On November 10th, we went from Bishop to the Panamint Springs Resort (PSR) in the Panamint Valley. We had wanted to spend a few days based there so that we could revisit some of the places we had explored in that area in the past.
The last sunlight of the day shining on Panamint Butte in the Cottonwood Mountains (part of the Panamint Range)
Soon the moon, a couple of days before being full, rose above the Cottonwoods.
The Cottonwoods the next morning
On November 11th, we drove the old Darwin Toll Road (now a 4x4 trail) from near PSR up to the not-quite-dead town of Darwin. One place we wanted to stop is a short side trip off the Darwin Road to China Garden Springs. This place was named because Chinese farmers raised vegetables here to sell to the miners in the Darwin area. There is a year-round pool here fed by the springs. Some time in the past, somebody placed some goldfish in the pond, and we had always seen them on previous visits.
Road approaching China Garden Spring
Trees growing in the area around the spring
After a little searching around the edge of the pond, which had become overgrown with brush and reeds, we found what we hoped was still there.
A couple of water striders on the pond
A couple of other creatures attracted to the spring
As mining in the Darwin area slowed and ceased, the town of Darwin also suffered. Though not yet a ghost own, Darwin had a population of 41 as of July 2019.
A few miles northwest of Darwin is an area called the Talc City Hills. This was a major talc producing area up to about the 1950s.
During our drive back to PSR, we visited the site of the Viking Mine.
This is Rainbow Canyon where spectators would come to watch jet fighters fly through the canyon. A jet crash into the canyon wall on July 31, 2019, has suspended training flights through this canyon.
The nearly full moon rising at the end of the day.
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