Golf! & Visit to Darwin Falls…

Silly me, I thought that the local golf course had shut down due to covid, but NO. I was/am wrong. It’s alive and kicking. They did tell me that the state had them shut down for a while and I must have passed by during that period. So one day recently I happened to pass by and noticed cars in the parking lot, more than I would expect if it were still closed. Stopped in, found they are open 7 days a week (with reduced hours though) so a couple days later, headed over for a round of 9 holes. Wasn’t all that crowded on a weekday morning. Which is fine by me. Here’s a shot of the clubhouse.

Rented myself a golf cart because my knees won’t take me all around the course these days for all nine holes. They are doing a 9-18 holes for one price these days and with the golf cart rental, came to less then $20. I planned on just enjoying the front 9 but soon found that there was a group of 4 golf carts up on the Tee so I started on the back 9 instead.



And it turns out there’s only me on the back 9. Cool. My tee shots with woods were really long and straight. Most of the holes are Par 3 with a few Par 4 mixed in. Been so long since I played that my short game sucked and I only got 1 single par. Gah! Anyway, when I finished the back 9, still felt like playing so did the front 9 too. Course only has 18 holes so not much of challenge. Enjoyed the hell out of playing though. Didn’t lose a single ball either and as I said, every tee shot was straight and true. Really enjoyed that since that hadn’t been the case for several years when I first started playing.

——————————————————————————————————

A few days later,  I contacted brother Dan in Rosamond (little town outside of Edwards AFB) and invited him to join me on a hike to Darwin Falls. Seems it’s the only falls in Death Valley worth visiting and the Park Service maintains the trails and roads. First a few shots of the drive, it takes me 2 hours and 15 minutes to arrive from Pahrump, Dan’s trip is 2 hours and 30 minutes. Which is why we met at the trailhead.

Stopped in the tiny town of Panamint which is just 0.7 miles from the gravel road leading to the fall’s parking lot. There’s a gas station there in Panamint with a convenience store. Next to that is a surprisingly large restaurant with a motel. Behind those buildings and additionally across the street are a couple RV parks with quite a few RVs I thought. Seemed as though the ones behind the buildings were for more permanent guests, like workers and such. The one across the street was a transient park. The prices, wow, $80 per night for full RV hookups. The ‘group’ area spaces for RV’s is $55/night, dry RV parking is $40/night. The tent area is $15/night. Gas prices are really really high. Still somewhere near $2.37 in Pahrump, and $4.50 here. Needless to say since I’d filled up earlier, I didn’t need any.

This old plane was parked next to the gas station with a couple dummies inside and it’s obviously not flyable. Kinda interesting though.

Pretty big store out here in the middle of nowhere. Park service told us later that this is all private property here.

After touring the store, using their bathroom, and buying a Moca coffee, I hung around checking out the antiques in the yard as I expected Dan to be late. No hurry, still early in the day.

Across the road is the transient RV park. Like I said, very expensive due to the difficulty of providing power, water, and sewer out here.

And here’s some of the ‘long term’ RV housing up on the hill behind the store. Not the place you’d want to stay in an RV during the famously hot summers here in Death Valley. This particular day in early March was very nice. Shirtsleeve weather with full on overcast so didn’t have the sun to get overheated from, which I consider a good thing when I’m planning on a hike up a canyon. In other words, weather couldn’t have been better!

——————————————————————————————————

The drive in is on ‘rustic’ gravel road but it’s passable. Parking at the trailhead is crude with large rocks here and there. All along the route next to the canyon wall was this rusty 4″ pipe. Found out later that it carries fresh water from the creek all the way to Panamint. It’s their water source. No water treatment plant to speak of, just an old time water holding tower where they add a bit of chlorine every once in a while. Story is that a pioneer hiked up this canyon and found the falls, and of course couldn’t have missed the creek flowing through this canyon. He claimed it as his own and lived here for many years.

“Darwin Falls was named for an Army physician, Erasmus Darwin French, who came to the west in 1846 during the Mexican American war and prospected for silver in the area. At around 18 feet (5.5 m) tall, Darwin Falls is one of only a handful of year-round waterfalls in Death Valley National Park.”

Road was a bit bumpy and I’d had to dodge some large rocks and ruts here and there but it’s passable by a typical car. Even one that’s low slung I’d wager, if the driver is careful.

Soon enough, though it felt like an hour over the rough 3 mile long slightly improved road, arrived at the trail head and found myself a parking space.



Since I had to wait for Dan, wandered down to the creek just 300 or so feet to get some shots of the rock formations. And here’s a modernized section of that water pipe I mentioned.

Here’s is what’s left of the creek after most of the water has been diverted for human consumption. But it’s been like this for nearly a century so the animals have adjusted pretty much by now.

About an hour after I arrived, Dan makes it to the parking lot.

And we’re ready to hike!



Since he studied geology in college, I make him my rock guide along the route. Interesting stuff. And the wild flowers were in bloom as it’s spring here.

Here’s another portion of that rusty old water pipe. Surprisingly few leaks. It’s likely not as old as I was thinking.

And here the first ‘pond’ like area with lots of wildlife footprints nearby in muddy areas. Seems as though they come here early in the morning and late in the afternoon when the crowds disperse. Did not see any wildlife at all on this hike except for a lone lizard and a couple birds.

I like these green rocks. This was the largest outcropping of them we saw, but smaller groups were scattered all up and down the canyon. Dan told me what they were but I forget now because we had an accident later on the trail.

He wasn’t really as tired as he looked in this picture. Dunno why he was carrying the backpack on such a short hike (around a mile up and a mile back), probably force of habit from his old hiking days where he’d hike along for days in the outback wherever he happened to be at the time.

Shortly after this picture, I slipped and fell on a slippery rock cluster crossing the creek. And not more than 2 minutes later, while trying to climb over a particularly difficult rock cluster, Dan fell off the rocks, past the trail, into a small ravine and nearly into the creek at the bottom. A distance of perhaps 7 feet from the top of his head, to the top of his head pointing downwards at the bottom of the small ravine. Soon as that happened I was ready to carefully climb down with my bad knees and help, but it was slow going for me. This guy spotted the goings on and came to his rescue. Even gave him the shirt off his back to help stem the flow of blood. I wasn’t much worried about the blood because I learned back when Dan got a baseball bat for xmas one year and took a backswing in the house and our 5 yo sister walked into the path of the bat. Caught her right above the eye. Blood gushing everywhere so mom and dad rushed her to the ER. They stuck a band-aid on her and sent her home with instruction on what to watch for as far as concussion goes. That’s when I learned that head wounds look awful but are rarely dangerous as that’s what the ER doctor told my parents. So I wasn’t worried about Dan’s wound. BTW, our sister Teri still has the scar above her eyebrow. He’d slammed the side of his head against a rock and his sunglasses had gashed the bridge of his nose too, so lots of blood.

Here is the area just across the creek from the fall. And the falls themselves are just 200 feet further up the trail. So I asked Dan which way he wanted to head, up to see the falls, or down to the parking lot. He voted for parking lot so we turned around and I missed the opportunity to see the falls. I will make the trip again here soon.

One of the many times on the way down the hill that I asked Dan questions like what day is it, who’s president, how may fingers does he have. That sort of thing. Checking for evidence of a concussion. Meanwhile, that guy who had given him his shirt had hightailed it down to Panamint where he could get cell phone reception and call it in.

Thought that this rock pinnacle sort of looked like an Easter Island statue. Sorta does, doesn’t it?

After we got to the falls parking lot, I gave him the choice of me driving him to Panamint and he chose to drive himself. Soon enough we were at the restaurant where I’d already found out they have IPAs so here he is on the bench. The Park Rangers arrived because of the emergency call and we waved at them as they passed on the way to the falls, so saved them and us some time.And here’s the restaurant where we ended up having a nice dinner (they even had vegetarian burger for Dan) and a couple beers. Plus a nice conversation with a guy who works there. He’d crashed his airplane and showed us pictures. One of the entire side of his face that was one massive scab after the wreck. He barely made it out alive. Then we got to talk to the very pretty bartender about how she ended up here in the desert from her home in Wisconsin and how she survived the past summer. Turned out she did try to live in an RV all last summer back behind and it was as terrible as she expected.

This group of bikers was hanging around outside and I talked to them. They asked what happened and of course I told them the honest truth, that Dan had fought a mountain gorilla. They asked who won and of course I said Dan did! Other people I told it was a mountain lion attack and Dan killed it with his bare hands.



And here he is before the park ranger trained in first aid, with her giant medikit open and having fun playing with all the toys inside there, bandaged him up.

And here’s one biker guy who had a modified bike I thought was pretty interesting so got a couple shots of it.

In the background you can see the Park Ranger gal working on Dan.

You can see some strange modifications done to this bike.
After he went to the restroom to wipe off some of the blood, (I accompanied him at the Park Ranger’s suggestion), she got him bandaged up, the bikers all left, the Park Rangers left, and we sat down at an outside table at the restaurant and had a very nice, tasty dinner with a couple nice ales. All in all a nice, exciting trip to Darwin Falls. I highly recommend doing the hike. But be careful within the last 500 feet of the falls…that section can be dangerous.

Dan did drive home later but by then he’d had 2 hours since the fall and everyone figured he’d be most likely be fine. On his part, he asked some people he’d overheard about the western route they’ed taken to get here and they gave him travel instructions. This so he wouldn’t have to make any turns onto roads he barely remembered from earlier in the day as he drove to Panamint. Told me he’s gotten lost 3 times on the trip up. This back door route was straight to the freeway, and though it would take longer to get home, it was safer for him. The Park Ranger told him to pull over at first sign of loosing consciousness and gave him the signs so he was aware of what to look for. And he promised to go see his doctor the next day.

This last shot as I headed home is of Pahrump just on the other side of those hills. I thought the reddish hue in the sky was kinda interesting.

And that’s it for this posting. Hope you enjoyed the trip to the Falls.

Thanks for reading!!