Kings Canyon National Park, California

One of our favorite spots in the world is Kings Canyon National Park in California.  The beauty has held it’s spell on us for what feels like forever.  Don and I spent part of our honeymoon in Kings.  We were lucky and landed jobs at Boyden Cavern in the canyon on our honeymoon.  The first seven months of our marriage we worked there as cave naturalists.  Living in the forest, we really got to know the area.  We have gone back almost every year to visit the canyon.  Our kids Dani and Josh have grown up seeing the many sights the park has to offer.  It’s like a second home to us.

The Zumwalt Meadows trail located towards the Roads End in Kings Canyon offers some of the most glorious views.  The beauty is immediately enjoyable, from the parking lot overlooking the Kings River surrounded by marble and granite cliffs.  Get out of your car and head along the right side of the river.  Play close attention to the right side and you will see some grave sites.  Head over to the bridge to begin this easy one and a half mile trail that follows the river to the edge of the cliffs to the meadow and back to the forest.

We, the DeLucia’s have seen Zumwalt Meadows in many forms of weather.  One of the most captivating was our last trip there right before the roads closed for the season in late November to late April.  Having lived in Southern California all our lives we wanted to experience the essence of Fall and the legendary colors of the leaves.  Our family knew what to expect, but we were all still blown away by the beauty.  The vibrancy was amazing, equivalent to nature’s own fireworks display in textures, colors and patterns.  And we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves.

We continued our trip to Knapp’s Cabin and took the obligatory photo opp with the kids.  Don and I figure if we put those years of photos together, we’d have a photo montage of the kids growing up.  Something to think about, insert mental note here.

Of course we had to visit the caves along the way.  And we saw the wildlife we have grown accustomed to seeing.  But what we didn’t plan on, and it has come into play before, was a flat tire we got on the steep canyon road.  Fixing the problem at hand, we all had to admit that it was a positive to work in such spectacular scenery.  Flat tires and being cavers just seem to go together we have learned.

Our next stop proved to be even bigger.  We planned to end our trip venturing into major tree territory, to see the giant Sequoia trees.  These majestic wonders resemble melted candles and can give one a stiff neck peering up too long to awe at their magnitude.  The Sequoia trees can measure up to 300 feet in height and are the largest living trees on earth.  The reddish brown bark can measure up to four feet deep and is fire repellent.  The age of the Giant Sequoia trees are believed to be more than 2,000 years old.

We invite you to join us on our hike of Zumwalt Meadows, waterfalls, poking our heads into small caves, visiting the biggest trees in the world, and the most impressive colored leaves we’ve seen.  It’s just another one of our adventures where we like to go “OutDoors And not…”  Guaranteed you’ll have a good time, any and every time.

Let’s go!

Echo Canyon and Inyo Mine, Death Valley, California

It’s now 2010 and only 105 years since the inception of the Inyo Mine in Echo Canyon of Death Valley National Park, California.  In January 1905, two prospectors named Maroni Hicks and Chet Leavitt made the mine discovery in Echo Canyon.  By March the two men returned loaded with provisions and took out more claims in the area.  In May the men had twenty claims and began to dig a tunnel in June on one of them.  By summer the Hick and Leavitt property was the most prominent and talked about in the Echo-Lee District.

Hicks and Leavitt were able to convince investors to go in on their purchase of the Inyo Mine.  The capitalists were interested and by August nine of their 20 claims were bonded to Mr. Tasker L. Oddie for $150,000 and Mr. Charles Schwab for the remainder for $100,000.  The arrangement was for Mr. Schwab to pay the prospectors $5,000 on September 1^st, if he was to move forward with the purchase of the gold mine.  Mr. Oddie was to pay $5,000 on December 1^st with the remainder paid in one year.

Schwab never did pay his portion and never tried to develop any plans.  Mr. Oddie did move forward and his men began working the Inyo Mine.  The men soon developed a deep shaft that went 50 feet down.  The farther down the miners went in the mine the more ambitious their plans grew.  Talk began of the development of a mill with a tramway and electrical power plant to cut off the presently used 35 mile drive to Rhyolite, Nevada.  The present road was so winding, Mr. Oddie highly considered constructing the new wagon road to Rhyolite even at a cost of $1,500.  The road never materialized when Mr. Oddie let his option expire in November due to a misunderstanding of the terms.

The Inyo Mine claims were then bonded to two Colorado capitalists for a payment of $10,000 to be paid upfront with the balance of $140,000 due later that year.  The deal was never sealed when the Colorado men were unable to raise the cash or refused to move forward in their option.

The Inyo Gold Mining Company was sold in December to Utah promoters L. Holbrook and associates.  The company sold stock for $1 each, with a capitalization of $1,000,000.  By March the mine was 100 feet deep and employed nine men.  Chet Leavitt retained his interests in the mine and served as VP of the company, and directed the mining operations.

By June, the Rhyolite Herald newspaper hailed a big gold strike at the Inyo Mine.  When the blistering heat of the summer months set in, virtually all mining work ceased at the mine when temps could rise as high as 120 degrees.  By 1906 no shipments were made when work progressed slowly although a new 73 foot shaft was completed.

When the mine reopened in 1907 three new shafts at depths of 100, 73 and 30 feet had been tunneled out.  Chet Leavitt was still working the mine directing all operations as superintendent.  By February 20 men were working the mine.  A commissary store was in the works.  Water was now hauled 8 miles away from Furnace Creek.  The town kept growing to support the growing number of miners working the Inyo Gold Mine.  A new boarding house and commissary for groceries was built.  The local newspapers wrote about the boom in the new gold fields along the Nevada-California border.  The town continued to grow until the Panic of 1907 set in and forced the Inyo Gold Mine into bankruptcy.

We were just at the Inyo Gold Mine in late 2009.  It is interesting to see that a little over one hundred years later, we as a nation, are in another financial crisis.  Guess it’s true that history does repeat itself.  Regardless of whether you know the history of Inyo Mine or not, it’s still worth a visit.  But be forewarned, the road is bumpy and requires a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Let’s go!

Scotty’s Castle, Death Valley National Park, CA

The history of Scotty’s Castle built during the California gold rush is as wild as some of the claims of the era.  Scotty’s Castle is located in the northern part of Death Valley National Park in California.

The castle was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Chicago insurance magnate Albert Mussey Johnson (1872-1948) and his wife Bessie Penniman Johnson.

The lifelong friendship of Scotty and Mr. Johnson, two completely different men was improbable.  The Johnson’s were America’s fabled rich.  Mr. Johnson’s interest in mining and the desert began in 1905 when he explored Death Valley led by the ever-optimistic and boastful prospector  Walter E. Scott “Scotty” (1872-1954), known as Death Valley Scotty.

The couple had been fond of vacationing in Death Valley with their friend Scotty.  The Johnson’s dream castle was commissioned after Bessie commented that they build something more comfortable to get away from the rattlesnakes and scorpions.  Bessie had wants better than the canvas tents they had been staying in. Construction began on the Death Valley Ranch in the1920s.  By 1924, Johnson had acquired 1,500 acres along the northeast border of Death Valley.  That February, Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright took an automobile excursion to the castle site. The ranch site began to take on some of the Spanish-Mediterranean design styling filled with hand-wrought iron and tile features.

Scotty was originally from Kentucky and ran away from home as a young boy and joined his brother on a ranch in the desert of Nevada.  After working odd jobs he eventually settled in Death Valley.  In 1890 Scotty was discovered by a talent scout for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show where he worked as a cowboy touring the world for 12 years.  He then found more fame and riches as a gold prospector, albeit some would say a shady one.

Scotty claimed he had a fabulous gold mine in Death Valley and convinced wealthy investors to buy stock in his mine.  The plan was to split all the profits after they gave money for equipment to extract the gold.  Scotty had no luck prospecting gold the next few years convincing his investors he was a con man.  They backed out of all their investments.  Undaunted, Scotty began appearing at the finest hotels and saloons in California and Nevada.  His spending sprees became legendary.  This was about the time Scotty met Mr. Johnson.  Their friendship captured the attention of the townsfolk.  Albert Johnson was a well-respected and highly religious  insurance magnate.  Scotty was known as a shady character with a rowdy nature.

Over the next few years Mr. Johnson gave thousands of dollars to Scotty to invest in a gold mine operation.  When the gold never appeared Mr. Johnson asked to see the gold mine in person.  Scotty took Mr. Johnson to Death Valley on a grueling horseback trip figuring he would give up the mission early on.  Instead, the often sickly city slicker Johnson (due to a nearly fatal train accident as a child) felt his health improve immensely in the dry desert climate and stayed a month.  He never saw the gold mine and he never cared.  He fell in love with Death Valley and that alone was like finding gold to him.

During construction of the Johnson ranch home, Scotty boasted that it was his home being built from the gold extracted from his gold mine.  When reporters asked Scotty if it was really his home, Mr. Johnson would play along and as joke that he was Scotty’s banker.  Johnson was being taken but didn’t seem to care, he was a friend of Scotty’s and liked hanging around and hearing his wild tales.  The name Scotty’s Castle stuck to this day.

In 1931 Mr. Johnson had to stop construction due to a survey error indicating he was building his dream house on federal land.  The house never again saw construction when The Great Depression set in.  Today the castle stands incomplete, but a reflection of the beautiful design that remained to be.

As the Depression was nearing an end, the Johnsons retired to Hollywood but would still vacation at the castle, which was now operating as a hotel and tourist attraction named after Death Valley Scotty.  When the Johnson’s passed away in the 1940s with no heirs, the castle was willed to a charitable organization which continued the tours and hotel operations.  Scotty lived in the castle the last two years of his life, passing away in 1954.  He is buried at the top of a hill over-looking the castle.  Scotty’s Castle was purchased by the National Park Service in 1970.  Admission is $11 for adults.

Let’s go!

Titus Canyon, Death Valley National Park, CA

It takes four hours to drive through Titus Canyon in Death Valley National Park California.  The road is rugged and best for 4×4 vehicles, but most vehicles can travel through the canyon without incident.  We know this for sure as our first adventures here were in our old used cars that got us through college, before our days of 4×4 rugged comfort.  Then we just stomped our feet to get the floor boards back in order in our ancient college cars.  Ah, the good old days….

We just did this trip and were excited to get back to Titus Canyon.  Since it takes ½ a day to do this, we had to plan it out to cover all the land we wanted to see.  It was our first stop in Death Valley.  We were lucky to get away last minute and didn’t have any camping reservations.  We got the last camp spot during the Thanksgiving holiday in the Furnace Creek campground.  The next morning we broke camp and headed out for Titus Canyon.  We had seen a coyote that came up to our truck on our travel day in and were excited to see another one walk pass our tent with a crow in its mouth.  The little kids in camp all stopped to stare at this unusual sight.  We knew it would be a good day.

Titus Canyon is a 27 mile long dirt road that is adjacent to the Nevada border.  We always plan to gas up in Furnace Creek, before we head out into the entrance of Titus Canyon, located at Nevada Highway 374 (or Daylight Pass Road), two miles east of the Death Valley National Park boundary road.  The canyon becomes more majestic as you drive along.  Colors become more and more abundant, seamlessly splashed along the gentle sloped mountains and steep cliffs revealing their high mineral content.

After driving miles into the canyon you come upon the Leadfield ghost town.  If it weren’t for Leadfield, there wouldn’t be the Titus Canyon road.  The town has boomed a few times in its day.  Copper and lead claims had been filed beginning in 1905.  The town saw a second and major mining boom in 1926.

The major land owner of Leadfield was a flamboyant promoter from California who was credited with the second mining boom.  In 1926 he served as president of the Western Lead Mines, the town’s leading mining company and heavily promoted the company.  That drove in the masses and by April of that year, the town encountered some of the country’s first sprawl, with 1749 lots surrounding the vicinity.  The town boomed for less than a year when the lead bottomed out in the mines and the financial decline set in.

The same fate was suffered by Leadfield as with most ghost towns.  The nation’s first great depression laid to rest the once vibrant mining town, now kept alive as part of the history in the Titus Canyon route in Death Valley.  All that remains are the mines scattering the area, along with dumps, tunnels and prospect holes.  It is fun to park your vehicle and walk among the remains of wood and tin buildings and cement foundations of the mill.

When Don and I first got together in the late 1970s, we were able to drop the pits in the mines in Leadfield.  You can actually see some of those photos in our nostalgic Death Valley slideshows on our Death Valley page, in the nostalgic section.  Now the deep mines have been all covered up and it’s impossible to enter them.  There is also a mine that broke into a cave in Leadville, but that one is sealed shut at the entrance.  If you keep walking towards the right side of the town, you will see the steel door that is the first gate.  Trips are not allowed into this cave due to the delicate formations.

The Titus Canyon road becomes narrower towards the end of the 27 miles.  In parts, the canyon narrows to less than 20 feet and can feel unsettling as you drive through in a wide vehicle.  It’s not uncommon to see folks park and walk the last few miles to scope out the road ahead to see if it’s drivable.  We have never had any problems so don’t worry about continuing your drive the last 1.5 miles at the narrowest.  It makes for fabulous photos.

Let’s go!

Rhyolite Ghost Town, Nevada

The charm of Rhyolite in the state of Nevada has always made it one of our favorite ghost town destinations.  Don and I have been going there for decades.  We have taken the kids many times when they were younger. It was to their surprise when we were getting closer to the town that they remembered the place.  We could hear the enthusiasm in their voices as the memories came flooding in.

Rhyolite has changed a lot since the first time we ever saw it.  The ghost town remains in its’ own little world, with hardly any new buildings or amenities surrounding the once active gold rush activities of its heyday.  The few remaining ruins look like something more out of a movie set than real.  The building facades are about all that remain in a few structures.  The school is still intact thanks to the Friends of Rhyolite who have done restorations to slow down the decay.  They have even put up a few signs to call out the remaining ruins.

The best building is the Train Station which is privately owned and now has chain linked fencing around the facility.  In the midst of the gold rush era, it was common to take down buildings, or move them, or reuse the building materials, when new mines struck it rich, or when old mines were depleted or stopped producing.  Legend has it that the old town buildings of Rhyolite became the new foundation for the town of Beatty in Nevada, when Rhyolite went bust.  But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.  This is how the actual town of Rhyolite came about.

When a well-known gold prospector in Death Valley, California, named Shorty Harris and his friend E. L. Cross were prospecting in the nearby Nevada area in 1904, they found quartz all over a hill. Shorty described the scene as “… the quartz was just full of free gold…”

Only one other person lived in the area at that time.  He was known as Old Man Beatty who lived in a ranch with his family five miles away.  Shorty and E.L.’s discovery was all it took and word spread quickly.  The gold rush was on. Soon there were 2000 claims in a 30 mile area.

The most promising, the Montgomery Shoshone mine, prompted everyone to move to Rhyolite, named from its silica-rich volcanic rock. The town boomed. Buildings sprang up everywhere. But this was not just a mining town, it was a significant town.  One building was 3 stories tall and cost $90,000 to build.  A stock exchange and Board of Trade were formed. The red light district drew women from as far away as San Francisco. There were hotels, stores, and a school for 250 children (which still stands to this day), an ice plant, two electric plants, foundries and machine shops, and even a miner’s union hospital.

The town citizens had an active social life including baseball games, dances, basket socials, whist parties, tennis, a symphony, Sunday school picnics, basketball games, Saturday night variety shows at the opera house and pool tournaments.

In 1906 Countess Morajeski opened the Alaska Glacier Ice Cream Parlor to the delight of the local citizenry. That same year an enterprising miner, Tom T. Kelly, built a Bottle House out of 50,000 beer and liquor bottles.  The Bottle House still stands to this day and is one of the most viable attractions in all of Rhyolite.

In April 1907 electricity even came to Rhyolite, and by August of that year a mill had been constructed to handle 300 tons of ore a day at the Montgomery Shoshone mine. It consisted of a crusher, 3 giant rollers, over a dozen cyanide tanks and a reduction furnace.

The Montgomery Shoshone mine had become nationally known because promoter Bob Montgomery once boasted he could take $10,000 a day in ore from the mine. Learning this part of the history of Rhyolite made our entire family laugh out loud.  For decades Don and I have known a caver named Bob Montgomery, whom is actually our best caver friend to this day.  So it was funny to us to learn someone with his same name was responsible for the fame of Rhyolite’s most productive mine, and not because of his boasting, but because it did out-produce them all.

The Montgomery Shoshone mine was later owned by Charles Schwab, who purchased it in 1906 for a reported 2 million dollars. The financial panic of 1907 took its toll on Rhyolite and was seen as the beginning of the end for the town.  The town and its people may be gone, but the history and its mines live on.

Let’s go!

Queen of Sheba Mine, Death Valley National Park, CA

The mine is befitting of her title.  Of the hundreds of claims and strikes in the history of Death Valley, the Queen of Sheba Mine out produced them all.

The mine was originally staked by Chester Pray whom named it Carbonate.  Chester found a vein that would assay at 15 percent lead, five ounces of silver and traces of gold per ton.  The ore in the mine was good but transporting to the nearest smelter to melt the iron was way too costly.  In time the price of lead rose with speculation of war.

It didn’t take long for the mine to capture the attention of Jack Salisbury, a Death Valley promoter who was well known.  The two men entered into a partnership in April of 1913.  The Carbonate mine was now in direct competition with other mines in the vicinity.  With names like Silver Queen, King Solomon, and Gold Crown, the men renamed the Carbonate to a name better suited for her and she became The Queen of Sheba Mine.

Jack returned to San Francisco to attend to his business interests and Chester oversaw the mining operations.  Business was good so it was a complete surprise when Chester Pray was found dead at age 40 with a few bullet holes in his head just two months later on June 7, 1913.  Mine worker Jack Gallagher testified in court that Chester’s body was found a few hundred yards down the road from camp.  His death was ruled a suicide, a case of mental derangement brought on by sunstroke he suffered years ago in the sun.

Jack took sole proprietorship of the Queen of Sheba Mine.  In her hey day, the Queen yielded 40 tons of lead a week, enough to supply the demand when WWI broke out and prices of lead ore tripled.  The legend of the Queen of Sheba Mine was forever sealed when her story was made into a Hollywood film in 1921.

We, the DeLucia family, stumbled across the Queen of Sheba Mine on our vacation last week.  It was the last day of our trip and naturally you always find the best last.  We were exiting Death Valley in California and saw a sign that read Queen of Sheba Mine and Don did a quick turn and off we were.  He didn’t have to ask me (Lisa), Dani or Josh.  He knew the answer.

The road was rough to say the least.  It only got worse the more we drove on it.  You can not do this road without a 4×4 vehicle.  It is the scree slope of the mountain and full of rocks that keep getting larger and larger and the road gets more dips as you drive.  Think of a wild roller coaster on horseback, only we were going slowly, and you couldn’t feel it with the rocking and swaying.

The closer we got to the mountain the more we realized it was worth the pain to get there.  A hole in the mountain became evident, so did some cabins.  You could see the small trails that lead to the mines and what was once a main road in the area.  As we got to the Queen of Sheba camp you could see plenty of ruins and rusty kitchen appliances, bed frames, auto parts, and mining remnants.  It’s in pretty good shape as far as ghost towns go.  We just kept walking along and exploring everything we came across, impressed by this little diversion on our drive home.

Without planning we found ourselves in front of some holes in the mountain.  We naturally had our lights but not the right footwear or clothing.  It didn’t stop us from exploring the mines.  Those sorts of things attract us like magnets.

The hike was lengthier than it looked but worth it.  The mines were more extensive than we imagined.  There was a deep shaft that we looked down with our flashlights, not equipped with rope or helmets to do it right.  We did all the horizontal passages which were impressive and some had light rail tracks on the ground.  There were sluices with rocks in them.  The mine had multiple entrances, climbing in some areas, and a big room that had a beautiful sunbeam streaming in.  You can enjoy the beam of light ­­no matter what time of day it is in our slideshow.  And the best part, you don’t have to suffer the painful road back, but that’s part of the adventure when you go outdoors and not.

Let’s go!

Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve, California

Mitchell Caverns has two distinctions.  It is known as the commercial cave en route to Las Vegas from California on Highway 40.  It is also the backdrop for the film “The Doors” starring Val Kilmer where he goes on a drug induced trip in the cave.   Located at an elevation of 4,300 feet in the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve offers a tour of the only limestone cave within the State Park System.   The preserve temperature remains mild throughout the year and the cave temp is a steady 65 degrees.   Most popular months to visit are between October and May when the weather is more comfortable in the desert.

Today Mitchell Caverns tours are led by Park Rangers who guide you through two cave systems that were connected.  Mitchell cave gets its name from past owners Jack and Ida Mitchell originally of Texas.  During the depression, Jack Mitchell left his business in Los Angeles, moved to the desert and eventually began operating a tourist attraction from 1932 to 1954, now known as Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve.

In Mitchell’s day, Jack led tours with flares into the two adjacent caves which he named “El Pakiva,” meaning the Devil’s house, and “Tecopa,” in honor of a Shoshonean chieftain.  The two caves were bought by the State of California in 1954 are now connected by a man-made tunnel for a total of a quarter mile of cave passage.   The actual building in which the Mitchell’s lived in is now the visitor center and there are other buildings nearby.  Wear good shoes when you do the cave tour as the total trip up the mountain, tour and back is one and a half miles of steep terrain.

Mitchell Cavern is the commercial cave opened to the public and there is a fee to enter.  There are also other wild caves within the Providence Mountains Recreation Area.  When you are there at the Preserve in the gift shop take a good look at the map they have on sale of “Cave of the Winding Stair” (or on their website).  This a non-public cave that we both helped on the survey project of the cave.  Look closely and you will see our names Don and Lisa DeLucia on the map.   Our friend Bob Richards drafted the map.  Now that was a fun trip, but this cave is on the most technical level and involves lots of deep pits to do and rappel drops.  But that was Winding Stair and another story for another time.

We invite you to follow along on our trip of Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve.  Guarantee our way will save you packing time and gas money.

Let’s go!

Devil’s Postpile National Monument, Northern California

It may have just closed for the season but you can take a virtual trip now to the most impressive geologic wonder that is the Devil’s Postpile National Monument in Northern California.  This is where you can see very rare and one of the best  displays of columnar basalt on the planet, natural columns of lava flows that slowly cooled into unique 60 foot tall vertical towers.  Viewed from close up or afar, these hexagonal shaped pillars offer some of the most scenic natural art works of mother nature and have been protected since 1911 by presidential proclamation.

The Devil’s Postpile was formed about 100,000 years ago when a lava flow eruption two miles up was obstructed and the flow was forced to pool as deep as 400 feet and cooled at such a slow rate that resulted in perfectly uniformed mineral composition of hexagonal columns.  Glaciers flowed 80,000 years later leaving a natural polish that is still visible as you can see in our slideshow.

A trip to the Postpile would not be complete without seeing the adjacent Rainbow Falls. It’s only a 2.5 mile hike from the Ranger Station and worth it.  Rainbow Falls is the highest waterfall, dropping 101 feet, on the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River.  And it gets its name for a reason, the lava black background spectacularly frames vivid rainbows that appear through the mist of the falls on sunny days. After the hike to the falls you can return via a shuttle bus at the trailhead. As with any hike, be sure to bring along plenty of water and sun protection.

Located in the Sierra Nevada this area can be subjected to brutal winter weather with 20 feet of snow not uncommon.  That is why the roads are closed for the winter season and reopen in the spring.

Hikers and backpackers can easily access the John Muir Trail and Ansel Adams Trail which both intersect at the monument.  Permits are required for all overnight trips.

The beauty of Rainbow Falls combined with the geology of the Devil’s Postpile makes for a most relaxing and worthwhile trip.

Let’s go!

Mother Earth’s Pumpkin Patch in Anza-Borrego, California

As Halloween nears we thought it would be nice to include Mother Earth’s decorations for the festivities.  That can be found at The Pumpkin Patch in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California.  Yes, here you can find nature’s finest pumpkins set in stone for all to enjoy throughout the year.

Just like in the popular Charlie Brown Halloween classic featuring the great pumpkin that can be elusive to find, so is The Pumpkin Patch, which is literally in the middle of nowhere.  Luckily we found it on our first try and were thrilled with the discovery.  The Pumpkin Patch may not be much to look at for some, but to us, it was wonderful.

The Pumpkin Patch is an isolated area full of concretions.  These naturally occurring concretions are actually cemented sand particles which are found in the Colorado Desert and in southeastern California, hence the ones in Anza-Borrego.  A concretion is a compact mass of mineral matter that embeds on a host rock of a different composition, or a shell, leaf, fossil or insect.  This cementing action along with the result of wind and water naturally take on a spherical, disk-shape described fancifully as cannonballs, pumpkins, or dinosaur eggs.

The Pumpkin Patch has some of the most impressive naturally forming pumpkin rocks you will ever see.  They are all sizes along a bedding plane perched randomly over a small mud bank.  Some are a foot in diameter.  Some look like small pebbles which will eventually become big pumpkins in geologic time.  Concretions have been documented since the 18^th century with intriguing descriptions to explain the imaginative shapes of fascinating geologic curiosities, human artifacts and even extra-terrestrial debris.  The fact that concretions appear most in Diablo sandstone only adds to the mystery.  The Pumpkin Patch can be found in an area located within the Ocotillo Wells off-highway vehicle section, in the upper reaches of Arroyo Tapiado (meaning concretion wash in Spanish).  To see the Pumpkin Patch you will need an off-road vehicle as the terrain is sandy soft mud and very difficult to navigate.  Pay close attention to the random signs on the dirt roads or you can easily miss the turnoff.

If you don’t have a 4×4 vehicle to see the rock pumpkins but still want to do something fun and different for the Halloween season you should still go to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  One of our favorite stops every time we’re in the park is to visit the historic Butterfield Stage.  The state has restored the building and now it is one of the most famous of the Butterfield Stage’s way stations developed during the mid 19^th century when immigrants rushed to California during the gold rush.

On one of our trips a local shared a legendary ghost story pertaining to the Butterfield Stage station.  During the gold rush era a prospector asked his fiancé to join him at the Butterfield.  He had amassed enough to have his future bride come out and live in California with him.  She pioneered her way out west in covered wagon along the ruts in the trail and settled into the Butterfield.  Per her future husbands’ request, she brought with her a beautiful white gown to get married in.  She waited every night at the station for her groom to be wearing her white gown so they could get married as soon as they reunited.  Her wait turned into days, weeks, months, until she eventually became despondent.  After six months he never showed up and she hung herself wearing the white dress.  Ghost stories soon emerged about the lady in the white dress who would walk from the front to the back room on the right of the Butterfield Stage where she hung herself and then disappear.  Legend has it that she can be seen most on Christmas Eve when she died.

With nearly 500,000 acres Anza-Borrego is the nation’s second largest state park.  It is a low desert with its lowest part 100 feet below sea level, rising 6,000 feet at the high point in the San Ysidro Mountains.  The start park gets its name from explorer Juan Bautista DeAnza who pioneered a route through the vast rugged wilderness to Alta California from Mexico in 1774.  The park has 600 miles of mostly unpaved roads.   There is a lot to see in Anza, including mud caves.  But since we’re into the holiday season, we wanted to be in the spirit of Halloween and share Mother Nature’s very own Pumpkin Patch and a ghost story.  Won’t you join us on our tour of Anza-Borrego State Park, including the famed mud caves, pioneer ruts, Butterfield Stage, and The Pumpkin Patch?  We show you all in our photographic tour, minus the ghost.

Let’s go!

Mineral King, California

Mineral King is located just below Sequoia National Park in California.  The surrounding peaks and valley of Mineral King equal 12,600 acres of a beautiful glacial canyon spectacularly tucked within the incredible mountain peaks of the Great Western Divide.  The views are so majestic visitors often feel as if they are in another country, such as the French Alps.  The open beauty of the glacial canyon is wildly rugged and not easy to get to.  The road in is long, steep and slow going (RVs are not recommended); evident that nature is king here and not man.  The road access closes from November 1 and reopens in late May.  Backcountry permits are needed to explore the area.

Mineral King is best visited as a backpacking trip.  Just as the road in is long and grueling, so is the hike in, with major altitude gain that makes it a heavy breathing trip for all inclined.  This is a land of fresh air that one must work to breathe in.  This is also a haven for marmots famed for leaving their marks on unsuspecting parked cars.  Visitors are asked to check into their car hoods before driving off, as marmots are known to hide there and worse, eat radiator hoses and chew on electrical wires.

The valley gained prominence in the early 1870’s when silver was discovered.  By 1873 miners flocked to the area.  The Mineral King Road was built by a mining company in 1879 which open up access for future tourism to the present.  The mines never produced so the mining company opened the area up to logging, hydro-electric development, building, and tourism.  The area then became a designated game refuge within the national forest.  For more than 20 years Mineral King was in a bitter dispute to develop the valley into a ski resort.  By 1978 the valley and surrounding peaks were transferred from the national forest to Sequoia National Park by an act of Congress, forever protecting this stunning landscape.

Whenever we are in Mineral King we are there to cave.  It’s one of the few alpine caving areas remotely close to Los Angeles.  Just as impressive as the glacially sculpted valley of marble, schist and granite rocks are the snow capped mountains and delightful wild flowers including columbines, one of our favorites.   This area offers one of the most scenic backpacks to fun little caves worth the hike.  As you can see from our slideshow the caves are very smooth white marble that has been solutioned out from the melted glaciers.

We explored all the caves in the area and a seasonal one like the glacier cave carved out of a melting snow bank.  It made for very pretty pictures as you can see.  The next day we climbed the mountains and enjoyed the blue hues of a glacier lake high up.  Once you see the photos you will understand why we keep coming back for more alpine caving.  It literally takes our breath away.

Let’s go!