Death Valley and Beyond.

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puppychow

RAWR
Joined
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Location
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Chapter 1: Winter Wonderland.



I had been looking forward to the little get-away to Death Valley in March. Enjoy the early/intermittent Spring we had been enjoying till now, and what better way to live it to the max than getting on your trusted steed and heading out for the open road!

 

I caught a little break in the weather across the Sierra's and embarked on the journey Wednesday, a day earlier than my other FJR brethren who were riding on Thursday, but were planning on overnighting in Lone Pine. I was going to ride all the way to Death Valley and then a little beyond this day.

 

No early morning starts this time, didn't leave till about 9:30AM to give the sun a chance to start shining on the mountain passes. The roads were in surprisingly good shape, considering that a storm had just rolled through on Monday night, say what you may about them but CalTrans did a very good job.

 

I wasn't however taking any chances, kept the pace slow and steady even though there were only a handful of shoddy spots past Twin Bridges: sand on the road, melt from the stacks of snow piled high along the roadsides - the usual winter road hazards facing two wheelers across the mountain highways.

 

No pictures till I got to the Hwy 89 and Hwy 88 junction, then pulled over for a few shots. Hard to find good angles to shoot with the glare from the snow trying to white out any detail, I much prefer the color of Spring, to the paleness of Winter. :)

 

Found this peaceful creek flowing by the roadside with a thin sheet of ice and a sprinkling of fresh snow on top.

 

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Back on the road again after a quick stretch and then ride across into Nevada, the point and shoot I keep on the tank bag comes out of hiding and it takes a look back, as the Pines of the Sierra Nevada ranges give way to the Nevada desert sage brushes.

 

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There are some nice ranches on these eastern footings of the Sierra's.

Close to, yet far enough away from the hub-bub of the little city called Reno and maybe more so from the resident forum law breaker and bench warrant evader called RenoJohn, but that story has been told elsewhere. :)

 

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Filtered through Gardnerville to find Hwy 395 South and rode back into California skirting Topaz Lake.

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and dived right back into Winter Wonderland along the eastern sides of the Sierra Nevada range on Hwy 395.

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The snow covered Sierra's look so majestic from this side, rising quickly and high off the plains.

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As I approached Mono Lake, the road winds left revealing panoramic views of the lake and the mountains around it.

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A couple of closer looks..

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I intended to find lunch in Lee Vining, although the town is still sleepy in the off season and none of the eateries were open, so I headed towards the Mobil Station near Lee Vining, but alas they were closed as well. Lunch will have to wait till Bishop.

Since, I was already on Hwy 120 (which is closed for Winter) - I rode a little further to find this sign. Next time baby!

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Back on the road again, racing towards Bishop and a bite to eat, the sunshine abundant. However, there was some sporadic snow melt on the road..

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Although for the most part it was pretty dry.

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Riding past the Mammoth Lakes area, you are greeted by more scenic mountain peaks and big fast sweeping turns.

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Then I remember a place I had visited very early last Summer, and wanting to see it in Winter time, made a little detour from my route.

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Who needs the Alps when such stunning scenery can be found right here in the Sierra's..

Convict Lake.

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A couple other shots..

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Then I spotted something else - a forgotten or abandoned canoe in this little channel beside the lake, it seemed quite out of place - bright red in a cocoon of glaring white.

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Of course I took a closer look...

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I spent a little time at Convict Lake just soaking in the scenery, but the hunger pangs reminded me that it was time to go find lunch, so I continued towards Bishop, snapping more pictures of mountain peaks along the way.

Both while stopped..

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and moving shots..

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Lunch was Subway in Bishop, so it didn't warrant any pictures of food porn. Refreshed from some sustenance - I went looking for more snow covered mountains. This next shot taken a little outside of Big Pine, notice the disparity in size between the industrial fluid tanks (which were much closer to me) and the steep precipices of the mountain domineering over the scene..

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Light was fading fast in the shadow of the Sierra's - sunset comes early to Lone Pine and Mt. Whitney - the highest peak in the contiguous U.S. casts a very long shadow, I stuck around in Lone Pine for a bit trying to find an access road which would lead me closer to the mountain for some sunset shots - unfortunately as the sun dropped quickly the only place I could find in a hurry was this location..not ideal, but it would have to do..

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Riding away east from Lone Pine towards Death Valley, I tried to outrun the shadows cast by the mountains..and as my camera looked back, it witnessed more of the sun playing hide and seek between the mountains and the clouds..

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The shadows I was casting myself were getting pretty long as I raced towards Death Valley, light fading fast.

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Found myself at Father Crowley's Vista, but the Valley was already cloaking itself in darkness...

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... as I raced through it towards lodging at the Longstreet Casino in Amaragosa Valley on the other side of Death Valley.

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My hopes of making it to the Casino before darkness falls were in vain....can you see anything? The camera seems to have exaggerated, I could - although not very far. :)

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The next chapter awaits..

 
Part I was excellent. When we came across, it was windy and cloudy. All we wanted to do was get off the high elevations and out of the cross wind. You did much better.

 
Great shots. I bet your little hands were real cold shooting down those roads! As for the canoe, I bet it is Old Michaels. He is very forgetful... Nice job.

 
Great shots. I bet your little hands were real cold shooting down those roads! As for the canoe, I bet it is Old Michaels. He is very forgetful... Nice job.
puppychow, Dr. Itch is probably right; Old Michael was probably passed out drunk in the bottom of that canoe, you really should have looked! jes' sayin'

 
Wow!

Thanks so much. Convict Lake brought back some great fishing memories.

We used to go there for opening day back in the seventies.

Thanks for sharing.

Mark

 
Great RR, Puppy !

Waiting with bated breath for deuxieme partie (who knew Fairlaner speaks french ?! :D )

 
Beautiful shots of a landscape that I love, but see too rarely. Will be there next weekend on a rental ST 1300.Unfortunately, it looks like some of the roads are still closed for the winter (such as Whitney portal).

 
Thank you for the kind words my friends! Still looking through the next batch of pictures, so maybe later this weekend, I will post some more.

Beautiful shots of a landscape that I love, but see too rarely. Will be there next weekend on a rental ST 1300.Unfortunately, it looks like some of the roads are still closed for the winter (such as Whitney portal).
Yes! Whitney Portal! Shame on me for not doing my research on that road before I left, I attempted to find it losing time while I was there to no avail. :(

 
Chapter 2. Exploring Death Valley - Act 1.

I got up well before sunrise, to well.. capture the sunrise in Death Valley, but had a major setback - in the process of transporting my gear to the bike at O'dark thirty, I misplaced the room keys and locked myself out of my room with my helmet still in there, I couldn't go anywhere till the front office opened and let me back into my room.

So, I stuck around at the hotel but still took advantage of the glorious sunrise from outside of Death Valley instead.

Wings of an Angel.

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The sun peeps out and tries to wash out every detail in it's path..

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Walked around the grounds of the Casino because the front office was still closed..

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The lake on the premises..

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and the pond right outside my room..

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The front office opened early at 6:30AM so I could grab a spare key and then I was on my way. Since I had lost close to an hour and a half - there would be no stops for Breakfast this day :(

Rode back to Death Valley.

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It was a nice cool morning with some light cloud cover.

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First stop was the Furnace Creek Ranger Station to pick up a map/pay fees, inquire about the conditions of some of the dirt roads I would be riding this day and the next..

Here you can see the monument of the steam tractor which replaced the mule teams which hauled Borax out of Death Valley.

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Then off I went to my first touring stop - Harmony Borax works.

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The mine employed about 40 men who would produce upto three tons of Borax per day.

The mine became famous for the use of 20 mule teams which would haul Borax in double wagons such as the one below from Death Valley to Mojave.

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Next stop was a short ride on a well maintained dirt road to Salt Creek to see the last survivors of the erstwhile Lake Manly, which dried up at the end of the last ice age, leaving the current Death Valley in its place.

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Death Valley pupfish in Salt Creek. These very tiny fish get their name because they seem to be playing like puppies.

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Pupfish Video

From here it was a fun ride to Ubehebe Crater. This is the largest crater which was formed due to volcanic eruptions in this area.

It is good to be touring Death Valley on a weekday when the weekend tourists haven't showed yet.

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The Little **** Crater is the other famous crater formed in the area due to volcanic activity. To get to this you got to hike up a bit...

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... and then some more to get a good view of the little crater.

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Rode to Scotty's Castle from here. I regret not getting there till later in the afternoon and not having the time to do a tour of the grounds and of the underground areas of the castle. Would love to do this some other time when I return to Death Valley - I hear it is very well worth it!

Death Valley Scotty was a con-man/crook who convinced Chicago millionaire Johnson to invest in Scotty's fake gold mine in the Death Valley area. Johnson and his wife built this as their winter home in the area and Scotty conveniently claimed it as his own to back up his false claims of having a gold mine.

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Hiked up to Scotty's grave - he is buried on the hill overlooking the Castle.

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Nice views of the property from up here.

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Hiked back down and took a couple shots before leaving for Beatty, NV.

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The road from Scotty's Castle to Hwy 267 is great fun, and then Hwy 267 opens up into long straights - great for some need for speed moto fun!
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Once past Beatty I went looking for the Ghost town of Rhyolite. There were some sculptures here (part of the Goldwell open air museum) that I wanted to photograph in failing light.

Tribute to miner Shorty Harris, by Belgian artist Bervoets. The penguin in the sculpture is supposed to signify how out of place the artist felt in Nevada.

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Icarus as a female, by artist Peeters.

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Posterior view of the Lady of the Desert - The Venus of Nevada by artist Heyrman.

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The most distinctive art exhibit here is a recreation of "The Last Supper" - created by artist Albert Szukalski and based on Da Vinci's masterpiece.

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Jesus!

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What better way to finish Chapter 2 Act 1 of the ride report, but by publishing the image of the Ghost Rider!

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Act 2 coming up later...might be a little while..

 
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Sam, I kept looking at your photos and thinking, oh, that's the best one!! But it just kept going on and I kept finding more best ones!! Having been to DV several times, I've seen the same photos over and over... your images capture a different view and angle... just brilliant!! :clapping:

 
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