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These are pics I took of Death Valley the weekend of September 14th, 2002.  My friend Steve, who worked with me at Grave Line - we drove the 200 miles (5 hours each way) and it was the scariest journey.  75 miles from any phone signal, 40 miles from ANY civilization and 20 of the roughest miles I'd ever driven.  I had a 4wd Jeep, and didn't think we would make it.  Then I was scared to death that the car wouldn't start up again.  Anyway, here's some snaps.

By the way, the reason we did this, is because this is where the Manson Family were living when they were arrested in 1969.  Makes sense now, right?  Right...

You can't even tell how rough it was, but we had to travel up this steep terrain.

Then we drove through this area called a wash, because when it rains, the rain washes through.

Believe it or not, some vehicles got here (but from another way in, from the Las Vegas side.  NO one, I mean NO ONE lives there anymore.  Used to be gold mines, now its deserted

Abandoned Trailer Homes

They were parked by this abandoned mine

We finally reached our destination, the BARKER ranch.  The Mason Family lived here until their capture.  Its pretty small.  I was surprised at how small it was.

Now this made no sense to me, but people do come to the Barker Ranch and stay there.  It's within the Death Valley national park, but it's left alone.  No electricity, but there is work being done to it, like the new gate.  People just come up on a whim, and stay.  In the middle of the desert.  I'll bet the sky is incredible at night, but no thanks.  This is an overview of it.

This is the entrance to the cabin, and me looking for loose boards, but since it is a National Park, of course I didn't remove a thing.

Just inside, the kitchen.  See what I mean?  Weird, in the middle of nowhere, and somewhat maintained.

However, the place is infested.  Didn't see what left all these droppings, but there were sure a lot of em.

And as an FYI, Charles Manson's last free minutes, were spent in a cupboard that was right here.

Here's the fireplace.  This stuff was just there.

After we finished, we drove back.  It was good fun, and the scenery was incredible.  It didn't dawn on me that we might encounter rattlesnakes or scorpions, or even mountain lions. 

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About a week prior to that, Steve and I took a trek out to another Manson haunt, the Spahn Ranch - where the family lived at the time of the murders.  I guess I am a bit obsessed, but the scenery is amazing.  Nothing of the ranch is really there anymore, and neither of us knew our way around, but here are some pics from that day, the 7th of September, 2002.

We did walk thru this tunnel, which was scary.  We kept joking, "this is so stupid.  this is so stupid."