Day 3: Touring Scotty's Castle and Ubehebe Crater

March 27, 2011

Today is an easy short recovery day, but substantial climbing is required to get to both of today's attractions.

It was 43F (6C) at dawn, sunny and breezy. Because of the wind it didn't start to feel warm until 9 AM. I left the campsite at 10 AM to ride the partly loaded bike up to Scotty's Castle. First is the 400 foot climb from the campground to the main road. Then an 800 foot climb up Grapevine Canyon road to Scotty's Castle which is at 3000 feet elevation.

I bought a ticket for the noon house tour. Before the tour I walked up the hill to see Death Valley Scotty's grave and have an overview of the complex.

Scotty's Castle. Death Valley Scotty's grave is on the hilltop on the right.

Scotty's Castle was built in the 1920's by Chicago multimillionaire Albert Johnson. It is truly in the middle of nowhere. A large spring 1 mile uphill makes everything possible. The spring provides domestic water, irrigation, evaporative cooling, and hydroelectric power. The house is both an engineering marvel and an example of spare-no-expense craftsmanship in a very inconvenient location.

Mr. Johnson was only here a few weeks per year. His local caretaker was Death Valley Scotty, who first contacted Mr. Johnson about investing in a fictitious gold mine. Mr. Johnson knew that Scotty was a crook, but he was such a fun and knowledgeable guy that Mr. Johnson hired him anyway. Scotty lived the rest of his long life as manager of the property. It's now owned and managed by the National Park Service.

Scotty's Castle and the northern Panamint mountains.

Lower music room in Scotty's Castle. The keyboard in the lower right controls the carillon.

The main music room has a self-playing pipe organ with 1100 pipes. The tour guide started it up playing the sounds of an orchestra. Wow!

The upper music room has a pipe organ with 1100 pipes.

I knew in advance that the Scotty's Castle snack bar closed a couple years ago. So I was assuming that no real food is available there. Fortunately the park service gift shop has a refrigerated case with quality deli sandwiches and cold beverages. So I had a wonderful and very large cranberry chicken salad sandwich. Much better than the junk the snack bar used to sell.

Update: Scotty's Castle was damaged by a flood on October 18, 2015 when a year's typical rain (2.75 inches/7 cm) fell in only 5 hours. Scotty's Castle never re-opened.

Leaving Scotty's Castle it was downhill all the way to the intersection with Big Pine-Death Valley road (where I came in yesterday). Then the road climbs 800 feet to the Ubehebe Crater parking lot which is at 2600 feet elevation.

I hiked 3 miles in the area, going beyond Ubehebe Crater to walk around Little Ubehebe Crater. The area is volcanic cinder cones which have a significantly different color and shape than the rest of Death Valley which isn't volcanic. It's far above the valley floor with a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains.

Ubehebe Crater, view from the parking area.

I'm not happy with my pictures at Ubehebe crater. The real thing is more impressive than it looks in my pictures.

Except for a 300 foot climb it was downhill all the way from Ubehebe Crater to the Mesquite Spring campground. The campground is much less crowded tonight, Sunday night. I returned at 4 PM leaving plenty of time to wash clothes, have a shower (water bag was in the sun all day), shave, etc. The campground has a good afternoon view of the Grapevine mountains to the east, but it's best in the golden light of sunset. The campground was noisy and stinky until 7 PM when generators are banned.

Sunset view of the Grapevine mountains from Mesquite Spring campground.

Distance: 24.0 mi. (38.4 km)
Climbing: 2197 ft. (666 m)
Average Speed: 8.8 mph (14.1 km/h)
Maximum Speed: 36.5 mph (58.4 km/h)
Hiking: 4 miles (6.4 km)

Today's ride: 24 miles (39 km)
Total: 108 miles (174 km)

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