The Dutch were establishing  New Amsterdam (New York City), The Pilgrims were settling up North and Jamestown was established in Virginia.  It was the 1600’s and in what was to become California, Ubehebe  Crater had been created by a horrific explosion as magma rose near the surface of the earth and collided with groundwater.  A 150 foot deep layer of ash blanketed the area for miles and a crater 600 feet deep and one mile across was formed.  The exact age of this “maar” volcano can only be estimated.  It could be as young as 300 years, or much older.  Experts do not know.

Located in the northern part of Death Valley National Park, it once was held as private land by Albert Johnson, the builder and owner of what is now called Scotty’s Castle.  The sheer size is overwhelming as you walk near the edge and hike around the area.

The warning signs along the edge of the crater do not exaggerate the danger as the drop off is quite steep, an almost vertical drop.  We hiked carefully as we enjoyed this bit more remote part of the park recently.

Getting ready for Joshua Tree show (Our Show Schedule)  This is a great time to visit the park.  Our show is in the town of Joshua Tree at the Sportsmen’s Club, a community center near the entrance to the park. 

Hope your week is blessed.

It was a small RV with high clearance, but also tall, with a high center of gravity.  As we negotiated the narrow winding ascent over the mountain into Titus Canyon, we passed this RV parked on one of the few turnouts in this back-country road.  We were amazed that they had made it this far.  After we parked to explore the ghost town of Leadville, we remarked to each other our amazement to see the RV finally catch up to us.  

Turns out they are from France and travelling the Americas.  From Argentina, now in Death Valley and on their way to Alaska.   In discussing the narrow road that they had just accomplished, they remarked that they had been on worse.  Some of the roads in the Andes Mountains of Peru leading to occupied towns were a greater challenge.

We had enjoyed the day exploring on this National Park Service maintained road, visiting an old ghost town and surrounding area.  The road was dangerous, narrow, steep and challenging.  Our speed was under five miles per hour in many spots could be best described as a “crawl.”  Yet. there are active towns, real, live people, accessed by roads worse than this.  We complain about pot holes and traffic on some of the best highways in the world.

In Leadville they were getting the lead out of one hundred years ago.  Next week we will be in Joshua Tree, California for the Spring Gem and Mineral Show (Our Show Schedule).  Get the lead out and start getting more active and travel a new road.  Hope to see you soon.

After reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, our elementary school teacher would sit down and play the piano and we would sing patriotic songs such as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,”  “God Bless America,” and others, like Woody Guthries’s “This Land is Your Land.”  My first experience with public lands access was hearing my father tell us about a time when national parks were free and the growing restrictions of being able to access “our ” public lands.

In our travels, I find that many people we talk to have no idea of how our public lands are administered.  Terms like BLM (Bureau of Land Management) are foreign to them.  Designations like “wilderness,” and “limited use” areas cause them to look confused.  Perhaps it is the growing ignorance of Americans about their own country that is partly to blame for this growing infringement of access to our lands.

My father kept an eclectic journal of pictures and clippings and made commentary on a variety of issues, from family events to national and world affairs.  It is the picture above, that I found in his journal, that brought back memories of his comments made to us as children back in the 1960’s.

Perhaps it was the Wilderness Act of 1964 and subsequent legislation that locked away our lands to all but the most physically fit.  Perhaps it was motivated by some other intrusive government act.  Dad did not comment.  But this political cartoon made it into his journal of life events that were important to him.  Dad has gone on to heaven, but his journal pages live on, scanned into my computer.

Land issues are important and we should not be ignorant.  Educate your self because “this land is your land.”