Gold Valley and Furnace Creek Wash

By Denis & Sandi Inman

After completing the weekly shopping and putting our groceries away, I swapped vehicles and headed out to Charles Brown Market in Shoshone to meet the others. Everyone was there promptly at 8:00 AM so we could proceed to Dead Man Pass. Once we had crossed the summit and made our way to Furnace Creek Wash Road, we turned North for half a mile then West again on Gold Valley Road.

When Jim, Jeremy, Brian and I had finished the loop through Gold Valley, we returned to Furnace Creek Road and started making tracks towards Tecopa Hot Springs. Since we were still aired down, we had a leisurely drive on the paved road through town. Turning off Old Spanish Trail in the direction of China Ranch Date Farm, we caught Furnace Creek Road once again and proceeded to the old site of Tecopa.

Just down the switchback past the cemetery, our fearsome foursome headed Southwest on Western Talc Road to Sperry Wash Road and then left onto a trail that would take us completely around Alexander Hills and return us to Mesquite Valley Road. We followed that across the dry lake back to Pahrump and were airing back up in front of the brothels at just shy of 2:30 after a nice day of trail riding.

We completed a good run and were home in plenty of time to go over to Kerry’s house to watch the Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn a little after sunset.