WHUFU page for: Panamint Springs Resort<\/a><\/b><\/p> \n Only thing going between Lone Pine and Death Valley. It looked a lot more alluring when driving past than it does now that I'm staying here. Maybe when I get a beer and hang out on the veranda I'll like it better. It does have showers! \r<\/p>\n Register at the gas station, not the restaurant as you might expect.<\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>tonight<\/b>: \n only thing going between Lone Pine and Death Valley. It looked a lot more alluring when driving past than it does now that I'm plunked down here. Maybe when I get a beer and hang out on the veranda I'll like it better. It does have showers!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div> As you zoom past Panamint, there is the “campground” (a stretch of gravel with a couple of trees) on the north, and a building on the south. The building has a big veranda and is labeled as a restaurant. \u00a0I envisioned it as a sort of lodge, where campers could just hang out, chilling on the porch. \u00a0Not so much really. \u00a0It’s a bar\/restaurant, and you can tell they want you to buy something to hang out. \u00a0Still, it IS a bar\/restaurant across the street from an otherwise godforsaken desert campground, and that ain’t bad!\u00a0They gave me the tent site with the best shade, #15, but this time of the day it wasn’t shady enough. So I set myself up on the east side of my van (a ten foot tall van gives pretty good shade!) and fiddled till close to sunset, then took this laptop and my wallet across the street to drink a tall, cold, 24oz IPA draft on the porch and listen to the birds and watch the shadows lengthen across the wide valley. \u00a0I ate Safeway food at the van, because their food was expensive – $16 for a burger. But beer was reasonable if you get a giant one … which I did!<\/p>\n Later there was some Saturday night excitement when one of those gigantic RVs built like a bus got stuck halfway in the parking lot and blocking most of the highway. It had a very low clearance, and he seemed to have tried to return to the road at an angle where the edge of the road caught the middle of the bus, lifting the rear wheels just enough so they couldn’t engage the surface, and that was that! Despite the best amateur efforts of the locals and their puny pickup trucks, Mr Rich Guy and his big bus remained stuck for about three hours, until the pro with the very large tow truck finally rolled in from Lone Pine. \u00a0By then I was wandering the edges of the desert beyond the campground – it’s a waxing gibbous moon<\/em>!!! \u00a0Turns out that 100 yards away from the road is a giant trash dump for the last 80 years or so worth of crap from the occupants of this little enclave. Tin cans, car parts, all kinds of random stuff – a little depressing.<\/p>\n I was awakened at dawn by howling winds. \u00a0I went out and battened down the few things I’d left outside, my table and chair, bath stuff. \u00a0In truth, I had left my towel hanging on the rear view mirror, and that was what actually made me take action, everything else I woulda took my chances. \u00a0As long as I was out there I battened down the books and maps that the bicycle dude next door had left out. \u00a0As discussed earlier, I see few dawns, so I stayed up a while to take it in. \u00a0 Because of the mountains, there’s a looong time between first light and actual sun.<\/p>\n Awake again 10-ish. \u00a0The wind has died down, and the heat inside the van is rising, so time to get moving. I putter for a while, decide NOT to go across the road for breakfast buffet or even coffee. Stovepipe Wells<\/strong>, a big time Death Valley campground complex, is 50 miles down the road and I decide to do my morning things there, to get a feel for it compared to where I am.<\/p>\n It turn out to be more or less the same deal as Panamint, better in some ways, not better in others. The campground has absolutely no shade (not better<\/em>!). It is just a large gravel lot broken into rows of parking spots with a picnic table. \u00a0I got a coffee at the general store and sat in a rocking chair and ate some of the goodies I had squirreled away. \u00a0I was in the shade, but the air felt like god was pointing a giant hair dryer in my face! \u00a0The bar\/restaurant across the street had a bigger and more spacious feeling than the bar\/restaurant\u00a0at Panamint, and there IS an additional hangout area for guests. \u00a0Overall verdict: I think it’ll be Stovepipe Wells next time!<\/p>\n There had been a spring-time coolness back in the Owens Valley, but it is just plain hot<\/em> in Death Valley. \u00a0101 degrees today! I did one little side trip to check out the Twenty Mule Team borax mining site, but it’s not the kind of weather that makes me want to explore.<\/p>\n Stovepipe Wells is only the second biggest complex in the park. \u00a0Furnace Springs<\/strong> is the biggest. There are a couple of really substantial artesian springs that power the whole place. \u00a0It used to be a date farm, and date palms suck a lot of water! \u00a0It has campgrounds, stores, restaurants and a bar, just like Stovepipe, except everything is just a little more mega<\/em>.<\/p>\n I ate a very tasty and well-executed spinach salad to make me feel healthier, then I hung out in the shade and fiddled with my iPhone for an hour … because … there is a cell phone tower right here!<\/em> This is the only good phone reception for 100 miles in any direction.<\/p>\n In the course of my phone browsing I remembered that Ash Meadows NWR<\/strong> is not too far from here. I’ve never gone there because there’s no place to camp nearby, but I already know I’m camping at Tecopa tonight, and I have plenty of daylight, and I have no particular plans for the rest of the day, so why not make today the day I see what’s up with …<\/p>\n WHUFU page for: Ash Meadow NWR<\/a><\/b><\/p> \n very remote, no camping nearby, not like the NWRs I'm used to. Lotta driving to individual cool little habitats tucked away, one big pond and a couple of really beautiful cold springs. <\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>tonight<\/b>: \n I didn't see much wildlife except a couple of jackrabbits.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>So…, when I exit the north side of the park instead of taking a right at Death Valley Junction<\/strong> and heading for Tecopa<\/strong>, I go straight for eight miles then take a left into the refuge. \u00a0I circle through, come out the other side and end up back at DVJ 40 miles and a couple of hours later, and resume the route to Tecopa.<\/p>\n It was not what I expected. I guess it was pretty interesting, but I was a little too hot and tired to really get with it. \u00a0Instead of the usual marshes and ponds with lots of ducks, this was boring grassland with a couple of really interesting habitats centered around lovely fresh water springs, many miles apart. So you would drive through miles of grassy nothingness, turn down a dead end gravel road for five miles, get out and check out the (really quite pretty and restful) springs, wish you could jump in, get back in the car and drive the five dusty miles back out to the main dusty road, drive some more and do it again, and that’s your interaction with the Refuge. \u00a0Well, now I know… \u00a0Back to Death Valley Junction to pick up the familiar road to the hot springs.<\/p>\n WHUFU page for: Tecopa Hot Springs<\/a><\/b><\/p> \n Odd place. Separate bathhouses for men and women, nudity required. Camping is available in glorified parking lot across the road overlooking the settlement pond. \r<\/p>\n No potable water, must drive a couple of miles for that. Really interesting salt flats area at the edge of town. In the last couple of years a pair of restaurants have opened. And breweries!\r<\/p>\n \r<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>tonight<\/b>: \n First time! Very strong winds, so I spent all the time I wasn't at the pools huddling in the camper shell.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>I was here two months ago, gettin to be quite a regular! The same laconic old dude checked me in. Since it’s so effing hot I went for the shady campsite rather than the site with the pond and valley view. \u00a0Very much enjoyed my evening walk to the the salt flats. Evening comes late this time of year and the baths close early, so it was with shock that I noticed it was 8:30 and the baths close at nine. \u00a0I hustled on over there towel-less and got my evening soak!<\/p>\n Soak again. \u00a0Last night I’d done a little walking exploration of a place called Tecopa Hot Springs Resort<\/strong>\u00a0– an entirely different place from\u00a0Tecopa Hot Springs, the place I am at. \u00a0Their little restaurant was open but I didn’t go in, so this morning I am primed to return there and fortify myself with a coffee before tackling the bleak, barren 85 mile run to the western edge of Las Vegas.<\/p>\n This was a FAIL. \u00a0The “Bistro” is only open at night. \u00a0This solidly fortifies the general impression of uselessness that this competing “resort” gives me. \u00a0I did check out their office – the OPEN sign is out but the door is locked, of course. There was a useful map that answered the basic question I have about the place: where ARE the alleged mineral baths?? \u00a0Map sez: they are right up the hill! \u00a0I drove up and peeked in at them and there are indeed two good-sized tubs in separate rooms. \u00a0Final verdict: \u00a0I will stick with my current Tecopa destination. Funky as it is, it is still more user-friendly than this place. It I was a romantic couple I probably prefer this place, having to go to separate sex-segregated bath houses is a sure-fire romantic buzzkill.<\/p>\n The drive to Las Vegas seemed unusually boring. \u00a0It was a lot quicker since I didn’t stop at the date ranch this time. \u00a0Red Rocks<\/strong> is still stunning off to the right. \u00a0I forgot about the town of Mountain Home<\/strong>, kinda cute up in the mountains. \u00a0As I neared the city I wanted to check my impressions from last time<\/a>. \u00a0I remembered a wall of condos stretching forever. \u00a0It wasn’t quite dramatic as I recalled, but indeed, there is a definite edge to the suburban sprawl – on one side is gravel and sagebrush (the natural landscape), on the other is apartments and roads and signs and strip malls. \u00a0The dividing line is Fort Apache Road<\/strong>, ha ha. \u00a0I have more time today, so the plan is to identify a coffee place with wifi and go straight there. \u00a0This worked really well.<\/p>\n Without Yelp I would never have come to this place. It’s just a storefront in a new but already run-down (that’s Vegas!) strip mall. \u00a0It was clean and spacious with friendly help and good food and coffee, and even a jigsaw puzzle going in the corner (be still my pounding heart!). \u00a0Sketchy neighboorhood, weird Vegas people (even in the burbs), but quite nice. \u00a0I stayed an hour in this oasis of calm and cool and planned the rest of my Vegas day.<\/p>\n The big discovery is that there is a Trader Joe’s<\/strong> more or less on my way out of town! \u00a0I am excited by this. I get diesel, buy way too much stuff at TJ’s ($91!), then hop on the freeway to the exit for the Hoover Dam<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It is no longer the case that all traffic on US 93 headed to Kingman AZ must drive across the dam. They’ve build a quite dramatic arch bridge across the chasm of the Colorado River. \u00a0Even better, they’ve made walking out to the middle of the bridge to look at the dam part of the dam tourist experience. \u00a0It was pretty cool. I’ve always loved the Art Deco style of the dam.<\/p>\n After some research I decide to drive past boring\u00a0Boulder Beach Campground<\/strong>, to go the extra 12 miles to Las Vegas Bay Campground<\/strong>. \u00a0What a name! \u00a0That ought to be the name of the supervillian’s casino in an Iron Man movie – Las Vegas Bay<\/em>\u00a0(not a Batman movie, that would be Gotham Bay :) Anyway, LVBC turned out to be almost perfect.<\/p>\n WHUFU page for: Las Vegas Bay Campground<\/a><\/b><\/p> \n Still quiet and cheap and convenient, EXCEPT for the generators which always seem to be running here during the permissible hours. But really, a $10 (or $5 for seniors) nice campground 16 miles from the edge of Las Vegas ... gotta take the bad with the good. Checks not accepted, so make sure to have that $5 bill!<\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>tonight<\/b>: \n a real find for me! Just a perfect spot for my purposes. Quiet and cheap and convenient, quite close to Las Vegas and to Hoover Dam. Much more congenial to me than Boulder Beach Campground, which is one of those giant marina campgrounds like Echo Bay.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div> It’s on a bluff high above the lake. \u00a0In fact it mostly looks over the canyon of the Las Vegas River. \u00a0It’s quiet and pretty. \u00a0I saw a roadrunner coming in, and there was a family of quail that were there in the evening and the morning. \u00a0There was a very pretty trail out of the campground, that followed the rim of the river canyon for well over a mile, until I got tired of following it. \u00a0Since it’s still a waxing gibbous moon I could go till well after sunset. Everything was great except for the one butthead running his generator from 7 to 10pm, spoiling the otherwise perfectly quiet evening for everybody else in the camp. \u00a0I had an un-mellow moment where I had to crab at the nice old guy. But geez, he trashed the best part of everyone else’s nature experience by running his very loud, un-muffled engine.<\/p>\n I’ve spent a couple of hours this morning staring at maps and and my camping app and Yelp and back to the maps. \u00a0This is my decision point for the next week or so. \u00a0When I leave the campground to join Lake Mead Parkway<\/strong>, should I:<\/p>\n Stupidly, I think my decision is being influenced by the fact that I have a nice casino breakfast waiting for me eleven miles to the left, vs\u00a0absolutely\u00a0nothing in the food\/coffee line awaiting me on the right for the whole day. Rightward, I would drive blank nothingness for a couple of hours, then camp in (very scenic) blank nothingness at Valley of Fire.<\/p>\n Final factor: on the 2010 trip, bad weather prevented me from visiting the excellent towns of Jerome and Sedona, both super cool places I remember very fondly from the 80’s. \u00a0The reason I even thought of this possibility was to see my friend Ben. \u00a0That may or may not work out, but I think I’m doing it anyway.<\/p>\n Casino breakfast was everything I’d hoped it would be! \u00a0Casino wifi was slow and spotty, but better than nuthin! \u00a0The casino itself is kind of an odd duck. \u00a0Everything around it is federal land, either Lake Mead or Hoover Dam, but there it is this big ole casino, all by itself right on US 93 a third of a mile from the new bridge over the Colorado River. The busy four lane highway slows from 65 to 35 just for the casino.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since I discovered Tecopa Hot Springs I’ve done this jog between Lone Pine and Las Vegas or Joshua Tree four or five times in order to soak there, and thus I’ve ended up passing by\u00a0Panamint Springs\u00a0all those times also. It … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-southwest-spring-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>Sunday (May 19)<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Monday<\/a><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Tuesday<\/a><\/h3>
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