I’ve always liked to study maps. I could look at them for hours. Well, maybe not that long but I am intrigued by them. I was looking at the California map a while back and noticed a town on the west side of Death Valley called Dunmovin. I see some couple who has just made the arduous journey through the Valley with their wagon and all their possessions who plant themselves and state that they are Done Moving. I read that it is now a ghost town BUT - if you have a hankering for buying a town with several buildings in it, here’s your chance. You can actually buy this town, all 170 acres with water rights, at least that was the news in 2008. Time moves slowly out here.
Time to move on, to Acton, CA which is north of Los Angeles in the Angeles National Forest. Any direction that you travel to get out of Death Valley means that you’ve got to go up, since the Valley is at sea level. We have always come in and exited through the east side since the west side is much steeper and much more windy It climbs in 9 miles from 0’ to 4965’ and is a long slow grade up and them plummets in 6 miles through a winding canyon back down to a valley on the other side. Last night while I was getting some last pictures of the Death Valley sunset, I spoke with a woman who lives north of LA along the coast. Aha, that means that she probably takes the west way out of the Valley. Yes, she does and she and her husband confirmed that it was steep and wound down the canyons on the other side - ‘it sure gets your attention’ was the phrase they used. However, that was the way they always went. Enough for us.
Firstly, taking the east way out of the Valley is 289 miles while the west way is 195 miles. Secondly, the east way puts us onto Interstate 15, the most direct route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles - on a Sunday. NOT where we want to be. One of the towns on the route is Baker and several years ago we stopped over night in Baker and from 2pm to about 10pm. the road through Baker was bumper to bumper going back to LA. Seems like the whole of LA is trying to get back from LV on Sunday for work on Monday. Finally, the west way is something new, we’ve never gone that way before, whereas we’ve gone the west way several times. Gotta try those new routes, gotta see that new scenery.
Thus, we took the west way out and ‘enjoyed’ it. We had started out early and did not had breakfast so that we could dump our tanks and get on the road before many others. Knowing we might be going slowly up the long 9 mile grade to the top of Townes Pass, the way out, we didn’t want to hold anyone in a car up who might be leaving Death Valley in back of us. It worked, we met traffic heading into the Valley but no one was behind us for the whole trip up to Townes Pass and down to the next Valley.
Sure enough, this road and its grade did get out attention. Again, it was like a slot canyon or a curvy luge for RV’s. Steep canyon walls, curves and 9% grades, fairly steep. Any problems? Nope, just gorgeous scenery.
In the Valley, we turned south and drove along the west side of Death Valley, Here we heard about several old mining towns that are no longer. One of the most famous is Ballarat. One of the most notorious is Panamint City which was called the ‘toughest, rawest, most hard-boiled little hellhole that ever passed for a civilized town.’ It was founded by some outlaws hiding from the law high up in the Panamint Mountains, who found some silver in aptly named Surprise Canyon and ‘gave up’ their life of crime. As most mining towns, it sprang up fast, grew to 2000 people, and was abandoned a year later when the boom was over. The main street was lined with mills, saloons, stores, a red light district, no churches, no schools and no Wells Fargo, which refused to open an office there because of the lawlessness. Or maybe it was because the outlaws were wanted for robbing a Wells Fargo stage.
To transport the silver bullion, it was cast into 400-lb cannonballs and hauled to Los Angeles in an unguarded wagon, figuring no one could carry off a 400-lb cannon ball quickly by horse. The original outlaws who had found the mine sold it to others and who had planned to rob the silver pulled out of it, were a bit irritated at the nerve of the new owners.
Though lawless, the town was destroyed however, by water. In 1876 a flash flood wiped out most of what was left of the town. The only way the town can be accessed now is by a 7.5 mile hike.
The more famous of the ghost towns along the route is Ballarat. It was built to supply and support the various other mining towns in the area. This town was a bit more reputable than Panamint City though only by comparison. It had 7 saloons, several homes of ill repute, a school but no church, a morgue, 3 hotels and also a Wells Fargo office which Panamint City did not. Its most famous citizen was "Seldom Seen Slim" who was was the last old time prospector to live in Ballarat and was buried there.
Because Panamint City is only accessible by a 7.5 mile hike and Ballarat is 3 miles off the highway via a dirt road, we did not stop to visit either but did stop at the histoirc markers along the road.
The trip was uneventful, which is what we want, and we pulled into the campground around 3:00. And, here is where the fun began. Seems as if the electric poles are sporadic. Some work, some do not. So it was not just a question of finding a level site with a great view but we also needed to make sure the electric worked. We parked the RV, got out and walked, then unhooked the car and drove around. It is a big campground and we wanted to get hooked up before dark. Finally, we found a place and were set. Great views from the front window.
Well, not quite. Gary tells me that the water spigot leaks continually and that he gets sprayed when he turns it on to hook up our water hose. He thinks that it has leaked so long and has so many minerals in it that the hose can’t seal correctly. He’ll try in the morning after cleaning off all the mineral buildup.
When I have thought of Los Angeles in the past, I’ve always thought of flat. I really didn’t think of canyons, mountains, hills, winding roads, national forests. However, to the north of Los Angeles, where we are, it is all of these. Each range of hills seems to have a higher range of mountains behind it and each front range is backed by a higher range. Here is the view form our front windows. Beautiful scenery.
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