Cindy's Birthday Run 2014 - Part 2 : Titus Canyon to Marietta

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wayoflife

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Part 1 of Cindy's Birthday Run 2014 covered the first leg of our 3 day, 400+ mile adventure and highlighted our trek across the Slate Range throgh the historic and challenging Isham Canyon trail. Thank to all the trail improvements that mother nature made over the summer, the trail proved to be a ton of fun and worthy of a post all it's own.

This second part covers the remainder of our trip and highlights our time spent in Death Valley starting with a trip down Titus Canyon, a visit to Ubehebe Crater and Crankshaft Crossing before crossing into the Nevada state line for drinks at the Goldpoint Saloon. From there, we made a stop over at a cool car forest, stayed a night at the historic and haunted Mizpah Hotel and then spent some time exploring old ghost towns such as Candelaria and Marietta before saying our goodbyes and heading home. I hope you enjoy the photos. :cool:

Day 2 : Titus Canyon
Much like Isham and Fish Canyon, Titus Canyon was also named after a prospector Edgar Morris Titus who, along with his brother-in-law Earle Weller got lost within it and died from lack of water back in 1905. Today, it's a popular route into Death Valley that can only be run east to west starting near the town of Beatty, NV. Along the way, you get to make your way up and over the Grapevine Mountains through Red Pass, visit the boomtown of Leadfield and meander your way though the steep and narrow canyon walls that have been carved away by thousands of years of flash floods. While it's a very easy trail, it's still one of our favorites due to its geological beauty and rich history.

Airing down and getting ready to head into Titus Canyon...
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Making our way up the Grapevine Mountains. If you look carefully, you can see the switchbacks going up to Red Pass...
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Looking back at Tony and Stephanie and Moochie as we head on up to Red Pass...
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Don pushing his way though the dust...
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Coming up and over Red Pass...
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View looking west across the Grapevine Mountains...
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Time to head on down...
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Leadfield
Leadfield was a classic boomtown in that it arose out of nothing, had 300 people populate it out of nowhere and then disappeared in as little as 6 months. Unfortunately, the only one to make any money at all would be the promoters who lured people in through sensationalized advertising. A few building still stand here and in 1975, Leadfield was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Making a stop to explore some of the old buildings and ruins of this old boomtown...
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You guys go on ahead...
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Anyone home?
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Heading into the narrows...
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Sweet reflection shots on the windshield...
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Ubehebe Crater
Just west of Scotty's Castle on the northern end of Death Valley, there lies a massive hole in the ground known as Ubehebe Crater. Created by a hydrovolcanic explosion some 2,000-7,000 years ago, the crater is about a half mile wide and goes down 777 feet at its deepest point.

After dropping down into Death Valley's floor, we turned north and made a quick stop to take a peak inside this massive crater...
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Crankshaft Crossing
Heading still further north, we made a stop at the point where Death Valley Rd. turns west to Big Pine. This point is known as Crankshaft Crossing due to the all the old crankshafts that people have been depositing here over the years. Much like Teakettle Junction, the park service comes out and cleans things up from time to time and unfortunately, when we got there, most of the crankshafts were gone. Still, here are a few pics from our stop.
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Posing in front of the Crankshaft Crossing sign...
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Looking south down Death Valley Rd....
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Instead of heading west and continuing Death Valley Rd. out to Big Pine, we turned east and made our way deeper into the desert and out to the Nevada state line...
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More pics below...
 
Gold Point, Nevada
Originally called Lime Point back in 1880 due to its proximity to a limestone outcropping, this remote town located approximately 50 miles south of Tonopah was later named Hornsilver 1902 after silver was discovered in the area. It wouldn't be until a few years after gold was discovered in 1927 and more of it was being mined than silver that the town would receive the name it still has today - Gold Point. For the next 10 years, this town would truly prosper even while the rest of America would be suffering from the Great Depression and it only ended when gold mines were declared non-essential and ordered to cease production during WWII. While some mining efforts resume after the war, any significant operations ended during the 1960's after a cave-in made the cost of recovery more than expensive than the ore they could dig out of the ground would pay. Today, there are still about 50 buildings still make up the town including one home belonging to the former Nevada Senator, Harry Wiley and one that still stands as a working saloon complete with libations.

Pulling into Gold Point and tying up up our iron horses...
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Taking a brief walk around town...
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Ah, just what we were looking for - the saloon!!
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You really have to see this place for yourself to really appreciate it but, here are a few shots from the inside...
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Here's the bartender setting up the player piano for us to enjoy...
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Time to saddle up to the bar and have a drink!!
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY!!
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International Car Forest of the Last Church
After moseying on out of Gold Point, we headed further north to what is known as the International Car Forest of the Last Church. Created by artists Mark Rippie and Chad Sorg, this is essentially a piece of the Nevada desert where you can find 40 cars, van and busses stuck nose first in the ground and standing tall in the air. Apparently, it's open to any and all artists to paint on and from what I understand, bands even come out here to play to audiences. Here are a few shots of us posing in the "automotive arboretum"...
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Here are a few other shots of the unique cars here...
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Goldfield Hotel
With a total 150 sleeping rooms, 45 suites complete with individual bathrooms, carpeting, telephones, hardwood dressers, an elevator, mahogany reception desk, black leather seats in the lobby and crystal electric lights, the Goldfield was designed to be the most luxurious hotel in the State of Nevada. Built on the site of two previous hotels that burned down in 1905 and 1906, this hotel was said to be fireproof and came complete with fire escapes just in case. When it opened its doors in 1908, an elegant dinner was served, live entertainment was provided and it said that champagne flowed down the steps of the entry. Unfortunately, Goldfield's burgeoning population of 20,000 quickly dwindled to less than 5,000 by 1910 and, by the end of WWII, the hotel was closed forever.

Here are a couple of shots of us parked in front of the ever elegant Goldfield Hotel...
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Taking a peek inside...
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The Mizpah
Designed by the same prominent Reno architectural firm, Curtis and Holesworth that designed the Goldfield Hotel, the five story Mizpah stood as the tallest building in Nevada for over 20 years. There are a lot of legends surrounding this wonderful hotel including one that says Wyatt Earp ran the saloon, World Heavyweight Championship fighter Jack Dempsey was a bouncer there and that Howard Hughes married Jean Peters here but, the one that gets everyone going is the one about the Lady in Red. As the legend goes, the Lady in Red was a prostitute who was bludgeoned to death on the 5th floor by a jealous ex-boyfriend and now, it is said that her presence can still be felt by guests of the hotel.

Ah, Home for the night...
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Now, how could you come to a haunted hotel and NOT stay in the very room the ghost is said to live in...
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A couple of shots from inside the Lady in Red room...
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Happy Birthday Cindy!
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Day 3 : Candelaria
Spanish for Candlemans Day, Candelaria saw its first inhabitants back in 1864 when Mexicans came to prospect for silver near Mt. Diablo. However, it wouldn't be until 1879 when German and Slovakian miners arrived that the small camp blossomed into a boomtown. While the Northern Belle, the largest mine in the area produced about $15 million worth of silver and at its peak, brought in 2 hotels, stores, multiple restaurants, saloons, doctors, lawyers, newspapers and more, the scarcity of water still left it a "dry camp" which made living conditions here miserable. After the Post Office closed in 1939, the town was completely abandoned in 1941. The large open pit mine that you can find there today was created by renewed operations that began in the mid-late 1980's.

Pulling into town, we decided to make a quick stop and pay our respects to some of the local inhabitants...
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Renewed mining in the area back in the 1980's literally carved Mt. Diablo out of the ground and moved it...
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Pulling into town to do some exploring...
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For years, this old town was protected from vandals by guards posted nearby during renewed mining activities that started up in the 1980's but, with the operations halted, it has started to see more and more abuse...
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Looks like the luck has just about run out on this old store...
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Here you can still see iron doors adorning the front of this old bank...
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Old safe...
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Before heading out, we spent some time doing a bit of ghost town dumpster diving. Most town sites have been picked over pretty well but, because this area had been protected for so many years by renewed mining operations, interesting trash can still be found. Here are some pieces of glass and fine China that I found...
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It's hard to imagine anyone dining well in a place so remote let alone with such delicacies such as oysters being that the nearest ocean was over 200 miles as the crow flies but, behind one of the local eating establishments, I found butchered cow bones and a ton of these shells...
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Marietta
Long before 20-mule teams were hauling loads of Borax out of Death Valley, F.M. "Borax" Smith was working the salt flats out in the Teel's Marsh. In fact, the town of Marietta was founded in 1877 to help support the hundreds of people, many of who were Chinese, who moved into the area to scrape and process the marsh for borax and salt. In it's heyday, Marietta had a Post Office, 13 saloons, several stores including one owned by Borax Smith himself. By the 1890's, Borax Smith moved his operations down to Death Valley where he discovered a much larger deposit of Borax and closed his operations in Marietta. By the early 1900's, Marietta had become a ghost town. Renewed mining interests briefly revived the town in the 1930's and then again in the 1950's and 1960's when uranium ore was discovered but, the deposits turned out to be too small to see any significant mining. Today, the area is better known for being a 68,000 acre BLM managed Wild Burro Range that the government established in 1991.

Pulling up to the old town of Marietta...
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After exploring the old town, we headed up the hill to pay our respects to some of the new and old residents there...
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Before wrapping up our day, we decided to do a little exploring around the Teel's Marsh...
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What a bummer - there's something furry under the ice...
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Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. After hitting pavement, we would have to say goodbye to all our friends...
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A parting shot of Moby from the old cemetery of Belleville shortly after leaving our friends...
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I hope you all enjoyed following us on our adventures as we celebrated Cindy's birthday by wheeled our way north from Trona to Marietta. A BIG Thanks goes out to all our friends for joining us and for helping this such a special weekend! Till next time :cool:

Click on the link below to see photos from the first part of our weekend adventures:
Cindy's Birthday Run 2014 - Part 1 : Isham Canyon
 
Thanks again for sharing your adventure, I will have to stop in at Gold Point next time I head out to Dyer.
 
I really liked the main Saloon picture. Not sure if you or the wife did it but looked awesome to me. Looks like you guys really covered the ground and saw a great amount of place. Cant wait until I'm at that point. :friends:
 
Really incredible to think about all that's out there in the desert. Thanks for sharing the trip with us:thumb:
 
Man what a trip! You saw more in a weekend then some see all year.

My birthday is in July. Just sayin'. ;)
 
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Is this an original spot where executions took place or was this built after the fact as an attraction type prop?
 
squigmang said:
Looks like you had an amazing adventure! You are an incredible photograper by the way...
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LOL!! Thank you. I won't lie, quite a few of the pics you see were just taken with our iPhone :crazyeyes:

RanchoRubi said:
Really incredible to think about all that's out there in the desert. Thanks for sharing the trip with us:thumb:
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We missed you on this trip and hope you can make the next.

MTG said:
Man what a trip! You saw more in a weekend then some see all year.

My birthday is in July. Just sayin'. ;)
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LOL!! You even gonna be around this summer?
 
seanb33 said:
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Is this an original spot where executions took place or was this built after the fact as an attraction type prop?
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Honestly, I don't know for sure. While the cell looked like the real deal, the gallows kinda looked like it could have been a prop.
 
Thanks again for another great adventure!! I think I enjoyed the International Car Forest of the Last Church the most. That is SO cool!! Thanks again and keep them coming!!
 
Thank you!

I totally enjoy your constant post of your wheeling trips. I cant wait to see your next adventure Eddie and Cindy:thumb:
 
Great trip and photos, thank you for sharing.

Can Titus be done in a stock JK? Have a buddy with a stock JK and would love to get out that way and explore around Gold Point, Scotty's and GoldStrike and nice to know a few options for stock setup while we're there!

I think we'll pass on Isham, ;-)!
 
SaddleTramp said:
Great trip and photos, thank you for sharing.

Can Titus be done in a stock JK? Have a buddy with a stock JK and would love to get out that way and explore around Gold Point, Scotty's and GoldStrike and nice to know a few options for stock setup while we're there!

I think we'll pass on Isham, ;-)!
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Titus Canyon can be done with a stock Jeep in fact probably with just a 2 wheel drive
 
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SaddleTramp said:
Great trip and photos, thank you for sharing.

Can Titus be done in a stock JK? Have a buddy with a stock JK and would love to get out that way and explore around Gold Point, Scotty's and GoldStrike and nice to know a few options for stock setup while we're there!

I think we'll pass on Isham, ;-)!
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Titus can pretty much be done in anything... We passed an Elantra, a Prius and a yota mini van a few weeks ago.

Great pics! Love the car Forrest.

Everytime I see your pictures it reminds me Everytime I need a better camera than my iphone lol
 
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