Ubehebe Crater, Scotty's Castle, Stovepipe Wells, Mesquite Dunes: Points North of Furnace Creek

This morning we packed a lunch, some snackies (human and dog) and lots of water and headed north from our camp site at Furnace Creek. Death Valley is defined by mountain ranges alternating with valley basins. Active fault lines trend north to south along the western and eastern mountain ranges of the Park. One side rises, as the other side falls, and in spite of the erosion washing into the basin, it continues to drop below sea level. We saw mountains on both sides of us as we drove north. This got Lindy really excited as she watched the strata in the mountains change from diagonal lines to straight up and down!  She snapped way too many pictures! Here are a few that show this.

We stopped at Ubehebe Crater, a large volcanic crater from what is called a maar volcano. With the Paws, we did little exploration. We understand in the 1 1/2 mile around the rim of the crater several smaller craters can be seen. If interested, click on the link for Ubehebe Crater.

Click on this picture to make it larger for more information on the Crater

After the crater we drove the last few miles up to Scotty's Castle. The Castle, a Spanish style house, was build in the late 20's, early 30's in Grapevine Canyon, where a natural spring pours out more than 200 gallons of water per minute--making it a true oasis! Albert Johnson with his wife Bessie, were "lured" to Death Valley with the promise of gold by Walter Scott, known in the area as "Death Valley Scottie". He was a con man--yet Albert Johnson "saw through" the con, and became friends with Scotty, and remained Scotty's source of "gold" for the rest of his life. You can judge for yourself--we found this part of Death Valley beautiful! Check this out for a Virtual Tour of the Castle!

Josuha Tree

On our return trip, we stopped at Stovepipe Wells Village, near the "center" of Death Valley. It was early afternoon, and MUCH warmer! There is a campground there--but everything is "out in the sun" with little shade. Very different than Grapevine Canyon where Scotty's Castle is, and very different than Furnace Creek Campground, where there are several loops with sites off each loop. There are trees in Furnace Creek, providing afternoon shade, and as the sun disappears behind the mountains to the west long before actual setting time...

Weather has been good, a little on the chilly side up until today! Next couple of days it will be in the low 80's by afternoon, but in the shade, it will be cool, and when the sun sets, coolness returns, along with the howling of the coyotes! Rupert just lifts his head up and howls back at them!

There is still much to see and do! Later!

Roving Riders