China Ranch Date Farm

Other than the odd trip to the grocery store only to look at empty shelves, we haven't been too busy. The weather lately has been a bit wet, cool and windy.

We had a pleasant surprise when we heard Steve and Dianne were in town. Saturday we arranged to stop by their place for a Happy Hour. The restaurants and bars are not the best places to hang out these days so we were quite happy to spend a couple of hours with them in their rig.....from a respectful distance of course! :-)

We always have a great visit with Steve and Dianne.

We've been watching the news like everyone else and also keeping an eye on the weather forecasts. We are planning to spend this week here in Pahrump then making a quick run for the border. We've heard some companies are cancelling folks travel insurance but thankfully our provider is not one of them.....yet. We should be fine on that front.

We were sitting in the trailer Sunday morning and noticed some smoke outside at the garbage dumpster. Next thing we see is the fire department stopping to put out the smoldering garbage. Quite likely someone disposed of some hot coals in the garbage instead of the metal barrels provided for that very purpose. See the blue barrel just to the left of the brick wall. Hard to believe!

Monday was to be a decent weather day so we headed out toward California with the destination of the China Ranch Date Farm. We passed the usual spectacular scenery on the way. We took the road from Pahrump to Tecopah then turned left and a quick right on the China Ranch road. It's a bit steep and narrow in places but it soon opens up to the 'ranch'. What a pretty spot!

Death Valley and the mountains of California

The pavement turns to gravel as we head into the valley.

The old gypsum mine diggings.

The date ranch in the valley. An oasis in the desert.

Some of the date palms.

They have a nice bakery and gift shop. Of course we had to buy some date loaf.....hot from the oven! We wandered the grounds and snooped through their tiny museum. Turns out the place has been here a long time and has seen many different owners. In 1905 a Chinese gentleman took over the ranch after working near Furnace Creek in the Borax mining operations. The name has stuck but it was an earlier time when the date palms were planted. Today the farm is family owned and operated.

The gift shop. It's like a museum.

Lots of water in the spring.

Loaded with dates.

Huge Cottonwood trees. They love wet areas.

A pretty spot.

They have a nice hiking trail that begins at the ranch. It's about a three mile loop if you take the side trip to the slot canyon. Unfortunately due to high water levels in the Aramagosa River that portion of the trail was not open. Still, it was an interesting hike in some spectacular scenery.

It's been a bit wet around here.

The spring was flowing.

The remnants of the gypsum loading terminal.

The old railroad bed.

In the distance is the slot canyon.

The Aramogosa River. The walking bridge has been washed out.

This cactus was blooming.

Strange rock formation.

Old stone cabin on the trail.

The cabin was built in 1903.

The trail back to the Ranch.

Another odd formation!

We then headed back into Tecopah and onward to Shoshone. We stopped in at the visitor center and toured their small museum. Lots of mining, railroad and geologic history were displayed.

The road out of the valley.

Shoshone

Mammoth bones found near here.

We headed back toward Pahrump. It was our last time into the Death Valley area for this trip, but there is so much to see it won't be our last visit!

More beautiful colors in the mountains.

I had the oil changed in the truck on Tuesday. It's a 1500 mile trip home and I figured I'd treat the Duramax to some fresh dino-juice. That only took a half hour so I stopped at the Smith's Grocery store and was pleased to see the shelves were mostly restocked. Their staff is doing an excellent job of keeping things running smoothly despite what some consumers are determined to mess with!

Then it was home to catch up on some cleaning. We enjoyed a great St. Patrick's Day supper of corned beef (done in the Insta-Pot) and some Colcannon, a traditional Irish dish (a mix of mashed potatoes, cabbage, onion and bacon. Very tasty!). Washed down with a Guiness.....of course.

So we are just biding our time here in Pahrump. We know we need to get back to Canada soon. We're just watching the weather closely and decide which is the best window to make the 3 to 4 day dash home. At this point I believe we will leave on Sunday, March 22 and should be home on Wednesday, March 25. We'll see.

.....and that was Our View From Here!