DEATH VALLEY - 5 (FINAL)

on the afternoon we arrived in Beatty we took the opportunity to ride
out to Rhyolite as it was only about six miles away.  I've combined these two visits in one posting.

Artist's practice casting

The Last Supper (table missing)

 

Ceramic tile couch (why?)

Bottle House

What's left of Bullfrog, SW of Rhyolite

Building bottle house

Rhylolite is actually just east of the park 

boundary.   Gold was discovered at the Bullfrog mine just west of Rhyolite in 1904 and led to the last American gold rush.  This was once the biggest town in the Death Valley area boasting a population of 5,000-10,000 during its heyday from 1905 - 1911 but the beginning of the end came with the financial panic of 1907 and the last mine closed in 1908. It once had 2 churches, 50 saloons, 18 stores, 2 undertakers, 19 lodging houses, 8 doctors, 2 dentists, a stock exchange and an opera. Along with the ruins there is a more modern art museum as well as a well a preserved house made from bottles which was not totally unique as wood was in short supply. On our first visit there we had taken a couple of rough back roads – one to a cemetery for a geocache and the other a loop back to the highway.  On the loop I made one of the most perilous and lucky crossing of a rocky stretch that I’ve made.  I was shaky after that little stretch.  We climbed up a small mountain just off the highway to get a geocache on the way back.  We found another good barbeque place back in Beatty for dinner.  We had traveled 165 miles that day and 470 for the Death Valley part of the trip.

We found a better way back to Winnemucca the next day and were making such good time that we went on to Boise and had breakfast the next morning with son Milo and grandson Mason.  It was a fantastic trip that I’ll never forget. M/W