Death Valley

Part of the Casita Club is taking a little trip to Death Valley in February 2015. They will be staying at Furnace Creek Resort for 3 nights, boon docking (camping without hookups, which we do most of the time anyway) at Fiddlers Campground. We will stay 6 nights at the same location and see everything we want to see. Normally we would stay in a Nat’l Park campsite but this is where the group is staying. I suppose they chose this because it has more amenities. We haven’t been to Death Valley before believe it or not! The lowest, driest, and hottest area in North America. Not a very sought after vacation location most of the year as you can imagine! Of course winter is the only time we would go and the days will supposedly still be warm! Looking forward to our next Road Trip!

Information From the Nat’l Park Service

Weather and Climate:  Death Valley is famous as the hottest place on earth and driest place in North America. The world record highest air temperature of 134°F (57°C) was recorded at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913. Summer temperatures often top 120°F (49°C) in the shade with overnight lows dipping into the 90s°F (mid-30s°C.) Average rainfall is less than 2 inches (5 cm), a fraction of what most deserts receive. Occasional thunderstorms, especially in late summer, can cause flash floods.

In contrast to the extremes of summertime, winter and spring are very pleasant. Winter daytime temperatures are mild in the low elevations, with cool nights that only occasionally reach freezing. Higher elevations are cooler than the low valley. Temperatures drop 3 to 5°F (2 to 3°C) with every thousand vertical feet (approx. 300m). Sunny skies are the norm in Death Valley, but winter storms and summer monsoons can bring cloud cover and rain. Wind is common in the desert, especially in the spring. Dust storms can suddenly blow up with approaching cold fronts.

Why is Death Valley's weather so extreme?

Why so Dry? Winter storms moving inland from the Pacific Ocean must pass over mountain ranges to continue east. As the clouds rise up they cool and the moisture condenses to fall as rain or snow on the western side of the ranges. By the time the clouds reach the mountain's east side they no longer have as much available moisture, creating a dry "rainshadow". Four major mountain ranges lie between Death Valley and the ocean, each one adding to an increasingly drier rainshadow effect.

Why so Hot? The depth and shape of Death Valley influence its summer temperatures. The valley is a long, narrow basin 282 feet (86 m) below sea level, yet is walled by high, steep mountain ranges. The clear, dry air and sparse plant cover allow sunlight to heat the desert surface. Heat radiates back from the rocks and soil, then becomes trapped in the valley's depths. Summer nights provide little relief as overnight lows may only dip into the 85°F to 95°F (30°C to 35°C) range. Heated air rises, yet is trapped by the high valley walls, is cooled and recycled back down to the valley floor. These pockets of descending air are only slightly cooler than the surrounding hot air. As they descend, they are compressed and heated even more by the low elevation air pressure. These moving masses of super heated air blow through the valley creating extreme high temperatures.

How extreme is Death Valley's climate?

Record Temperatures: The hottest air temperature ever recorded in Death Valley (Furnace Creek) was 134°F (57°C) on July 10, 1913. During the heat wave that peaked with that record, five consecutive days reached 129° F (54°C) or above. Death Valley holds the record for the hottest place on earth.
Oddly enough, 1913 was also the year that saw Death Valley's coldest temperature. On January 8, the temperature dropped to 15°F (-10°C) at Furnace Creek.

Longest summers: The greatest number of consecutive days with a maximum temperature of 100° F or above was 154 days in the summer of 2001. The summer of 1996 had 40 days over 120° F, and 105 days over 110° F. The summer of 1917 had 43 consecutive days with a high temperature of 120° F or above.

Highest ground temperatures: The highest ground temperature recorded was 201° F at Furnace Creek on July 15, 1972. The maximum air temperature for that day was 128° F.

Dry as a bone: No rain was recorded in the years of 1929 and 1953. The driest stretch on record was only 0.64 inches (1.6cm) of rain over a 40-month period in 1931 to 1934.

Weather data was compiled from park and National Weather Service record summaries for the years 1911 through 2007 for Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California.

What If?

Random thoughts…What if we just got rid of all the “stuff” from life, stored things we want to keep for a future living arrangement and just hit the road?  Of course I mean in our Casita 17" Liberty Deluxe. We know we want to downsize and move out of our house and use it as a rental. One thing, it would give us the opportunity to SEE the many things we have talked about going to for years.  I guess if we didn’t like it our things could come out of storage and we would be renting a nice little 2-bedroom place like we have been talking about. Seriously thinking about this since most of the places we want to live seem pretty costly on our retirement income!

Mono Springs Campground

Aug 19: The trip up was a bit more challenging than we thought it would be. I am personally relieved that the kids are not coming up after all. While there was an admonishment that the road could not take vehicles over 35 feet in length, I didn’t read anything about it being a one lane road that in several places you come to a peak and cannot see what is next. It is “paved” in the loose sense of the word. The sheer drop offs, blind curves, loose gravel, hairpin turns, rough road, potholes, huge bumps in the road all lead to the ambiance of the adventure I suppose. The trip took more than 3 hours. The last 1+ hour was the 16-18 mile portion to reach Mono Creek Campground. We turned off right by Huntington Lake then took Kaiser Pass Road, the only way up unless you have a helicopter I guess! I’m not sure Steven would want to subject his car to this abuse and I fear Sierra would have been pretty nervous to drive this…I know I was in places!!!

Mono Hot Springs

This campground is 2-3 miles from the Mono Hot Springs Campground.  It is really very nice here. The sites are very spacious. It’s the first campground I have been to in years where they actually raked the site for your upcoming arrival. There are 16 sites in this campground. We found out from the ranger that happened by why there is no water here. They put in part of the water system and then ran out of money, so it sits half done needing a water tank for completion. There are no handles on the faucets and there are signs notating no water. We knew this ahead of time and brought a case of water along with our 10 gallon container just in case. In addition it was posted down lower that no campfires were allowed, but this particular campground says they are allowed.

We are a slight bit confused about the sirens we have seen notating move to higher ground if these go off because it means the dam is not stable. We thought we were above the dam but we will need a little side trip to check this out. There is only one other occupant here that we met on our evening walk, though there are reservation tags on posts for the holiday weekend. This father son team comes up here every year from Southern CA. They said it is a 7 hour trip for them. They like the seclusion and stay a week. They had fishing poles so I asked them about the fishing. They catch rainbow trout and an occasional brown by the dam where the water ponds. They said the area is stocked, we also walked down to that day use area and took a look, saw fish jumping too! It is so quiet and beautiful.

All you can really hear is the wind high in the trees, chirping of the birds, and sassing of the squirrels. Since the only other camper is quite a distance from us we even let Tony off his leash to chase squirrels, he is just having a wonder time, amusing to watch! Along with this peacefulness there is absolutely no phone service, which for me means no internet service either. This blog will be posted when we are home. After setting up camp we played cards until the sun went  down. It cooled off considerably but we were never cold in the night and we had no need to turn on the heater. Sadly, John left the adapter plug to 110 at home. We cannot hook up to our generator to recharge so our trip might be cut short. We will do our best to conserve. Tomorrow when we go to the Hot Springs there is a general store, we hope they will have one. They don’t get many trailers up here but we are hopeful.

Tony Chasing Squirrels

Sunset

Aug 20: After breakfast we headed back down to Mono Hot Springs to check at the general store for an adapter and use the bathhouse. They don’t have an adapter and they called up to Vermilion to check as well and they don’t have one there either.  When asked about their delivery schedule the nice clerk said they get deliveries daily “from his dad from Huntington Lake.” So good deal, he will have his dad bring an adapter tomorrow and we will pick it up when we come back down tomorrow. Now on to the bathhouse. The general store, bathhouse and restaurant are all in the same area. There are many cabins for rent and the Mono Springs campground is right in this area as well.

The bathhouse was open but vacant, we called out, no one answered so we waited a little while. Finally John went back to the general store to find out the scoop. Seems today the person running the bath house if off and the restaurant is also closed today! The same general store clerk took our coupons and gave us vouches for the bathhouse and restaurant. The vouchers can be used in the general store as well as the restaurant. The restaurant is only open for dinner now that “the season is over” so we plan on dinner tomorrow at 5:30pm when they open. Of course I could have known all of this IF I had called ahead but it is fine.  The bathhouse has a restroom each for men and women and two claw tub baths on the one side, on the other side there are two stone bathtubs, two more modern tubs and a shower. On the far end is a small massage room and outside is a small hot tub with mineral water in it. We opted to start in the outside tub. We had the place to ourselves for the entire afternoon. John walked over to the general store and got us a sandwich around lunch time. After the outside hot tub we went in and filled the claw foot tubs and relaxed in there for awhile. Of course the hot tub would have some chemicals like a swimming pool but the tub water comes directly from the hot spring. As we were leaving one tub room on the other side had the door closed and water was running so I assume someone was there to enjoy the water as well. We took a quick drive around the campground to check it out. Some nice sites that were along the river if the water were not so low. We could see the river but to get to it from the campsites you would need to climb over boulders.

On our trip back there was a helicopter perched up by the dam. We have come to the conclusion they must check each dam daily since we periodically hear helicopters going by. After talking to the store clerk we realized there are several dams, even this small one on this Mono Creek. Each dam produces electricity. The sirens are mainly for the Edison Dam but he said the water is so low right now that even if the dam broke there would be no danger in flooding at this point.

We had left Tony in the trailer, in his kennel and he was sleeping when we got back. We decided he would be more comfortable there than waiting in the car as there weren’t any shady places to park. After his big day of adventure yesterday he needed the rest.  We spent the rest of the afternoon resting and playing cards. We had a salad and chili for our meal and drifted inside after sunset and the air cooled. We watched a DVD of NCIS and drifted off to sleep after that. Once again, it was not cool enough to use the heater. It is very quiet up here…for me I am getting a bit antsy and need to “do” something. John thinks it is a good idea to drive up to Vermilion tomorrow, which will also take us by Edison Lake/Dam. Ranger Austin who came by this morning said the road is “better” as we head up that direction, we’ll pack a lunch and see what “better” means. We have to be careful with our gas since no gas is available up here. The closest gas is back at Huntington Lake.

Aug 21: Happy Birthday to John! He is having a great time relaxing and the quiet suits him. I think if I had my laptop and I could work on albums or something I would be fine. I enjoy reading but my eyes get tired  and I get sleepy after awhile. We have enjoyed playing cards. After John ate breakfast and we were all set I packed a lunch and we headed out toward Vermilion. We anticipated a longer drive and in just 10-15 minutes we came upon Edison Dam and the turn off for Vermilion, now we are on a mostly gravel road. We went toward Vermilion first and stopped at the Edison boat ramp. It is sad to see how non-existent the lake is! There are dirt roads leading to where you can eventually get to the lake and put in your boat if possible.

Boat Ramp, small portion of lake to the far right.

They also call Vermilion a “resort” and there is less here than at Mono Hot Springs. There are four tent cabins for rent that we could see, there could be more. These would be facing the Edison Lake if it was there. We didn’t go in to the store or café but went on to Vermilion campground just minutes away. No one is in the campground except the camp host, which was no where around. There are 30 sites I believe, some were lakeside (again IF there was a lake) and there were also a few reserved sites. We ate our lunch there while Tony roamed around. It is lovely and peaceful and would be an ideal spot if there was any water. One wonders how it will ever refill when you see how low it is. We knew it would be low but we had no idea it was this bad.

Random Campsite at Vermilion

As we left we went to the overview on the other side of the dam and took a few more photos. The Spillway:

Along they way we drove down to the hydroelectric generator area where the water is still coming out with some force. It must be quite amazing when the water is high.

We drove back to camp and relaxed all afternoon then headed down to Mono Hot Springs for our dinner and to pick up the adapter. Thankfully they were able to get the adapter and we could recharge everything. We were still fine on power but John’s tablet he uses as an e-reader only had 14% left!  We used our coupons all at once for a pretty good New York Steak dinner on the patio area of the Mono Lake Café. The weather was perfect the people friendly at the two tables next to us. We sang Happy Birthday to John over peach pie with a huge slab of vanilla ice cream on top!

Café

Salad Bar

New York Steak, Cheesy Potatoes, Corn, Garlic Bread

Happy Birthday to John!

As we headed back to camp we took a side road, which brought us to the top of the dam on Mono Creek, opposite of the area where we walked the first night here. The van has done great, this may be our last trip in it. Bouncing along these roads I think of the many trips we have take in this van, the first being right after we bought it. We drove with three kids and a tent trailer across the USA to go to a LIMIAR Reunion. We visited 29 states and went around 10K miles on that trip. This van has given us faithful service. Back to camp, we are stuffed and have enough food for another meal tomorrow. Tonight we played cards until it was getting so dark it was hard to distinguish red from black!

Aug 22: R&R all day, reading, cards, a walk…stayed in campground.

Aug 23: So today we are heading out to the river to park by the bridge and walk on the “easy path” to the spring water. We were both under the impression that there were pools in the river that were warm but that was not the case. There were a couple of concrete/wood tubs along the trail. We didn’t realize that until we hiked along the path, over many smooth steep rocks, and got down to the river. The water there was freezing! So back over the steep rocks to one of the two tubs along the path. Let me tell you about the path, it was a mud hole really, we both went mid calf more than once and I nearly lost a shoe in the muck. There is grass along side of the trail but that is misleading as well because it is a huge bog and very wet. Anyway, we finally made out way to Old Pedro, the hottest of the hot tubs and submerged. This was probably a mistake because right away we both felt a bit overwhelmed and dizzy. I wanted to get out and when I asked John for help he was almost unresponsive. I forced him out and he drank water. We both felt zapped but he was dizzy. We sat for quite a while and then faced the path back. We were very happy to see our vehicle when we got back. We washed off as much as possible with our big container of water and headed back to camp. I felt really bad that John wasn’t feeling well, some special birthday trip this was! However, after we were back at camp and rested up a bit he was feeling fine. It was an exhausting day but we still enjoyed it. I hope I don’t dream about Kaiser Pass Road and the trip back home tonight!!!

The other hot tub, not Old Pedro

Wild Flowers and the South Fork of the San Joaquin River

Aug 24: Our trip home was uneventful, really thanking GOD for that considering the road. Once we were down to Huntington we got phone service again and found out about the earthquake this morning in Napa. So relived to hear my Mom is okay. My sister is there with her along with a friend of hers. We think we may be going to Napa by Tuesday to bring Mom here until we are sure her house is safe. She has electric power at the moment and also cable, which means she has TV. However, she has no gas (no hot water) and no drinking water. A neighbor fixed hoses to his undamaged water meter so they have some water but it is not safe to drink. With wide spread damage who knows when PGE or the water company will make it out to check. Many things got broken, tables and a dresser were knocked over, but my Mom is fine and that is the most important part.  We are happy to be home and thankful of course. 

June 30-Home Again!

We got an early start out of Whiskey Pete’s, even at that it was in the mid 80’s by 8am. We are thankful our trip home was uneventful and we decided we probably won’t make in more cross country driving trips unless we have a lot of stops along the way. Driving everyday is not fun. We are blessed to be home even if we face a lot of yard work, unpacking, getting our trailer back in pristine condition, and generally playing catch-up on everything! Thank you LORD that we are home safe and sound.

Good-Bye Whiskey Pete’s

CA Desert

Almost Home! Orange Trees on Clovis Avenue

Almost Home! Grape Vines on Clovis Avenue

June 29-Primm, Nevada

Everything went along fine today other than the heat. I believe the highest registration of heat was 111 degrees on our thermometer. If it was hotter I didn’t see it. Our van did fine with no overheating at all. We are so thankful the guys at Big O in Evergreen, CO did an excellent job for us. We enjoyed a lot of conversation today about our lovely trip and future plans. We got to Las Vegas by early afternoon with the help of PDST (turning the time back another hour) and figured we could optimistically plan for a Barstow, CA stop tonight. However, as soon as we were on the S/W side of Vegas things changed radically. It took us approximately 2 hours to travel the additional 12 miles to Primm, NV where we planned to get fuel. About 1,000 other people decided to get fuel here as well so it was quite an experience. We learned from others that this is typical traffic back into CA on a Sunday afternoon. Unbelievable! It took us close to an hour to get fuel, then sizing up the circumstances we figured it would be at least an hour to make it back onto the freeway. There were lanes merging from multiple sources in the parking lot to the one little on ramp going our direction. We checked on RV parking, there was none, well none with hookups anyway. We could have parked in a parking lot behind a casino and baked in our trailer in the now 109 temperature. The a/c doesn’t work without at least a 30 amp plug in. We surmised that a night at Whiskey Pete's Casino and Resort might be the ticket. We called the hotel section while waiting in the on ramp line and YES they have a vacancy, and YES for a mere $20 extra we can even bring our little furry friend! YAY! We were quite relieved, well, until we go TO the room.  I don’t think I am really picky but having an empty beer bottle on the nightstand and a rumpled bed makes me think it is not really the room for us. John went to talk to the front desk while I fed Tony, and also discovered the sink doesn’t drain in the bathroom. We moved rooms walking through the casino laden with smoke, walking our dog, past a car I later found out was the automobile Bonnie and Clyde were killed in (eeewww) and secured a much nicer room. We can see the traffic from our window, it is still crawling along. Our trailer is parked right outside as well. We will make a real effort to get home tomorrow.

In case you wondered, our room does NOT look like this:

Tomorrow, LORD willing…

June 28-Richfield, Utah

Colorado is a lovely state, in a few ways it reminds me of California because of the diversity. There are farms and crops, yet mountains and evergreens, then the mesas and desert areas, just missing the ocean like California has! No traveling issues to day other than the place we paid over $5. per gallon for gas. Passing through Colorado we were up to 11K feet at one point, so lush, green and lovely. Into Utah it is so dry and different but has so many lovely things to see as well. We are bypassing all but the few overlooks and interesting sites on Hwy 70. The geology is fascinating. We are in a “hard to find” KOA tonight, but we found it! Nice little oasis in this “desert” area.

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado

Colorado

Utah, San Rafael Reef

Utah, Black Dragon Canyon

 

 

 

June 27-Evergreen, Colorado

We didn’t make our tentative schedule today. No sooner did we pass by Denver when we began to overheat. We stopped, cooled off, began again with the same results. Three more stops to cool off before we were able to limp into Big O in Evergreen. We did try AAA first and they were willing to tow us of course but it was less than 2 miles, we had cooled down so we felt we could make it. We used our phones to “Google” and call around and found out Big O did replace thermostats. We only drove around 160 miles today but it was pretty stressful. At one of our stops a nice young man and his girlfriend (and dog) stopped to see if we needed help. He agreed with our assumption that it was probably the thermostat. He really couldn’t help but it was sweet of him to stop and I told him so. He grinned and said he saw the Casita and knew he had to stop because his mom has a Casita. At another stop the Colorado Patrol stopped. They were very nice but of course they couldn’t really help either. They left a number and card with us that we could call if we couldn’t make it to the Big O. I did let them know later that we made it and we were fine. Each stop, except the one where the young man stopped, we were well off the road and safe. We were on a back road and safe enough when the young man stopped. There ARE still nice people in the world!  Big O was a delight for us. They were so nice, friendly, helped up unhook, found a place to park the trailer in their lot and invited us to spend the night. Yes, diagnostics showed the radiator cap is faulty and the thermostat is not working. Before the guy who help us left for the night he came to check on us to see if we needed anything. We can definitely state the people at Big O in Evergreen, Colorado are a friendly bunch of people. We will be writing to their corporate office to complement them when we get home.

The Culprit: A thermostat, without a good one you don’t get far!

June 26-Sterling, Colorado

We had some rain in the night but when we awoke it was sunny and warm. We had a simple day driving mostly on I-80 until we got to a cut off of Hwy 76 and slipped into Colorado. It is still a decent freeway and the miles ticked away. It was 80 degrees by the time we left Lincoln, NE. The highest temp of the day on the road was 90. A/C in the car and in the Casita, we are comfortable anyway. Thunder storm warnings here until 9pm CMT but I assume we are safe and sound where we are. This seems like a rather poor area here at Buffalo Bill’s trailer park where people are living in travel sized RVs. A few very small spaces are set aside for overnighters. 

The Archway

Pony Express Memorial at Julesville, CO visitor center

Inching our way home!

June 25-Lincoln, Nebraska

I am feeling much more positive tonight than I did last night. My brilliant husband got us a nice shady spot with trees, running water, electrical hookups, all the comforts of home and I am feeling MUCH happier tonight. I guess he was tired of hearing me whine last night! It was very hot and uncomfortable with with the high humidity last night. We never really used our A/C unit before but we found it works very well. We are quite comfortable. We traveled about 300 miles today but it was good weather even if it was warm with a lot of road work. A lovely day. I still feel it is MUCH more fun to stop, explore, and see what there is to see along the way, but our goal is to get home now.

Omaha, Nebraska

Camp A Way campsite

Tony always cheers me up! He is the outlook for a fluttering leaf or insect! John’s pillow is his favorite spot!

Home…24 driving hours (we always take longer) 1,632 miles

June 24-Davenport, Iowa

We woke to rain in South Haven, MI and figured if we were waiting for the rain to stop we might be there all day so we headed out. We had rain off and on, not really too hard, through most of Michigan and part of Indiana. Moving along toward the Mississippi River the clouds gave way to the sun and the humidity rose accordingly. Tonight we are parked at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Davenport, Iowa. It is 86 degrees, but the good news is, it is supposed to drop to 64 during the night. We can hope that is the case. In retrospect, Michigan was just too far to go in the length of time we had. There are so many things we would love to stop and see but we are just driving now to get back home. Driving and not exploring isn’t much fun. We shall have better planning if we come this way again. At least we made our goal of all 50 states.

Weird “selfie” – I was trying to show how frizzy my hair is in the humidity. How do people do those pictures of themselves?

Cracker Barrel Tonight

The best I could get of an Iowa Sunset