Watching the Moon Rise over the Funeral Mountains (Death Valley Catch Up)

Visiting Ubehebe Crater, Historic Stovepipe Well and Salt Creek Interpretive Trail

(Clicking on the pictures will open them larger in a new window.)

Monday, November 11, 2019

Today was planned as a stay at home day and that is exactly what it was.

The sun coming up.

The sun going down.

I was using my zoom lens.
The light touching the Funeral Mountains

in the east as it set behind us in the west.

Then we could see the light of the moon coming up over

the mountains.

It was a good day just relaxing and enjoying the day. Some of our time was spent sitting out side enjoying the quietness of the place we were parked at.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

 Today's original plan was to take a ride out to the Racetrack Valley but we got a late start and when we got to the beginning of the road we decided not today. We would get up earlier on Thursday and try again. It is a road listed as 29 miles of graded dirt road for high clearance vehicles with all terrain tires. No problem taking the jeep down the road but it will mostly be slow and we do not want to get caught out there after dark.

Below is the ride on CA-190 and Scotty's Castle Road. Not exactly sure where the change take places.

I am pretty sure we are now on Scotty's Castle Road.

 

 At this point the road is closed to Scotty's Castle. More information about that below. We turned left and are headed towards the Ubehebe Crater.

This is the Ubehebe Crater.

So this is our thought, it is a hole in the ground. Yes, it was caused by a violent volcanic explosion and measures nearly a half mile across and is 600 feet deep. Oxidizing ores give orange tints to the dark volcanic ash of the crater's eastern walls. A half mile south is the Little Hebe which is about 1,000 years old. Plus there is a trail allowing you to walk around the rim. We made the decision that we did not need to see another hole in the ground and we did not need to see it from different angles. So after watching the large black bird below have fun floating on wind currents and land we headed back towards the Sunset Campground.
 

This is were the road is blocked off.

This is the reason why.

This is what happened to Scotty's Castle.

 

We are now heading back south through Death Valley.

 

We could see the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in the distance.

This is an old, rusted, hand-operated pump that marks the location of a water hole important to all pre-automotive travelers in the valley. Old stovepipes were pounded into the sand to form walls for the well.

Historic Stovepipe Well.

Sea Level
We saw  signs telling us what our elevation was quite often.

Salt Creek
Home of the inch long Pupfish.

The sign says it is a half mile round trip on the
boardwalk which made it an easy walk.

We did see tiny fish swimming in the clear water and
I choose to believe they were Pupfish.

Walking along several of these little guys scurried by. 
This one stopped long enough to pose for a picture.

Heading back to 190.

Looking down Death Valley

Back home enjoying Happy Hour

and the view off to the Northeast of us.

So glad you stopped by!

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.