Part 4: Mengel Pass to Stovepipe Wells

20120320

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The Trip

From the crest of Mengel Pass, we descended the west slope of the Panamint Range through Goler Canyon Wash.

The photos below are what we saw.

There were a number of mines in Goler Canyon.  Many had old equipment that had been abandoned.

This mine was a rather big operation.  Note the road cuts on the far cliff.

We stopped at the headquarters for the Newman Mine.


Pretty spartan,  but the cabin was in pretty good shape.

The Panamint Range was formed due to a large uplift.  The tilting of the strata are now apparent in the rocks exposed in Goler Canyon.  Note the angle of the bedding in the photo above.

Approaching a large dropoff in the  canyon, we spotted this pregnant ewe sheep watching us from the cliffs above.

She watch us for quite a long time and did not seem afraid.

The trail had a 5 foot waterfall that stopped these Jeepers.  We were coming downstream, so we did not even dismount to inspect it before coming down.

I was the first one down, so no photos were taken.  But, we did get this photo of Roberto on the descent.

The egress from Goler Canyon gave us a great view of the Panamint Valley.

The west slope of the Panamint Range had heavy mineralized deposits.

There was one big mine on the west slope that was exploiting the minerals.  The mine name was C.R. Biggs,  but it was not clear what they were mining.

The Biggs operation was quite large.

Panamint dry lake occupied the valley floor.

From the floor of the Panamint valley, we headed north, then east back into the Panamints to see the charcoal kilns.  Above is a view of 11,000 foot Telescope Peak, the highest point in the range.

To our north were more areas of heavy mineralization.

We had many overflights from Navy jets training at China Lake NAWS.  There was a flight control radar in the valley to keep a watch on the planes.

Roberto was kind enough to take the photo above when we arrived at the charcoal kilns.

The mountains in the area were steep and rugged.

The kilns were used to produce charcoal from pinon pine in the area.  The charcoal was used for smelters to the west of the kilns.

The kilns were built around the turn of the century and were  later refurbished by the Park Service.

From the kilns, we headed back into the valley, north then back into the Panamints to see Aguereberry Point.  The view from the point was stunning.


The air was sufficiently clear to allow a view of Mt. Charleston north of Las Vegas.  There is a ski area on Mt. Charleston.

The dry lake at Badwater was visible from the point.

To the north, we could see the northern reaches of the valley.

On the descent from the point, we got a slightly different view of the valley.  Note the bedding in the rocks.

The floor of Death Valley is a quite inhospitable place.

A panoramic view of Death Valley as rendered by my new Fuji X10.  A stunning vista.

Oh no!!  I was walking by Roberto's truck and noticed an oil leak.  Closer inspection showed that EVERY hub bolt was loose.  One was in danger of actually falling out.  If these bolts had become much looser he would have had a complete loss of the wheel.  And, it is tough to steer with only one front wheel.  We spent about 1/2 hour tightening these bolts and refilling the hub oil.  It is not clear if there was  damage, but we should find out in the next few days.  Sadly, I am too familiar with replacing these hubs.  But, if it does fail, Roberto has  a problem since he has no spare parts in his kit.

It was Roberto's turn to cook and we had steak.  The weather was nice and that allowed us to cook outside without frostbite.

We headed to Stovepipe Wells and stayed in the organized campground there.  We met Matt and Nancy as planned and had a great steak dinner.

Tomorrow: exploring Death Valley tourist sites.

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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2012, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.