TECOPA CALIFORNIA

Tecopa is located on the historic Old Spanish Trail in Southeastern Inyo County. It was originally a settlement of the Pauite Indians in the early 1800s and in later years by early prospectors and travelers. The trail is still visible in many areas in the Amargosa Canyon.

Tecopa is a a small community. It features a post office, church, school and a lots of trailers and shacks. We stayed at the county park campground that offers a Hot Springs Pool House. Linda and I thought we would enjoy this amenity until we discovered it was "clothing optional". We found the area offered enough things to do and explore, (in the clothing mandatory area)that we stayed plenty busy. We took a day trip to the Durmont Dunes, big beautiful sand dunes that are between two mountain ranges. The area around the dunes is used by OHV's, so there are lots of "jeep" trails to explore. Shoshone offers an excellent museum that tells the story of the area and its past. China Ranch is just 7 miles from our campground so Linda and I took advantage of the hiking trails that are located there. The entire area is a paradise for rockhounders. The Tecopa County campground borders Grimshaw Lake, which is dry with a few pockets of warm spring water, which seems to attracts water fowl.

This is another place we visited that is in the catagory of "if you don't have it with you, you don't need it". Pahrump is the closest thing to civilization you will find in the area. We recommend the county campground butt we can't offer anything on the hot springs?

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

Death Valley, the largest national park in the contiguous United Stated, comprises more than 3.3 million acres of desert wilderness. This fabled park features spectacular desert scenery, unusual wildlife and rich human history. The Badwater Basin salt pan, at 282 feet below sea level, is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. Death Valley summer temperatures frequently soar above 120 degrees, in 1913 Furnace Creek recorded a temperature of 134 degrees, on the Sahara managed to top this record by two degrees in 1922.

Linda and I traveled the 27 mile Titus Canyon road. Its narrow winding roads, ghost towns, indian petroglyphs and beautiful scenery made this something special. The road is a one way road and in some places its arguably not even that. We hoped that Leadville would be a complete ghost town but it was just 3 old metal shacks, but still it was pretty neat. The scenery makes the trip so pleasant. We packed ourselves a delicious lunch and let Titus Canyon provide us with a million dollar view.

One of my favorite adventures while at Death Valley was hiking the Mosiac Canyon. In some places the canyon walls were less than 2 feet wide. This canyon made you think you were at the end of the trail in several locations, but after looking around we always managed to find a route that allowed us to continue on. The end is a shear 40 foot dry falls, and you will have no doubt that this is indeed the end. I would recommend this trail to everyone that visits Death Valley. It is a strenuous hike in places but well worth the effort.

We took several scenic drives around Death Valley. It seems that every corner we came around offered us some great views of the desert. We enjoyed the Sand dunes at Stovepipe Wells, the Desert Five Spot flower that we saw at the mouth of Titus Canyon, the many different colored plants that adorned the desert. It would be easy to go on and on, I think that I will always have a special place in my heart for Death Valley. It was more than I expected.