The Ridgecrest area offers most the modern conveniences, close to a wide open natural environment. For being a desert area you would be surprised how many springs and waterfalls are in the extended area, if you know where to look. There are also desert lakes in the area but they are small to intermittent and don't contain drinkable water. The closest major springs are the Indian Wells Springs which the valley is named after. Late in 1849 a group of people moving west split into two groups to try and find their way to California late in the season. One group became snow bound in the high pass north of Lake Tahoe which is now known as Donner Pass and were rescued only after having to resort to cannibalism to survive. The other group headed south and came through Death Valley. The first drinkable water they found after Death Valley was reputed to be at the Indian Wells Springs. Today there is the Indian Wells Restaurant and Indian Wells Brewery at the site of the old wells. There is still water which runs above ground year round above the wells in Indian Wells Canyon. 

Indian Wells Canyon is one of many Sierra fed watershed which run down the eastern escapement to the arid Indian Wells and Owens Valleys. The canyon has a spur dirt road into the wilderness which the BLM hasn't closed off yet. Most roads up the canyons into the sierra have been closed off to vehicle traffic at the LA Aqueduct which runs south from Mono Lake to Los Angles. The Indian Wells Canyon offers several interesting abandoned mines to explore as well as a traihead to climb Owens Peak and a short cut to the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) . The north/south Aqueduct and power line roads provide good access to the mouths of many canyons which provide hiking into the mountains. Local canyons include Freeman, Indian Wells, Short, Grapevine, Sand, No Name and Nine Mile, with roads going up and over into the Sierra through Freeman (to Lake Isabella & Bakersfield) and Nine Mile (to Kennedy Meadows and the Sequoia National Forest).

     The fact that the Sierra has water in them, even on the drier leeward side is no great surprise, but some of the other sources of water are not easily locatable without local knowledge. About 30 miles to the east/northeast of Ridgecrest is Trona (named after a mineral called trona). The only business in Trona is the hydro mining of the mostly dry Searles Lake bed for potash, borax and many other salts and minerals. The water that provides the town it's livelihood now comes through a set  of pipelines from the Sierra but once was provided by a pipeline from a natural spring fed system called Great Falls Basin (Trona Falls). There are actually six of the falls that interests me, those are the ones I (and friends) have repelled down  many times. The falls run most the year depending on the sparse winter rains. Even when the falls are only a trickle, recently there have been great pools that remain year round. 
 
 

Trona in the Searles Valley is normally reached from Ridgecrest by going over SR 178 down through Poison Canyon. Another access route is over a dirt road from US 395 which goes down the south side of the Spanglers and through the Trona Pinnacles ( featured in many movies, most recently the 2001 remake of The Planet of the Apes). The route then picks up SR 178 through Trona.     The pinnacles are tufa formations similar to those found up north at Mono Lake. At Mono Lake underground (under water actually) mineral rich water bubbled up from the lake bed to form towers of mineral deposits. LA's thirst for water has lowered the lake level exposing the formations. At one time Searles Lake was much larger than the today's  remnants. The Owens and Indian Wells Valleys fed into the lake and at that time the columns formed inside the lake, they are now totally high and dry and seemingly not even associated with the lake.

     Beyond the Searles Valley lies the Panamint Valley which along with the Saline Valley to the north of it are the most isolated and least populated in the area. Charles Manson and several members of his "family" were captured hiding out in the remoteness of the Panamint Valley. The night skies are filled with the Milky Way and countless stars due to almost no light pollution. The few lights are provided by the semi ghost town of Ballarat, a few still working mines or quarries and the and the sporadic traffic going to and from Death Valley from Ridgecrest. On the west of the north/south running valley are the Argus Mountains with ~8000' Matarango Peak being the highest. On the east is the Panamint Range of which 11,049' Telescope Peak dominates. 

    Panamint in its very name expresses what the valley and mountains were about, mining. Ballarat  in it's hay day, around the turn of the century (19th to 20th), was a busy supply point for the local mines. Trees above the 7000' level on Telescope Peak were used to make charcoal to support the valleys' mills and smelters. Surprise Canyon a little north of Ballarat in the Panamints leads up to the site of the now deserted Panamint City which was an operational mine until the 1980s when it had to be closed because a flood washed out the lower road. Until this year (2001) radical 4 wheel drivers could winch their way up the water falls in the lower canyon and drive up to Panamint City. (BLM strikes again)
     Where Searles Valley is a few hundred feet lower than the Indian Wells Valley and the Panamint Valley is even lower still (about 1000' at it's lowest). The valley on the east side of the Panamint Range is lower still. This is Death Valley, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. At the north end of Panamint Valley the road from Lone Pine and Olancha in the Owens Valley meets the road from Ridgecrest. From that intersection it climbs up to near 5000' before dropping down below sea level in Death Valley. 

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