After our impromptu photoshoot at Racetrack Playa, P and I packed up and set off around 8:30am back on the dusty, slow dirt road back towards the one main (and paved) road that cuts across the entire Death Valley from one park entrance to the next (a 1.5-2 hour drive in itself). It was growing quite hot already and the road was incredibly dusty - since we had driven down at sunset the previous day we didn't realize how painstakingly slow and hot it was during the day. P's windshield actually developed a large crack from the shuddering and vibrations of the car going s-l-o-w-l-y over the dirt, bumpy road. (Shoot - Good thing we had a great night alone with the stars and good pictures for P to make the damage worth it).
Park Rangers warn people that cars can overheat on that road and you need extra tires if they should go flat. Well, we did run into the abandoned army jeep of the weird guy alone in fatigues that we had passed the night before. Evidently, on his return his car didn't make it and he tried to start walking back all the way (about 30 miles) towards the paved road - - incidentally, this is exactly what they tell you NOT to do. They tell you to stay with your car and with water and food, hopefully, and eventually in the next day or so someone will be making the off-road drive to the Playa and can pick you up. We never saw him on the road back so either he got picked up or the cannibalistic "These Hills Have Eyes" people or aliens came down and ate him!!! (Insert the cascading musical sound effect here: Duh-duh-DUHHH!!!!)
As we almost reached our glorious, paved road we sidetracked shortly to the top of the Ubehebe crater to check out the view. (By the way: I LOVED repeating over and over the name "Ew-buh-hay-bee - so much fun - try it!) The crater was from a volcanic eruption that left a several-mile radius of black, dry lava on either side of the unpaved dirt road. I hadn't seen any lava fields except for in Maui a couple years back so this was pretty cool to look at.
After the crater we got back on the real road and wound ourselves up a hillside to a natural oasis (I have always loved that word, too) with probably an acre of lush grass, believe or not, growing amidst some tall palm trees and other man-planted trees. Next to that was the tourist destination of "Scotty's Castle".
Death Valley Scotty told everyone that he built this castle in the hidden canyons of Death Valley. But that was not quite the truth. Albert Mussey Johnson, Chicago millionaire businessman, built his "Death Valley Ranch" in the cool of Grapevine Canyon and he let his cowboy mining partner, Scotty, live there as a guest. Ahhhh, it's a bit more than a white lie, Scotty, okaayy?? Scotty's Castle is a fantasy house. We didn't pay to take the guided tour, but one can still freely walk the grounds and take pictures and see the now empty huge swimming pool that rivals the Hearst Castle one we saw last summer. We also went up to the stables which have now been turned into a 'garage' of sorts of some of the old cars and wagons used during that time around the 1920s. Fantastic and interesting!
Click below for slide show!
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| Death Valley - Ubehebe Crater & Scotty's Castle |
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