Surprise Canyon

My last post was so gloomy, I have to stick in something a bit more cheerful. We did two nice things over the long weekend, one which I photographed and one which I didn't.

On Saturday we drove north up to Keough Hot Springs (outside Bishop) and went for a lovely swim. Air temps were in the 50s, so the warm water felt divine. We'd gotten a late start from Ridgecrest (what else is new?), so after we got out of the water, we had to rush to make it back to Lone Pine before it was too dark to play in the lovely park there. Then after a truly disgusting dinner at the Carl's Jr. nearby (when will I learn?), we drove back to Ridgecrest in the dark. There was almost no one on the road, so it was an easy drive.

On Monday we had thought of going to the Bakersfield zoo, but decided we didn't want such a long drive. I had kind of a hankering to visit the Panamint Valley (the valley between Trona's Searles Valley and Death Valley), and Rocket Boy was up for it, so after lunch we headed east (again, much too late a start, but Late Starts R Us). Very soon after you enter the valley, you come to the signs for Ballarat.

We turned right (south?) and drove to the little ghost town, but didn't stop (we've been there before). Instead, we turned left (east?) onto Indian Ranch Road, which turned out to be pretty bad -- it hasn't been graded in a while, and it has wash after wash that you have to drive over carefully. I had read somewhere that it was 7 miles to Surprise Canyon, and I wasn't thinking about how we were going to have to turn right at some point to actually reach the canyon. A couple of miles from Ballarat we saw this sign,

but we only saw the "Indian Ranch" side, not the "Surprise Cyn" side. In other words we missed our turn. Eventually we figured it out and went back.

Surprise Canyon road is TERRIBLE, especially as you get closer to Surprise Canyon. But you know, it's the desert, and it's not a national park, it's just BLM land, and almost no one lives in the Panamint Valley, and Inyo County has no money, etc. You just have to set your standards low (and have big strong tires).

Finally we reached the "parking lot," after which point you hike.

What a pleasant surprise! And how appropriately named this canyon is.

It's very beautiful. And so green! Remember, it's January, there haven't been any rains to speak of this year, and in any case the wildflowers don't bloom for another couple of months. Elsewhere in the desert it's really barren right now. But not in Surprise Canyon! Surprise! There are springs that feed the creek, so it has water year-round. Lots of water!

If you follow the "trail" all the way up the canyon (which we didn't, because we didn't have enough time), you come to the remains of Panamint City, which was destroyed by a flood in I think 1876? Somewhere around there. It was a silver mining camp. Another mining operation set up in the 1980s was destroyed by another flood in 1984. And after that, people started doing extreme jeeping up the canyon, until the "road" was destroyed by another flood in 2001. You really get the sense that this canyon doesn't like to be interfered with. After that, the BLM closed the canyon to motor vehicles, THANK GOODNESS. And the whole canyon came back, green and gorgeous. We definitely want to come back here in the spring. This is one place that I'm sure has wildflowers every year.

I love the desert and I am going to miss it when we go.