Windy Day, Alive in Death Valley, Temperatures Rising Away and At Home

I was wide awake at 6 am on Friday, Nov. 3^rd so ‘sneakily’ got out of bed and tiptoed downstairs. Bill didn’t move nor did Clemson so they must have been sound asleep or pretending to be. I made my tea and sat at my laptop doing my thing. I try to respond to all comments on my blog posts so was surprised that I had missed some from a couple of days ago. Sorry about that, I’ve replied now if you were waiting.

When Bill got up at 7 I dressed a bit warmer for the 12C/53F and headed out for my walk. It was time for the sun to come up and I didn’t want to miss that this morning. Clemson had been out so off I went to explore. I was pleased to see a second DRV Suite, this one an Elite in a beautiful blue colour to match his truck. Lovely!

We gathered up maps and directions to our adventure today. We’re hoping to get into Death Valley National Park and see for ourselves what everyone raves about. We’re sure it will be good so be prepared for another picture overload day. Gotta do it, sorry, no help for it. We had our showers and dug out our hiking clothes, boots and hats.

Strange little town this was where we turned

I loaded my backpack with frozen water bottles and snacks, as recommended, and almost forgot our walking sticks. Bill doesn’t use his much but I like mine ‘just in case’. We drove out of the park at 10 am and stopped around the corner for diesel. The price was lower than it has been for most of the way at $2.799/gal. We turned onto Hwy 190 towards Death Valley National Park.

Boondockers on State Line Road
Funny thing was that we crossed into California without any notice

The temperature when we left home was around 59F and since we were doing some up and down in the elevation, that changed a few times. 

It was a nice hilly drive for part of the way

And very flat for a lot of it too

We drove directly to Dante’s View or Dante’s Ridge and rose in elevation over 5300’ above sea level. The temperature up here was a chilly 49F/9.44C but it was worth the climb, let me tell you.

The 15% grade to the top

As you turn onto the two-lane paved road there is a sign that says Maximum Length of Vehicle is 25’. We could soon see why, as we approached the last ¼ mile the switchback turns took us on a 15% grade. I glanced over the side and I hope I didn’t scare Bill when I said “Oh my God!!” No words at all can describe the view from the top. 

Dante's View looks down on the Badwater Basin below approximately 5,700'

Not for me, thanks

We could have hiked higher on either side of the lookout point but this was the most freaked out I’ve been yet. Even though many people opted to do this, I was not about to and Bill was fine to stay with me. From the peak we could see much of the 110-mile-long Death Valley.

There I am, cold but awestruck
still not going any higher

We took our pictures and then drove down the hill. There were a lot of cars in the viewing spots, some tour groups but we really didn’t have much traffic the whole way. From there we drove down to the advertised Badwater Basin. This is what we saw from up on Dante’s View. It is actually the hottest and driest place in the U.S. Two to four thousand years ago the basin was a 30’ deep lake that evaporated, leaving a 5’ layer of salt.

Black Beauty on the Peak

This is the walking trail the other way

Less than 2” of rain each year, the ground temperature is about 40% higher than the surrounding air temperatures.  On average, Death Valley is the hottest place in the world. These facts are in itself pretty neat but to see these places ourselves, just blew us away. So, parking Black Beauty, we walked out onto the plateau of nearly pure white table salt with the towering Black Mountains as a backdrop.

This was an eerie feeling for some reason

And very quickly we went from this...........

to this and even lower

I was hoping to gather some of this white sand/salt but it was so hard packed that it was not so easy. The Badwater Basin is 282 ‘ BELOW sea level. It was neat to see our GPS drop from 10’ to -282 in a matter of a few short minutes. 

Not only that, but the earlier temperature of 49F rose in 20 minutes to 80F. I took my cane and our bottles of water in my backpack. It was a bumpy walk for the most part where the salt flat had hardened.

Notice the sign half way up
Dante's View is at the top of this mountain ridge
Bill said they should put a post up there with a flag so we could see it from down below

How it got its name

Kind of feeling like Chris and Chrissy Columbus

One of the salt water craters

We left there with just one more place to visit today. That was the Harmony Borax Works. These are rustic remains of machines, buildings, tanks and piping of the mining operation. What I liked and understood best was the wagon used to haul the Borax by 20-mule teams. All that was missing was the mules. 

Bill liked the browns in the mountains today

And I kind of like the painted look

Harmony Borax Works - founded 1883 to 1888
40 men produced 3 tons of Borax daily
and used 20-mule teams to haul 165 miles to Mojave
They averaged 2 miles an hour and needed 30 days to complete a round trip

Things about Borax

They were quite rugged but I'm glad preserved for us to see

That was it for our day. We were hot, tired and elated. A good way to walk away, no?

The drive back to our park in Pahrump was quiet and the day returned to a more normal 65F. The water bottles I’d frozen for the day still had ice in them although they melted enough during our time in Death Valley to quench our thirst when we needed it. This was an awesome trip and we highly recommend it if you are in the area. There is a lot more to see in the National Park than what we did. We stopped at the Visitor Centre and I ran in to pick up some post cards and a pin for our collection.

On the way home some of our water was still frozen

Home by 3:40 Clemson got Bill’s attention right away with his supper. It was time to relax. Bill settled in his chair so I took a walk up to the clubhouse to work on a jigsaw puzzle. I thought a swim would be in order when we returned but I don’t even have that energy right now. I worked on the puzzle for an hour and walked back in time to catch this pretty sky again.

Got a kick out of this sign on the way home through Pahrump

One of my favourite cacti that isn't a cacti
Ocotillo

One of the gardens in the park

When I got back at 6 Bill had lit the barbecue for steak but said he really wasn’t feeling up to a big meal. He maybe got worn out today and just wasn’t up to much. Nothing serious I hope, although his forehead felt quite warm. He said he was just not that hungry. He was good with a sandwich and then went up to lay down.

It felt good to work on a puzzle again

I, on the other hand, felt like I could eat a regular meal so doctored up a thawed chicken breast and popped it in the convection oven. I also fried up a couple of slices of puff ball and that was supper for me. Actually, it tasted quite good although it is sad to eat alone. I cleaned up the dishes and sat to finish this post. Not much on tv but I do like watching Jeopardy and it is on right now in the background.

My supper was bland looking but very tasty

We had a wonderful busy day today so that means a quieter one tomorrow. Just groceries, yay Albertsons! and a visit to the RV Warehouse. I hope you’ve had a great day as well.

Good night all

Thank you for popping in. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.