Death Valley - Ballarat

The Ballarat Trading Post, part of Old Death Valley that has been here since the days of the Gold Rush. The old cowboy runs the place, and it's part of the vanishing Old West. Ballarat is a long way from anywhere and there's nothing but the trading post that consists of a main room and a bedroom where the cowboy sleeps.
The Barker Ranch (above) was made famous as the hide out for the Charles Manson Family/cult in the 1960's. The ranch is the same now as it was when Manson lived there. Nobody has lived there since and it's one of many abandoned places in Death Valley. It's about a day's walk - maybe two - from Ballarat. The Mansons kidnapped two girls who escaped down the mountain to Ballarat and notified authorities.  Days after we left, somebody found another human skeleton not far from the house. After the cult killed people they kidnapped, they buried them in the hills in unmarked graves.

The Scorpion negotiating a mountain road.

My daughter, E-L, who likes to go off-road and to explore. She also likes to drive the rig on rough roads and is a good companion on these trips.

Tea Kettle Junction

Overlooking Death Valley from Chloride Cliffs. (CROSHAWK - not his real name - left and LL right) We both served in the Navy with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One, but at different times. My son-in-law, Braden took the photo (above). CROSHAWK came out to visit from where he is stationed on the East Coast for a visit and a romp in the dirt. 
There are a large number of odd things in Death Valley. This is a crossroads where people began leaving tea kettles. I don't know when the practice began, but when you go (and it's in the middle of nowhere), you are obliged to add to the collection.
There's nothing but old mining roads for hundreds of miles. Death Valley is a very big place.

Telluride

The name Telluride came from a saying during the gold rush in the 1800's about the place. If you were going there to mine, they said "to hell you ride". No I'm not making this up. 

The photo (right) of a Jeep coming down Black Bear Canyon Road was taken in the 1970's. It's just as rocky but a bit wider now in places. It's a one-way road (down from the summit) because there is no way vehicles can pass.

I took the photo (above) while coming down Black Bear Canyon above Telluride, Colorado, last year. At present this area is still snowbound. Enough snow melts by mid-July that they open Black Bear Pass. The house you see is not far from the road that parallels the river to the brink of the waterfall. It's simply the neatest location for a house I've ever seen. The cliff the water pours over is roughly one half mile up (about 3,000 ft.) , overlooking the city of Telluride.  The Black Bear Pass road has a reputation of being rough.

You may have guessed by now, that this blog has no particular theme. It's a free association of what I'm thinking about at the moment.

It is, quite seriously, the finest 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser ever made and significantly modified. THE SCORPION has no peers. It chews up rocks and cr@ps out sand! 

Yes, of course it's my rig.

A Different Sort of Racetrack

My son-in-law, Braden,  who follows and posts on this blog anonymously, stands at "The Racetrack" in Death Valley about a year ago. In this remote dry lake, rocks break off and fall onto the lake sands. There, they they perform movements and they are tracked in the mud of the lake - but nobody has ever seen them move.

The Scorpion at Chloride Cliffs

(Death Valley, California)

Sunday in the Desert

THE SCORPION!

Crawling in the rocks

.5o Caliber Israeli Desert Eagle handgun 

(Ready - FIRE! - aim)

US Marine Corps C-130 (crashed) and Toyota FJ Cruiser "SCORPION"