Death Valley National Park

This post is all about Death Valley National Park, located in the desert in California. I don’t know about you, but when I think of Death Valley, it’s my childhood memories.  Hot as hell. Mormons died in the 1800s because the only water they found was salty and no one or no other animals would drink. I remember watching western tv shows about it.

But…..if you come in the spring it’s a whole different story!  We planned our launch date for this trip around getting here in hopes of a super bloom or at least wildflowers.  Well, sorry to say no super bloom.  But there are many wildflowers to view.

 

Near Pannamint Canyon

Here’s some history.  Death Valley National Park was established in 1994, the 53^rd park among America’s 59 National Parks.  It straddles eastern California and western Nevada.  Death Valley is known for its colorful rocks and Badwater Basin’s salt flats…which we hiked to. Badwater Basin is the lowest place in North America at 282 feet below sea level.  It’s record temperature is 134 degrees Fahrenheit makes it the hottest place on earth.  Thank goodness we visited in the spring before it got so hot.  The massive salt flat here covers nearly 200 square miles and lies more than two miles below the 11,331 foot Telescope Peak that looms above it. Whew.  But don’t forget about the Mormons that traveled through here, couldn’t find water, and well….you might remember the rest of that story!

So, Day 13, April 5 our destination is Death Valley National Park.  We logged 732 miles driving in Arizona.  On our route here, we travel into California, then Nevada close to Las Vegas, before entering the park back through California.  We got hailed on south of Vegas.  Nothing big or bad.  We got settled into our site (#16) at Furnace Creek which is below sea level.  We have views of snow capped mountains on one side and views of black clouds in the valley and over the mountain on the other side.  It’s cool – upper 50’s (I know you were expecting heat).  It’s beautiful! Not what we expected. We came in hopes of a super bloom but there’s just beautiful patches of flowers.

Hail south of Vegas

View from campsite

Day 14 – April 6

What a beautiful, peaceful place this is. Today it’s clear blue skies. There are flowers – if you walk in the desert. We undocked and took a ride to Badwater Basin that is 282’ below sea level. We made a side drive through Artist Canyon which was well worth it. Then we took a long hike to the Devil’s Golf Course. There’s still water in the lake, which is amazing. The dried salt formations here looked like coral. So cool to see this.  BTW it’s not hot. We have on jeans and long sleeves. We continued our drive which made a long loop back to Furnace Creek. We saw beautiful cactus in bloom. Their hot pink flowers looked fake as we were driving through.

The truck looks small!

Really didn't expect to see so much snow here.

Looking down at Badwater Basin

Some twisting roads!

Pretty patch of yellow daisies

Worth the long hike down to really see and touch!

Wading to the water

These almost looked fake when you're viewing across the land.

Day 15 – April 7, 2024

We’re starting week #3!  We did a drive on the northeast side of the park.  We headed towards Stovepipe Wells Village where the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

As we neared Panamint Springs Valley, you could see a carpet or yellow daisies everywhere!  Very pretty!

Fields of yellow flowers

Even taken through the windshield it's pretty

We then drove up to Father Crowley Vista Point that overlooks Rainbow Canyon. We didn’t realize that the Air Force does drills through this valley and canyon.

Rainbow Canyon

You know the song…..”The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the Heart of Texas!” Well the stars here our just absolutely amazing. We left the window open on the hatch above the bed just to continue watching them. Billions of stars look like a pincushion stuffed with pins.

The weather is still good.  Came back and docked the truck and camper to be ready to leave tomorrow for a state park in Nevada.  Our California driving miles totaled 520 miles, mostly just driving through this enormous park.

Death Valley…….so empty, so vast, so simple, so quiet.