Forum Index > Trip Reports > Death Valley: The Panamint Mountains, vol. 2: “Butte Valley: Barker Ranch hike”
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ree
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ree
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PostMon Nov 20, 2017 6:03 pm 
How interesting that we were just at Barker Ranch, considering Manson's recent death... Death Valley: The Panamint Mountains, vol. 2: “Butte Valley: Barker Ranch hike” The night before our hike, we car camped at Russell Camp Cabin. It had a nice flat area in front. The buildings there are fairly decent inside but we slept in our car again. We did use the water at the camp to wash the desert dirt off of us, which was a nice bonus. The camp had a nice picnic table in front that we used too. The cabin is tucked in a canyon at the southern end of Butte Valley, and close to our next sightseeing destination: Mengel Pass and Barker Ranch.
pretty Striped Butte
pretty Striped Butte
Death Valley Sunset
Death Valley Sunset
Russell Camp
Russell Camp
Russell Camp
Russell Camp
Goler Wash has a lot of historical sites and mining history. It’s the south west exit (or entrance) for sport 4 x 4 drivers to Butte Valley and Death Valley. We chose to hike it because there was NO WAY we were taking our rig over Mengel Pass to get into Goler Wash from the north. 4 x 4, highly experienced drivers ONLY. We didn’t qualify with our 20 yr. old AWD Ford Explorer. Dropping over Mengel Pass from Butte Valley to Goler Wash is extremely rocky, bouldery terrain. Once you are in Goler Wash, the road isn’t much of a problem. It was quite warm and the road walk was ok. We made a nice stop to see some memorials at the top of Mengel Pass. Carl Mengel’s cairn is still there. We also took a side hike up to a hill to get a nice panorama of Striped Butte.
Carl Mengel's grave
Carl Mengel's grave
Cairned grave on Mengel Pass
Cairned grave on Mengel Pass
toward Goler Canyon
toward Goler Canyon
From there, it was downhill to a cairned spur road turning east. We were wanting to see infamous Barker Ranch. This road has some brush near it, and it’s in a wash. There is a nice canopy of trees there.
desert road walking
desert road walking
treed road to Barker Ranch
treed road to Barker Ranch
After 3.5 dry miles of road walking we arrived at Barker Ranch. In 1968 Charles Manson was arrested there, and that was the beginning of his conviction for the Tate/La Bianca Murders. One of his dumb hippie followers burned some CalTrans equipment which led Inyo Co. authorities straight to Barker Ranch. Charles Manson was found hiding in the bathroom vanity. Thank god for their dumb hippie blunder. It was pretty eerie and quiet. The ranch has a few standing out buildings and a small, rustic swimming pool made of rocks. The main building burned down in 2009 or so, leaving the stone foundation.
the bathroom, where they found Manson
the bathroom, where they found Manson
ranch house
ranch house
Barker Ranch
Barker Ranch
swimming pool
swimming pool
Barker Ranch
Barker Ranch
fireplace
fireplace
infamous bathroom
infamous bathroom
We started walking to Myers Ranch, a half mile beyond Barker Ranch. We were unsure if it is still private property, but the menacing signs were plentiful enough to ward us off.
lots of signs warning that they'll shoot you
lots of signs warning that they'll shoot you
We turned around and headed back to our car. It would have been nice to go all the way down canyon, but it’s a long schlub to the mouth of Goler Wash. If you had an average SUV like ours, you could probably approach it from the west, no problem. A large band of sports 4 x 4 drivers came in as we were heading out. Apparently SUVers can get lost out there and miss the turn off. They were all polite and thanked us for the info we gave them. We had a nice leap frog with them on the way back to Mengel Pass. We even got an offer for chicken and dumplings from them for dinner. No offer for a ride tho. We beat them to our parked rig, and drove off to camp at the north end of Butte Valley.
ad for 4 x 4 tires
ad for 4 x 4 tires

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NorthBen
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PostTue Nov 21, 2017 12:39 am 
If you haven't already seen it, this is an excellent long form read about "the hunt for the Death Valley Germans", a group of German tourists who disappeared in the Mengel Pass area in 1996.

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Riverside Laker
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PostTue Nov 21, 2017 11:11 am 
Wow, that story about the Germans was a page-turner, or webpage-flipper. Thanks.

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ree
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ree
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PostTue Nov 21, 2017 5:11 pm 
Wow, that is an excellent link indeed! What an amazing story and blog post... Thanks for the link. up.gif

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