Death Valley National Park - November 2017 - Part Four

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Night Skies

We made the decision after starting the drive down from Keane Wonder. How about going in search of another spot that's been on the "list"? It was on our way home. Would we have time to negotiate the dozen miles of 4x4 road before dark?

We were set up just in time to brew an evening cup of coffee to warm us as we sat in silence.

After dinner and showers, we took in the night. The night skies were glorious on this trip. The kind of night skies that remind you that Cassiopeia is not just a sideways W, but really is an upside down throne. And shows again that Polaris is the final star in the handle of the Little Dipper. Unfortunately it also showed how the growing light pollution from Las Vegas has changed the Death Valley night skies - as noted in the new exhibit in the Visitors Center in Furnace Creek.

I wandered in the morning as another desert dawn arrived.

The Lady was soon by my side. "Let's go now," she said. "It should only be a couple of miles."

We both still wore our heavy pants for nights and early mornings. I still wore my glasses, no contacts yet. We both wore our slip on Romeos. No hiking boots.

"Now?" I asked.

"Yup, now. It will be fun!"

We were off.

It is humbling to walk through a seldom visited place and feel like you are in a time capsule. Discarded items are still in place where they were left, untouched for so many years.

We hiked up a broad wash near the crest.

We were looking for an ancient sign post where the canyon narrowed.

Most of the petroglyphs were geometric shapes with the occasional anthropomorphic figure.

It was interesting that on each side of the canyon were very similar glyphs - an arrow figure pointing down canyon with a man figure.

There were many ancient glyphs now almost faded away. This site was passed through for centuries.

My favorite was a man like figure who, to me, appeared to be floating.

Remember the Lady's comment, "It should only be a couple of miles"? It was over three and that made for a six mile round trip. We returned to camp with our jackets tied around or waists and hungry for our long delayed breakfast. Just another morning in the desert, a little more fun than usual.

It was late Monday morning when we headed out to pavement. An appointment with our eye doc in South Lake Tahoe Tuesday afternoon necessitated our return. We'd spend one more night out and drive home and to the appointment on Tuesday.

The Lady drove most of the way north to Bishop where we topped off with gas and bought a couple deli sandwiches for an early dinner. I took over the pilot duties and we headed north on highway 6.

We planned to camp at one of our sites along 120 but as we passed through Benton Hot Springs around 4:30 pm we both had the same idea - it doesn't hurt to check.

Jimmy was out sweeping the walkways at the inn.

"Hey Jimmy," I called. "Any luck getting a campsite tonight? Will we get lucky?"

"Today is your lucky day," Jimmy answered. "For seven months we have been booked solid. Not a break. Only three sites are taken tonight."

We were following him into the office. "There's the board," Jimmy said. "What open site do you want?"

We quickly settled into our site and began a series of soaks in the restorative hot spring waters.

It was a clear cold night. The stars sparkled overhead. The water was perfect. We could not have asked for a nicer end to this trip.

So I was now officially a year older. We had seen St. Luke's Folly, searched for Uncle Erv, seen a Wonder, and spent nights under dazzling displays of stars. It was all pretty darn wonderful.