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After completing the Mojave Trail it was time to start wandering in the direction of home.  We had one more potential stop in our plans, and we had enough days left to do it.  We headed north to Death Valley.  We had a side trip on the way north to the China Ranch Date Farm near Tecopa.  Having never seen Date Palms before, but loving dates, I was immediately impressed to see this little oasis.

We took a walk around the plantation and enjoyed a date shake.  Many of the palms were loaded with dates which looked ready to harvest.  Yum.

After an enjoyable if quick visit to China Ranch we moved on northward to Death Valley.  I had last been here in 2015, and it was just long enough of a visit to find out that one could spend an eternity here and probably still have more to see.  It was with that in mind that instead of trying to see it all, we picked a side canyon with a good looking hike as our main destination for the stay and started our slow bumpy drive into Johnson Canyon.

By the time we found a spot to stay for the night the sun was already casting its afternoon light onto the Amargosa Range.  We had Johnson Canyon all to ourselves and enjoyed watching the sun fade and the light change in the late afternoon.

It was especially windy so we turned in early and overnight we had our only rain of the trip, as a few drops fell on the camper in the middle of the night.  The next day was Thanksgiving.  We spent most of the day hiking to Hungry Bill’s Ranch.  There’s lots of information out there about the history of Hungry Bill’s so I won’t recreate it here, but if you are interested I think Exploring and Informing has a pretty good write up here.  When heading further up Johnson Canyon the next day we ran into a particularly rough patch of road we decided against driving over, so we ended up with quite a bit longer walk that we originally anticipated.  It was sunny and warm and we had the entire place to ourselves, so it was a good meander.  A couple of feral burros were our only company and they made enough of a ruckus to let us know they were there.

As we worked our way up the canyon the typical dry landscape gave way to springs and soon after to a vibrant stream with lush vegetation.  Rare sights for Death Valley.  I suppose that is what made this valley a viable location for a vegetable farm.

It became so lush that it was necessary to bypass the stream bottom to make forward progress up the valley.

I’ve studied a few photos from other visits and it appears that the vegetation is continuing to fill in and disguise more and more of the history here.  The rock walls still have quite a story to tell though.

As was the theme for the entire trip, before too long it was time to turn around as daylight was already fleeting and we had a bit of a walk back to the truck, and still had a Thanksgiving dinner to cook.  We made camp in a spot many that have visited Johnson Canyon will recognize, next to the old car that I’m sure has its own story to tell.  Sun set on camp not long after we established it, at about 3:20.  Our dinner of ribs and sweet potatoes made a good Thanksgiving.

The next morning we made our way out of Johnson Canyon and on to Warm Springs Canyon and eventually Butte Valley.  Warm Springs Canyon is an area of some of the more recent mining activity and there are a lot of artifacts to check out.

My real interest in venturing this way was to see Striped Butte.  I’d seen it in a few pictures and it looked very interesting.  It was on the route towards home, more or less.  So on we went. 

We found a camp with a great view of the butte and admired it as we watched the sunlight fade across the valley.  Not to be outdone by the previous nights early sunset, the last sun hit camp at 3 p.m. sharp.

A coyote woke us up in the middle of the night, giving me the perfect opportunity to get up and capture the butte in full moonlight with the stars up above.

The next day was our second to last on the road.  We departed Butte Valley and headed up over Mengel Pass.  For those that haven’t heard of it, Mengel Pass is just a tad on the rough side.  I think Carl Mengel picked out the rockiest location possible and called it a road.  I guess there is a reason why Charles Manson chose this for a hideout.  There were a few challenging portions but we were soon at the summit and headed down the other side toward Goler Wash.

We made it down the other side and headed out Goler Wash.  I was too busy gripping the steering wheel for many pictures, I suppose I should have stopped to take a few more of this epic ‘road’.

Leaving Death Valley behind it was time to put on some miles towards home.  Our destination for the night was Benton Hot Springs, having enjoyed it so much on our way south.  Then it was just the long ride north to home.  Our seventeen days on the road had passed in the blink of an eye.  A tour of southern California to remember.