I spent last week in Death Valley National Park. It was my fourth visit—we seem to return to some of our favorite attractions and manage to see new ones each time. DV is huge, 1.5 times the size of the state of Delaware. Our first surprise was Eureka Dunes in the evening. We arrived in the park late on Saturday and were absolutely stunned by the star-filled sky. Three things worked greatly in our favor—it was cold with clear skies, we were at high elevation and there is no light pollution, all perfect conditions for amazing star viewing. (Certainly the most impressive I have ever seen.) We also noticed a weird singing sound coming from the direction of the dunes. We later learned there are only twenty seven locations world-wide that have the right conditions for singing dunes. Low moisture content, highly polished surfaces and the right wind conditions lend themselves to the nightly orchestra.
The following day we picked our way over Steele Pass, probably my favorite challenging four-wheel drive trail in the park. As we dropped into the valley we stopped for a soak in the natural hotsprings at Lower Warm Spring. There is a sign posted that reads “Bare Crossing,” you can probably imagine what that means. Between Saturday evening and Sunday morning we did 90.6 miles on dirt roads alone to Panamint Springs where we spent our second night. $4 bags of ice anyone? That morning we woke up early and hiked to Darwin Falls, an impressive waterfall in the middle of the desert. Not sure what length hikes I was capable of, we kept our first to 2 miles. After the hike we drove to Ballarat, an old ghost town inhabited only by a really old man and his dog Potlicker. From Ballarat we drove through another of my favorite areas in the park, Goler Wash and Butte Valley. This is a reasonably difficult four-wheel drive trail that is challenging and fun to negotiate with amazing scenery along the way. We visited what was left of the cabin where Charles Manson was arrested in 1969. Unfortunately this historic monument was gutted by fire in May of 2009. We drove past Striped Butte (exactly as it sounds, a unique geologic butte in the middle of an otherwise flat valley) and spent the night camped at Warm Springs Mine, 38.5 miles from Ballarat, all slow-going dirt and rock trails.
Striped Butte:
The dirt road that goes forever (Striped Butte on the left):
Burro hanging out:
Goler Wash:
Day 3 was spent negotiating our way out of Warm Spring Canyon, with a short diversion up Trail Canyon, followed by an interesting hike through a narrow rock gorge. On our way out West Side Road we stopped to admire water at Badwater, the lowest place in the Continental U.S. at 282 feet below sea level. We passed a truck with a kayak on its roof, a unique sighting in DV for sure. We spent this and the following several nights camped at Furnace Creek campground, 196 feet below sea level.
Day 4 we drove to Dante’s View at 5,704 feet in elevation. That may not seem like much but directly below you is Badwater at –282 ft, the Panamint Mountain Range across the valley and Death Valley nestled in-between it and the Amargosa Mountains. We visited Zabriskie Point and then drove to Death Valley Junction only to find...well...not much there other than the Opera House. A bust, it was not, for they had frozen milk shakes!
Zabriskie Point:
Day 5 we hiked Mosaic Canyon, a really interesting slot canyon complete with small dry falls and really interesting geology. Much of DV was once a 600’ deep lake called Lake Manly. Waves battering the shore left horizontal lines in Shoreline Butte. The sedimentary deposits were uplifted and block faulting twisted and tilted rocks to form some of the most interesting geological spectacles
We took a tour of Scotty’s Castle on Day 6. A wealthy engineer and his wife had the castle constructed in the early 1920s as a vacation getaway. Death Valley Scotty, a friend of the family, convinced everyone that he had built the castle with money from his rich secret mines in the area. The actual owner allowed the lie to propagate, mostly because he and his wife's lack of vanity. Death Valley Scotty's lies simply turned the attention away from them and allowed enjoyment of their vacation home.
We had amazing weather our entire visit, the hiking, four-wheeling and photography were fun, the company was excellent and even the food we prepared made this a great trip. (The amazing dinner we had at the Furnace Creek Inn didn't hurt either.) You might notice I put an emphasis on the amount of difficult dirt roads we traveled--if you are traveling by passenger car you will unfortunately miss the neatest areas of the park. I am looking forward to yet another trip to Death Valley.
I returned from vacation to find the weather here took a turn for the better. I purchased a dozen or so more plants and got them planted in the backyard on Saturday. I also did a 7.8 mile hike on Sunday. I am apparently not distance-limited anymore, so perhaps that June invitation to hike Half Home isn’t so far-fetched.
