The main goal of this trip was to find the Barker Ranch in Death Valley, where the infamous Charles Manson was finally captured. in 1969, and to visit the other local sites of interest. I created a detailed map of the Groler Wash area and our path using my Maptech Software. It's a large 2 page Adobe Acrobat PDF file that you can zoom in on. Total size is 3.5 megs, so it will take awhile to download. You can find it in the maps section on the previous page. It only covers our path from the turn off from Wingate Road to Mengel Pass, although it does have a few other GPS marks in it, and the distance stated is to the pavement at Death Valley from Wingate Wash Road.
We headed up out of Ridgecrest, gassed up the "Tankota" for the last time at Trona, and headed on out. On the way we stopped by Trona Pinnacles, where the ending to the new Planet of the Apes was filmed. Then it was over to the ghost town of Ballarat. Ballarat still has a few buildings standing, and lots of equipment lying around. Not bad for a ghost town. Here is where we aired down the tires. We then headed south on the Wingate Wash road until we came to Goler Wash. Up Goler wash we went, passing Newman's Cabin, and up the the old Lotus Mine. We poked around the Lotus mine for a bit, and drove up and over the narrow steep winding road to the pass above the lotus mine, and then down to the even older Keystone mine. Both mines were in pretty good shape with lots of equipment still in place compared to other mines we have visited. Since it was now getting dark, we then turned around and headed back down to Newman's Cabin and camped there for the night. Newman's Cabin is a single room cabin, with functioning stove/heater and a nice back porch. Recently somebody had replaced the back door and done other minor repair work to the old structure, and there is tons of comments written on the inside walls.
Next morning we headed out in search of Barker Ranch.. we went down a few wrong canyons, and even passed it once by almost 3 miles before we turned around and located it. It's up a kind of tree hidden canyon, just after entering the boundary of Death Valley National Park.
The ranch is in pretty good shape still for it's age, somebody has been taking the time to maintain it and begin repairs. The stone out building is in the process of being repaired and rebuilt, and the spring fed irrigation system was partly repaired recently - although much of the original system no longer works. The interior was in good shape, and people often camp here. At the time, most of the plants looked dead, either due to winter or that most of the upper irrigation system long ago stopped working. At least the lower system was working again, and maybe spring time plant life will return. Vandalism seems to be at a minimum, let's hope it stays that way. One thing that was missing was the Manson Bus, and no indications as to where it went.. Must have been as fun getting it out of Goler Wash as Manson had getting it in - he simply claims he floated it up there.. Even though the trail had been re-graded a few years ago, it still would have been a very good challenge to get it out of there.. 4x4 is still recommended for Goler wash. If anybody has any info on what happened to the old bus and how they got it out of there, e-mail me at the address on the home page.
From there we headed over Mengel Pass to Butte Valley, passing a few more old cabins, some of which were occupied by campers. We even passed a nice park ranger , she asked me a few questions about my Tacoma's rear bumper and tire/gas can carrier since she owned a Tacoma 4x4 herself, and couldn't get one from Stout Equipment anymore. I should have thought to give her the web address for TTORA so she could get more info on her Tacoma.. Maybe I'll run across her again.. From Butte Valley we headed down into Death Valley itself, stopping for lunch at the Warm Springs mine, which for the most part has been sanitized by the park service, and the mines sealed up for visitors protection. We aired up at the pavement near the Ashford Mill ruins, and then took pavement down to Baker, passing the Dumont dunes on the way.. From Baker, we took I-15 back home.
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Trona Pinicals, where the end of the new Planet of the Apes was filmed