Home LinkUpdate: November 12, 2006 (hit "REFRESH" for frequent, sometimes daily updates and to reload stubborn photos)
2005 Death Valley National Park,
California DXpedition Feb 21 - May 2005
Following the Rainbow ...on Old Route 66 to Oklahoma City, head south to the Mexican Border and Poncho Villa State Park New Mexico, Tombstone, Az. Organ Pipe National Park Az, VFW n/o Yuma, Az and a unplanned swim in the Colorado River to rescue Martha, Quartzite Az, Cottonwood, Jumbo Rocks & Belle in Joshua Tree National Park, Americas Cup Land Sailing Regalia @ Primm NV, Circus Circus RV Park on the strip Las Vegas Nv., Pahrump Nv., Furnace Creek & Stove Pipe Wells Death Valley National Park, BLM N/E of Mojave Calf. & the end of the 20 mule team trail, Sequoia National Park Calf., Yosemite National Park Calf., Lake Tahoe, Virginia City Nevada & Rt. 50 aka The Loneliest Highway, Great Basin National Park, Zion National Park Utah, Navajo National Monument Arizona, Farmington New Mexico, Santa Fe New Mexico, Amarillo Texas, Airstream Region 8 Rally St. Louis Missouri ...
( 7 National Parks )
31 barefoot & Mobile High Frequency contacts this DXpedition
Day 6 ...Huecos Tanks State Historic site El Paso, Texas ...the mountains are full of ancient pictographs some dating 20,000 years ago
Day 7 ...Poncho
Villa State Park, New Mexico
& Palomas Mexico for dinner
Day 9 ...riding the miners train 800 feet into the Queen Copper Mine in Bisbee, Arizona
Organ Pipe National Monument on the Mexican Border & we age by putting on our 5 year WBCCI Airstream Club Star
..hiking to a gold mine in
Organ Pipe National Park
...this desert hike is alive with record color, grasses growing & Flowers a Bloomin
...record year for desert flowers,
everything is blooming
hard to loose the smile w/ free camping in the BLM and an afternoon Cowboy band w/ pops @ the "V" n/o Yuma, Arizona
Life is Good w/ afternoon Cowboy Band & a BLM camp @ the
Yuma Arizona VFW in the BLM
Martha aka Dances w/ Wolves gains a new title.
In the tree line above is the Colorado River, 75 foot wide swift moving, deep, silty water. Banks of 6 foot high walls made of built up reeds plastered against the straight sides by the pressure of the water. About 10 foot wide of reeds and allows the river to flow beneath it. As you enter the tree line it becomes a tropical Oasis environment with a large burm for flooding control. We hike with Martha over the first burm. The web master, Willie Catchum leads the way and Martha runs to the top of the first steep burm. The Web Master who was here the day before leads to the bank of the Colorado and here comes Martha full speed, up the second 20 foot burm past the Web Master only to find that the land has ended. Martha becomes "Swims the Colorado" as she flew through the air into the river below. Martha now is fighting to stay upstream and afloat in the swift current. The rescue begins with the Web Master jumping into the bottomless river, grabs Martha with one hand, the banks reeds with the other and lifts Martha just far enough up the bank to Kathleen who was on her stomach reaching over the side just far enough to grab Martha as Martha clawed the reeds and make it to the top of the bank. The Web master hanging on the bottomless bank was to far down to reach the fully extended Kathleen and after a slow climb up the wall and with Kathleen grabbing the Web Masters shirt we worked ourselves to the top of the bank being licked by the now aka "Swims the Colorado."
an unusual sight, the desert is green in the BLM n/o Quartzite, Arizona
sun up sun down @ Cottonwood, Joshua Tree National Park, California
Salton Sea can be seen during a hike to Mastodon Peak 4WD needs to be used
March 9-22 & 80 plus degrees hiking with the desert flowers in Joshua Tree National Park, People are coming from all over the world to photograph and witness the rare and unusual displays of desert flowers
hiking to Mastodon Peak
gold mine
Cottonwood Springs trail head
9 mile mountain hike to Lost Palms Oasis
reach the canyon floor for a picnic
@ Lost Palms Oasis
9 mile mountain hike to Lost Palms Oasis
Cholla cactus as we drive to
Jumbo Rocks Camp
a vigilant Dances w/ wolves aka Swims the Colorado @ Jumbo Rocks, Joshua Tree N. P. ...Office of the Base Commander
USMC Combat Center 29 Palms,
California
Welcome home signs line the entrance to 29 Palms in that these REAL HEROES just returned from Iraq and the battle for Fallujah, 3/7 aka 3rd Battalion 7th Marines took heavy casualties & as President Bush was quoted, "they like it that way."
Now a days, especially after September 11, 2001, people, police, firemen etc. want to be hero's for showing up to work. Doing what is expected of their job description.
As you drive through 3/7's living
area, these Marines continue to train for war, they wear no & need no medals on
their combat uniforms.
Only the Eagle Globe & Anchor.
"The look in the eyes"
tells you were they have been. These
Marines certainly are, the Few,
the Proud.
How many of these men will be denied jobs & promotions later in life because of their life experiences?
4WD Geology Trail & hike to a abandoned Gold mine
a friend for Dances w/wolves
hike to Barker Dam
Petraglyph's @ Barker Dam,
like the drawings left by peoples long ago at Huecos Tanks Texas earlier in this
DXpedition and Pictographs witnessed at Seminole Canyon on the Rio Grand last
year & all through the Yukon and British Columbia. When you have an Oasis
that provides water for plants and animals to flourish, peoples of long ago
would settle these locations, to hunt, fish and prosper.
Web Masters Note: The Wonderful World of Disney ...Days later @ Bella camp ground in Joshua Tree National Park I learn from a fellow camper & student of Southwest Indian Culture that the above Petraglyph's at Barker Dam were altered by Disney while making a film about a wolf in 1970. The unusually bright Petraglyph's were altered by Disney Productions. Some were untouched and still have their natural faded look from hundreds to thousands of years old.
a closer look reveals
Mickey Mouse
etched on the rock to the left of my
cap & among the Petraglyph's. Obviously
in 1970 Indian Artifact was not protected, It is now a $250,000 fine to alter
Master Native American Artifact
morning hike to Skull Rock in Jumbo Rocks Campground
...Joshua Trees @ Jumbo Rocks Campground
Barker Dam Hike with the snow capped San Gorgonio Mtn. in the background
Barker Dam made by miners trapped spring water to provide an Oasis in the desert. With ancient Petraglyph's drawn on the rocks, I am sure the peoples of thousands of years ago did not call this place Barker Dam. Maybe it was called place with plants, animals to hunt, food to eat & a nice place to feed your family.
March 17th & our 3rd camp @
Belle
in Joshua Tree N. P.
@ Belle In Joshua Tree warm night are bringing the
Rattlesnakes out of winter hibernation!
Mohave National Preserve leads us on top of a mountain & the Hole in the wall, w/gas running low and 100 miles away we take this gravel road through the mountains to get us out. At times 4WD first gear low transfer through streams. This Preserve is "gorgeous"
The Web Master thought that Mohave would mean desert floor and warmer weather than the higher elevations of Joshua Tree, WRONG. The 5,400 foot mountains trapped a passing storm and we head to Prima Nevada and a week of International Land Sailing Competitions.
We need to return to this place in the summer
week of Land Sailing
@ Primm, Nevada
a night in the BLM on the Old Spanish Trail 10 miles SW of Pahrump, Nevada
...good rubber is a must in the BLM SW of Pahrump Nevada
...Fun overnight @ Jim & Debbie Walsh's New Estate in Pahrump Nevada
Like the Wagon Trains of the 1800's looking for a way out of Death Valley, they would enter, get bogged down in the soft low lands, all the canyons look the same & few lead out. This is the lowest and hottest place on earth. 285 feet below sea level with the ground reaching over 200 degrees on a summer day.
below sea level @ Furnace Creek & Harmony Borax mine, home of the original 20 mule teams hauling white gold, aka Borax to Mojave Calif. 120 miles over the mountains.
Stove Pipe Wells, Death Valley ...early morning dune hike @ Stove Pipe Wells, our camp on the horizon
Camped below sea level @ Stovepipe Wells Sand Dunes, Death Valley we take 4WD day trips to the top of the 5,500 foot mountains over looking Death Valley to Ghost towns and abandoned Gold mines. At one time the richest gold fields in California
after 10 days in Death Valley we head to Mojave like the mule skinners of the
late 1800's
Canyon above Death Valley
(March 2002)
Devils Golf Course, Death Valley ...crackling noises can be heard on a warm day ... Easter Bunny @ work
Scotty's Castle
on the North End of Death Valley (tourist
trap but Kathleen got the pic)
4WD 5,439 feet above the below sea level Death Valley to the Gold mine Ghost Towns like Skidoo
Ghost Town Charcoal Kilns hold 4 cords of pinion pine each to make charcoal for the Skidoo area gold smelters. Small donkeys are common companions in the mountains, probably left over from the Gold Mining days, left over from the mining days
Mosaic Canon near Stove Pipe Wells Death Valley
"Hike or Die" Life in Death Valley, California
not all hiking, Kathleen also
knits
...after 10 days of record crowds in Death Valley we 4WD up a BLM canyon for the night north of Mojave, California
4WD up a BLM canyon for the night n/o Mojave, California
" buy an Airstream not for a lifetime, but for the time of your lifetime "
heading back down to our camp in search of Petraglyph's ...Petraglyph's and a ancient shelter of native peoples
Sequoia National Park,
California ...we
drive to the highest camp open @ 4,000 feet, above this point is deep snow
...the Airstream had some leveling issues in these hills and each camp has a
bear proof box in that there has been 22 cars & RV's broken into by black bears
in the last 11 months.
...drive in search of the great Sequoia's, the oldest living thing on earth
...lunch over 7,000 on top of the mountains
Sequoia National Park, California & camping in the mountains with the big boys, the TENTS, no big rigs up this winding mountain rode! Snow clouds on the peaks just above us. Tomorrow we will 4WD up into the snow covered roads to General Sherman's Tree, the oldest living thing on the earth. If the high elevation snow lets up we will have dinner at the lodge on top of the mountains. Today the roads were closed.
morning evidence of "Yogi" in the house " it is not wilderness unless something can eat you "
road up the mountain to the big trees
Yosemite
Falls
drove in to Yosemite National Park with 65 degrees & greeted with a winter mountain snow storm
Kathleen & "Swims the Colorado" following "Yogi" trail
Bridal Vail Falls ...Yosemite National Park, California "El Capitan"
Yosemite Falls Half Dome
camp Yosemite
...our second day we get 6 inches plus of snow, all roads in and out are closed
Yogi in the house nightly after dark
...sky's clear on the third morning and the snow cover is beautiful, Route 140's is now open & we are free to move around the Country
Rt. 50 (Lincoln Highway), Nevada aka the "loneliest highway"
Kathleen @ the Bucket of Blood
Saloon,
"Virginia City"
Nevada
"Loneliest Highway" begins @ Virginia City, Nevada ..Ham Radio advise this morning "it is a good day if you don't have a tag on your toe"
Sand Mountain (Star Wars movie set) great place to wet your whistle
step 50 miles s/o Rt. 50 for Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park for Silver mines and Dinosaur fish
lunch at Cold Springs Nevada ...just west is the "Shoe Tree" ...a tradition of the Loneliest Highway Rt. 50 Nevada!
just w/o Cold Springs Nevada ...Thousands of shoes thrown in the "Shoe Tree" ...Stage Coach Stations Ruins dot Rt. 50
Hickison
Petraglyph's
BLM
recreation area
...the old Silver mining town of Eureka Nevada
What is the Great Basin ??? ...a place where water does not run to the ocean
What does your office look like?
Our
"Loneliest Highway"
tour ends with
"To Tall Tony"
Kathleen Spelunking in Leman Cave,
Great Basin National Park
...our 7th National Park this trip ...Zion National Park, Utah
...we take the free shuttle 7 miles to the top of Zion (no private vehicles allowed) & hike back stopping for lunch @ Zion Lodge
...Kathleen takes up scaling the
canyon cliffs
in
Zion National Park,
Utah
& a 7 mile hike from the top of the cannon w/lunch at the Zion Lodge
Navajo National Monument, Arizona
...on the Navajo Nation with 20,000 year old cliff dwelling ...Martha aka "Swims the Colorado" watches her Navajo boyfriend from inside the Airstream
Four Corners,
USA ...the only place where 4 States touch but actually the place
where 4 Indian Nations touched for over 20,000 years
Farmington VFW,
New Mexico
...home of USMC hero & friend ...Past VFW Commander & Service Officer Charlie Nassif
camp right in town @
Santa Fe
New Mexico Elks Lodge
Old Town Square
Santa Fe
New Mexico & Loretto girls high
schools unexplained staircase. It was built by a unknown carpenter who never
received payment & disappeared after its completion. This staircase has no
center support or wall supports & in theory should not support it's own weight
Santa Fe,
New Mexico & the end of the Santa Fe trail wagon train route
...ancient ruins @ Pecos New Mexico e/o Santa Fe
hike the Pecos Ruins e/o Santa Fe New Mexico ...Not just look @ the ruins, but interact, learn the way of life of an ancient people
Kathleen takes the ladder into one of many
Kiva's
@ the Pecos ruins, it is a round dark underground room with a fire pit, air
shaft & small round hole in the floor to let underground spirits enter the room.
Native Peoples use Kiva's till today as a place of worship & place of secret
ancient ceremonies. Non Native Peoples are not welcome during ceremonies &
at other Pueblos in the area not allowed in the Kiva's
The Web master only seen Kathleen enter the room
on this date
Cadillac Ranch
Amarillo,
Texas
(some attractions are better than others)
...Kathleen has no problem with the Big Texan's 72 .oz Steak in Amarillo
Swims the Colorado aka Martha @ a great end to a great DXpediton
...WBCCI Region 8 Rally in the suburb of St. Louis Wentzville