California 2nd November, a crater, two canyons and a mild sunset

From Scotty's Castle we drove a way along a rough dirt road to reach the Ubehebe Crater. This spectacular hole in the ground was formed when magma coming close to the surface of the earth caused steam to throw out the rock leaving a hole 500ft deep by ½ mile across.

While we were there a party with a guide scrambled up over the lip and we thought very briefly of a trot to the bottom, but it seemed a bit of a pointless exercise, and not easy. After the people had gone we were on our own. I was amazed that these places were so little visited.

So it was on to fresh fields or rather another canyon, Titus Canyon which lies south of Scotty's castle on the east side of the valley. To get there we retraced our steps and could see across the vast, flat area  of the central plain to the salt flats in the distance.

Titus Canyon stretches through from Nevada and is a single track road running east to west through the Grapevine Mountains. Again the road is not surfaced but a rough track. We started walking down it and heard the rumble of an engine in the distance. When the car passed us we had to flatten ourselves against the canyon wall to let it through! On the rare occasions that it rains, flash floods can rush through the canyon so that you would be met by a wall of water. If flooding is forecasted the canyon is then shut to all traffic. 

In the canyon it was lovely with the light filtering through the roof onto the warm rocks. 

Fall Canyon is a walk away from Titus Canyon. We started out in this direction not knowing how far away it was, but came upon a marker telling us it was 1½  miles. We had intended to have our lunch when we got there as time was getting on, so we walked fast over the uneven terrain until we got to the rim of the canyon around 3.00pm. It seemed hotter than usual with the effort we were putting in. When we got there we did not have the time to explore further (it's about 3 miles long) as we wanted to be close to Furnace Creek by sunset, so we just popped our heads inside and then walked back to the car. A pity as it looked beautiful and interesting.

Now it was time to return to our new camp at Furnace Creek. This was a much nicer site than Stovepipe Wells. We had a few scrubby trees by our pitch and a fire pit. The campsite is close to a resort where there is a shop and a restaurant as well as a large number of self catering chalets and a swimming pool. But we had to stop on the way back to catch a sunset over the Funeral Mountains, from the Harmony Borax Works. That evening we ate out thanks to Mairi for her birthday present to me. What a treat, even though we were filthy. But we did have our eyes on the showers by the swimming pool!!