20 Mule Team Canyon/Zabriski Point/Furnace Creek Inn

We are staying at a KOA (Kampgrounds of America, in case you're wondering) in Yermo, California, which is just about 10 miles north of Barstow, California.  We've run into a snag with the trailer.  Something is wrong with our jack, and the only way to unhitch the trailer from our truck is to do it manually, which is something of a muscle builder, if you know what I mean.  Mike tried fixing it (he's generally a pretty good handyman), but there's something wrong with the motor.  It probably means replacing the motor as soon as we're able.  For now, it'll work as it is and shouldn't cause us any problems other than the hassle factor.  Mike is also thinking our batteries (not ours, the trailer's) need replacing because they discharge pretty quickly.  At this point he's not sure if the motor is just discharging them or if it's a problem with the batteries themselves.   

This trip has been one broken thing right after another from the time we started planning it.  My father, who was the RV king, having carted a family of four around in a tiny little trailer back in the 60's, had a saying:  "Never let an RV problem ruin your day."  Which is very good advice, because there are always going to be RV problems.  Just think about it:  if you dragged your house up and down the highway, I imagine things would go wrong there too.  As long as everyone is safe, that's all I care about.

In any case, I wanted to catch up on the sight-seeing we did yesterday.  I took a lot of pictures, and I'm going to post just a small portion of them.  These are things that sort of speak for themselves, and so I won't write much about them.

We started our day by heading over to the Furnace Creek Ranch again.  I wanted to pick up a couple more postcards, and I also needed to stop at the post office.  While we were there, we visited the Borax Mining Museum, which is free to visitors.  If you want the self-guided tour, the little tour guides cost $2.50, however.  We opted for the non-guided tour and just looked at the stuff they had there.  It was a lot of stuff like this:

I love seeing stuff like this.  Can you imagine traveling across country in a stage coach like this?  It must have been awfully bumpy and hot.  I can imagine one's rear end being pretty battered and bruised by journey's end.  There was a lot of equipment relating to the mining operations that used to go on in Death Valley, mainly borax, but also silver and gold.

After that, we noticed something we hadn't seen in this area before.  There was a walkway inviting us to see their solar array that produces one million watts of power!  We were very impressed by this.  I'm only going to post one picture of it because they weren't all that interesting, but try to take in the scale of this operation. 

With the livability of Death Valley so dependent on air-conditioning in the summer, it's good to see them harnessing this free and clean resource.  After that, we drove over to the 20 Mule Team Canyon, which we've seen before.  Still, I can never get over the majesty of this landscape.  The drive starts here:

And continues through the canyon.  There aren't any hiking trails per se, but I climbed to the top of one of these bluffs.  When I got to the top, I got a 360 degree view of these rugged hills and colorful formations.  (I believe this is on the other side of the range from the Artist's Palette.)



After that, we stopped off at Zabriski Point, another place we've visited before, but it is so beautiful that we never get tired of seeing it.  It's difficult in these small pictures to get an idea of the scale of these places.  I think this next shot will give you a better idea when you notice the people standing near the middle of the image.  I had some other similar shots, but the people appeared just as specks because the formations are so immense.

After taking in that view, we went over to the Furnace Creek Inn, which is a privately-owned resort built in Death Valley in the early 1900's.  We've eaten at the restaurant on our previous two visits.  The service is excellent, and the place itself is very romantic and peaceful.  The last time we were here, we wandered around the grounds at night.  This time, we decided to see it by day.

We were glad we did because we wandered around their beautiful gardens, which we hadn't noticed in the dark.  (By the way, Death Valley is a dark sky park, and so it is very dark at night.)



I can imagine honeymooning here.  It isn't as exotic as Europe or the South Pacific or the Carribbean, but it would be relatively inexpensive.  It's so peaceful and relaxing here, and doesn't this pool look inviting?

The shadows make it a little hard to see, but there are palm fronds on the tiled bottom.  Even if you aren't into camping, you can still see Death Valley for the price of a room at this inn, and it would be a very elegant way to visit.

So that's about all I have for today.  Tomorrow we will continue on our way to Borrego Springs.  There isn't much to say about the area where we are tonight, except that I noticed a local newspaper headline that said something about Erin Brockovich returning to test the wells around here.  That leads me to believe that we must be somewhere near the scene of that particular little environmental disaster/crime.  My directory tells me there is a quilt shop in Barstow called the Route 66 Quilt Shop.  I've learned to call ahead.  I did so, only to get a very unbusinesslike voicemail recording inviting me to do what I "know how to do."  I left a message asking if there was a quilt shop, but no one called me back.  I take that as a "no."

We're having Chicken Caesar Salad for dinner.  You don't really need a recipe for chicken caesar, but I'll tell you how we do it for RVing.  We just barbecue a boneless, skinless chicken breast and cut it into chunks, then toss it with a bag of romaine hearts, chunks of fresh avocado, and slices of Roma tomatoes.  I use lots of parmesano-reggiano cheese (because I think you can never overdo it on the cheese), and dress it up with Newman's Own Caesar dressing (my favorite bottled Caesar dressing).  Top it with some croutons, and voila!  Dinner is served.