DEATH VALLEY - 4

While Titus Canyon had a lot of challenging road, every destination Thursday was on gravel roads with some tough spots.  We were on the road at 7:45 heading south on Highway 190.  This was all uphill and often we had the throttles pegged to maintain 50 mph.  As we continued to climb and it got colder and colder until finally at the summit I realized we must have missed a turnoff.  So we reversed course and rode back down to Wildrose Road which led off to the east. After ridding quite a distance we made a left turn on a gravel

road up to Aguereberry Point. The last part of this road was touch and go for me.  We finally hit the top at over 6,400 feet.  It afforded us some of the most spectacular views of the trip and as a bonus it was the only destination where we didn’t see a single person.  After hiking around the point a bit and taking some pictures we headed back down to Wildrose.

At Wildrose we took a left and continued up to where we got on a gravel road to the Charcoal Kilns. The kilns looked like 10 giant beehives. There was a campground just before the kilns so true to form there people here too.  The mountain surrounding the kilns is forested and 100+ years ago trees were harvested to feed the kilns and the charcoal has hauled out to be used in various smelters.  We hiked around there a bit before heading back down. 

Skidoo present

Skidoo past

On the way up Wildrose we had skipped the turnoff to the Skidoo Mine so as we were doing ok timewise we decided to do it.  Another 10 miles of gravel some of which was a bit challenging but  worth it.  At the end of the road was the mine site where

there had also been of town of 500 between 1907 and 1909.  The town had applied to the post office for the name “23 Skidoo” but the post office wouldn’t  allow a town to begin with a number so it was omitted.  Two or three vehicles (4 wheel drive) showed up while we were there.  We took a lunch break near a mine entrance tunnel.

We rode back to Stove Pipe Wells Village and topped off our tanks.  Before leaving the area we rode up another gravel road to the Mosaic Canyon where we hiked up the canyon about a half mile.  It had been carved by eons of rushing water leaving smooth rock on each side in different colors.  There were quite a few folks here too.

We still had plenty of daylight so we took the Daylight Pass and returned to Rhyolite to further explore the area. [To be continued] 

M/W