My friends and I were there for the adventure of descending Coffin Canyon. My dad was there to enjoy the bluegrass music of The Death Valley '49ers 59th Annual Encampment. As luck would have it, we were very fortunate my dad was there as access to the trail head required a high clearance 4WD vehicle. Of which, we only had one. This also worked out nicely for my dad. After dropping us off at the trail head he was able to explore some nearby abandon mines that also required a high clearance 4WD vehicle.
Our trek down to Death Valley ended up being in three cars arriving at approximately 6PM, 1AM and 4:08AM. Dave, Amanda, Lauren and I left Palo Alto around 8AM and enjoyed a lovely drive which included the ceremonious passing of the 100,000 mile mark on Dave's 4Runner somewhere along Hwy 395.
We arrived at Furnace Creek just after dark and cruised the streets of RV-ville looking for my dad's mini-van. We found the mini-van but not my dad so we left a note and listened to an accordion player/yodeler for a bit before heading up towards the trail head to make camp. After setting up camp and devouring the tasty leftovers of Lauren's Save Mart whole roast chicken, we had ourselves a little private dance party at club Death Valley high desert, complete with authentic star filled sky and strobe headlamps. A quick star show by Dave and his laser capped off our evening.
Rich, Laura and Adam arrived as expected at 1AM after some guidance over the two-way radio as we watched their headlights race past the dirt road turnoff across the valley. Never to be deterred, Kambria, with last minute recruit and hero relief driver Justin, casually cruised into camp at 4:08AM for a quick nap before our 5:30 wake up call.
3 comments:
My Dad had an obsession with Death Valley also. He used to take a trip there every week for his birthday in June. He also used to take us in the summer...yeah, 120° weather in a van with no air conditioning hiking the sand dunes. We often stayed at Stove Pipe Wells with the the beetles and tarantulas and scorpions.
That was a fantastic trip! Thanks for being part of the fun memories.. may there be many more to come. By the way, you need to teach me how to use a camera. The pictures on this blog are amazing!
You are always going on fun adventures, good for you, that sounded awesome. Radley says hello, he can almost say hello now, it just mostly sounds like 'O' with a small h sound at the beginning. :)
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