Hard Luck Mine Castle

We stumbled across this place in 2003 or 2004 when driving on 4x4 trails northeast of Death Valley National Park.  In a snowstorm in the late 1980s, Randy Johnston and his son came upon and took refuge in an old cabin associated with the Hard Luck Mine.  Randy visited this cabin on subsequent trips and in 1999, purchased the Hard Luck Mine claim plus an adjacent claim.  In 2000 he started building his dream "castle" in an area essentially free of any building codes or restrictions.  Most of the work has been done by Randy with the occasional aid of a few friends.  We revisited the site in late 2007 and the castle was still under construction.  In recent years we had heard that the castle was basically finished and Randy had it up for sale.  We decided to make the trip while we were staying in Stovepipe Wells since Randy was still giving tours and a change in ownership likely would change access.  Since Scotty's Castle Road is still closed, we had to take the route over to Beatty, Nevada, and then US-95 north to NV-267.

Leaving Stovepipe Wells in the morning gave a nice view of the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes.

At the turnoff from NV-267 is one of a few signs pointing toward Hard Luck Mine Castle.

Hauling an early load of construction material on the dirt access road, Randy's trailer broke an axle.  So Randy set it on end beside the road and turned it into a sort of shrine.

The castle comes into view

Randy shows off the main kitchen as part of his tour.

Climbing the spiral stairway in the central core on the way up to the glass observation dome

Looking down the central core

The view from the observation dome

One of two organs installed in the castle

Short video of Randy playing the organ

Randy claims that this is the only design drawing ever made for the castle.

Racetrack Playa 2019

Racetrack Playa is a usually dry desert lake bed in a remote part of Death Valley National Park.  It is famous for the rocks that have left tracks indicating that they have somehow moved across the lake bed.  Since we hadn't been to the Racetrack in several years, we decided to take the long drive out there from Stovepipe Wells via the "easiest" route, northwest to Ubehebe Crater (47 miles of paved road) and then south on the Racetrack Road (27 miles of dirt road).

Ubehebe is a Maar volcanic crater created by a phreatic (steam) eruption.  Rising subsurface magma had super-heated the groundwater until steam pressure built high enough to blast the overlying rock away.

Twenty miles along the Racetrack Road is Teakettle Junction.  Many visitors have left teakettles on the signpost as mementos of their visit.  The rangers periodically remove kettles, but there were a fair number during this visit.

We even witnessed an addition being made to the sign.

At the northern end of the playa, an outcrop of rocks named the "Grandstand" pokes above the surface of the playa.

Since the vast majority of the rocks' tracks are at the southern end of the playa, we continued to a parking area at that end and discovered a new information sign had been erected there to reflect the latest understanding of how the tracks are made.  It is now known that under the right conditions, ice sheets driven by wind push rocks around.

The surface of the playa is a fine silty clay material.  On the rare occasions when enough rainwater collects to flood the playa, the surface becomes a slick mud.  When the playa dries out again, the mud shrinks, cracks and forms a surface of fairly uniform polygons typically about 1 to 2 inches across.

Some of the first visible rock tracks during our walk out onto the playa.

At the southern end of the playa where it ends at a rock slope, is an area called the "nursery".  Here rocks erode from the hillside and roll down onto the playa surface.  Many of these rocks show tracks in the playa surface.

Some idiot appears to have driven a vehicle on the playa!

Crossing tracks

This rock may have a groove in its bottom.

Evidence for "rock rustling"?

Looking north across the playa

Headed back to the parking area
(click on the image to get the larger version to see
the details which help show the size of the playa)

Our lunch spot

Another view of the Grandstand

On this visit, the tracks seemed much less defined than in previous visits.  My guess is that the playa has flooded a number of times without the right conditions to allow rock movement.  This cycle would probably slowly erase the tracks.  Below are images from previous years.

2002

2007

2010

Hunter Mountain 2019

One of the lesser visited areas of Death Valley National Park is the Hunter Mountain Road north of the Panamint Valley.  This area has interesting rock formations and Pinyon Pine forest.

The southern end of the Hunter Mountain Road starts at the South Pass on the road into the Saline Valley.  Along the way to this point, the road passes through some nice Joshua Tree forest.

The approach to South Pass provides a nice view of the Panamint Dunes below.

After turning onto Hunter Mountain Road, we watched as this Miller's Towing truck dragging two large tires started down Grapevine Canyon towards the Saline Valley.  They apparently do this when responding to a recovery call in order to reduce the washboard that the tow truck loaded with another vehicle has to return over.

Our goal for this drive was to revisit Hunter Cabin.

Barbara is considering if this is another possible post-RV residence.

A view along Hunter Mountain Road

Our lunch spot for this day

Later that evening we watched the full moon rise over the mountains.

Panamint Springs, Darwin and Talc City Hills

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.