Take Me Someplace Lush and Green

The last blog ended with Glady's saying, "take me someplace lush and green". Lush and Green? Does she mean Hawaii? This is the closest we have ever been to Hawaii. Or does she really mean someplace warm? Maybe even hot! That's it! No wonder I am the best husband in the world. I can read her mind. To Death Valley it is!

We left Lone Pine a day early because of the wind expected on our original travel day. We put the Sierra's behind us and started the trek to find Death Valley. Just the name is not friendly and neither of us knew what to expect, since we have never been here before. Boy were we amazed. The sheer emensness of it all. The contrasting colors from one mountain range to another.

From Lone Pine, we took highway 136 in the Owens Valley. There it joins highway 190 that takes you into the park. This route into Death Valley takes you over two mountain passes and through 2 valleys. I would not recommend going that route with a big rig. One climb I remember was 7 to 8 percent grade for 9 miles. The grade for going into Death Valley was 18 miles at 8 percent. So you really need to be confident in your brakes.

Once in the park the first overlook we came to was Father Crowley Vista Point. It was truly spectacular and the size of it is phenomenal. I may run out of adjectives by the end of this post describing Death Valley.

Panamint Valley.

Rainbow Canyon.

This was the first set of mountains you climb. At that viewpoint (4500 ft.)you look down into the Panamint Valley. Now you continue on a narrow winding road to the valley floor, just to reach the bottom and then climb up the Panamint range to Towne Pass, elevation of 4956 ft. Then it is 18 miles down to the Death Valley floor at an 8 percent grade. Breathtaking views are all around.

We found our campground in Furnace Creek near the Visitor Center. Here you are at a negative 190 feet below sea level. There are 4 campground here. One private with full hookups. One National Park one with full hookups and two dry camps that are really just parking lots. Sunset and Texas Springs. Texas Spring doesn't allow generators. Sunset does and is only $14.00 a night. We stayed in Sunset. All set up we just waited for the wind to start blowing the next day. 

It blew all night like a wild banshee and all day. We just walked around the visitor center and then hung out until the following day when we could unload the camper and explore.

The next day we unloaded the camper and left it and the cats in the camp ground. Our first stop was going to be Badwater. The lowest spot on the North American continent. It is minus 282 feet below sea level.

That little white sign above the pickup is where sea level is. The water at the bottom is very salty. It leaves behind white salt crystals.

Next stop on our agenda was going to be Natural Bridge. It was not too far away. It was going to be a short death march to the natural bridge, uphill.

This is the view from the parking lot. To get to the parking lot it is about a 2 mile drive uphill on gravel. It gives you a great view of the valley.

Here's a panoramic shot of the valley. The next photos are of the 1 mile death march uphill.

As you march in there it turns into a giant wash or maybe a small canyon. I'm not sure what you would call it. My only concern was to stay upright at this point.

As we continued to march up, I couldn't help but think of how much water must of flowed through here to make this as wide and deep as it is. Also how long ago did water last flow through here.

Finally the bridge. There were some dry waterfalls. They would cut out chutes in the rock were they once flowed.

As you march up all you do is look forward. Then when you turn around, you see the scenery that was behind you.

Coming out of there was much easier than going in. It was all downhill. Next stop was going to take us to the Devil's Golf Course. The Devil's Golf Course sits out in the middle of the valley floor, so I was assured that there was no climbing involved. YAY!

These salt crystals have been here a very long time. You can walk amongst them and they advice you to be careful. They are hard as concrete and are 1 to 2 feet tall. Falling in there would would cause a lot of cuts and bruises.

This is a close up of one such salt column.

This is a photo of the surface of one salt column. You can see that falling on this would not be fun. 

Next up on the road was called Artist's Palette. It is a vehicle tour into the foothills of the mountains and there is a vehicle length restriction on it. Vehicles longer than 25 ft. are not allowed because of some tight switchbacks.

Here we stopped at a pullout and walked amongst the rocks. I looked back at the truck and took this picture of Death Valley behind it to show just how big this valley is. The valley is 140 miles long and varies from 5 to 15 miles wide.

We were talking pictures and then realized how quiet the world can be when you are all alone.

I took this picture because of what looked like trails coming down the mountain. They are trails made from rocks. It's funny, the rocks didn't roll down the mountain, they slide. Zoom in and you can see one half way down.

It's called Artists Palette because of the many different colors of rock here. All of these things that we have done are in a small part of the valley, so you can see quite a lot in a short amount of time. Lunch is next.

We were going to stop for lunch at the Oasis Resort in Death Valley. We looked at the menu and got sticker shock. If I am not going to spend $9 for a beer in Disneyland, I sure as heck ain't going to spend $24 for a hamburger in Death Valley. The same goes for fuel. Hot dogs it was!

Our next stop was going to be Dante's view. On the way to Dante's view we saw a road that needed to be driven. It was called 20 Mule Team Canyon Road. They don't post a sign at this one but I would not bring a large vehicle through here..

This was and image I borrowed off of the internet. My co-pilot must have been closing her eyes during this road. The road winds through these yellow hills. It is very narrow with a couple of small steep crests. I told Lisa that this would be perfect to do in a Jeep. Not as fun in a 1 ton dually pickup. I thought we were going to scrape the sides at a couple of points, it was so narrow.

It was a nice drive and worth seeing if you are in the area. Next stop Dante's View.

This is another drive not to be taken with large vehicles. The last quarter mile has switchbacks and is steep. With an incline of 15 percent. We started this drive in the valley at -190 ft. below sea level. When we get to the top we will be at an elevation of 5475 ft. above sea level. Even with my Ram one ton with duallies it was narrow at the top. One guy in a Prius coming down had some very wide eyes when he rounded a corner to see our truck coming up. Once at the top you are greeted with some spectacular views and some cooler temps. It was in the 40's at the top and the valley floor was in the 70's.

It was incredible. The beauty of this place never stopped amazing us. As you were to look straight down, you are looking at Badwater, the lowest spot in North America. So you are looking nearly 6,000 feet down.

Badwater below.

Ironically that across from the lowest point is the highest point in the park. Telescope Peak at 11,049 ft. The contrasts are many here. At this point we are getting tired but there are a few more things we wanted to check out. Next up Zabriskie Point. Another short death march.

It is a short march uphill, paved with benches.

I almost made it. Next was a quick stop at the Harmony Borax Works. They mined a lot of Borax out of Death Valley. They used wagons and teams of 20 mules to haul it out.

After that it was another short auto drive into the Mustard Canyon. The hills are a mustard yellow and we didn't get any pictures of that. That is it for our tour of Death Valley. You can see a lot in one day if that is all you have and there is more of the valley we would have liked to see. We will save that for another time. 

Gladys said to me,"Tango. Thanks for the great visit to Death Valley, but since you didn't understand my meaning the last time, I am going to make it more clearer. I want to see glitz and glamour. I want to go to a place with Casinos".

"Say no more Gladys. I know exactly where you are talking about!"