Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2007: Death Valley National Park bikepacking / Day 9: no bicycling! Instead, a drive to The Racetrack and Goldbelt Spring with Phil and Renée from Emigrant Campground 24
Phil and Renée, fellow campers at Emigrant Campground, invite me over for coffee, and then offer me bacon and eggs, which I can't refuse! Then, they invite me on a day drive with them through the western side of Death Valley (e.g. The Racetrack, Goldbelt Spring).
My right knee is telling me that a break from bicycling might be good, and I enjoyed Phil and Reneé's company at the campground yesterday. I'm still considering a solo hike across the fan from Emigrant Campground to over to Lemoigne Canyon, but Phil and Renée's invitation sounds more interesting.
It's also an opportunity to see some areas of Death Valley National Park that I had hoped to see by bicycle, but which I won't reach on this trip. We end up driving a long 160-mile day.
- Our first stop is Ubehebe Crater, in northern Death Valley
If you look very closely, you might be able to discern the ant-like shapes of the many people who are walking around at the bottom of the crater. - On the way from Ubehebe Crater to The Racetrack is a particularly colourful area
Blooms of desert mallow, desert paintbrush and cactus decorate the rocky Joshua-tree-studded landscape. The road to The Racetrack is notorious for its heavy washboard texture. Phil experiments with speed because driving faster sometimes allows the vehicle to plane across the little ridges in the road surface, which produces a slightly smoother ride. - No Death Valley backroad trip is complete without a photo of the tea kettles at Teakettle Junction
Teakettle Junction itself is nothing more than a junction of two narrow dirt roads far, far away from anything. However, there is a tradition of passers-by bringing a tea pot with them to add to the collection hanging on the sign. Many of the tea pots are dated or have messages on them, or in them. Some are very unusual vessels rather than typical tea pots, and a few even appear to have been custom-made for this purpose. - We drive 1/2 mile up a short steep road that we pass a couple of miles after Teakettle Junction
This appears to be the road to the old Ubehebe lead mine site. - There seems to be no mine up here on this hill
However, we see what looks like the roof of a shed straight ahead way down in the canyon below. It looks like the shed has sunk, or perhaps collapsed, leaving just the roof intact. There's also another shed or outbuilding further down the canyon, to the right. We figure that must be the old lead mine area down there, so we get back in the SUV and go back down to look for it. - Down at the collapsed building at the old Ubehebe Mine site
As soon as we get back down to Racetrack Valley Road, we see the real road to the Ubehebe Mine site just ahead, so we follow it to its end a short distance away. My map only shows one road leaving Racetrack Valley Road in this vicinity, not two, which is how we got mixed up. - Another important photo for any Death Valley travelogue
... one of the moving rocks on The Racetrack. The rocks apparently move around on the slick surface of the dry lake when it's wet and slippery, leaving their telltale tracks on the playa. Just as we were arriving at The Racetrack, another car was leaving. We've only passed a couple of cars since leaving the Ubehebe Crater tourist area 25 miles north of here. - Phil walks out toward The Grandstand
The Grandstand is this large rock "island" out in the middle of The Racetrack playa. - Phil stands on "the beach" at The Grandstand, in the middle of The Racetrack playa
I would like to see what this looks like when there's water on the surface of The Racetrack after a rain. - I sit down on The Racetrack playa, like I might do at any other beach
This is as nice as any beach I've ever sat on, despite the absence of water here. No other cars have arrived at The Racetrack since we got here, so it is silent here in this valley, except for the sound of us walking. - After our visit to The Racetrack, we head over to the old Lost Burro Mine site
Interesting old cabin in a site that's quite isolated in its own little mini-valley. The little one mile road that leads into the Lost Burro Mine site is not in good condition! Lost Burro Mine is 10 miles from our stop at The Racetrack, just on the other side of the mountains via a pass called Lost Burro Gap. - The Lost Burro Mine's cabin
... still standing a century later. - Inside the Lost Burro Mine's cabin
There's even a little table inside with a few cans of food that people have left, in case a future visitor gets needy. And there's even a bottle of tabasco sauce, that most important condiment! - The "cold storage house" at Lost Burro Mine
... just outside the cabin. - We drive 10 miles across Hidden Valley toward Goldbelt Spring
An unusually dense, isolated stand of Mojave yuccas near Goldbelt Spring. While driving across the emptiness of Hidden Valley to get here, we see an object in the middle of the one-lane dirt road ahead. As we get closer, we see that it is a video camera mounted on a tripod. Phil drives around it carefully. Even though there appears to be nobody anywhere out here, we now know that there is someone somewhere! Indeed, a little further down, an SUV appears on the road driving toward us, and his camera. We wave, and its driver looks as surprised to see someone else back here as we are. - We arrive at Goldbelt Spring and its thicket of head-high wild roses (the dark green patch in the middle of the photo)
I don't think I've ever seen wild roses so tall and bushy. The species around San José (rosa californica, I think), is a dwarf compared to these. Maybe they aren't as huge as they seem. Maybe the illusion of hugeness is being created by the contrast of their green lushness with the very dry surroundings adjacent to them. I had read about Goldbelt Spring's wild roses in Hiking Death Valley, so I was expecting them. I've heard that there is sometimes some usable water here at the spring--that's what keeps the wild roses so green and healthy. So I walk over to see if I can locate some water. I just have to know: could I have come here by bicycle and used Goldbelt Spring as a water source? - Close-up of the giant wild roses at Goldbelt Spring
When I get close up, I realize that the roses are even taller than I thought, a bit taller than me. Presuming that the roses are growing on top of Goldbelt Spring, some water should be coming out from under the roses right where I'm standing--when the spring is flowing. Indeed, there is cold, moist air exuding from the rose patch, so there might be some surface water in there somewhere. I walk around the rose thicket to see if any water is visible, but none is. The thicket is a thorny, impenetrable mass, so there's no way to get into the middle of it to see what's in there. There are lots of dried rose hips on the plants, which are probably last year's harvest. I'm surprised that the birds haven't eaten them all yet. I eat a couple, discarding the inner seeds, which leaves little more than the thin outer skin. They're quite flavourful in a tart-sweet way that reminds me of dried apricots. - Phil walks over to Goldbelt Spring's old truck
There are several remnants of the mining camp that used to be here. - A closer view of Goldbelt Spring's truck
Parked in its permanent parking spot. - The dashboard inside the old truck at Goldbelt Spring
Sorry, no power steering. - We start the climb up Goldbelt Grade to get over Hunter Mountain by dark
To get back to Death Valley, we're going to drive over Hunter Mountain and join Highway 190 a bit west of Panamint Springs. We hope to make it back down to the pavement of Death Valley by dark. Great views of Death Valley below as we climb up away from Goldbelt Spring on the road known as the Goldbelt Grade. Backpackers can take a more direct route down to Death Valley and simply hike down through Marble Canyon from Goldbelt Spring. - We find ourselves at the top of the Goldbelt Grade at a time of day when photographers come out
It's that special pre-sunset light that improves so many photographs. We're up at about 6000 feet now and the views toward Death Valley are unexpectedly good from the Goldbelt Grade. Phil and I borrow each other's cameras to get photos of ourselves taken for our collections. - It's starting to get dark as we drive over Hunter Mountain
We probably still have 30 minutes of light left. We reach over 7000 feet elevation on Hunter Mountain Road. - Finally, we start our long descent into Death Valley on Hunter Mountain Road, through the pine trees
This corner of Death Valley National Park actually has a forest of pinyon pines due to its high elevation (7000 feet). It's also a lot cooler here up high. Our long slow descent down the washboarded Hunter Mountain Road is bumpy. The sun sets behind the pine trees, and the hills sometimes block the sunset and many of the views of the Panamint Valley below. No more photos for the day, due to lack of disposable cameras and the darkness encroaching! The lower part of the drive, on Saline Valley Road, is also rough, due to the old damaged pavement on the road. There are damaged-pavement areas, and potholes to be avoided, if you can be bothered dodging them all. We make it back to the smooth pavement of Highway 190 just after dark and stop at Panamint Springs Resort for an expensive (but good) hamburger and beer to go back to our camp sites at Emigrant Campground. We're all tired and Renée isn't feeling well from all the bouncing around in the back seat, but we've created a day to remember after driving 160 miles, much of it on backroads.