or, "even the best laid plans often go awry."
You can start with a plan and attempt to stick to it, or you can ride the tsunami the universe sends your way. This is fluidity. Against all previous plans and decisions made in moral logic, I headed north this past weekend to a place I had wanted to visit for years. The Racetrack in Death Valley. But that wasn't the first stop.
A late start from LA getting the land cruiser set up. Throwing camping gear in, forgetting the maps, no real destination in mind. We headed up the 14 to land somewhere in the desert. My original plan (well plan B of the weekend) was to head east to long deserted location in the Old Woman Mountains. But that did not come to pass. Instead the Land Cruiser veered north east into the valley of death, stopping for the night in a town of ghosts: Ballart where we had the entire place to ourselves, except for the one caretaker. We meandered around the town, watch the sun set and stars come out. Sunday we were up early with the plan to do a serious hike, but one look at the gas tank and we decided we needed to find a gas station. This took us out of hiking way but jogged my brain and I remembered the racetrack - a mysterious lake bed in the northern part of Death Valley where rocks apparently move around of their own volition. It is only accessable by 4WD. I've never had the luck to be in Death Valley with a 4WD vehicle, the time and the memory of this dream. This time the stars lined up. We filled up the butch and drove up to Scotty's Castle, passed the Ubehebe Crater and headed to the Racetrack. Pictures are for the asking (email or comment) but video is posted here:
Its good hearing about some ghosts. Its a good blog. Please comment on my blogs on my site.
Posted by: rahul pathak | October 12, 2005 at 04:48 AM
Was the south end of the Racetrack (where the mystery rocks are) dried out? Because of the disproportionate amount of rainfall last year the south end was covered by a few inches of water when Susan and I were there last November:
http://wildbell.com/images/dv1113rp3.jpg
Posted by: Will Campbell | October 12, 2005 at 08:02 AM
I've never seen such a place. The various panoramic views were breathtaking. I especially like the ending shadow of Miss Heather in her hat!
Posted by: Colleen Wilder | October 26, 2005 at 12:41 PM