Tuesday, April 7, 2009
We were up and gone at 8:00 a.m. for our drive to Death Valley National Park. On the previous day, we were traveling South on the West side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Today, we traveled North along the East side of the range. It was very eerie when we arrived at the entrance of Death Valley National Park. The single lane windy road with numerous dips took us through a vast deserted land surrounded by mountains. We stopped in Stovepipe Wells at the ranger station to get park information. We then went to our first destination of Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We watched a short movie about the park, loaded up our water supply, and started out. It was 93 degrees. From there, we stopped at the Harmony Borax Works. This is the site where borax was produced from salt and then transported by the 20 mule teams which Borax made famous in their television commercials. We then went to Badwater basin which is the lowest point in North America being 282 feet below sea level. This was the site of a lake which evaporated leaving the fragile white salt deposits. We drove to Devils Golf Course which has salt deposits similar to Badwater basin. The difference is that these deposits are much higher and resemble coral reefs. It looked like a large field of frosted covered shredded wheat. We then drove the nine mile loop of Artists Drive. This is a very beautiful view of colorful mountains with unique formations the result of volcanic activity. The mountains were green, yellow, salmon pink, gold, chocolate brown resembling an artist’s palette. We then took a short hike into Golden Canyon. It was very hot and windy. The canyon walls were molded by rain runoff into spectacular shapes. We then drove to Zabriskie Point. This was a lookout point of a panoramic view of the valley. Our last stop of the day was at Dantes View. This lookout is located 5000 feet above the valley floor and provides a view of the lowest and highest locations in the park.
We then drove to Las Vegas where we spent the night. We will be on our way to Zion National Park tomorrow.
We were up and gone at 8:00 a.m. for our drive to Death Valley National Park. On the previous day, we were traveling South on the West side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Today, we traveled North along the East side of the range. It was very eerie when we arrived at the entrance of Death Valley National Park. The single lane windy road with numerous dips took us through a vast deserted land surrounded by mountains. We stopped in Stovepipe Wells at the ranger station to get park information. We then went to our first destination of Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We watched a short movie about the park, loaded up our water supply, and started out. It was 93 degrees. From there, we stopped at the Harmony Borax Works. This is the site where borax was produced from salt and then transported by the 20 mule teams which Borax made famous in their television commercials. We then went to Badwater basin which is the lowest point in North America being 282 feet below sea level. This was the site of a lake which evaporated leaving the fragile white salt deposits. We drove to Devils Golf Course which has salt deposits similar to Badwater basin. The difference is that these deposits are much higher and resemble coral reefs. It looked like a large field of frosted covered shredded wheat. We then drove the nine mile loop of Artists Drive. This is a very beautiful view of colorful mountains with unique formations the result of volcanic activity. The mountains were green, yellow, salmon pink, gold, chocolate brown resembling an artist’s palette. We then took a short hike into Golden Canyon. It was very hot and windy. The canyon walls were molded by rain runoff into spectacular shapes. We then drove to Zabriskie Point. This was a lookout point of a panoramic view of the valley. Our last stop of the day was at Dantes View. This lookout is located 5000 feet above the valley floor and provides a view of the lowest and highest locations in the park.
We then drove to Las Vegas where we spent the night. We will be on our way to Zion National Park tomorrow.
You can view pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/DeathValleyNationalPark?feat=directlink
More later . . .
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