Join the Hawthornes as we drive through Death Valley,
a below-sea-level basin with record summer high temperatures.
It is one of the hottest, driest spots in the world,
experiencing a record temperature of 134 degrees.
Summer temperatures in the 110s and 120s are the norm.
The average yearly rainfall is less than 2 inches;
in some years there has been no measurable rainfall at all.
flash floods tearing down narrow canyons.
This is a land of extremes.
Elevations in the park range from
282 feet below sea level near Badwater
to 11,049 feet above sea level at Telescope Peak.
It has badlands, sand dunes, isolated valleys,
sculpted rocks, volcanic craters, and rugged canyons.
Death Valley comprises 3,373,063 acres,
the largest national park in the lower 48 states.
The valley itself ranges from less than 10 miles
to about 61 miles in width,
and is about 140 miles long.
Death Valley's formation began about 3 million years ago
when forces within the Earth broke the crust into blocks.
Some of these blocks tilted and rotated,
creating the alternating mountain and valley pattern.
During the ice ages,
large lakes intermittently occupied the basin.
Their evaporation left alternating layers of mud
and large salt deposits that are still visible.
American Indians have occupied the area during the
past 9000 years, but the valley gained its
forbidding name and reputation relatively recently.
In the fall of 1849, a group of pioneers and prospectors
left Salt Lake City for California, following the Old Spanish Trail
In 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California
and people from all over the United States
packed their belongings and began to travel
by wagon to what they hoped would be a new and better life.
Salt Lake City was the major supply point along the trail,
where the pioneers prepared for the long, arduous journey
across the Great Basin desert before climbing over
the Sierra Nevada into the gold fields of California.
It was important to leave Salt Lake City
and cross the desert before the snow
began to fall on the Sierra Nevada,
making them impassable.
A few years earlier, a group of pioneers
called the Donner Party was trapped by a storm.
This event was one of the greatest human disasters
of that day and age and stories of the Donner Party
were still fresh on everyone's mind.
When a group of pioneers began their journey
from Salt Lake City in October of 1849,
it was much to late to try to cross the Sierra Nevada safely.
It was then that they heard about the Old Spanish Trail,
a route that went around the south end of the Sierra Nevada
and was safe to travel in the winter.
The problems were that no pioneer wagon trains
had traversed this trail before
and they could only find one person in town
who knew the route
and would agree to lead them.
This wagon train - the San Joaquin Company -
would become part of a story of human suffering
in a place they named Death Valley.
The going was slower than most of the travelers wanted,
but their guide, Captain Jefferson Hunt,
would go only as fast as the slowest wagon.
Just as the people were about to voice their dissent,
a young man rode into camp
and showed them a hand-sketched map
showing a fictitious "short cut"
across the desert.
A splinter group (most of the 107 wagons)
decided to take this route
across the desert which would cut 500 miles off their journey,
and the rest continued along the Old Spanish Trail with Captain Hunt.
Many wagons in the splinter group,
upon finding themselves confronted with an obstacle -
a gaping canyon -
became discouraged and turned back to join Captain Hunt.
Twenty wagons decided to continue on.
Despite the fact that the group didn't have a reliable map,
they continued, thinking all they had to do was go west
and they would eventually find the pass.
The splinter group eventually split and went their separated ways.
After seeing Death Valley myself,
this sounds like a really stupid idea.
But wait.
It gets worse.
Early on, the man with the map of the route
abandoned the travelers,
who were left to just head west.
What a bat rastard!
After a month of traveling the shortcut,
the band again split into groups taking different routes.
The groups did share two things in common:
they were saved from dying of thirst by a snow storm
and they ended up in Death Valley.
More than three months later,
their journey ended,
with only one human death occurring in the valley.
Death Valley was given its name
by this group of pioneers;
they all assumed that this valley would be their grave.
The pioneers were rescued by two men,
John Rogers and William Lewis Manly,
who had learned to be scouts.
Rogers and Manly had been dispatched to go over the mountain
to get supplies.
The two men walked more than 300 miles to Mission San Fernando
to get supplies at a ranch.
They returned with three horses and a one-eyed mule.
Along the way, one of the horses was ridden to death
and the other two had to be abandoned.
Rogers and Manly finally arrived to one of the camps
and found many of the group had left to find
their own way out of the valley.
Two families with children had patiently remained,
trusting the men to save them.
As the party climbed out of the valley over the Panamint Mountains,
one of the men turned, looked back,
and said "Goodbye, Death Valley,"
giving the valley its morbid name.
This name and the story of the Lost 49ers
have become part of our western history.
Although miners later found precious metals in the area,
the discovery of another mineral - borax-
initiated the exploitation of the valley.
The borax company built the roads
over which the famous 20-mule teams
drew wagon loads weighing as much as 40 tons.
a below-sea-level basin with record summer high temperatures.
It is one of the hottest, driest spots in the world,
experiencing a record temperature of 134 degrees.
Summer temperatures in the 110s and 120s are the norm.
The average yearly rainfall is less than 2 inches;
in some years there has been no measurable rainfall at all.
Photo from National Park Service.
Even though the annual rainfall is less than 2 inches,
summer thunderstorms sometimes sendflash floods tearing down narrow canyons.
This is a land of extremes.
Elevations in the park range from
282 feet below sea level near Badwater
to 11,049 feet above sea level at Telescope Peak.
It has badlands, sand dunes, isolated valleys,
sculpted rocks, volcanic craters, and rugged canyons.
Death Valley comprises 3,373,063 acres,
the largest national park in the lower 48 states.
The valley itself ranges from less than 10 miles
to about 61 miles in width,
and is about 140 miles long.
Death Valley's formation began about 3 million years ago
when forces within the Earth broke the crust into blocks.
Some of these blocks tilted and rotated,
creating the alternating mountain and valley pattern.
During the ice ages,
large lakes intermittently occupied the basin.
Their evaporation left alternating layers of mud
and large salt deposits that are still visible.
American Indians have occupied the area during the
past 9000 years, but the valley gained its
forbidding name and reputation relatively recently.
In the fall of 1849, a group of pioneers and prospectors
left Salt Lake City for California, following the Old Spanish Trail
In 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California
and people from all over the United States
packed their belongings and began to travel
by wagon to what they hoped would be a new and better life.
Salt Lake City was the major supply point along the trail,
where the pioneers prepared for the long, arduous journey
across the Great Basin desert before climbing over
the Sierra Nevada into the gold fields of California.
It was important to leave Salt Lake City
and cross the desert before the snow
began to fall on the Sierra Nevada,
making them impassable.
A few years earlier, a group of pioneers
called the Donner Party was trapped by a storm.
This event was one of the greatest human disasters
of that day and age and stories of the Donner Party
were still fresh on everyone's mind.
When a group of pioneers began their journey
from Salt Lake City in October of 1849,
it was much to late to try to cross the Sierra Nevada safely.
It was then that they heard about the Old Spanish Trail,
a route that went around the south end of the Sierra Nevada
and was safe to travel in the winter.
The problems were that no pioneer wagon trains
had traversed this trail before
and they could only find one person in town
who knew the route
and would agree to lead them.
This wagon train - the San Joaquin Company -
would become part of a story of human suffering
in a place they named Death Valley.
The going was slower than most of the travelers wanted,
but their guide, Captain Jefferson Hunt,
would go only as fast as the slowest wagon.
Just as the people were about to voice their dissent,
a young man rode into camp
and showed them a hand-sketched map
showing a fictitious "short cut"
across the desert.
A splinter group (most of the 107 wagons)
decided to take this route
across the desert which would cut 500 miles off their journey,
and the rest continued along the Old Spanish Trail with Captain Hunt.
Many wagons in the splinter group,
upon finding themselves confronted with an obstacle -
a gaping canyon -
became discouraged and turned back to join Captain Hunt.
Twenty wagons decided to continue on.
Despite the fact that the group didn't have a reliable map,
they continued, thinking all they had to do was go west
and they would eventually find the pass.
The splinter group eventually split and went their separated ways.
After seeing Death Valley myself,
this sounds like a really stupid idea.
But wait.
It gets worse.
Early on, the man with the map of the route
abandoned the travelers,
who were left to just head west.
What a bat rastard!
After a month of traveling the shortcut,
the band again split into groups taking different routes.
The groups did share two things in common:
they were saved from dying of thirst by a snow storm
and they ended up in Death Valley.
More than three months later,
their journey ended,
with only one human death occurring in the valley.
Death Valley was given its name
by this group of pioneers;
they all assumed that this valley would be their grave.
The pioneers were rescued by two men,
John Rogers and William Lewis Manly,
who had learned to be scouts.
Rogers and Manly had been dispatched to go over the mountain
to get supplies.
The two men walked more than 300 miles to Mission San Fernando
to get supplies at a ranch.
They returned with three horses and a one-eyed mule.
Along the way, one of the horses was ridden to death
and the other two had to be abandoned.
Rogers and Manly finally arrived to one of the camps
and found many of the group had left to find
their own way out of the valley.
Two families with children had patiently remained,
trusting the men to save them.
As the party climbed out of the valley over the Panamint Mountains,
one of the men turned, looked back,
and said "Goodbye, Death Valley,"
giving the valley its morbid name.
This name and the story of the Lost 49ers
have become part of our western history.
Although miners later found precious metals in the area,
the discovery of another mineral - borax-
initiated the exploitation of the valley.
The borax company built the roads
over which the famous 20-mule teams
drew wagon loads weighing as much as 40 tons.
This is the sunrise on the mountains
outside our hotel door in Lone Pine, California.
Same mountains
a few hours later.
This is the site of the Owens Lake Silver-Lead Furnace.
The Owens Lake silver-lead furnace and mill
was built here by Col. Sherman Stevens in 1869
and used until March 1874.
James Brady assumed its operation in 1870
for the Silver-Lead Company
and built the town of Swansea.
During the next few years the output of this furnace
and another at Cerro Gordo was around
150 bars of silver every 24 hours, each weighing 83 pounds.
Beauty in this harsh landscape.
Padre Crowley Point
In memory of
The Padre of the Desert.
1891 - 1940
Father John Crowley
From the snowy heights of the Sierras
beyond the deep shadows of Death Valley,
beloved and trusted by people
of all faiths.
He led them toward life's wider horizons.
He passed this way.
Father Crowley devoted his life to the
spiritual and economic welfare of
the people of Owens Valley,
and is remembered for healing long-standing
division and bitterness towards the
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Father Crowley died in a car accident.
He fell asleep at the wheel
after spending the night at the home
of a sick parishioner.
spiritual and economic welfare of
the people of Owens Valley,
and is remembered for healing long-standing
division and bitterness towards the
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Father Crowley died in a car accident.
He fell asleep at the wheel
after spending the night at the home
of a sick parishioner.
Cool van parked next to the Hawthornes.
After traveling Pacific Coast Highway 1
and the highway through Death Valley,
Mr. Hawthorne has exercised
his sphincter muscles to within an inch of their life.
his sphincter muscles to within an inch of their life.
Here are the videos from Death Valley.
Next up, Scotty's Castle.
In Death Valley.
4 comments:
Okay, I've seen Death Valley now. I'm good.
So it's a good thing that I didn't take the scenic route to my house when you were here? 1 1/2 curvy lane roads with sharp drop offs on both sides of the road?
Yep. Probably so.
Oh, and did I mention that the curvy roads were very steep roads? But at least there were trees.
I just can't get into any place that is so arid and dead.
Pretty pictures. I think I would enjoy seeing the scenery.
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