What makes you go down one road instead of another? What makes you choose an innocuous looking side road? What makes you go a little further than the others?
We
left the ranger and with intentions of going to Panamint Springs.
However, there was this scenic point that looked like a good place to
park on something level and solid, a place to stretch our legs. All well
and good except that there was a dirt road running out to the end of
the overlook. Nothing you couldn't do in a Camry if you wanted but
nobody did. Not the ones in the huge overlander rigs, not the ones in the tricked out jeeps, just the ones in the little red truck who wanted to see what
was on the other side of the ridge.
My sister thinks she can see an alligator in the far canyon wall
Back on our way to Panamint Springs I spotted a side road with no markings that seemed to call out to me. Back up, turn right, follow the yellow dust road. We had found a snow storm in Death Valley. Why not a 30' waterfall?
The trail at the end of the road required some scrambling over rocks and boulders but we were rewarded with Darwin Falls. As we were thinking that this was a bit odd in the middle of a desert a group of young (20-something) women joined us. We chatted for a bit and I asked them where they were from. A couple of them answered “San Diego”. When I asked them where in San Diego they mentioned towns in San Diego county. I replied, “I used to live in O.B. And P.B.” and silently added “before you were ever born.” I took their group picture and we parted friends, never to see one another again.
We finally reached Panamint Springs which is a tiny airstrip, a general store, a gas pump, and the ubiquitous RV park. $15 for a tent site, $55 for a tent cabin with cots, or $200 for a real cabin with a bed. We chose the middle ground and found our place for the night. The canvas tent walls flapped in the wind, the cots were lumpy and uneven, BUT were able to stretch out in our sleeping bags and get a pretty good night's rest. And we finally had our campfire!
Make my day, tell a friend about this blog!
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