Day 22-April 11, 2018-Death Valley
Temp was 75 at 1:00PM at Eureka Mine at 5500’ and 104 at 2:30PM in Furnace Creek at -192’.
Death Valley is the largest national park outside of Alaska at over 3 million acres. Some of the things we wanted to see are closed such as Scotty’s Castle, which has been closed since 2015 because of flooding. Dante’s View and Salt Creek are also closed and Badwater Basin (the lowest point) is being paved today. So first we went to the Visitor Center, which is right next door, to get some ideas as to where to go today. It’s supposed to be really hot so they suggested we go to a higher elevation at Charcoal Kilns in Wildrose Canyon. On the way we passed Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and stopped to climb a dune. There were warnings about sidewinder rattlesnakes but, thank goodness, all we saw was a little white lizard scampering to find some shade under a sage bush. Drove through the little village of Stovepipe Wells, which has a hotel, campground, restaurant, gas station and general store. Then on through Mosaic Canyon, where the mountains are all different shapes and definitely look like mosaics. Went about 15 miles down Emigrant Canyon Rd. where it seemed like you could reach out and touch the mountains. This is where we started to go up in elevation and it started to get cooler. We decided not to go the whole way to Charcoal Kiln, there’s only one way in and one way out and it’s a long, long drive. So we pulled over where it was a bit cooler, had lunch and listened to the quiet. Not even any birds chirping. On the long drive back the mountains took on a different look because of the different time of day. There are all sizes, shapes, colors and textures to the mountains, even a snow capped one far, far away. But we are definitely in a valley, there are mountains all around. As soon as we got back to the campground the wind picked up and sand started flying all over. Very hard to open the car door and the RV was rattling so much we closed the slides so the awnings wouldn’t rip. We went next door and had a nice visit with Laura and Wally for a while, then back to the RV. The wind howled all night and buffeted the RV so much I was afraid we were going to tip over.