taking hold, we are sitting by the fire...  There is wifi, but it is slow... There might be beer.

Goodnight...

A quick note... It turned out the wifi in the campground was slow, and Google security was triggered by the satellite internet provider... so I blogged, but those blog posts were trapped, held prisoner by technology, or rather, the lack of technology... so these are being posted in the order written, just a few days late.... with pictures, which would not have been included from my temporary home on an alluvial fan