day 3 - the Racetrack !
This post is part 3 of the "trip-2006" series:
- day 1 - the long drive to vegas
- day 2 - down in the valley + speed trap!
- day 3 - the Racetrack !
- day 4 - us395 + the badwater road
- day 5 - crator then back to vegas
- day 6 - the long drive home
We got up at 6AM to make the long drive out to the Racetrack. The Racetrack is this remote, isolated playa (dry lake bed) that is accessible only via a 25 mile drive on a very rugged, bumpy rock & gravel road. The Racetrack is famous for the rocks (many of which way 100lb or more) which leave trails behind them as they slide long distances. What makes it even more interesting is that no one has ever actually seen the rocks moving. The only evidence of their movement is the trails that they leave behind them in the mud (which is dry by the time anyone sees them), and the fact that they've moved tens or hundreds of feet. The best theory on what causes the rocks to slide is that when there are strong storms, the surface of the playa turns into very slick mud, and that combined with strong winds makes it easy for the rocks to slide along.
I'd read many stories of the Racetrack road eating tires, as it was supposed to be incredibly washboarded, and have alot of very sharp rocks (especially since being regraded by the park service recently). We actually brought a box of emergency supplies with us in the event that the Jeep broke down and couldn't be repaired (basically anything beyond changing a tire) and we had to live in the car for hours to a day or more. However, my experience driving the Racetrack road was thankfully no where near as dire. It was bumpy in places, it was narrow in other places, but for the most part, it was just another desert road, and wasn't all that challenging to drive for me. In fact, I never even needed to engage the four wheel drive.
The first few miles of the road traverse a very wide valley, mostly with sage brush & creosote. About 6 or 7 miles in, there were an assortment of small cacti mixed in with the normal desert plants. At about the half way point, after gradually climbing in altitude, we entered a huge Joshua Tree forest. David was really excited by all the Joshua trees, and kept commenting about how they were 'spiney'. Also around the half way point, the road became alot more curvey, with a few switchbacks and small hills.
About 19 miles in, we reached Teakettle Junction. This is a fork in the road, marked by an incredibly weathered old wooden sign pointing left (south) for the road to Hunter Mountain (18 miles away), and straight (or west) for the road that continues to the Racetrack itself (6 more miles away). Teakettle Junction got its name from the fact that people have left teakettles hanging from the sign. Lots, and lots of teakettles. Rumor is that the park service removes teakettles from the sign every so often. The oldest one that we saw when there was about 2 months old. Denise had a brilliant idea to do something slightly different. She bought this tiny tea kettle shapped egg timer, and that was our contribution to Teakettle Junction.
After driving another mile or so down the road, we got the first glimpse of the Racetrack. I could clearly see the vast playa, and the Grandstand (a dark rock formation sitting in the middle of the playa) off in the distance. The road also gradually more & more sandy as we neared the playa.
I didn't get a feeling for truly how large (wide & long) the Racetrack playa is until we got there. The first official turnoff point was perpendicular to the Grandstand. The Grandstand sits way off in the distance, and the walk to it took several minutes. Its amazing how truly flat & dry the lakebed is. There are millions (if not billions) of tiny dried gemetric formations that comprise the lakebed. There was actually a little bit of snow on the Grandstand itself, although for the most part it was just the sandy gravel around it. After playing at and around the Grandstand for a little while, we hiked back to the car, and drove about another mile south to the southern end of the playa where the majority of the famous traveling rocks exist.
We needed to hike about twice as far as to the Grandstand, as the majority of the rocks (and their trails) were near the far eastern edge of the playa (as they likely rolled down off the mountain). Sure enough we had no trouble finding many large rocks, with trails behind them. The trails were often straight or slightly curved, but occasionally, they were zig-zags, or doubled back upon themselves. It was truly awe inspring.
To add to the fun, we basically didn't run into any other people the entire time we were on the playa. When we stopped at the Grandstand, there was a truck parked there, but its occupants were no where to be found. There were two people with a camera tripod on the playa's southern end, but we never came close enough to even see their faces, and they left shortly after we arrived. During the drive back to civilization on the Racetrack road, we ended up passing or being passed by a total of 9 vehicles, which counts as a very busy day on that road.
After getting back onto paved roads, we headed down to Mosaic Canyon for a hike up into the narrows. David & I started this hike last September, but didn't get very far as it was really hot, and late in the afternoon. This time, we made it much, much farther into the canyon. After the first mile or so, the canyon opens up alot, and is quite wide. We could have gone futher, but we had other plans. Since David had been asking to go to the sand dunes non-stop, we took a trip over there, and David had a grand time once again. I still think that he would have been happy spending all day, every day at the dunes, writing in the sand, rolling around, and sliding around. At this point, the sun was starting to get low in the sky, and we were treated to a gorgeous show as the sun lit up the eastern side of the valley. We headed down to Furnace Creek for dinner.
This post is part 3 of the "trip-2006" series: