Three Generations in Death Valley, Day 6

Knowing my dad would enjoy the old mining sites, I made it a point on this trip to explore the Skidoo mining area. It is remote and has many small and several large old mining operations in the area. We spent a good deal of time exploring this area and my dad really enjoyed it.

My little guy had been really good on the trip thus far. He just soaked up the miles and did not get upset when we had to divert to Bishop for a couple of days, so I told him I would take him to the Furnace Creek visitor’s center so he could get a souvenir (which for him is a stuffed animal). Now, I really did not want to stop here. It, like all visitor centers, are kind of the anti-outdoors of national parks. Crowded, noisy and overpriced. That sums up it up pretty much. It did give my dad a chance to call his wife to check in and for me to get a picture of Kiefer next to the “official” temperature sign. But we couldn’t believe that there was not ice cream for sale in the immediate area! Talk about a money making opportunity!

Leaving the crowds behind, we made our way to Echo Canyon for the night. The start of Echo Canyon is a washboard and rocky road that eventually turns into a just a rocky road. There is a small “gate keeper” type of obstacle on the trail before you get into the canyon that seems to keep most people from going any further. We still saw other Jeeps and several types of Toyota trucks on it in the later afternoon and mid-morning the next day. I believe we were the only ones to make camp above the gate keeper that night, so it was a nice and secluded campsite again that night. We did run into our second mechanical issue of the trip on this trail. The lower weld on the trailer’s driver’s side shock broke lose at some point and we must have dragged it a little ways as it was beat up some. Our only option was to completely remove the shock and rely on the leaf springs alone. As the sun started to set, the bats came out and gave us a pretty good show while we had our dinner. Protected as we were down in the canyon and being much lower in elevation also meant for another pleasant night of star gazing.

The adventure continues on Day 7