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Going to Death Valley

Tomorrow we are going to drive to Pahrump NV. We are leaving at 7:00am from the Fire station on 95.
Monday night we will stay in Pahrump.
Tuesday we will go into Death Valley and doo some trails there.
Tuesday and Wednesday nights we are staying in Beatty NV And will be doing more trails from there.

Hopefully we will get some pictures and I will be able to do a blog.

A Ride to Dripping Dprings, the Hog Back and More Computer Issues.

Still Having Computer Problems.

I have been trying to publish a blog for several days now but my computer hasn't been able to get on the blog site. This morning however it worked so here it goes.

Dripping Springs.

We met the rest of the group at the 76 Station on Main Street and Highway 97. My niece Connie and her husband Bruce came along on this ride. You can see their jeep on the right in the photo below.

 



At 9:00 we headed south on 95 to La Posa North BLM camping area. We cut through the camp area and eventually found the wash that goes to Dripping Springs.

 

 

The wash is kind of neat with some high walls in some places.

 

 

After a little ways the trail becomes a little rocky.

 

 



There are some minor obstacles in the wash but they aren't to hard to get over.

 

Here is a small ledge to climb.

 

 

 

The next obstacle is a bit harder but has several spots of lesser difficulty so everybody can get buy it.

 

This is the hardest approach and Eric getting over it.

 

 

Tom and Bruce took the easiest route around the left side. Gene and I took the medium hard side on the right. We all got through the spot and continued up the wash.

 

We drove up to The Dripping Spring parking area. Unfortunately this is the only picture we got there. The spring is in the canyon.

 

 

The mail Box Cabin.

We left Dripping Springs and wound our way along the narrow wash.

 

 

Eventually we broke out of the canyon, went over a steep hill and went back into the wash.

 

 

We drove around and over several hills until we came to the Mailbox Cabin

 

 

Here, we stopped for lunch.

 

The Hogback.

After lunch we continued our ride toward the Hogback.

 

The climb up the north side of the Hogback used to be pretty rough but it has smoothed out a little this season.

 

 

This is looking down the west side of the Hogback.

 

 



Here we go, starting down the Hogback.

 

 

The hogback is steep and narrow with a drop off on each side of the trail.

 

 

Once we were at the bottom of the Hogback we started the dusty ride across the flats heading back to Q.

 

 

Fortunately the breeze was blowing the dust away from the trail.

 

Okay, that was our ride to Dripping Spring and the Hogback. As always it was a fun ride.  

 

Blog Issues and a Jeep Ride

Blog Issues.

I have been having problems with the blog software. The problem is with Live Writer connecting to Blogger.
I was pretty frustrated with the whole thing so I decided to take a break and see if the two systems might start talking again.
It has been a week or so and still can't publish. I am using blogger now so maybe it will work.

A Jeep Ride.

On Wednesday we took a ride with the Wednesday jeep group. We met at the Fire Station and headed north to Parker where we topped off the jeeps.

From there we drove further north on AZ95. We crossed the Bill Williams River and a couple miles farther we came to a large turnout where many people dry camp. Here we stopped to air down.

We are just north of the Parker Dam. To the west we can see the pipes that take water from Lake Havasu and send it to Southern California.

At the north end of the parking area we dropped into a wash.

As we drove up the narrow wash, Patti saw these Pincushion Cactus.

At the end of the wash there are some rocks that we have to get through.

They aren't to hard, you just have to take the right line and go slow.

The Needle

Once we were through the rocks we headed for the Needle.

Here we are arriving at the base of the needle.

Most everyone else climbed to the base of the needle to look through the eye. A hole at the base of the needle. I have seen it many times so I didn't climb the hill.

Cattail Cove.

From the Needle we headed for Cattail Cove.

Lunch.

On the way to Cattail Cove, we stopped at a spot in a wash out of the cold wind to have lunch.

The trail to Cattail Cove goes through a long wash...

with steep sides...

and some rocky areas.

 



There are also a couple challenging Obstacles.

 

 

Once we got through the rocks we came to the end of the trail. We had to walk from here to see the Bill Williams River.

 

 

  We climbed a small hill.

 

 

 From here we could see the Bill Williams River where the bridge crosses it on AZ95.

 

 

Obstacles.

We turned around and headed back up the wash. Now we had to go up the obstacles we came down on the way in.

 

This actually looks worse than it is. Its just a matter of taking the correct line and going very slow.

 

 

We got through that one pretty easily and now we are at the next challenge.

 

 

 Black Jeep Dennis took the wrong line here and got the Rear Differential hung up on that big rock under him.

 

 

He had to be rescued.

 

 

We all made it through the next obstacle with little trouble.

 

 

 The rest of the way up the wash was no problem just a couple minor bumps.

 

 

 Out of the Wash.

After a while we climbed out of the wash...

 

 

 and headed across the desert.

 

 



We eventually came to a view spot where we could see the Parker Dam...

 

 



and Lake Havasu.

 

 

Back on Pavement.

We got back on highway 95 heading south. 

 

 

Presidents Choice Trail. 

We took the turnoff that goes to the Desert Bar. A little ways down the road we turned onto the President's Choice trail. This trail is pretty extreme so we don't do the whole trail, just a couple of spots.

 

We checked out the outlet of the trail. White jeep Dennis got off line and hung up on the big rock he was going over.

 

 

His jeep was a little harder to un-stick. We had to resort to jacking it up and putting rocks under the rear tire.

 

 

Once the rocks were set it was easy to pull him back off the boulder.

 

 

Of course once we had the jeep un-stuck Dennis tried the obstacle again and made it with no problem.

 

 

Spaghetti Dinner.

After playing for a while on the rocks we climbed out of the Presidents Choice trail.

 

 

 

We headed for the Blue Water Casino for a all you can eat Spaghetti Feed. The Spaghetti s good but the service was terrible.

Computer Issues.

I am not sure what is going on with the blogger software I use but it has taken me three days to do this blog because the program kept locking up. I would leave it for a day, then it would work again for a while. 

It may have something to do with all the thousands of people that are here for the RV and Gem and Mineral shows. I think they were overwhelming the internet connections. 

 

 

Okay that was our ride to the Needle. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day