A Trip to Death Valley, 1932 - The Journal
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Furnace Creek Inn
Death Valley, California
Trip to Death Valley—
Left Los Angeles Friday April 22, 1932 at 9 P. M. Spent night at ranch in Littlerock. 100 miles (on leaving for trip).
Sat. 23rd — Went to Palmdale and talked over Death Valley trip with Mr. Mennig as he had just returned. Drove back to the ranch, packed up and started off at 3:30 P. M., weather cool, rather windy. Had a lovely drive to Olancha, then decided to go to Darwin for the night instead of pushing on to Lone Pine. Got there about 8 P. M. We had a lovely little cabin for $2.00, which had hot and cold water. We had a good dinner at the Outpost. Elevation about 5000 ft., very cold — 166 miles.
Sund. 24th — Got up early, it was a beautiful day. Had a fair breakfast, and after buying a lamp vase that had been colored by sun, we left Darwin at 8 A. M. There was a beautiful view of Death Valley coming down into Stovepipe Wells Hotel before 11 A. M. Temperature was only 88 degrees. Waited for some coffee to fill our thermos bottle, and started on for Beatty at 11:10 A. M.
As we crossed the valley, we negotiated some very deep sand near the dunes. Past here, there was a broken stone road all the way to top of Daylight pass between Grapevine Mts. and Funeral Mts. At the top of the pass, it was cold, windy, and very muddy, so we went down the grade a little to get out of the wind and had a picnic lunch.
Lunch finished, we drove down into the Amargosa Desert and across to Rhyolite. Just before reaching Rhyolite, we had a flat tire and lost about ? hour. Rhyolite is an interesting deserted gold mining town, all falling to pieces. We spent most of our time looking at the bottle house — then we followed an old railroad that led to Beatty. In town, we had a funny old rheumatic garage man mend our tube, (it had a HUGE hole in it), and mount it. Before he finished with that tire, though, we found another tire going flat. There was a large spike in that one. He fixed that one too, and got it all on the wheel. Not until he had the tire mounted back on the car did he find he had put tube in the wrong way, with valve inside, so it all had to be done over again. We lost an hour there, and spent another ? hour for lunch with the garage man.
We started back toward Death Valley and a little beyond Rhyolite turned right onto a road that crosses the Grapevine Mts. This was a perfectly magnificent trip ’Äì we passed by Leadfield and then went through Titus Canyon. The roads were simply terrible. Just past Rhyolite, we had to drive up a grade with hairpin turns that was very narrow and rough. Going up, something began to rattle and gears to crash. We had visions of being stuck there, but it quieted down. Leaving Leadfield we went down Titus Canyon, narrow and very high walls of stone twisting and turning, just a riverbed for miles in deep, deep large gravel — endless, silent and bewildering. The wind was quite strong and the trip was very cool all the way.
We came out further north in Death Valley than Stovepipe Wells, and what with very rough roads, the wind blowing harder and harder, and much sand blowing near the Dunes, we thought we would never reach Furnace Creek Inn, but finally did at 8:15 P. M. Pretty tired after rocking around and bumping bottom all day, and the noise of something wrong in the car returning every once in a while to worry us. Had two lovely drinks and 2 baths, and then a nice dinner "cold plate" at 8:40 P.M. Almost no one in the Hotel — it closes May 1. Air very mild but much wind. 150 miles.
Monday 25th — Harvey found the other tire the old man had repaired and mounted at Beatty had its tube on the wrong way too, so had the garage near the inn remount it. Had a fair breakfast and started at 9 A.M. sightseeing. Went back a couple of miles to see Furnace Creek Ranch - not much, cabins/tent homes — and Harmony Borax Works, (ruins) then started down bottom of valley to see Devil's Golf Course. Went about 6 miles in all, and then the gears began to crash, crash, crash. We finally managed, in low, to crawl back to hotel garage. Very good mechanic found a nut loose on high gear, so we were driving two gears at once, which can't be done! It sounded as if the whole transmission was stripped, but he fixed it in a very short time, and we left again for Devil's Golf Course at 10:30 A.M., then back past hotel and out Baker way.
Went out on Zabriskie Point, through Golden Canyon, nasty narrow road and turn around top of tiny peak. We then drove through 20 Mile Team Canyon — very interesting — and then up to Dante's View. Perfectly magnificent and awe-inspiring. The wind was blowing terrifically and very cold — clouds all about. From Dante's View, went on to Shoshone — tiresome road — very hard to hold car in road. At the gas station in Shoshone, we saw two rattlers and a chuckwalla in a case together. From there, I drove to Baker. Hard, stony, corduroy road — shakes car to pieces. Around sunset, the light effects on the mountains were lovely. We reached Barstow at 8 P.M. for dinner at Harvey House and drove on to Victorville and ranch, arriving 12:30 A.M.
While unpacking the car another tire went flat and we found no water in the line for the house — The "end of a perfect day." 294 miles.
Total trip from ranch 610 miles.
Postscript:
Tuesday 26th — Still no water, tire still flat and battery dead!!! Got some breakfast with what we had in canteen. No one noticed our red flag of distress at the gate. H. H. D. walked over to the Andersons on Calle del Valle, and he took him up to well to fill everything with water, and to Brinks to phone Mr. Ellis, who came down to help us out. He towed our car to Palmdale.
Used by permission. © 2001 by Kent Duryee.
