Hello, Salt Creek Pupfish here, just wanting to wish you a Happy Monday! I’d be willing to bet that your Monday will be happier than mine, because even though I may mate a few times today, chances are good I’ll be dead in a month … or maybe I’ll be dead this afternoon. I’m also only the size of a paperclip, and I’m scared of shadows. I only live in [...]
Read more
I only took black and white pics in Death Valley this time through. Got a couple good ones. I think B&W is more forgiving of tough exposures, but I still managed to only really like about 10% of the photos I took. Here are my favorites: Let me know if you want any of these for your walls. Besides framed 14″x10″ prints for $99, we’re going to start doing unframed [...]
Read more
We went back to Death Valley for the third time, a place we said we wouldn’t visit again on this trip, at least until we got a more rugged version of our Toyota Sienna (lift kit, anyone?). But it was a place that I still thought about, endlessly, and I’m so happy we had a chance to return. We managed to find plenty of new things to see, along with [...]
Read more
Eureka Mine is a tiny dot on the grand Death Valley map. It’s located off Emigrant Canyon Road, a small, in-and-out road whose primary purpose is to take hikers to the trail to the highest point in the park, Telescope Peak, and to take tourists to the charcoal kilns. What the dot doesn’t tell you is that Eureka Mine is also the site of a sweet little ghost camp (it’s not [...]
Read more
The first time we were in Death Valley, we tried to do the Golden Canyon/Gower Gulch Loop hike. We tried, but didn’t succeed, because the beginning of the hike, the Golden Canyon portion, is on the tourist must-do list. It was so busy the last time we were here that we turned around and found another canyon, the fabulous Desolation Canyon, that just happened to be deserted and beautiful. To [...]
Read more
“Excuse me,” the guy asked Lisa, “how do we procure a campsite?” That’s what this hipster said — “procure.” He and his significant other had just parked at the campsite next to ours inside Death Valley’s Emigrant Campground. They were on what sounded like their first camping trip. Lisa told them — they’re free, just set your shit up (but she said it nicely). “Can you build campfires here?” a [...]
Read more
We’re back in Death Valley and it feels both like we’ve never left and like it’s our first visit. The great thing about being able to return to the same place for the third time is that we can pick up where we left off in spots like Mosaic Canyon. On our first visit, we hiked about a half mile into Mosaic Canyon at sunset and were very sad to [...]
Read more
Oh, Death Valley, how I love thee! Let me count the ways… You’re silent. I don’t mean quiet – I mean silent. As soon as I’m a mile away from a road, the only thing making noise is me. Maybe there’s a little wind, or birds chirping, or ravens croaking, or a plane tearing overhead on its way to LA. But usually not. The soundtrack tends to be made up [...]
Read more
“Yeah, the Hearst Castle is amazing. The guest houses are four-bedroom mansions! Can you believe that? I’ve been there 10 times.” I’m getting travel tips from a gent that’s probably 60+ years old. He works in the area and just finished a night shift. I assume he works at one of the casinos in Pahrump, but I don’t get a chance to ask. He’s got old-man glasses and calloused hands. His glasses keep fogging [...]
Read more
Our posts from the last few weeks have been a little out of order. Over Christmas, holed up in Las Vegas, we had hoped to catch up on our backlog and get back to the order of reality. Guess what: it didn’t happen, and if anything we’re even more mixed up now than we were before. After a strange Christmas in Las Vegas, where every day feels exactly the same, [...]
Read moreJoin the 400+ people subscribed to our blog! Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or email.
The Syndicate Wine Shop