Scotty's Castle and Our Humble Home

Tuesday through Thursday, November 8 to 10, 2011

 Camping in the Texas Springs campground in Death Valley National Park is interesting. It is $7 per night with a geezer card, and the campground is laid out on a hill side with gravel sites. It wasn’t hard to get level, and there is a fire pit and aluminum picnic table. The spaces are spaced okay, not too close together. The thing we find strange is there are a couple of restroom buildings with flush toilets, but they have no lighting of any kind in them. Oh well, you learn to take a flashlight.

 The 49er Encampment activities aren’t in full swing yet, but we didn’t have time for them anyway. Our first stop of the day was at the Stovepipe Wells area, where there is a ranger station, lodging, another gravel campground with RV hookups, and a general store with a penny smasher. The sand dunes are also in this area.  We got our pennies smashed and our passport book stamped, then went on up to Scotty’s Castle.

Old truck in the stable area

Hey kids! Remember this?

Many years ago we did the castle tour, but we decided to do it again, and we also did the underground tour. There were many things we did not remember on the house tour. It was led by a ranger who looked very dapper in his period 3 piece suit. He did an excellent tour.  They do not use the water wall anymore for cooling, and the pipe organ is run by computer rather than the player rolls you can still see beside the control panel. He told a lot about Scotty and Albert and Bessie Johnson and made it very interesting.

Our dapper guide

After the house tour we went back to the cave mobiles to have some lunch, then went over to the enormous swimming pool area to meet our guide for the underground tour. The pool was never finished, but would have been spectacular.   

Unfinished pool area

Barney's going to get us some power

Our underground tour guide

During the underground tour you see a huge pile of tiles that would have been used in the pool. We were led through some of the underground tunnels that accessed all of the plumbing and mechanical needs for the house.  And we got to see the power house. It was very interesting and our guide showed us how the power was produced, with a huge bank of batteries for power storage. There is a spring on the property that provided enough water for all their needs, running water in the house, flush toilets, bathtubs, etc., and was also used to provide the power. They have a solar system that is in bad shape and will be restored.  We all really enjoyed both tours.

It was already dark when we arrived back at the campground, so we just relaxed in the caves.

Wednesday morning we left the campground fairly early and stopped to tour the Borax Works before hitting the road. We went out through Beatty, Nevada, and then on up the middle of Nevada to Interstate 80. We stopped at a rest stop on I80 just east of Winnemucca. It was a long driving day, but it is time to be heading home. More weather is forecast for the weekend, and we don’t want to be driving in snow. There is already a light cover of snow on the hills in Nevada, and it was cold overnight at the rest stop.

Again we got a fairly early start, but stopped for fuel and breakfast in Winnemucca, then just trekked on home. Got the mail picked up, turned up the heat and the water heater and are settled back into life in our humble homes.

The long road home

We had a wonderful trip. We drove about 7300 miles, were in 18 different states, and you never know when the travel bug will strike again.