#5: [12-Dec-11]

#4: [20-Nov-06]

#3: [01-Sep-03]

#1: [02-Sep-00]

10-Nov-2002 -- This confluence lies just inside the northeast corner of Death Valley National Park about 15 miles west of US 95 10 miles north of Beatty, NV. We had visited three geodashing dashpoints along US 95 on our route from Reno to the confluence so it was dark when we finally got to the "x-point" (where I leave the truck and walk) for this adventure, so we spent the cold night camping there. It has been about two years since the last reported visit to this confluence. We took essentially the same approach as did Robert Johnson. Several of the desert "roads" inside Death Valley National Park had weathered signs indicating they were closed for wilderness regeneration. Hence, we may have proceeded west on a slightly different one. When we reached 117W, we were only .8 miles from the confluence.

After a good hot breakfast of scrambled eggs and hot chocolate/coffee (photo #6 is Janice tending breakfast at our campsite), we packed up Emma (my Explorer) and were ready for the day's adventure. The walk to the dashpoint was relatively easy across the flat open desert with mostly sagebrush to dodge. A few cactus plants of an unknown (to me) kind were also present (photo #4). We also noted as we walked north from our campsite, a few joshua trees began to appear. They were noticeably more concentrated further north of the confluence. Photo #3 shows the lone joshua tree 30 or 40 yards southeast of the confluence. It was quite easy to get and hold all zeros on the GPSR with a Garmin EPE of 14 feet (Photo #5). Photo #1 shows the view west toward the Grapevine Mountains and Death Valley National Park. Photo #2 is the view south from which we walked.

In the Death Valley National Park.