Alaskans, a Crater, and a Desert Castle

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Our plan for today was to do a morning hike into Mosaic Canyon. We left Stovepipe Wells Campground and drove a short distance up a dusty gravel road to the trail head. Mosaic Canyon is narrow for the first quarter mile and then opens up into a broad canyon. The geology was particularly interesting and Greg enjoyed seeing it, and I enjoyed his descriptions of the marble, conglomerate, and limestone canyon walls. I was wearing my Bar Harbor, Maine tee shirt and we were stopped by a couple who asked if we were from Maine. They had Alaska caps, and it turned out that he retired from Alaska Fish and Wildlife and lives in a remote cabin. The wife returned to Maine and their children and grandchildren are there, too. They meet each other and vacation together. They were very interesting and fun to talk with. It is always fun for us to share Alaska experiences! We also met some middle-aged male Japanese tourists who asked in broken English how much farther the trail went. Then we came upon their friend who wanted to know if we had seen them. When they reunited one said to the others,“Wass'up!!”. Huh?? I guess hip-hop really is an international language!

After our hike we drove much farther north in to the park to the Ubehebe Crater. It is a 600-foot deep volcanic crater that erupted when new magma superheated groundwater to cause a huge steam explosion 2,000 years ago. The area around it is black and the interior is black and orange. There is a trail going down into it and one that climbs up around the rim. While I fixed lunch in the RV, Greg saw a young man being dragged up out of the crater. I guess he overestimated his ability to climb out again. Going down the trail was easy! After lunch we chose to hike up around part of the rim, so going back down to the parking lot would be easy! I stopped and had a rest while Greg continued on along the two foot wide rim. I wasn't going to risk a tumble in the crater!

Close by to where we were in the park was Scotty's Castle. We drove over to walk around the grounds. We decided not to purchase a tour of the inside. It was built by a wealthy man and his wife in the 1930's. They had been lured to the area by Scotty, who was trying to get them to invest in a fraudulent mine. They were fascinated by Death Valley and thought Scotty was a character, and built a grand mansion in the desert. The park service owns it now and gives tours with guides in 1930's costumes. Building it really was an amazing feat given the remoteness and the climate. They generated their own power with water turbines and passive solar heated their water. As we were leaving we ran into Dennis and Vicki who we met the night before. They were heading to the same campground for the night, Mesquite Spring. We arrived before them and picked a spot overlooking the dry canyon behind the campground. We like this campground the best. Texas Spring had a view of the valley, but this has nice spread out sites situated amongst the desert rocks and plants. It is a small campground and not full.

While I made dinner and Greg sat outside enjoying the sunset, Dennis came over with a book he had bought on Death Valley geology. Greg had sparked an interest the night before. I enjoyed hearing snippets of conversation as Greg shared his knowledge and love of geology with Dennis. After dinner and after dark, we walked around the campground loop road and looked at the campfires and the stars. The crescent moon was so bright that with the dark skies, it illuminated part of the sky and obliterated those stars. Again it was a Battlestar night and an early bedtime!