March 23 – March 25, 2023
Las Vegas
We had to drive through Las Vegas on our way to Death Valley so decided to spend a couple of hours walking down the Strip !
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We then drove as far as Death Valley Junction and camped on BLM land, half an hour outside the Park so we could get to one of the First come/First served campgrounds in Death Valley NP the next morning and secure a spot before 9 am .
We had very strong wind during the night and intermittent rain but the forecast for the next few days is for sunny weather.
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley is situated on the eastern border of south-central California, in the northern Mojave Desert, and borders the Great Basin Desert. The area of Death Valley National Park covers 5,270 square miles ( 13 650 square km !!)
The name is said to come from a group of gold rush travellers who got lost for weeks in the valley in 1849 after thinking it was a short cut. They survived, killing some of their oxen and using the wood from their wagons to cook. After abandoning their wagons, they eventually were able to hike out of the valley. Just after leaving the valley, one of the women in the group turned and said, “Goodbye Death Valley,” giving the valley its name. ( although only one member of the party is known to have died).
Hottest (The hottest air temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134°F (57°C) on July 10, 1913.), Driest and Lowest National Park … In this below-sea-level basin, steady drought and record summer heat make Death Valley a land of extremes. Yet, each extreme has a striking contrast. Towering peaks are frosted with winter snow. Rare rainstorms bring vast fields of wildflowers. Lush oases harbor tiny fish and refuge for wildlife and humans. Despite its morbid name, a great diversity of life thrives in Death Valley.
We watched an informative short film at Furnace Creek Visitor Centre and then headed for Badwater Basin and its Salt Flats.
On the way to Badwater we stopped for a short hike at Golden Canyon. The name refers to the incredible yellow coloration of the canyon walls. The trail ends at Red Cathedral, the vertically fluted walls of a natural amphitheater in contrasting dark red.
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The elevation to the north end of the Park sits at about 3,000 feet and slopes steadily downward, putting the valley floor below sea level for 70 miles. Ultimately, the terrain bottoms out just beyond Artist’s Drive at Badwater Basin—the lowest, hottest and driest point in the Western Hemisphere—sitting at a whopping 282 feet ( 86m) below sea level.
Natural Bridge and Devil’s Golf Course
Another short hike leads you to Natural Bridge: as its name suggest, this stone bridge spans a canyon and was carved over thousands of years by rain and flashfloods.
The Devils Golf Course is made up of large salt formations that jut out of the barren landscape for as far as the eye can see. You can walk around the salt slabs but you have to be careful as they are jagged, sharp and stick straight up, making it difficult to go any distance.
The Devils Golf Course gets its name from a guidebook back in the ’30s that stated: “Only the devil could play golf on such a surface.”
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BADWATER – Lowest point in North America, these salt flats here cover nearly 200 square miles (518 square km), and are composed mostly of sodium chloride (table salt), along with calcite, gypsum, and borax.
A sign high on the mountain nearby gives you an idea of how far below Sea Level the basin stands :282 feet ( 86m)
Note sea level marker, circled in red.
Badwater Basin was once the site of the large ancient inland Lake Manly which evaporated tens of thousands of years before the arrival of the 1849er( Gold rush Pioneers) for whom it was named. The lake had no outlet, leading to the accumulation of sediment and salt over time. When the lake eventually evaporated, concentrated salt deposits were left behind. Today, fascinating geometric salt polygons form on the flats as groundwater rises up through these deposits and evaporates.
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Artist’s Palette drive and hike
it was near late afternoon and the best time to go on Artist’s Drive , a nine-mile, one-way road that leads through some of Death Valley’s most vibrantly hued sedimentary and volcanic formations. The highlight is Artist’s Palette, where the rock is improbably colored with gorgeous yellows, pinks, and greens. You can stop and walk through the rock formations to get a closer look!
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On our second day in Death Valley, we drove to one of the closest towns , Beatty, which is 65 km from the Furnace Visitor Centre and in the State of Nevada. Not much there apart from a couple of RV parks, casinos and hotels. We managed to fill up on petrol at a more reasonable price than inside the Park $4.06 per gallon instead of $6 per gallon!!
The price of petrol in California is one of the highest in the US, mainly because the State imposes heavy taxes to encourage people to turn to electric cars. California Law states that all NEW cars sold in 2035 and beyond have to be zero-emission vehicles. (national average price is $ 3.601 per gallon and $4.88 in California !!)
We wanted to go back into the park on a dirt road going through Titus Canyon but the road was closed for repairs… We had no choice but to take the main road, Highway 190, going east to west to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes near Stovepipe Wells.
The 100-foot-high Sand Dunes have earned fame when, rippled Mesquite Flat provided the location for Tatooine in Star Wars: A New Hope. Other locations in the Park have also been used for scenes in the Star Wars movies.
You are free to wander and climb the highest dune, which we did. It is a good distance from the car park area but worth the effort ! It was windy on that day though and (although not visible with bare eyes) some of our pictures appear blurry because of sand particles in the air!!
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In the evening we drove through Twenty Mule Team Canyon and Zabriskie Point.
Twenty Mule Team Canyon
A roller-coaster drive, hidden just off the main highway, a 2.5 mile (4 km) dirt road winds between, around, and over yellow hills.(Scenes from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi were filmed there)
The name comes from Teams of mules which were used to move millions of pounds of Borax(mineral) from remote mines in inaccessible Death Valley to the railroad at Mojave.
Zabriskie Point
We were hoping to catch a nice sunset but dark clouds were blocking the sun so we missed out on the show of colours. This overlook offers spectacular views on to undulating landscape of gullies and mud hills at the edge of the Black Mountains and you can even see the Badland Salt Flats in the distance.
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