Today was the morning of our second day at Lake Isabella/Kern River KOA – as planned we drove to Death Valley for our next two-day stop, with a planned side trip to Saline Valley Warm Springs .  The reviews on this spring mentioned that the road was rough – you needed a 4WD, high clearance vehicle, and lots of people had flats and mechanical problems.

We needed DEF (Deisel Exhaust Fluid) , and we wanted to stock up on lots of water and snacks in case we were stranded in the desert.  We also bought fix-a-flat and other tire repair tools and supplies.  Tom identified the right place to drop the RV (Khan) and take off in the jeep (Polo.)

We couldn’t bring our Starlink to ask for assistance, as we did not have an inverter to power it from the jeep and there was no cell phone service.  So Tom called his son and asked him to call the authorities if we weren’t back by 6PM Death Valley time.  We figured this left a 3 hour cushion to go to the springs, enjoy a soak, and return.  We were very wrong.

Normally Tom plans these trips obsessively, but this time he did not either 1) Remember adequately all the unmarked turns (the road shows up on Google Maps on the website, but not on Google Maps on your phone,) or 2) Get a reasonable estimate of how long it would take and how far we had to go on the bumpy but quite navigable trail. It turns out both problems were encountered!

We dropped Khan and left the drop-off location at 1PM.  By 3:15PM it was clear that wherever Saline Valley Warm Springs was, we weren’t going to make it.  For safety reasons (and to avoid a search-and-rescue manhunt,) we turned around and headed back.

The good news is that Polo did fine – no mechanical issues in 4 ½ hours of fairly brutal bouncing with two geezers and two bikes banging around in the back.  There were beautiful vistas and we enjoyed the trip (though both of us are likely to be sore in the morning.)  

In hindsight, there was one turn that looked promising, but with no markings for confirmation, or ability to see it on the GPS, we were reluctant to get off the main Saline Valley road. Once we arrived at the campsite we confirmed it was the correct road. We had driven about 45 miles into the desert and were only 7 miles from our destination before we aborted.

When we returned to Khan Scott launched his Mavic drone and took some aerial photos of the area.  We then drove to Stove Pipe Wells Village Campground with our Mercedes wheezing at 30MPH to drive up the steel 8% grades to cross the mountains.  All day the temperatures ranged from 70 degrees F at altitude to the 90s at the lower elevations.  When we arrived at Stovepipe Wells the temperature hit 103 degrees F.  And we got the price shock of OWGRV’ing.

This campground has FULL HOOKUPS in 100+ degree weather, and the list price of a site in mid-May was $40  But – with a National Park Service Senior Lifetime pass – which Scott had with him – it is HALF OFF!  And this place has a bathhouse and pool!

After dinner and blogging we’ll both sleep well tonight.