Goler Canyon and Barker Ranch

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Distance from Beatty: 110 miles

Here's something you don't do every day.
Drive ninety miles to a ghost town that's off the hard road from a lonesome two-lane blacktop in the middle of nowhere; rendezvous with with a bunch of strangers you only "know" from the Internet; and then drive another 15-20 miles up a remote canyon wash to the cabin where Charles Manson and his "family" lived in 1969 when they committed the grisly TATE-LaBIANCA MURDERS.

Chris said it sounded like a good plot for a horror movie. :-)

That's what we did last Saturday, though, and it was a blast!

Everyone gathered at BALLARAT, a ghost town about 25 miles from Panamint Springs. There were five people in four vehicles (LARA, David, Jim and us); since maneuvering your vehicle up and down a canyon trail is half the fun of an adventure like this people generally prefer to drive themselves rather than ride with someone else. The Goler trail wasn't difficult -- the easiest it's ever been according to David and Jim, which is why we were able to do it in our Honda CRV.

We milled around the Ballarat parking lot for a while getting to know each other, and then off we went driving caravan-style along the base of the Panamints, gawking at the scenery and chatting on walkie-talkies. So cool! After a few miles, the road turned and crawled up an alluvial fan into Goler Canyon.

Canyons are great. Each one is different, of course, but it's astonishing how truly different they can be -- different rocks, entirely different geological history, etc., even when they're not very far apart. Goler Canyon is no exception, and we must have said to each other half a dozen times, "We have to come back here when we can stop," because, of course, we were with other people and couldn't just slam on the brakes every time we spotted cool rocks, or an interesting formation, or whatever.

Occasionally, something would be so extremely cool that others would see it and think so too, and stopping would just happen naturally. Like the time Lara stopped, jumped out of her car and ran over to add a rock to a budding rock stack. (I had to add one too, natch.) Or the amazing canyon wall dotted with barrel cactus that just sort of stopped all of us in our tracks. Or the melon patch -- in the Mojave Desert! Who woulda thunk it! (They are "coyote melons," Jude, in case you're wondering. :-)

We passed quite a bit of evidence of human habitation and enterprise -- an old abandoned mine, various cabins. We stopped at the "Newman Cabin" on the way in and at the Lotus Mine (aka Keystone Mine) and "Stone Cabin" on the way out. Eventually, though, we arrived at our main destination and Goler Canyon's star attraction -- Barker Ranch.

Barker Ranch is notorious for having been home to infamous cult leader Charles Manson and his "family" in the summer of 1969 when they went on their gruesome Beverly Hills murder spree. Anything relating to Manson has long since vanished, carried off by relic collectors, the Park Service or whomever, and now the property and cabin are run-down, vermin-infested and trashed beyond belief. The furnishings shown in MY BARKER RANCH PHOTOS were added in later years by volunteers wanting to make the cabin habitable for overnight use by passing explorers. Nature can't be kept at bay, however, without ongoing vigilance, and now the furnishings are too disgusting to look at almost, let alone touch. I didn't even like walking on the floor; my sweet walking shoes didn't deserve it!

Everyone agreed, though, that the place must have been awesome in its day -- before Manson occupied it. The layout of the cabin is just delightful with all kinds of unexpected nice touches -- like the "BREAKFAST NOOK" with that archway.. I loved that. It was easy to imagine the place all cleaned up and furnished like a little English cottage or something.

After wandering around the Barker Ranch for a while, we decided it was time to head back down to Ballarat. It's winter and days are still short, and we didn't relish coming down Goler Canyon in the dark, if we could avoid it. We finished a fantastic day with a tasty dinner at PANAMINT SPRINGS RESORT where our server turned out to be none other than Oregon Gal, yet another person we "knew" from ONLINE, so there was much merriment made over that coincidence. "OMG, that's YOU?!!? OMG!!" :-)

At last it was time to head home, and after plenty of hugs and goodbyes all around, Lara, Ry and I hit the road, leaving Jim, David and OG on the porch at PSR nursing their Arrogant Bastard Ales. An hour and a half and two mountain ranges later, we were back in Beatty, wonderfully tired and full of the experiences of one of the best days we've had since moving out here, certainly a day we'll never, ever forget!

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Unless otherwise noted all photographs on this blog are my own, taken by me, copyright owned by me.