| < Previous | ||
| 03/24/2007 | We slept in until 0730 this morning, had a leisurely breakfast. The weather is warm with a calm breeze blowing. We stopped at the Visitor Center to ask about the birds we saw yesterday, we also inquired about the road to Chloride Cliff. We then headed to the north end of West Side Road to take pictures to compare to the family photos of the early 1970's. We then stopped at the Devils Golf Course and took some video and Nancy decided to hike out to the salt hole. Then off to Golden canyon we went to video tape the entrance. |
 |
| On return to camp we finally saw a Road Runner, he was perched on top of the garbage dumpster, not a very photogenic spot! This curious bird had a good view to the comings and goings of the campground from there. |  |
|
| At 1 o'clock we left camp to go to hole in the wall canyon and some 4x4'ing. The road is only marked by a NPS jeep road sign, we missed it at had to turn back to it. This was a nice ride up the wash, about 3.7 miles to the hole in the wall, a 400 foot natural gap in a large rock wall. This was a class 2 easy drive. We saw several interesting plants ( desert trumpets, lesser Mojave, Turtle Back, and many cacti such as Spiny Chola, Straw Topped Chola, Prickly Pear, and cotton topped barrel cactus). There was much interesting geological features in this canyon with 45 degree layers of rock and such. |  |
|
Heading back towards Furnace Creek we turned off the highway and up Echo Canyon. This road is rocky and VERY soft, much more difficult to drive up. You definitely need 4wd for this road because of the deep soft gravel! Lots of creosote bushes and several types of cactus found along this road. We also saw lots of brittle bush and some white desert tobacco plants. At 4.8 miles from the highway we decided to turn around as this road was getting difficult. At this point above us was the "Eye of the Needle", a rock "window" in the rock. As we sat enjoying the view about 20 guy's on dirt bikes came by and waved at us. At this point we turned around and took is slow for the ride back to the highway. Back at camp the neighbors had tried to go up Echo Canyon also, but since they only had 2wd they almost got stuck and quickly turned around after about a mile. Late that evening we decided to head over to the Furnace Creek Cafe for dinner. There we sat next to two ladies who were school teachers in Bishop, they said they knew LeRoy and Jean Johnson whom we have been corresponding via e-mail with, they said they would tell the Johnson's hello for us! We had a nice dinner and visit. After this it was back to camp for a nice camp file and then early to bed as we planned to leave the next morning at 0500! |
 |
|
| < Previous |