Day After Thanksgiving: we had one more day in Panamint Valley, and it wasn't getting any warmer! I don't know what the actual temperature was, but all the little dogs (and some of the big ones) in the campground were wearing coats. I had studied 2 ride possibilities, but both involved the 13 freezing highway miles,and elevation gains (one went up to 9,000'). Now, if I were Reggie, right about now I would be saying, "Well sod that for a game of soldiers". So, we opted to go to the ghost town of Ballarat, which is on the valley floor, and the highway part has a lower speed limit so we could slow down a little. Once on the dirt, we could poke along slowly to conserve heat.

Oh, did I say "ghost town"? Ballarat actually boasts 2 residents, one of which is shown here:


There are several routes out of Ballarat, all going up into the mountains, so we rode the lower portions of a few, and discovered some places we will go next year.


The next day, we moved camp over to Death Valley, to the same site I reserve every year....the big one with a view.

Dogs left, bikes, right. We like this site since there is plenty of shade for the dogs, but this time we put them right out in the sun, and the little one still had to wear her coat. They could stay out only a little while before it got too cold for them.

I had neglected to take a picture of the view, but here it is from last year:


It was STILL cold, and the 2 rides I had wanted to do over here involved many highway miles to get to the dirt, so we decided to ride to some of the trailheads close to the campground and go hiking. Some random pictures:


This one I took specifically to show the blue sky:






This shows a typical nice valley floor road, although sometimes there can be a lot of sand:


There are over 1,000 miles of dirt roads in Death Valley National Park; some nice, some not. I guess we'll just have to keep going back !

Nice Pictures Redninja! enjoy riding, and ride safe.

Great pictures!

Alexd

Hi Redninja,

I couldn't have put it better myself!

Superb images and an impressive piece of demountable camper kit there.

Hey, Paolo.....There's nothing quite as beautiful as the forests you ride in, BUT......look..in the desert....NO MUD !!

Thanks, Alexd. I enjoy reading everyone else's RR's and seeing their pics, so I feel like a freeloader if I don't post something once in awhile....

Hey, Reggie....we really enjoy our demountable camping kit! It has a big refrigerator and all the rest, AND a real shower (albeit small)! We have some solar panels and a generator, so we can "camp" anywhere. And, best of all, it has a nice heater.....I really felt sorry for the tent campers in Death Valley.

Thank you whomever fixed it so my Part 1 now comes up before Part 2....when I put them up, I didn't think about that......

Hi Redninja,

can we see some more shots of it please, as I like to see how other's camp etc?

I have enjoyed my rides in Death Valley, Redninja. Both trips were in the winter, but not as cold as you experienced, apparently. Camping at Mesquite Springs campground in the north of the valley meant that we could be off the asphalt in just a few miles. Both years, though, we had to deal with high winds and chilly nights.
Nice photos, by the way. Seeing them makes me want to go again. Thank you for sharing.