Valley of Fire

Welcome to the land of beautiful dirt.  We arrived at our new digs in the town of Overton, NV, in the guise of the North Shore Inn (NSI).  Hosted by Deborah and Chris.  The NSI is located "just outside the Valley of Fire (VOF).  Various estimates give it at 7, 8, 9 or 10 miles from the east entrance.  Close enough for government work.

Overton's main business model is tourism.  Most of it rolls with the punches with the highs and lows of Lake Meade.  Water politics being what they are, the water commodity is sold to the highest bidder.  Recreational use on the lake is low on the bidders list.  Recently the water has been sold to Mexico.  The NSI saw that the Lake Meade model was not a good one so they switched their marketing to the VOF crowd.  They (NSI) heavily advertise in the European markets.  The results of that advertising can be seen in the largely Asian clientele here.  I guess the Asian clientele read the trades from western Europe.

The NSI has also been the benefactor of errant bird flight patterns.  Chris told me that they recently sold out when there were reports of an odd crane that landed and was co-cohabiting with some sand-hill cranes.  Birders cancelled reservations elsewhere and flocked, if that is the right word for birders, to the NSI.

Overton's second commercial product is dirt.  They mine the dirt which seems to be in abundance around here.  They wash it and sort it and what do you know, clean dirt, aka, sand.  Silica sand is used in glass and optics.  I just know I dumped enough high grade sand from my sneakers to build another Hubble Telescope.

The Valley of Fire is basically a scam being run by the Nevada State Parks Department.  They pay creative types to look real hard at the rock formations and make up names.  Animals seem to be popular as they have elephant rock, poodle rock and duck rock.  They also have a piano rock that looks like it was stolen from the Flintstones' living room.  I have looked around and found an entire menagerie of animals.  We lost count of the elephants and we have seen many apes, gorillas, lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

Tell Me You Don't See An Elephant Here

The least imaginative among these naming assignments seems to be Lone Rock.  It would appear that a large rock fell from a nearby rock face and landed all by itself.  Some enterprising employee put up a sign stating that this was, "Lone Rock".  They then built a pit toilet and a picnic table.  Nothing says I would like to eat a nice picnic lunch like a nearby pit toilet.  It is a mixed blessing.  Eating a non-refrigerated lunch in a normally hot park and, a pit toilet may be your best friend.  Other times it is going to have you contemplating a drive back to  Overton for lunch at Sugars.

Lone Rock with Picnic Table, Pit Toilet Not Pictured on Right

Sugars was our stop for dinner on our first night.  A typical small town restaurant with booths from an episode of Mel's Diner.  Our waitress, Flo, served us with typical small town flair.  She appeared to be the "town ???", you know, the one everyone talks about and silently envies.  She wore make-up, and a sports tee shirt and had her nails professionally done.  I suspect that she drove to Vegas for that last addition.  The loud conversation from the kitchen and serving area would rival a skit from the TV series Two Broke Girls.

I had a chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and chicken gravy with corn.  It came with a bowl of New England clam chowder.  An hour later and the "most popular item on the menu", chicken fried steak, caused me gastric discomfort, the likes of which I hadn't suffered since the "questionable tamale" I ate in Tijuana in 1964.  Luckily Sue had several third world folk remedies.  These consisted of liquorice root extract and Tums.

A twelve hour nap later and all was right with the world.  All is right with the world is a relative term as it relates body readiness.  I felt like I had been run over by a Mac truck and dumped in a park pit toilet.  Our unassuming "elephant walk" down the elephant walk trail was to have been a mere 1.2 miles.  Now I do 2.25 miles every day without incident as part of my morning routine.  This of course is on level Miami ground.  This was on soft sand littered with rocks on a grade that went up and down by something they refer to as 9.6% grade change.  I have no idea what that means other than I felt like I had completed the Bataan Death March in record time.  No offense to the people on that WWII ordeal, but I have to let you know I had visions from an old war movie while on that trail.

We later climbed a metal stairway (84 steps) to see the petroglyphs.  This is 4,000 year old graffiti made by a renegade ancient Indian gang known as the Atali.  They recorded their exploits in the black patina of the local rock, much like the punks of today.

A close up of the graffiti shows that these Indians had no respect for their elders.  Note the raised middle finger.

The best way to "do" elephant trail is to ignore the signs and just walk up the road near the entrance pay station and take your pictures from the road.  The trail loop is just an ordeal you should avoid.

Elephant Rock as seen from the road

Our second day at VOF had us in recuperating mode.  A late breakfast and a late start had us retracing our previous day to catch what we had missed.

Our goal was to save our energy for The Fire Wave.  This formation is of recent "discovery' and is now featured on their brochures for the park.  The Wave is still of little notoriety in the Information Center as we asked the Information Specialist behind the counter and she didn't really have good information, as we would find out.  We asked about the best time of day to shoot the wave and were informed that sunset is the best time.  Not exactly true.  Both a.m. and p.m have their followers.

Sue and I followed two "professional photographers" down the p.m. trail.  You can tell a professional photographer from the other variety as they have tripods, backpacks, cameras, square over sized filters and various other paraphernalia that mere mortals would never pack into a sandy wilderness.  Both Asian professionals seemed to walk with authority.  They knew where they were going.  A brief conversation found out that they were much like us being led astray by a wayward Information Specialist.

We arrived at the Wave at the wrong time.  At least as it might pertain to the most photographed icon of The Wave which was now in the shadow of the setting sun.  I managed to scout a new location to save our efforts since we were not likely to repeat this hike in our lifetimes.

New Iconic View of the Wave

 We made the .6 mile hike in soft sand in a record 45 minutes.  Back to our car a good 30 minutes before the sun set at 4:30 p.m.

Tomorrow, we drive to the Grand Canyon.

Starry Starry Night

We planned an easy day northbound from Furnace Creek for our third day at Death Valley.  We scouted the 20 Mule Team Borax Mine exhibit while on our way to the dunes.  There, behind a wood rail fence, is a large wagon rig with a towed water tank.  This sits next to a building ruin from the old mine.  Our plan was to use this area later at night for some Milky Way photographs.  That's the sky type Milky Way and not the candy bar.

Borax Wagon

I used my celestial information app, Stellarium, to predict the location of the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG) at 9:00 p.m.  It told me that the Milky Way would be, in technical astronomical jargon, UP.  Yes, it would be UP, not angled UP, but Way UP.  Like almost straight overhead.  It is a good thing the MWG is huge.

Stellarium App Shows Location of Stars

We missed the hidden dirt road leaving the mine exhibit that would have taken us to Mustard Canyon.  This is a yellow mustard canyon and not the spicy brown variety we had been seeing.  We would have to save it for tomorrow.  On our way to Mesquite Flat Dunes.

The Dunes are just sand with a good collective bargaining agreement.  They do what they want, move when it pleases them and are responsible to no one.  We walked out on the dunes and I spent the next 24 hours trying get sand out of my socks and sneakers.  This is no ordinary sand but a nasty invasive variety.  Fun stuff.

Mesquite Flat Dunes

We went back to our room and had dinner at the Saloon.  I knew now to order the beer and not anything as complicated and technical as a scotch and soda.  Their Porter is actually good and now accompanies all meals except breakfast for me.  If Sue weren't here it might also work for breakfast.

Speaking of drinking, one of our best purchases was oddly a box wine.  It was wholly drinkable and, best of all, it fit our small portable cooler.  The Chardonnay also fit in the room refrigerator. The box holds the equivalent of 4 bottles of wine and has a spigot.  You are never sure how much you have had and, on vacation, that is a good thing.  No need for stoppers or corkscrews either.

Winner of 40 awards

We got our gear together for our night star shoot.  Tripods, cable releases, fresh batteries, flashlights and warm coats.  Back to the Borax exhibit.  We set up and found that a 30 sec. exposure at ISO 1600 worked well with a wide angle lens wide open.

Borax Wagon and Starry Night (click to enlarge)

I used our flashlight bounced off a nearby gray dirt mound to light paint the wagon in the foreground.  Sometimes I used the palm of my hand to reflect and bounce a bit of light.  It took some experimentation but just a few seconds of bounce during the 30 second exposure seemed to work best.  We folded our tripods at around 9 p.m.

The next morning we started late.  We drove out to the Rhyolite ghost town for a change of pace.  We stopped in the bustling town of Beatty where we topped up on some cheap Nevada gas.  Beatty has a small casino, a Subway and a 4-way stop sign.  With the exception of a few buildings downtown, most of the dwellings were trailers.  I think we spotted the mayor's double-wide on the top of a hill.

A backtrack of a few miles from town and we were on the main street of Rhyolite.  The town sprang up in 1905 and died in 1911.  Gold was discovered in 1905, 5,000 people flocked to the town, Charles Schwab invested heavily in the town's infrastructure, the Cook Bank was built, the HD & LD Porter General Store was built (1906), gold ran out, end of story.

Cook Bank Building

The new proprietor of the bank looks like most bank executives I have met over the years.  A bit of a low-life and a drab dresser.  He epitomizes bank executives everywhere.  I captured a brief portrait of him as he arrived for work at the Cook Bank.  His picture is below.  BTW, the Cook Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America.

Cook Bank Executive

 
The bank executive, Mr. Rattler, slithered into his office, which was basically a bush at the edge of the building.  As I headed back to his office (bush) with my GoPro for some video, a truck pulled up and a woman prepared to exit right at the bush.  Luckily, her husband saw me waving in his mirror and delayed her departure.   I let him know that he should move his truck ahead a few feet as there was a rattlesnake just outside his wife's door.  He contemplated his options for a moment, then two, and then finally decided to pull ahead.  Good choice.  Way too many people saw me warn him.

Tomorrow, off to the Valley of Fire and Overton, Nevada.

Death Valley Days

Our second day began with a rooster crowing.  It was my chosen alarm and, at 5:00 a.m., neither the rooster nor the early wake up were appreciated by Sue.  We quickly dressed and headed out our door where the smell from the nearby horse stables reminded us that we weren't in Miami.  We drove in the dark back to Zabriskie Point to catch the sunrise.  You may, in my earlier writings, have seen Zabriskie spelled every way but this, the right way.

Zabriskie Point at Sunrise

We climbed the short hill to the overlook and used our previous day's scouting to jump the side rail and head down below to a better vantage point.  We were the first to arrive.  The sun broke the horizon and I quickly started shooting.  After about 15 minutes I looked to my left and right to see that I had been joined by a half dozen other photographers.  We spent about an hour and a half there and headed for breakfast.  On the walk down the hill we told the other late arriving photo bugs that there were no pictures left as we had taken them all.

We went back for breakfast and started the rest of our day down the southwestern leg of he main highway in the park.  We hiked Golden Canyon, drove through Artist's Drive and stopped at Artist's Palette.  It is an amazingly diverse landscape.

Artist's Palette

Our sometime companion, Mr. Shutterbug, popped up on occasion, to point out interesting sights.  He walked in front of us, behind us and hopped along side of us.  He set his own pace.  His enlarged feet felt like my own after a long day.  As they said on ABC's Wide World of Sports, "The thrill of victory and the agony of da feet".

Mr. Shutterbug in Golden Canyon

With particularly low elevations and incredible heat most of the year, references to the devil are a natural.  Devils Cornfield and Devil's Golf Course come to mind.  This latter reference looks like a par 2,384.  There are no greens, no flags, no fairways, no tees, only roughs.  Picture playing 18 holes on a huge field of broken glass, razor blades and fish hooks with large cracks in the ground.  The picture below shows the green on the 13th hole.

Devil's Golf Course 13th Green

The Devils Golf Course is made up of rock hard salt crystals honed to razor sharpness surrounded by hardened mud.  The average height from crevice bottom to pointy crystal top is about 18 inches.

Late that afternoon we ended our day at Badwater, the lowest point in the western hemisphere at -282 feet (below sea level).  At least it was the lowest point until they found a spot at -344 feet in Argentina.  Records made to be broken and all that.

Sue at Badwater Basin

 We then drove back to Furnace Creek for dinner.  We stopped at the Saloon for drinks and I ordered a scotch and soda.  The waitress asked what kind of soda I would like.  My blank look told her I too was confused.  I told her that club soda was the norm.  She then replied that, "We don't normally get these technical drinks."  Ah, to have lived such a sheltered life.  Pizza was our dinner selection and that proved to be a good non-technical choice.

Las Vegas to Death Valley

Our gambling in Vegas consisted of risking our health walking through the smoke filled casino that blocked our path to everywhere.  Our first day was spent figuring out what time it was and wondering why we were in Las Vegas.  The time here is deceiving.  The sun comes up in the morning but due to some official law here, the sun sets around 4:30 p.m. to let people know it is time to gamble.  Not that anyone here needs an excuse.

Sue's Bellagio Fountain Picture

We bought some water at CVS because we found that the two small complimentary bottles that came as a special guest bonus from the hotel, didn't last.  In fact, if you poured a glass, took a sip, set the glass down and looked away, your glass would be empty.  Evaporation here is incredible.  Staying hydrated is a major task.  Unlike Miami where you can take in a pint of water just by taking a deep breath of our moisture laden air, a quick breath here and you feel like you just ate chalk.  The chalk taste is a gentle reminder that this is, after all, a desert.  The fountains and other water extravagances run counter intuitive to that fact.

Bellagio Tree

To put things back in perspective we used our second day to make a trek to Red Rock Canyon.  This BLM (Bureau of Land Management) park is 17 miles from The Strip.  The drive was pleasant and the air was certainly cleaner.  A nice diversion.  We were so tired when we returned we ate at the  Brand steak restaurant in the hotel.  Mistake.  It was the only restaurant that didn't have a menu near the entrance to check their offerings.  We had already eaten at other hotel venues and they were all decent.  Our choices were either a 40 ounce porterhouse to split between two people for $100 or individual 8 oz. filets for $48 a piece.  We chose the smaller offering and were served two "rare" steaks that were much tougher than our dull serrated knives could handle.  Add a single glass of wine and a single side and you are looking at a $170 tab.  Recommendation, stick with the Pub at the Monte Carlo.

We checked out of our "casino with rooms" and headed for Death Valley.  After entering the park we encountered two Wyle E. Coyotes out for a stroll.  They stuck around and posed for pictures.  When I got out of the car they came within ten feet.  They may have been looking for handouts as I hadn't seen any "meep meep" roadrunners.

Wyle E. Coyote

Eventually we got to our room at the Furnace Creek Ranch.  The rooms were nice, especially by National Park standards.  Indoor plumbing and high speed wi-fi.  Our room overlooks the 9 hole golf course billed as the lowest course in the western hemisphere.

We were up the next morning at the crack of 10:00 a.m.  We ventured south and visited Zabriski Point, the 20 Mule Team trail and went up to Dante's View.  Since two of these locations required a little hiking, uphill, this completed our day.  My knees are now 69 years, two months and eight days old.  They are in need of an oil change.

Zabriskie point is billed as a sunrise location but, with the winter sun's low angle, images get some shadow casting throughout the day.  We got to see Zabriskie Point before it closes for construction on December 1st.  It will remain closed through spring of next year.

Zabriskie Point

Dante's View was a massive overlook to the salt flats and Panamint Mountain Range.  Certainly, Death Valley NP has changed my view of what Death Valley was supposed to be.  My knowledge of DV was, heretofore based on the 50's TV show, Death Valley Days starring the Old Ranger.  If you remember this show, you are old.  It was on for over twenty years and had several "Old Rangers", including Dale Robertson and Ronald Reagan.

What I expected was lots of dirt.  Ugly dirt.  The kind of dirt that comes through in a black and white western.  What I got was beautiful dirt.  A kaleidoscope of dirt mounded, sculpted stretched, cracked and shoved into a beautiful landscape.

 

Dante's View

We watched the sunset at Dante's View and headed back to our hotel for dinner.  We turned into the parking lot and saw that there was a motorcycle convention in the driveway, all awaiting their turn at eating in the limited space restaurant and pub.  Dinner will now be beef jerky, apples, red wine and York Peppermint Patties.  Tomorrow is another day.

We Are in Las Vegas

The big day arrived and we cranked up our electronics to start our trip.  I whipped out my new Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and clicked on my new Uber app.  I asked it to take us to the airport and it quickly told me that my driver was now on US1 in Pinecrest and could be at my house in 15 min.  We checked the local traffic and saw that he/we might have a problem explained in the picture below.

Traffic Accident on Our Airport Route

I saw our driver's car on the map and the picture of the driver.  It told us he would be driving a Toyota Sienna.  A few seconds later I received a call from our driver confirming that he was on his way.  Fifteen minutes later I saw his car on the Uber map making the turn on to our street.  We loaded up and were on our merry way to the airport.  Thankfully, the accident had been cleared when we got there as we saw the continuing investigation in a nearby parking lot.

For those of you who may have taken a cab in Miami, you know that your transportation will, 8 times out of 10, involve a vehicle that smells of cigarette smoke and was last cleaned when the driver last bathed.  Both the driver and the vehicle time their cleanup with solar eclipses.  Full, not partial.  Those other two times, the cab just doesn't show.

We flew out of Miami's newly updated terminal D and into the time warp which is the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport.  DFW looks like the terminal that Miami tore down.  A quick look around at DFW let us know we weren't in Miami anymore.

The continuing flight to Vegas was uneventful.   The Thrifty Rental was another matter.  Hertz owns Thrifty, Dollar and Firefly along with its parent name.  All of the counters were empty, save Thrifty, where 4 agents were trying to handle a long snaking line.  A 35 min. wait got me to a nice woman who booked me into our SUV.  She popped up a screen with 5 standard size SUV's to choose from.  I had researched the Jeep Cherokee that was given as the only example of my chosen car class.  She told me that that unit type hadn't been available for 5 or 6 months as they had all been recalled.  I chose another model on her recommendation.  She then directed me to the escalator I would take with all of my luggage to pick up my car.  She told me to see any of the agents in yellow vests.

We took the escalator down with our luggage.  As I approached the counter where a guy in a yellow vest resided, an employee (?) in torn jeans and dreadlocks asked for my rental ticket.  I guess his yellow vest was at the cleaners.  I got an acknowledgement from the yellow vested guy in the booth, so I followed Mr. Dreadlocks.  He looked at my rental agreement and told me to take my pick of any vehicle in the row in front of me.  The problem was that they were all compacts and sub-compacts.

When I informed him that my agreement was for a standard size SUV, he said, "We ain't got none".  "Well, maybe that one", as he pointed to a small Nissan SUV parked off in the distance.  It's either that one or you can go back inside and see the agent.  At this point, the hustle began.  Another guy, in a yellow vest approached with the line that he could take care of me if I took care of him.  I nodded agreement and he disappeared and returned with a large red Chevrolet Traverse SUV.  I slipped him a ten and we parted ways.  Welcome to Las Vegas.

Our Vacation Begins

Well, the weather in Miami is now finally gorgeous.  Our temperature highs are in the low 80's with clear skies.  It must be time to get out of town and see something different.  It doesn't seem logical but here we go again.  We have spent the last several months working on various home improvement projects.  We installed a new roof and new rain gutters.  We covered the last remnants of backyard grass with slabs of Florida keystone (coral rock slabs).  We have a new kitchen window due to be installed when we return home and will then be preparing for the January demolition of our current kitchen.  We need to get out of town.

Florida Snow (white sand)

When we were young, our vacation thoughts were of Disneyworld and driving a Mustang convertible down the California coast highway.  Now that we are older our vacation thoughts are more along the lines of Death Valley.

Yes, this trip will take us first to Las Vegas, sort of Disneyworld for adults.  Then on to Red Rock Canyon, Death Valley National Park, Valley of Fire State Park and the Grand Canyon.  We will end our trip in Prescott, Arizona for a family visit with Sue's brother Don and his wife Karen.  This blog will attempt to cover our exploits along the way.

We are now in the final week of preparation for our journey.  If you wanted to buy anything vacation or trip related from Amazon, you are too late.  They are sold out...., we bought it all.  We will now try to cram all 15 cubic feet of the new "must-have-on-vacation-stuff", into two medium and two small suitcases.

Sue's suitcase has clothing and toiletries.  My suitcase has a still camera, assorted lenses, a video camera and assorted attachments, a tripod, USB chargers, battery chargers, extension cords, a laptop, and 1,638 assorted cables to attach stuff together.  As I have no room for clothing I will be wearing everything on the plane.  I will be the one trying to get through the airport security looking like the Pillsbury Dough-boy in a trench coat.

Jack's Suitcase Almost Packed

It will be the beginning of winter and we expect temperatures well below our usual limit of 65 degrees.  Frigid by Florida standards.  Gloves and long-johns will be needed.  We leave in 5 days.  We will keep you posted right here.

Last minute 11/18 update--pre-trip:

Olivier Reyaz Jules

We opted for the no-stress vacation and began planning well in advance but, we didn't count on Olivier Reyaz Jules (pictured above).  Yes, you see, Mr. Jules decided that he would open up a savings account in his name and mine and make himself a partner in my bank account.  He would then transfer money from my checking account into "our" new savings account.  He did this with a phone.  Unlike me, trying to straighten out his mess, who had to show a picture ID, answer personal questions, appear in person and luckily have a former neighbor and bank VP to vouch for me.  Mr. Jules then walked into a branch bank in Margate, Florida, and got a temporary debit card to access his new found wealth.  He then tested the card for $100 and then $800, and then $800 and then $800.  The bank now realized that this might be considered "unusual" and froze my entire bank account.  All of this less than 24 hours before I am scheduled to leave on my relaxing vacation.  Since I had already placed a "FLAG" on my account to not allow anyone to make any changes to my account without notification, the bank felt a little guilty.  A mere 4 hours spent with a teller and bank manager and assorted on-lookers and all is almost right with the world.  I now have another FLAG on my account, just like the original to restrict access.  I understand when I get four more flags they give you a free toaster.

More from the road, later.