Last spring i couldn't stand it anymore so I decided to go to Death Valley. When you can't stand it anymore that's one of your options. The barren volcanic areas i saw in New Zealand had inspired me to return to the desert. I hadn't been to Death Valley for over a decade, and when i'd been there before i never saw the entire north half of the monument (park). So i hopped on a plane to Vegas.
A few fortunate things happened on the way down. First I was able to upgrade to a first class ticket for pretty cheap. When they asked the first class passengers to board the plane, i was the only person who stepped forward. Turned out that i had the entire first class section of the plane all to myself! That was rad. The attendant got bored with no one to serve, and unfortunately sat down right next me after a while to make small talk. She seemed pleasant at first but then quickly revealed herself to be an ignorant racist.
The view from Red Pass
The second fortuitous incident that happened was that when i got to the airport at midnight they were almost all out of rental cars, but they did have a brand new Jeep Cherokee with only 14 miles on it. That was the class i reserved but still, it was great to get a car and know you are the first customer to get to use it. So, in addition to a description of my vacation, this California blog series will also function as my review of the 2008 Jeep Cherokee. I put the car through a lot in the few days that i had it. I got the car, then I got a terrible nights sleep in a Casino with thin walls and and extremely loud housekeeping radio communications department, which was right outside my window.
Far down from the pass things take on a Death Valley style of ruggedness.
My first adventure was to be Titus Canyon. A 26 mile, one way dirt road which first climbs over a mountain pass, then drops a vertical mile into a gravel wash. From there, it meanders for several miles through a narrow canyon before spilling out onto an alluvial fan in the main valley of, uh... death.
Back to my review of the Jeep. As i expected, gas mileage sucked. Driving north to the tiny town of Beaty, I looked to be getting 16 to 17 miles per gallon on the highway. On the bright side, the stereo they put in the thing was fantastic. I ate at a Mexican Diner, run by Mexicans, and was given food that was sorely disappointing. You can get much more authentic Mexican food in Alaska than in the town of Beaty, Nevada. Make a note of it.
Eventually the road merges with the dry streambed and enters the canyon.
Next to Beaty is a famous ghost town called Ryholite. This ghost town was another reason i had come this way. I wanted some pictures of the ghost town, but things had changed. Now there are chain link fences around all the buildings and the whole place looks ridiculous. I didn't even get out of my car.
The walls get higher.
The signs for Titus were well marked. The road, although dirt, was pretty easy driving and i was often able to get up to 40 in the lowlands. The desert was not particularly interesting but eventually the road made it up to Red Pass. Getting up to this pass revealed a serious flaw in the design of the jeep. The jeep is wide with a long hood, and the seats are low in relation to the height of the hood. Also, the ceiling is low, meaning the windshield offers a limited view outside. At first i thought this was a good way to keep the sun out of your eyes. Without a sunroof though, it's terrible for sightseeing because you can't see up at anything, even from the side windows. So you end up hunching over to see things. Worse than that is a serious blind spot around the front right corner of the vehicle. The mountain dirt road had a many hairpin turns in tight areas where there was cliff going down on one side, and up on the other. In some areas the upside cliff had large boulders at it's base, sticking into the road. Because of the design of the 2008 Jeep Cherokee, you absolutely cannot see how close you are to dangerous obstacles on that front corner, a critical flaw in situations when you are coming around a hard blind corner. Kind of annoying.
Death Valley is one of the only places i've ever heard of where you can find green dirt. You can see some from Red Pass. From there the road descends steeply to the bottom of the valley passing a completely forgettable ghost "town" called Leadfield (one shack). The road became deep gravel and pretty much doubled as a stream bed prone to flash floods. It was perfect conditions for drifting around corners, and i was having a good time, so i decided to do some drifting. What happened next led me to believe that the 2008 Jeep Cherokee has some kind of anti-skid technology. I had used the brakes to transfer weight to the front wheels, then jerked the wheel sharply to the right while punching the gas in order to throw the back wheels out to the side and start a slide. Instead, the Jeep just went straight. I plowed right into the gravel bank on the side of the road stopping just a few feet from a 100 foot high wall of uncaring stone.
At it's deepest, Titus has an interesting Middle East feel, much different than canyons of the Colorado Plateau. The occasional coded call of the raven echoing off the walls is the only sound.
Finally entering the canyon is pretty neat. It did get narrow enough that two cars couldn't pass, and the walls were pretty high in a few places. When the car was off it was very quiet and pleasantly warm (in April). At one point i got out to watch these two ravens fight over a lizard one of them had caught. I was surprised at how small they were. They looked like crows compared to Alaskan Ravens. It makes sense though, that they would be smaller, given that food sources must be so much scarcer. Maybe their smaller size even helps keep from overheating.
The most important thing missing from this picture is the Battlestar Galactica.
At it's best, Titus Canyon had a distinct Middle Eastern feel to it, and at it's worse it was still a nice alternative way to enter Death Valley. The canyon ends without warning, ejecting out into the wide main valley of the park. From there you can get onto a paved road and, driving north, make it to Scotty's Castle in not much time. That, however, is not where i was going.
At it's best, Titus Canyon had a distinct Middle Eastern feel to it, and at it's worse it was still a nice alternative way to enter Death Valley. The canyon ends without warning, ejecting out into the wide main valley of the park. From there you can get onto a paved road and, driving north, make it to Scotty's Castle in not much time. That, however, is not where i was going.
