SW Winter Quick Trips - February 2016

[Pmount]

Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Start: Boulder City, NV
Finish: Texas Spring Campground (NPS), Death Valley National Park

This was the coldest morning forecasted for the trip. We ate a quick breakfast and headed back up the hill towards the visitor center to the Historic Railroad Trail. For a number of years we actively participated in volkswalking, ultimately completing a 10 Km walk in all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, Mexico, Canada and England. We are still active with our local club, but have done very few events in the past 5 years. A club from Washington State is sponsoring a special award, NPS Centennial. Over the next 3 years we need to complete 15 sanctioned walks in a NPS site to earn their attractive patch. Knowing we would be visiting many of the NPS sites with walks this year we decided to add this to our travels. For the most part we'll be doing the 5 Km walk option, which is what we did along the trail this morning. It was a gorgeous morning, warming up nicely.


Lake Mead National Recreation Area


We stopped back up the visitor center for me to turn in my completed Junior Ranger guide and receive my attractive patch. The volunteer at the desk gave me a bit of a hard time for being an older Junior Ranger. It turns out he does them as well. We got our NPS passport stamps and then headed into Boulder City to their headquarters for more passport stamps and to register for the volkswalk at the Boulder City Inn. To register for a walk you complete a start card, a log sheet, pay the $3 fee for credit and stamp your record book with the official AVA stamp.

Boulder City is a delightful place to visit, very different from any other Nevada city. It was constructed to support the building of Boulder Dam, now named Hoover Dam. No casinos are allowed within the city limits. The downtown area has charming buildings, great shops and restaurants. I have never stayed at the Boulder Dam Hotel, but it looks like a wonderful place.

One of the passport stamps we used at Lake Mead NRA was for Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, one of the newest units of the NPS. The actual unit is north of Las Vegas, just off US 95. It is an undeveloped site with no facilities, at this time. The fossil beds are rich with ice age fossils and in an area that is surrounded by new housing, rapidly encroaching. We drove out to the unit and walked out into the beds. It will be interesting to come back over time to see the development of this site. For now I am very glad the land has been preserved for future visitation and interpretation.


Tule Springs Fossils Beds NM sign and 'formal' entrance




After we left there we continued north a short distance on US 95 to spend time at the new Desert National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. Oops, we forgot to check their schedule - they are currently closed on Tuesday & Wednesday. We'll come back to spend time there during a future trip.

Desert NWR Visitor Center


Off to Death Valley National Park! Continuing north on US 95 we turned west at Amargosa Valley on NV 373 to the California border where the road became CA 127 to Death Valley Junction. CA 190 takes you into Death Valley to Furnace Creek. By the time we decided to take this trip the reservable campsites were filled. At Furnace Creek there are two first-come-first serve campgrounds; Texas Spring and Sunset. Sunset is a basically a parking lot, no picnic tables and a central restroom. It is mainly for RVs, as generators can be run from 7 AM - 7 PM. Texas Spring has more traditional campsites, some for tents only and the whole area is generator - free. We arrived around 2:30 and got one of the last campsites in Texas Spring, I guess not spending extra time at Desert NWR paid off.

Mud Hills behind Texas Spring campground

[Pmount]

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Start & End: Texas Spring campground, Death Valley NP

A wonderful evening and morning in camp, but we had flowers to see. The park service ranger, the day before, had told me to head south from Furnace Creek. South of Badwater the Super Bloom became apparent. The Desert Sunflower (geraea canescens) was the prevalent flower - as far as the eye could see up the slopes. My pictures do not do justice. There was not as much diversity of flowers as there was last Spring, but the quantity of the Desert Sunflowers was abundant.

Flowers






Notch-leaf Phacelia


Brown-eyed Primrose


Sand Verbena


Gravel Ghost


We drove back north along the West Side Road, this is a dirt road which crosses the valley north of Ashford Mill and comes back to the east side near Artist's Drive. Along this drive was the only place I found the Desert Five-Spot (eremalche rotundifol).



We also visited Shorty's Grave along the West Side Road. This road is suitable for 2 -WD, well-graded. It is washboarded and a few places with soft sand. While driving it we saw a few other vehicles, including small sedans.





When in Death Valley we always enjoy a Happy Hour at the saloon in Furnace Creek, a great way to end another perfect day in Death Valley.

[Pmount]

Friday, February 26, 2016

Start: Death Valley, CA
End: Indian Cove Campground (NPS), Joshua Tree National Park, Twentynine Palms, CA

All good things must move on - so we left Death Valley and headed south along CA 127 through Shoshone, towards Baker.

Along the way we saw some nice flowers.

Purple Mat


Brown-eyed Primrose


Sand Dune Evening Primrose


Desert Sunflower


After one stop of getting out of the car and wandering through the flowers I realized my shoes and pant legs were covered in pollen.


We stopped in Baker at our favorite taqueria, it is on the NW corner as you come in from Shoshone, across the street from the Mad Greek. Authentic, tasty and reasonably priced Mexican food.

Our next stop was in Kelso at the Train Depot and visitor center for Mojave National Preserve. This was just a stamp and go stop. As a side note, to the east of the preserve and adjacent is the new Castle Mountains National Monument, the 410th NPS unit. There are no services within the monument, signs are being installed. Best access is from the east, through Nipton, CA on dirt roads. High clearance, 2-WD is OK from that entrance. We plan to visit in the Fall. A passport stamp for this site has been reported at the NPS office in Barstow, with 2 others ordered that will be at the 2 visitor centers in Mojave NP; Kelso and Hole-in-the-Wall.

As expected, campgrounds were posted as full when we arrived at the Oasis Visitor Center for Joshua Tree National Park at 2:30 on a Friday. We had planned to camp at the BLM area north of town, dry camping - no restroom, tables or water. So we figured we would go ahead and drive to the various visitor centers and ranger stations to get the passport stamps before camping for,the night.
While at the main visitor center in the town of Joshua Tree I took advantage of the public showers available at the gift shop across the street. For $4 you get 7-1/2 minutes of hot water with plenty of water pressure. The shower rooms are behind the gift shop and each room has a sink, toilet, shower stall and plenty of hooks. I highly recommend recommend the showers!

Showers




Before heading to the BLM camping area we stopped at the Indian Cove Ranger Station at 4:45. This is a reservation only campground which fills first because the sites are excellent. While stamping I noticed a woman paying for a campsite, which meant she didn't have a reservation. I asked, the ranger pondered a minute, and said he had one site available - SCORE! Our van tucked i to the site perfectly and we thoroughly enjoyed a night amongst the monzogranite boulder!

Indian Cove Nature Trail


Indian Cove Campground


This was the ending point of our SW Quick Trips. The drive on Saturday took us through Joshua Tree National Park, not many flowers, yet, but wonderful views. We arrived back in Tucson by early evening.

Thanks for following along, I hope everyone gets to visits these special places - any time of the year! We'll be heading out next week for a Tour of Texas. In mid-April I'll start posting for that trip.

[Southwest Dave]

I enjoyed following your adventures Pat and lovely photo's. I would love to see DV in bloom like that one day !

Dave.