The Purple Penguin

Up before dawn again and out on the road by 6. Stopped for a few photos but mainly just went for Racetrack Road. Saw several different ecologies on the drive up to the Playa – started with the usual salt tolerant plants, then a few cacti and a few more, then the yucca trees, then back to scrub and rock. In fact, it looked like there couldn’t be a playa out there, until you round a corner and it shows up below you. Still quite a long drive away!

We drove all the way to the south and then walked all the way across the playa looking at the various rocks and tracks. And I still don’t like people. There are signs all over saying not to walk on the playa when it’s wet as the footprints will stay there for years. It also messes up some of the work the geologists are doing. So what do you see? Loads of footprints. And loads of rock tracks leading to nothing as the rock has been taken. Usually by some idiot that thinks the rock is magic. A few of these get posted back to the Visitor’s Centre as the person then believes they’ve got bad karma. Of course, the Visitor’s Centre has no idea where the rocks have come from so they now have a nice stack of rocks behind the centre! We made sure we left no footprints and stayed out there for about an hour and half looking at the rocks and taking photos. Nifty place.

We then drove out and saw the Ubehebe Crater, but didn’t stop because 1) it was packed and 2) we wanted to drive Titus Canyon. So off to Beatty for petrol. Beatty was interesting, but not really a place to stay and visit. Once fueled we were off to Titus Canyon.

Now a ranger told me that Titus was a better drive than Racetrack, much easier and better for people who haven’t really driven four wheel drive. He lied. The beginning was very easy and I was wondering why it was one way. We found out why. It was a beautiful drive and I’d recommend it, but be aware that it goes over a pass. A narrow, steep, with a huge drop to one side and a block of pure stone on the other and a gutted, bumpy, rocky (huge rocks) road, with the occasional area of ice and snow. Not ideal for a novice four wheel driver. However, there were fewer people attempting the drive in their street car.

Red Pass is beautiful (well, Joe said it was, I was watching the road). And it is named properly- bright red rock and mud. It twisted it’s way up and down with beautiful green rock mountains behind and bright green plants growing among the red. It then evens out and you come to Leadfield, a ghost town. There are three corrugated iron buildings there, in ruins, and you can walk up to the mine entrance. Another drive along and you come to a rock with some Indian petroglyphs. Then the canyon narrows and twists it’s way out to the valley – lots of turning back on yourself on a narrow track between rocks that are only about the width of the car apart. It’s beautiful and worth the drive.

We were about half an hour late getting the jeep back. As we were heading back I looked over and saw the moon shot Joe has been wanting. So I screeched to a halt and he got out and took several photos. We’re planning to go back to the same spot tomorrow so he can get the moon rising. We hope.

Tomorrow is a rest day. Sort of. We’ll see how we get on.

Noticing several things – perspective is wonky. I’ll see headlights coming toward me and think I’m about to pass the car, but it’s actually several minutes away. We’ll see a hill and say we’ll go to the top but it’s actually several minutes walk away and about three or four times the height we thought it was. Temperature varies by up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit; so it was around 33 to 35F on Dante’s View but up to 60F+ down on the valley floor and the canyons can be warmer. So in the space of a 20 minute drive you can go from 35 to 60+ which is quite interesting.

If you are emailing and not getting a reply it’s because we’re having trouble seeing our email. Apparently the system used here doesn’t agree with our webmail set up!