Death Valley, Ashford Mill Historic Ruins

                    

                           Thursday 3/29/2012

We left Badwater and headed south to finish this loop drive in Death Valley.

We wondered where this motor home was off to so late in the afternoon. ( We did not know about Furnace Creek Ranch RV park until the next day's drive).

As we turned the corner, this coyote was walking down the highway and we almost hit it.

He moved to his right as we slowed down and moved to our right.

Then we past another one following the first coyote. I had Joe stop the car and open the moon roof and I popped out of it with my camera. Joe made note of it's tail. All of the fur on it's tail was gone except for a ball at the tip. Maybe she was trying to make a fashion statement?

She or he just stood there as if to say, " You got something for me?" I think it was a she. I told her we didn't have anything and we drove off!

We drove 27 miles to our next stop.

Ashford Mill Historic Ruins was the next stop on our Death Valley National map.

Joe had to use the restroom, so I walked down to the ruins a head of him.

I imagined living here, looking out my window.

Pretty impressive view.

This ruin is a remnants of a gold processing mill, left over from 1914.

I notice Joe getting back from the men's room and heading my way.

The only reason the mill is still in existence is because of the exceptional thick walls.

The walls were built this thick because the shipper accidentally sent twice the amount of material that was ordered.  When the shipper realized his mistake, he told the builder to just keep the extra material because it would cost to much to ship back. The builder,  just built everything twice as thick

Joe walked down to a different section of the ruins

The gold mine was 5 miles east of this mill in the Black Mountains.

We headed back to our car to continue down the road.

From the time we left Badwater and got to this area we only saw the motor home and one another car.

Be sure to have plenty of gas on your drives in Death Valley because there is very little traffic, especially away from the main site seeing points.

We went through Jubilee pass at 1290 ft. then headed for Salsberry Pass.

This area had a lot of holes in the rock formations.

We climbed to 3315 ft at Salsberry Pass.

Then it was down hill for some time.

The drive from Badwater to the small town of Shoshone was 55 miles. If we had time we would have stopped in this town of  52 to 100 people (depending on the 2010 census or sign). There are a few things to see and do in this California town. Shoshone sells California lottery tickets. The town claims that on June 23, 2001, when one of the lotteries got very large, they had 32,000 to 35,000 waiting in line to by a ticket. Nevada does not allow the sale of lottery tickets, because they don't want to compete with the casino's.

The highway between Shoshone, CA. and Pahrump is named after one of Shoshone's residence.

In Shoshone I took over the wheel, so Joe could relax and have a beer.

Joe had to take over the wheel after a few miles, because I didn't feel comfortable driving. ( It was probably because we were going down a mountain. Going down things, makes me feel uncomfortable and gives me anxiety). I had recently adjusted one of my medicines and supplements, and that may have been causing anxiety also. 

Poor Joe, he hardly ever gets a driving break.  Oh well, Pahrump is just below.

Joe said he would rather drive if I didn't feel right. It was only another 30 miles to Pahrump, give or take a few miles.

Charleston Peak in the distance.

We cross back over into Nevada.

Our drive that day, was a 200 mile day in the Honda. The day started at Dantes View and ended with Ashford Mill Historic Ruins. (This blog and the last other 4 blogs)

We were getting into Pahrump, NV, as the sun was setting, casting light on the Spring Mountains ahead of us.

Pahrump Nevada- population of 36,441 and elevation of 2,697 ft. We were back in our home town. (home town is where ever we are hooked up at)!