Roadtrips from Death Valley

Our previous blog was on the wonderful time we had in Death Valley. This blog covers a couple of road trips we took while staying in Death Valley. Given that these trips were outside of the park proper and that blog was long already, we decided to cover our side trips in this separate blog.

Beatty, Nevada

Diesel gas in Furnace Creek in Death Valley cost $5.47 per gallon! Beatty, Nevada is 40 miles from the campground and diesel fuel there was $2.89 a gallon so it was pretty easy to make the decision to drive the truck out to Beatty to fill it up for the eventual ride out of Death Valley. To get to Beatty from Death Valley you drive over Daylight Pass at an elevation of 4,317 feet, but remember, you start at roughly -190 feet at Furnace Creek.

The first order of business once we got to Beatty was to find a place to eat lunch. According to a review on Yelp and other services, the best place to eat in town was Happy Burro Chili and Beer. We found an easy place to park near the building and when we walked in, it was a bit of a shock. The place is very small with maybe room for 4 people at the bar and room for 6 to 8 people at tables. They did have a rather large outside patio but it was a bit too chilly to be outside. The atmosphere was awesome and there were a few locals at the bar having a conversation with some colorful language. It was very entertaining , the chili was excellent and the beer cold.

What appeared to be the owner of the establishment or at least an elder statesman, showed off his invention of an all-in-one retirement tool. It was a baseball bat with a golf club and fishing pole attached. The fishing line had a golf ball attached to the end you could pitch the ball with the club and then reel it back in. Very clever.

After lunch, we got the truck filled up and stopped in the local candy store to check out their offering. On our drive back to Death Valley, we stopped at Rhyolite Ghost Town. One main attraction at the ghost town was a building made entirely of bottles mortared together.

Next to the Ghost Town was the Goldwell Open Air Museum. The highlight of the museum is Albert Szukalski’s ghostly rendition of “The Last Supper”. There are several other pieces of art and the stop made for an interesting detour on our way back to the campground and life below sea level.

Manzanar National Historic Site

In order to take a break from hiking, we took a road trip with Jim and Corrine to Manzanar National Historic Site. Like all good road trips, the ride to the destination was half the fun. The 116 mile ride took us over 2 very big mountain passes. At the summit of one of these passes was Father Crowley Vista. The views back down to the valley we had climbed out of were spectacular. Jim was able to drive his Jeep down to a cul-de-sac on the edge of the mountain. This made for advertisement-like photo opportunity so we just had to walk back up the hill to get the perspective necessary for the picture.

The visitor center and museum for Manzanar is located in the building that served as the High School during the internment. The exhibits described the times and what the government put US citizens of Japanese descent through. The never called them concentration camps or prisons or anything like that but they were certainly built and run just like a POW camp. Most of the buildings on site were replicas of those that were in place during the war. The only exception was the high school mentioned earlier. The memorial at the back of the internment camp was stunning, especially with the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

I suppose the beauty of the setting was the only positive thing going for those that were forced to give up their homes and forced to live in confinement. The attitudes of those affected varied widely but for the most part they viewed it as the price to pay for the American way of life. In either case, it was a dark period in our country’s history and the error of our ways was recognized by President Ronald Reagan, who signed the Civil Liberties Act in 1988 to formally apologize to the more than 100,000 people affected by the internment during WWII.

After our somber visit to Manzanar, we stopped in Lone Pine for lunch. We chose the Lone Pine Cafe based on the recommendation from the ranger at the historic site as well as the very high reviews the place had on social media. We were not disappointed as everyone thoroughly enjoyed the sandwiches we ordered. We even thought if it wasn’t for the 120 mile ride, we would probably return for another lunch.

Once we were full and so was the Jeep, (yup, it needed a diesel fill up, too) we headed back through the passes to our campsite in Death Valley. We all agreed the long road trip to Manzanar was worth the effort, especially given the beauty of the drive. If you are ever in the area you should make the effort to visit this important historic site.