We made our way up the canyon road which was the roughest we had traveled yet that day. Essentially it was a very course gravel trail that only allowed a 10 mph pace. We steadily gained elevation as we made our way up and around a section of very oddly shaped rock formations, "Institution" by Suicidal Tendencies came on and we were rockin in the wasteland! The timing was so freakin perfect. Almost spooky (I'm not crazy!!). You are not allowed to camp in a spot that isn't a pre-existing camp site when you are in the Death Valley backcountry, so we were keeping an eye out for someplace to colonize for the night. As we headed further up the canyon, we could see the snow covering Telescope and Bennett Peaks, so we didn't want to get too far up the canyon. While most folks think of Death Valley as a scorched piece of earth, during this time of year it can get rather cold! At around 2300 feet elevation, we saw our spot, a nice little pullout from the trail that gave my truck a place to nap and provide us with some light and shelf space!

We proceeded to start unpacking everything when Timmy happened to find a scorpion! He jumped up on a rock to protect himself. It was flippin funny. When I asked him were he saw it, he pointed out the rocks near an old fire pit. We went over there and sure enough there it was! It was HUGE! At least 5mm long!!! I told Timmy that that was the smallest scorpion that I had ever seen, but he didn't seem to care. Both him and Andre were now on full alert. Actually though, this wasn't that bad of an idea as a sting from an adult scorpion would not be fun way out here.

It wasn't long after we got the camp set up that a jeep crew came crawling along! Their eyes were stuck on my Tundra and Timmy's snowboard, both of which drew comments as they crept down toward the Valley floor. We asked them about the trails' end and we were told that it was just another mile and a half up, but we didn't have time to explore it as it was getting dark.

Timmy and Andre were getting frisky wrestling and Dre demonstrated her nose hold technique on Timmy, who has been forced by Dre to tapp out on a few occasions. Fortunately I was there with camera in hand!! After the tomfollery was done with, we got down to getting some grub ready. There really is nothing better than a hot meal when you are camping! Campfires are not allowed in the Park, so we cooked with senior coleman and settled in for the night.

We woke up the next morning and Timmy and Dre were happy that they were scorpion free. We made some bacon and eggs (There really is nothing better than a hot meal when you are camping!) and cleaned up, then proceeded to break down our camp. We had alot of mile to cover this day so we were off! The view of Badwater Basin was spectacular as we made our way back down to the Valley floor.

To get to the Saline Valley and the Lippencott trail, we had to go back up to Furnace Creek and go thru the Park on Hwy 190. This brought us past the Stove Pipe Wells Sand Dunes and Timmy was foaming at the mouth to go do some sand boarding. The only problem was that the Dunes were a good 2 miles from the road (no driving were there is no road in the Park!) and it was almost noon already. We still had alot of driving to do, so Timmy sucked it up and we simply enjoyed the view. About 10 miles outside of Panamint Springs, the Saline Valley road appeared. In the middle of the road was "Road Closed" sign! We were dumfounded. All this driving and now we get this?? We quickly consulted our maps and sure enough, the only other access to the Racetrack was a 80 mile or so jaunt back thru Stovepipe wells and up to the Ubehebe crater and back down again.

This was clearly unacceptable.

We became "lawbreakers" and pressed right on past the sign. And good thing too. The road was is poor condition, pot holes a plenty, but in no way was it impassable. As we were tooling along looking for the turn off to pass thru Lee Flats when we took what we thought was the road. We came upon the wreck of an old car and decided to do some exploring. As it turned out, this was an old abandoned mine site! All kinds of cool stuff to check out!

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Last modified: July 29, 2004