The road to the Racetrack is 27 miles of dust, crushed rocks, non-crushed rocks, and extreme washboards. Trust us, the pictures do not do the washboards justice. At times we thought the van would rattle completely apart. Our speed was 20mph at best. Various people in the park gave us the impression that the road is a living entity that subsists exclusively on tires. (We didn't lose any.)
Dust
The Racetrack Valley Road (Click on the picture and you'll see rain on Ludwig's windshield. The second-driest place in the Western Hemisphere and we got sprinkled on.)
The landscape along the road (and in the park generally) is geologically interesting. The whole area is part of the Basin and Range province, a giant section of the North American Plate that is slowly being stretched apart, east to west. This makes the crust thinner, and subterreanean lava can readily bubble up.
Lava Outcropping
The road also goes through a giant Joshua Tree forest, apparently the northernmost such forest in the world.
Joshua Tree forest
I've seen Teakettle Junction on some road atlases marked as though it were a municipality. Our brief stop there shows why one can't always trust a road atlas to present accurate conditions. Apparently there was a working telephone there at one time.
Teakettle Junction, Calif. pop: 0
As we topped a hill, The Grandstand came into view, jutting up from the northern end of The Racetrack. I figured The Racetrack would be interesting; I didn't figure it would actually be magical.
The Grandstand
(next: The Racetrack)
3 comments:
Goody, goody! I can't wait to see the racetrack! I know all about washboard roads & vw's too. I grew up in the Sierra's and most of my friends lived off of gravel mountain roads. Not so fun. We did watch a Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel that tested the myth of driving faster on washboards= smoother ride. It is actually true! You have to get up to like 65+ and pray you don't crash but it works!
I've put that theory to work on pretty bad rural Nebraskan washboards and agree that it works. But really, I can't imagine any vehicle, old or new, without a heavily modified suspension surviving long enough to get up to 65mph on the Racetrack Valley Road. Apparently the rangers like it that way--it keeps most people away from the Racetrack except those who are serious enough to respect it (look for the next post in a few days).
(I forgot to sign that post--Mitch.)
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