There’s only one word to describe this week: HOT!
We left Williams, Arizona on Monday the 2nd where
the temperature was 77 degrees at 9:30 a.m. By the time we arrived in Pahrump,
Nevada, the temperature had risen to 97 degrees at 4 p.m., and only got hotter
before we were done setting up. Whew!
It was a difficult driving day, with heavy head winds and
temperatures reaching 100+ degrees. We also had to cross a mountain range,
which put additional strain on the black dually. In case you’re wondering,
there are no rest stops along I-93, so it’s a good thing we bring our
facilities along with us… We also discovered that the wind had unwound the awning
from the dining room slide, due in part to the mishap we mentioned in our blog
a week or so ago. Now what do we do? We were parking along 93, with heavy
winds, and semis going by creating additional wind gusts. The only thing we
could do was to completely remove the topper from the camper, roll it up and
stow it inside. The awning became like a sail with all the wind and it almost
blew Dick off the ladder he was using. We finally got the awning mechanism removed,
rerolled and stowed—what seemed to take an hour took only about 20 minutes.
What next? Wish we had taken photos… We’ll wait ‘til we get to our final
destination in Minden, Nevada before we decide what to do.
Our new site was at Preferred RV Resort, in the heart of
Pahrump. The park is owned and operated by park members, similar to a time
share and home owners association. There are 270 full hook-up sites, with trees
on each site. It’s really a lovely park, with a 24-hour manned front gate,
year-round heated pool, indoor spa, exercise room, billiards, woodworking,
sewing and stained glass shops, beautifully landscaped grounds with a cactus
garden and large pond with koi. Complete laundry and shower facilities are in
the clubhouse; shuffleboard and horseshoe pits are adjacent. Within walking
distance are a grocery store and 2 casinos.
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| 24-hour manned guard house at entrance to park |
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| Our site |
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| Our little neighborhood cottontail bunny |
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| Main street in the park |
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| The park's cactus garden with over 50 varieties of cactus |
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| The park's koi pond. |
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| Clubhouse and snack bar |
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| Building that houses wood working shop, stained glass studio/shop and the workout room |
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| Wood working shop |
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| Stained glass studio/shop |
Tuesday was another warm day, with temperatures in the upper 90s before the day was done. Dick took a 40 mile motorcycle ride from Pahrump to the California mountains. I stayed home in the AC.
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| Shadow Mountain, just a bit north of Pahrump |
Temperatures continued to soar the rest of the week, to the low 100s. WAY TOO HOT to do much of anything but stay indoors in the AC. Friends Ron and Kathryn arrived to spend a few days in the park with us. That evening we took advantage of the Nugget Casino’s buffet dinner—Yum! We didn’t have to cook in this heat!
Thursday’s temperatures continued to soar from 67 at 7 a.m.
to the upper 90s by 4 p.m. (Dry heat or no—it is hot! And, we’re just not used
to this constant heat.)
Dick took another motorcycle ride, this time to Death
Valley Junction, stopping in at the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge for
information. Among the things we saw were a jackrabbit, Shadow Mountain (just
to the north of Pahrump), the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel.
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| Amargosa Opera House and hotel |
Long used by area Indians, this site began to be utilized by prospectors and area settlers, and in 1907 a post office was established. It was at this time that the name was changed to Death Valley Junction. The first year the town gained several new businesses, all housed in tents. The next year the town really began to grow when new mines were found; permanent buildings were erected. The town's location made it a social center for the outlying areas.
The Pacific Coast Borax Company constructed a number of buildings, from 1923 to 1925, including a Spanish Colonial Revival whistle stop which centered on a hotel, theater and office complex building. The U-shaped adobe complex also housed a dormitory, store, a 23-room hotel, and dining room. A recreation hall was built at the northeast end of the complex, used for dances, church services, movies, funerals, and town meetings. The town's population peaked at about 300 people, but is heydays were short lived.
Having always wanted to design her own costumes, choreograph her own dances, and create her own shows, she and her husband rented the abandoned theater for $45 a month, assuming responsibility for repairs. Almost a year later, on February 10, 1968, she gave her first performance to an audience of just 12 adults. There were few visitors in the early years, sometimes, none at all so Marta began to paint an audience on the walls, including kings and queens, Native Americans, bullfighters, gypsies, and more. After 4 years of work she then began painting cherubs on the ceiling, with billowing clouds and ladies playing antique musical instruments. It was completed in 1974.
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| Marta Becket |
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| Marta's painted audience above, and painted cherubic ceiling below. |
The cafe eventually closed, but it was reopened in 2009. The Opera House and hotel also remain open, and apparently a museum is in the works. Several old buildings and the old train yards can still be seen in Death Valley Junction. There are no gas stations, in case you plan to visit. Oh, and Dick did not tour the opera house on his trip--he just took photos of the outside.
While he rode, Kathryn and I went grocery shopping. Dinner that night was at their camper, where they served fresh lake trout caught earlier in the week in the Colorado River in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah. Along with wild rice, pear salad, fresh fruit and ice cream, dinner was complete and a huge success. Yum! Afterward we played Pegs and Jokers for the first time in weeks. Alas, the guys won 2:1. Dang.
Friday we woke to 73 degrees at 7 a.m. That was cool
compared with what it was later in the day: 102 at 2 p.m., 85 degrees at 10
p.m., and it didn’t get much cooler overnight. Dick and I had done some
research on a nice place to eat: lunch (or dinner) at the Pahrump Winery. What
a beautiful facility. Here’s a bit of history on this place: http://www.pahrumpwinery.com/
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| Photo above and below show displays of their award-winning wines, since 2005 |
“The Pahrump Valley Winery opened in 1990 and the first vines were planted shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, wild horses thought these young vines were dinner and they fell victim to this herd. The vines were lost only to be replanted a couple of years later, this time with a fence!
In
the fall of 2002, Bill and Gretchen Loken discovered the winery and felt it
could have a bright future. The winery suffered from neglect and very little
wine was actually made here. In January 2003 they took control of the ailing winery
and began the long and much needed process of upgrading and renovating the
entire property. They installed a brand new, fully functional wine production
cellar including new stainless steel fermentation tanks, bottling line, grape
crushing and pressing equipment, refrigeration and cooling system, new oak
barrel room for aging wine, all new tasting room, guest lounge, substantial new
vineyard plantings and upgraded the landscaped grounds. This complete and total
renovation of the winery also included a new state of the art kitchen and
complete remodel for their new restaurant, Symphony's.
The
winery has a small estate vineyard planted in the early 1990’s and
surprisingly, these vines had never been harvested. Fast forward to 2005, when
they successfully harvested the first one and a half tons of Zinfandel grapes. This
resulted in the 2008 release of Nevada's first
ever commercial red wine, their 2005 Zinfandel…
What is more surprising is this Zinfandel wine won "Gold" at the
Pacific Rim International Wine Competition, making it Nevada's first Gold medal
winner for a home grown wine. They also released the state's first commercial
"inter-specific" or hybrid wine in 2009, their award-winning 2008
Frontenac. Now they like to say, they’re "Bringing Gold to the Silver
State".
They’ve
have been working for nearly a decade with various start up growers to help
shape Nevada's grape growing industry. Not surprisingly, this has been met with
many challenges and the results have been mixed at times. However, they are now
making great strides with several Nevada vineyards located in Pahrump Valley,
Armargosa and Crystal Heights. They harvest over 10 acres of Nevada grapevines
spread over 3 vineyards. The Nevada grown harvest for 2012 exceeded 20 tons of
grapes and the 2013 harvest yield was nearly 30 tons of grapes.”
Today,
the Pahrump Vinery is the recipient of over 390 National Wine Awards since
2005. If you’re ever in this area (just 55 miles from Las Vegas) it’s worth a
stop for lunch or dinner. The food is fabulous, servers are knowledgeable and
courteous, and the facility is lovely. White table linens, crystal wine and
water goblets…nice. Dick and Ron each had a chicken Panini, Kathryn had a
cheese steak sandwich, and I had smoked turkey on whole wheat; we shared a
bottle of their Pino Grigio. YUM!
That evening we all headed to the Nugget for some “playing”
time: slots and blackjack. Needless to say, we did not walk away winners, save
Kathryn who was a slight winner.
Saturday Dick and I took a long and hot trip to Ash Meadows National
Wildlife Refuge. (Temperatures were in the high 70s when we left at about
10:30, and the thermometer read 107 during our return trip. Temps reached 104
when we exploring. HOT!) The refuge is the largest remaining oasis in the
Mojave Desert, and boasts at least 26 plant and animal species found nowhere
else in the world. Accessible on unimproved gravel and graded roads, we stopped
at the visitors’ center and 4 special areas of interest: Crystal Spring, John
Longstreet Spring and Cabin, Devils Hole, and Point of Rocks/Kings Spring.
Crystal Springs
One of the nicest springs in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife
Refuge is Crystal Spring. It is close to the visitors’ center and Crystal
Reservoir, but Crystal Reservoir has its own sources. The Crystal Spring
outflow flows off into the desert and supports a sizable area of lush vegetation
and animal life. Nearby associated seeps also support lush vegetation.
The just under a mile walk along the stream created by the
spring is accomplish on a raised wooden walkway that leads to the spring and
back in a large loop. The water produced by the spring looks to be complete
pure and clear. Water comes out at the spring too warm for fish and some water
plants, but just around the bend they both take up residence in the stream as
the water cools. The output of the spring is 2,800 gallons of water per minute
and is 15’ deep at the source.
In the stream we saw pupfish swimming against the current
(too small to show up in photos) and small crawfish. Lots of vegetation lines
the shores of the stream. Normally an easy walk but the heat on the day we
visited made us use any available shade for relief.
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| Yerba Mansa perrenials |
Although nothing for certain is known about John Longstreet,
and there are no existing documents to back up his claims, he claimed to be a
relative of General James Longstreet of the Confederate Army; he claimed to
have ridden with Mosby’s raiders (a Confederate guerrilla force during the
Civil War); and, he claimed to have been a Pony Express rider. The only
evidence of his past is his missing ear, punishment for boys caught cattle
rustling in Texas. The alternative was hanging. Regardless, John became known
as a man not to be trifled with.
John liked the emptiness and
barren wasteland of Southern Nevada (6,500 people in a land area of 246,000
square miles) perhaps because he was afraid someone from his past would hunt
him down. John lived for many years around Ash Springs, Nevada, where it was
said that every man in Ash Springs was “on the dodge for something.” He tried
his hand at mining and ranching; saloon keeping and owning a drugstore, but he
always ended up having to shoot someone. With an affinity for the Indian, he
helped them numerous times against white men who attempted to cheat them,
whether Indian agents or mine owners. Learning the language of the Southern
Paiutes, he spoke like one of them. Known as a “squaw man,” he had several
Indian women who lived with him throughout his life, as a white woman would
have found his lifestyle very difficult.
After several scrapes with mine owners and the law in
California over mistreatment of Indians, John returned to Nevada and his Ash
Meadows ranch in 1894. He started a horse ranch specializing in quality horses
for the Army; he caught and “gentled” Mustangs which he took into Tonopah,
Nevada each year on the 4th of July to give to local children.
Born in about 1834, John died of a festering, accidentally self-inflicted
gunshot wound at the age of 90 in 1929. His cabin, destroyed in a flood in xx,
was restored by the U.S. Forest Service in 2004 and 2005, to its original size,
using the same materials. The cabin is unique in that Longstreet built it into
a fossil rock and used spring water to cool it. We can attest that it was at
least 20 degrees cooler inside than outside! http://www.ruralite.org/archive/2006/07/c-42%20pp%204-5%20july_2006.pdf
While walking the boardwalk to the cabin, we saw a cotton-tailed
rabbit, a jackrabbit hidden in the cleft of a rock, heard the deep two-art
drone of a bull frog and the drumming of a toad, but didn’t see them.
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| The jackrabbit we found hunkered down in a rock crevice. |
Devils Hole
Devils Hole is a water-filled cavern over 500 feet deep (although
the bottom has never been mapped). It is home to the entire population of
naturally occurring pupfish, which have been isolated in this cavern for 10,000
to 20,000 years, due mainly to the constant temperature of 92F and salinity.
The pupfish, which are less than 1” in length, primarily feed on algae and
spawn on a small rock shelf near the surface.
Devils Hole is not only a window into a vast aquifer of
fossil water (water believed to have entered the ground water system thousands
of years ago and that has seeped into current aquifers), but it is an unusual
indicator of seismic activity around the world. Large earthquakes, as far away
as Japan, Indonesia and Chile, have caused the water to “slosh” in Devils Hole,
as if it were water in a bathtub, splashing as high as 2 feet up the walls.
Starting in the mid-1990s, the Devils Hole pupfish
population began what was to become a severe decline. Although studies were
undertaken to better understand the decline, its cause(s) have not been
determined. Efforts continue to save this species that has existed for
thousands of years.
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| Sign for Devils Hole (notice misspelled word...find it?) |
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| Walkway to Devils Hole |
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| Devils Hole |
Point of Rock / Kings Spring
Although well-built boardwalks took us through the visitors’
center and Crystal Spring Boardwalk, and the Longstreet Spring and Cabin
Boardwalk, perhaps the most beautiful boardwalk took us to the Point of Rocks
overlook and Kings Spring. We strolled through flowering mesquite, willows and
ash trees, over the spring fed streams leading to the overlook to the Spring
Mountains. The temperatures had soared to 104, but thankfully there was a bit
of a breeze. We saw cottontails and a species of pupfish in the water, but
little else. There had been reports of big horned sheep (ewes and lambs), but
we didn’t see anything. (They were probably trying to stay cool!) Along our
walk we saw holes in the limestone where ancient Indians ground their corn or dried
mesquite pods.
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| Welcome sign to Point of Rocks |
By the time we returned to the truck, the temperatures were reaching 105. We probably drank more water and Gatorade this day than any other day in our lifetimes!
We stopped at our favorite store (Walmart) for groceries
upon our return to Pahrump, where we picked up corn on the cob, bread, and hot
fudge sauce for our contribution to dinner with Ron and Kathryn. (We could
hardly wait to get back to the camper for showers!) Dinner was chicken on a
salad, loaded with fresh fruit, topped with her home-made poppy seed dressing.
YUM! Dessert was Blue Bunny bunny tracks ice cream and hot fudge. Nothing
better after a day in the hot sun!
Later that evening we played another few games of Pegs and
Jokers, followed by a game of Golf. I won Golf, but I don’t really want to
mention the other game…Kathryn and I didn’t do well at all…’nuff said…
Ron and Kathryn left Sunday morning by a bit after 8 a.m.,
heading for Los Angeles. By the time they left it was already 75 degrees, with
the promise of temps here reaching 104 by late afternoon. I did do laundry, and
Dick did preliminary preparation for our departure Monday morning, but any
activity outdoors leaves one totally sapped of any and all energy. We hope to
be out of here, heading to Hawthorne, Nevada, early Monday morning. Hopefully
there will be cooler temps greeting us there.
Hugs to you; stay cool!
RJ and Gail
A = Rockport, Texas
B = Kerrville, Texas
C = Fort Stockton, Texas
D = Carlsbad, New Mexico
E = Santa Fe, New Mexico
F = Holbrook, Arizona
G = Williams, Arizona
H = Pahrump, Nevada
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