Eureka Dunes

The four of us (Romy, Nicole, Marcel, and I) were snooping around south of Bishop, CA trying to find Keough Hot Springs, which we read about in a book. Supposedly, there is a resort called Keough Hot Springs, which doesn't use all of the hot water that comes out of the spring, so they let some of it flow down a creek, where people have damned it up creating small pools which you can bath in. When we got there, we found that it was really dumpy looking - large power lines crackling overhead and industrial drainage pipes spewing warm water from the resort down the hill. Not too inviting, although it had a nice view of the Owens Valley (minus the power lines) and the water was crystal clear. While we were perusing, we met a crazy old man with no pants on (but he had a towel wrapped around his waist). He was a local, and told us many stories. When the old owner of the hot spring resort was still alive, she let more hot water flow down the hill, allowing bathers to gather in the damned up pools and enjoy water over 100F. Now the new owners don't let as much of the hot water flow, making the hottest pool only about body temperature; not hot enough to sit in for too long during the winter. That sucks, I guess.

Then we asked him if he knew of a place to go camping in the national forest nearby, so that we could set up the yurt, and he suggested a few places (but only after telling us about the numerous diseases he had: mountain biking disease, back-country skiing disease, etc.) Apparently this guy didn't really have a job, he just drove his car up mountainsides in the Sierra Nevada, hiked up the steepest slopes, then skied down for fun. He also did a bunch of back-country mountain biking in the summer, and told us about a time he biked to Eureka Dunes in the north side of Death Valley. He also said that no one would bother us if we set up a yurt in that direction, which perked our interest, so we asked him how to get there, and soon we were on our way.



Parking at Eureka Sand Dunes; Last Chance Range.

To our surprise, when we took the long lonely road to Eureka Dunes, we saw a bunch of Joshua Trees, and other small cacti. Then we dropped into a large valley on the east side of the Last Chance Range. The end of the valley was obscured until we drove down enough of the road that it became visible, and out popped a huge sand dune! We got all excited when we saw it, however, our excitement dropped off realizing that we had to turn off the main road and go down a gravel/rock road about 10 miles at 30 mph just to get there. It took us 1/2 hour at a painfully slow speed. But once we got there, we were greeted by a break in the clouds and the dunes were showered with sunlight. There were little fluffy clouds in the sky as we started hiking up the dune, determined to get to the top of one of the closer peaks.



Starting our hike up the dunes.


At the top!

We read that the Eureka Sand Dunes are the tallest in the state of California, and might possibly be the tallest in the U.S. if the winds are right. The tallest in the U.S. that I know of are in Colorado at Great Sand Dune national park, but apparently the Eureka Dunes rival them. There are also a bunch of animals that only live in the dunes and nowhere else. We saw a beetle crawling along the sand, and even a blue lizard with red eyes. Little sprouts were growing out of the sand, which seemed odd, however the sand in the dune is very efficient in soaking up water and retaining it. Although we were in a desert, when we buried our feet into the dune, cool wet sand was just an inch under the surface (like at a beach).



A beetle on the sand dunes.


Eureka Sand Dunes

After climbing, we decided to pick the steepest descent, and jumped most of the way down. That was a lot of fun! When we got back into the car, we saw that there was a road that went behind the dune and into the mountains where there was a cold spring called Marble Bath. We tried driving to it, but being in the Daewoo, we could not get too far before the road became too rocky and uneven. If we were in the baja (which we didn't take and left by the yurt because it was low on gas) we would've made it, but oh well, next time I guess!



Jumping down the dunes.