Death Valley USA

Where is the lowest, the driest, and the hottest place in North America?

Well, that would be Death Valley. 

We had been traveling through desert area for days and days when we decided to take a trip across Death Valley (from west to east).  Up until that point we had been in desert…but there still were areas with a few trees, like here in California.

Here is the turning off point to head into Death Valley.

Now we were heading down, down , down into a valley in the desert

and about to expand our concept of “desert”.

 

One gets an eerie feeling as you wind your way down and the landscape becomes more and more barren and the temperature gets higher and higher.

We have reservations to spend the night Panamint Springs on the valley floor at the western edge of Death Valley National Park. There it is!

The flower bed outside the cabin door is appropriate for this area…

and there are some lovely bushes that provide a bit of relief from the heat.

The restaurant has cool drinks and good food…but no air conditioning in the room. Well, there is a swamp fan which helps a bit but still 104 degrees (in the shade) still feels like 104 degrees.

We are up early the next morning in an attempt to travel before it gets too hot. (More specifically it is 6:30 am and it is already 91 degrees F.)

The road starts going up, up, up…but in long, long grades so it does not seem as if you are climbing, but you are. No wonder there was a sign advising you to turn off the car’s air conditioner for the next ten miles!

Oh, there was another motel complex nearer the park entrance…

or maybe those are official buildings for the park.

Yes, those are sand dunes.

The size of the dunes is deceptive. Two cars were parked by the roadside so I looked around for people. Way off in the distance I saw a person out on the dunes…the human looked about the size of a toothpick!

Don’t know what those are though.

 

What! Does that sign say BELOW sea level?

Yes, we read that correctly…200 feet below sea level.

Look! There is something I hoped to see.

Having read stories and watched movies about the Borax story,

I found this marker interesting. 

20 mule trains. Mining in this heat! I could not survive.

I truly could not survive there!

At Furnace Creek we stop and explore the quality gift shop and learn more about the park. Death Valley National Park is not as old as I would have guessed. A banner says the park’s tenth anniversary was celebrated back in 2004, so that means it was established in 1994. Interesting.

Furnace Creek has a Borax Museum and is the official information centre for the park. Also we find a large motel complex and a golf course!!! (There is water at Furnace Creek so it can support more “life”.)

I know we could have easily spent more time in Furnace Creek, but already it is starting to get hotter (already 100 degrees F)…and it is not even yet 8:00, so onward!

I wonder if those might be some of the rocks that slowly “sail” throughout the desert without any human intervention. Probably not as I did not notice a sign saying The Racetrack. (I am not joking! Google it!)

I wonder, are we still in California or have we crossed into Nevada?

As we begin to climb out of the valley I must admit I am relieved to be out of Death Valley and into “regular” desert. (As you can probably tell I am not a fan of deserts! However I am happy we crossed Death Valley, even if just to be able to say we did it.)

So, onward to Pahrump where we will have a late, late breakfast and then on the Las Vegas!

Visit other areas of the USA, click here.

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Happy travels!