Death Valley, CA
December 2004
On boxing day Sunday 2004, my father Lauren, 7 year old son Mischa, 6 year old daughter Sera and I set off for a brief 4 day trip to Death Valley National Park. The goal was to both respark fond childhood memories my father and I had from times gone by, and of course enjoy new adventures with three generations of our family before my father's Parkinsons gets too far advanced for such wonderful foolishness. While the goal was noble and the execution near flawless, fate none the less harried us ceaselessly almost from the moment we set foot in DV. This is the story of what happened told by simple captions on pictures taken by both my self and my kids.
Our luck turned sour Sunday night as my father came down with a bad case of stomach flu, which is why this not terribly well composed shot is the best we have of the 4 of us together, as we pose over a look-out on the west side of Panamint Valley Sunday evening. Our goal had been to make the full moon rise, but no such luck as you can see from the clouds:
It also rained a bit Sunday night, leaving us Monday morning with wonderful snow lined mountains:
Exploring the Panamint Valley more Monday morning, we came across these two relics:
The snow on the very right edge of this frame or this Stitch is Hunter Mountain Pass, where we tried to go exploring next, attempting to cross the mountain and North East towards Race Track and Scotty's Castle:
First heading back West a bit, we went North on Saline Valley Road and then NE towards Hunter Mountain. The snow on the high desert plateau with Joshua Trees and black lava rocks was spectacular:
The snow got deeper and deeper as we climbed, and this shot is actually at the pass, looking back down into the valley where those two old cars and our Motel the Panamint Springs Resort resides. Click the pic for a big version:
The Kumho ECSTA STX tires worked brilliantly in the snow, far far better traction than the stock Goodyears. None the less, not long after taking this shot we seriously started up the mountain, %10 grade at least, and found a deep pocket of 12" snow or so at around 7K feet in which we got stuck. Some quick shoveling and I was able to back down the grade without problem, but then I had no momentum and the snow was packed into a slick by the tires so further attempts were not possible (not that we didn't try :) since I wasn't carrying chains. So, we turned back to approach DV from the paved roads.
At this point it was starting to get on in the afternoon, so we drove into DV and to the Dunes just past Stove Pipe Wells:
The kids were amazingly determined to make it to the top of the tallest dune, you can see it there in the background on the lower right picture.
At the top looking East after a hard climb:
And then of course tumbling back down. The parking area is in the distance where the dunes meet the fan of debris coming down from the mountains, no small hike, and the kids of course climbed every steepest slope and tumbled down every dune with boundless energy.
It rained like a monsoon all Monday night long, leaving us an amazing "desert" landscape Tuesday morning. This shot is in the area where those two rusted out cars are in Panamint Valley.
Refueling before starting the day's journey in earnest, note that price per gallon!
The continuing rain turned to snow at the pass between Panamint Valley and Death Valley:
Things then went downhill rapidly. We made it to Scotty's Castle through the driving rain, but then both Sera and I were struck down hard with the same stomach flu bug my father had. While we waited in the cafeteria there at the Castle recuperating, the rain turned to heavy snow, the shot below is the only record we have of it as none of us were feeling much for picture taking. As my father tried to drive us South back to our motel, we found the road back into DV had been washed out by the rain. So we had to drive East through the snow into Nevada, South down to Beatty, and then West back into DV and at last back over Townes Pass into Panamint Valley, arriving at our motel at nearly 5PM. Ug what a day, but not the last of our adventure...
As we headed home on Wednesday morning, barely out of Death Valley National Park to the west, just about when this picture was taken near the turn off to Saline Valley Road, the alternator died. While this is a common problem on 2003 and some 2004 Muranos, with a little over 30K miles on the OD I had figured (incorrectly) I was safe. Doh!
With all accessories shut down, even air and headlights, we slowly worked our way out through the snow towards civilization, into the Owen's Valley and south towards Mojave. Quite a stark contrast, between the picture out the window and the picture on the Death Valley park map eh?
Amazingly we made it to Mojave on the battery alone, we have no idea how, that's well over 100 miles. We then picked up a volt meter from Radio Shack and confirmed what the idiot lights were telling us, the alternator was providing no charge. We hit the local Autozone and had them charge up our battery and then headed towards Bakersfield where the Nissan dealership had a fresh alternator ready for us.
Just 11 miles short of the dealership, in the outskirts of Bakersfield, the Mo lost all power and I coasted to a stop on a freeway offramp. It took AAA a good hour to find us and load the Mo up.
Armando and his service manager from Nissan of Bakersfield did an amazing job, finding us the part, pushing us to the front of the queue and getting us back on the road in about 3 hours. Great job guys!
We finally made it home in San Jose around 8PM, exhausted yet triumphant, that we had survived none the worse for wear from one of the most adventurous adventures we have on record. Can't wait to go back and do it again =).
