Maybe it’s just the cheery name, but Death Valley has been one of my favorite places of this entire RV trip. I’m going to be a little heavy on the photos in a vain attempt to explain why.
Our camping spot the first couple of nights was unfortunately a bit of a touristy resort, and it was bustling with people. I guess because of the extreme temperatures during the rest of the year (135 degrees is the record), December and January are the busy months:
Fortunately, there was no shortage of places to go to get away from the crowd. We started our first day with a climb in Golden Canyon a few miles away from the camp ground:
It did not disappoint:
I sat down on this path for a while where I took this next photo. Other than my family walking up ahead, there wasn’t another soul in sight. Strangely, there wasn’t the slightest breeze either. Just complete calm. Complete silence. Room temperature. All I could hear was the ringing in my ears and the sound of my own breath. It was one of those moments where I wondered why I would ever go home.
We hiked all day in Golden Canyon, and on the way home we saw some white stuff off in the distance that we wanted to check out. A couple miles down an unpaved road we found out it was a salt patch:
Surrounding the salt area was a vast field of mud that had taken on these bizarre shapes — domes and crevices and such — that had, I guess, been hardened by the sun, like clay in a kiln. It was strong enough to stand on and sounded like broken pottery when kicked apart. I’ve never seen anything like it.
We stayed there until the sun went down:
Wanting to see more salt, we drove out to Badwater the next day. Badwater is a 200 square mile “salt pan” on the floor of Death Valley:
There is a constant crunching sound when you walk around on this stuff:
Badwater is the lowest point of North America at 282 feet below sea level:
This was the gas station down the road from our campsite, one of only two gas stations in the 3 million acres that make up Death Valley. Fortunately I didn’t have to fill up here:
After Badwater, we went to see some dunes. These sand dunes get up to 700 feet tall and are created by wind erosion acting on the surrounding mountains. The dunes constantly change shape, but all that sand is trapped by the mountains from which it originated:
We did lots of climbing:
The temperature was nice, but I wished it wasn’t so cloudy:
Playing in the sand:
Saw a cool fox (we think it was guarding a den to the left). It didn’t seem alarmed at the few of us gawking at it, but it was keeping one eye open:
Finally the sun came out!
Back at the RV, emptying our shoes for the 138th time:
On the way to our next camp site, I had to pull over and take in the amazing sunset. There’s no photoshop work here folks; that’s right out of the ol’ camera:
Our campsite that night was an hour away on a paved road, but it was a “dry campsite,” so no hookups of any kind. It would be a fun exercise in conservation to make our electricity and water last for two nights with 7 people (the 5 in my family plus Sherry and Clint).
Fairly close by was an oddity called Scotty’s Castle. The short version of the story is that in the 1920’s a man named Scotty got a bunch of a investment money in exchange for shares in his gold mine that didn’t actually exist. Then one of his investors came out to see the alleged gold mine, fell in love with the desert, befriended Scotty (despite being conned by him), and built a vacation home there. Scotty publicized the castle as his own and as proof of his gold mine’s riches. The full story is pretty interesting, and I’m glad we stopped.
The main stop of the day, though, was a volcanic crater that blew its lid about 2000 years ago:
The sand and gravel was pretty thick, so we could run down in an almost slalom-like fashion. It was pretty fun:
The cracks in the ground at the center of the crater ran 10″ deep, a testament to the dry, blistering heat that this place gets:
A long trek back up:
We had started down a 30 mile unpaved road with the intent to go see the sailing rocks — seriously, go read about that, they’re amazing — but the road proved to be too rough and we had to stop after just a few miles. Before turning back though, we got out and just enjoyed the solitude of the desert for a little bit. Like the mountain tops of Golden Canyon, this valley was soundless and windless. The clouds would shift and sunlight would roll across the valley, but that was the only detectable motion. It was very peaceful and I could have happily sat there all day:
Could nature say “don’t touch” any more clearly here?
A high point from our final hike of the day:
That night the stars were so bright, even with a half moon out:
Back in the RV for the evening, we celebrated Natalie’s 8th birthday. (Note the single light on; gotta conserve battery.)
More relaxing in the evening. We were all in bed with the lights out by 9:00.
What a view to wake up to:
We broke camp later that morning and headed back to Vegas for New Year’s Eve, but I’ll post that in a separate entry. I want to keep Death Valley as a post of its own.