Trip to Death Valley Questions

[Cruiserdrew]

Bob and Ward's cabin (you called it "Bedsprings") in Salt Basin is pretty nice but it is full of rats/mice. I once sat out one of the hardest rainstorms of my life in that cabin and was harassed all night by the mice. I finally gave up and got up when the rain stopped at 4 am. It looks like it never rains there, but at least once it did and I was worried about a nighttime flash flood! Still traumatized by the mice and the pounding rain. The next morning there was running water in the canyon just behind the cabin, that was completely gone and dry by noon.

The night you stayed at the Talc mine-I don't know if you checked out the Warm Springs Resort right next door. Cool old abandoned 1950s vibe resort, complete with swimming pool.

The nice cabin up in Butte Valley is the "Geologist's" cabin. Built by a geologist according to legend, and that's why it's made of rocks. You saw Russel's cabin and right next door is Stella's cabin. Stella was supposedly friends with Carl Mengel for whom the pass is named.

It looks like you camped the last night up on Mengel Pass. Was it cold or windy? I was there at the end of October and it was raining steadily up on the pass with low clouds and fog. THere's some video in Pablo's Death Valley thread if you're interested:

Death Valley 2016 Trip report

 

[SALTY METHODS]

@mmaakk Sure thing. The more the merrier. The more I go to DV, the more it draws me back. I would say at most, I've only covered 1% of that place.

 

[SALTY METHODS]

@Cruiserdrew
Yes, we saw their "grave" site which is right next to the cabin. One of my friends decided to sleep inside the cabin that night. I was too paranoid of hantavirus to do it. He said he slept like a baby. It probably helped that we were all pretty drunk that night.

We did get to experience Warm Springs Resort. Our first introduction to WSR was at night. It totally freaked us out to see a full blown modern day style house out in the middle of nowhere. We just happened to come across it after seeing the mining equipment across from the spring. One of our friends thought he saw someone shining a light on us. So we crossed over the spring and came upon this "house". Total horror movie setting... Abandon house in the middle of nowhere. Sign outside says "Enter at your own risk". We go in, bats flying around in most of the rooms. Hantavirus warnings in every room. Meat locker, old showers, bedrooms, the whole bit. Super creepy, super cool.

I believe it. Super cool view of the slanted rock. Forgot what people called it but you can see the layers of earth slanted diagonally out of the earth floor.

Yes, we did come across Stella's cabin also but by this time we realized one of our friends was missing, so we had to skip that cabin and try and find him.

Here's a better view of our last campsite. Pretty much in the middle of the trail and no one cared.. Except for maybe the donkeys. A couple of them came sniffing around our camp at night when we all went to sleep. We actually lucked out the whole trip. Calm winds, mild temperatures... Couldn't ask for better weather. If we would have went one week later, we would have had to deal with strong winds the whole time.

I'm sure you've seen this metal rope towards the westside of the pass. It is strung a few hundred feet up the wash's wall. I happened to see a video about this rope before I went on this trip. Somehow I saw it as we passed by so we stopped and I took my shovel and wacked it a few times. It sends a shockwave up the rope and it returns back down then goes back up, etc... etc... Pretty cool little tid-bit.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Very cool last campsite. I've often thought of staying right there, but we're either headed for Butte Valley, or it's windy and cold, or it just doesn't fit. But that's a spectacular vantage point. I may try to go next year a few weeks earlier hoping for better/warmer weather. Lots to see there in Goler Wash! Read the book Helter Skelter and then visit Barker Ranch if you really want to be creeped out.