March 30, 2017
Park 2 of my first solo trip was a stop at Death Valley National Park. I got up very early and packed up my camp at Joshua Tree National Park and hit the road for my 5 hour trip to Death Valley. When I arrived I was surprised to find there is no entrance gate as a highway runs through Death Valley that can’t be interrupted by a fee station (although you have to stop at a visitor center or ranger station to pay for a National Park Pass in order to visit the sites and scenic drives in the park).
When I arrived there were a few other motorists stopped at the information board and I was excited to share with the other visitors that the park newspaper has important information and park highlights so they could maximize their time. I then made my way into the park and to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center area to check in to the campground where I would be staying for the night. On the way I made sure to stop at Zabriskie Point for my first vistas of the exquisite valley I would be visiting.
Once I got to the Oasis Area, where of course had the privilege of reading the large thermometer indicating 90 F, I went right over to Furnace Creek Campground. The ranger at the entrance let me know that the winds that night were projected to be more than 60 MPH and suggested that if I didn’t have extra strong ties for my tent that I might want to sleep in my car (joke was on him, because I was planning to sleep in the car anyway!). I did make sure to ask him what I shouldn’t miss while I was visiting and he mentioned: Bad Water Basin, Artists Palette, Zabriskie Point, and Dante’s View. I made sure to build those into my limited itinerary!
On my way to Bad Water Basin (the lowest altitude in the United States – it’s below sea-level!), I stopped at the Devil’s Golf Course. This is a salt flat characterized by “salt rock eroded by wind and rain. So incredibly serrated that ‘only the devil could play golf on such rough links.’” *https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/check-out-devils-golf-course.htm
Next stop was Bad Water Basin. Once I got here, the wind really started to pick up! I didn’t make it far on the salt flat of the valley when I had to turn around because I felt like I was going to be blown over and get sand in my eyes. I was even having trouble seeing on the open flat. Bad Water Basin is so interesting as it is the lowest point in the USA, measuring below sea level.
After Bad Water Basin I went to the Natural Bridge Hike followed by the Artist Palette Scenic Drive, and finally to the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Hike. On both the Natural Bridge Hike and the Scenic Drive the visibility was getting increasingly worse due to the sand being distributed by the wind. My final stop was the Golden Canyon/Gower Gulch Hike. The hike was beautiful, but there were multiple times where I had to hide in crevices in the gulch to shield myself from the wind and sand – in retrospect I should have taken better care to protect my camera, which was relatively new, because I think there is still sand from this Death Valley trip trapped inside.
Getting back to the parking area at Golden Canyon/Gower Gulch the visibility was atrocious. I had to make my way back to the campground, but once I passed the Furnace Creek Visitor Center the road was closed due to the sand in the air. Luckily I didn’t have far to go and the rangers let me drive the short way to my camping area. At this point I was so windswept and dirty that I NEEDED to shower, however there are no showers at this campground. My hair was caked in sand, so much that I couldn’t reasonably brush my hair or even manipulate it to change its style to a braid or a different configuration. I tried to do a sink wash in the bathroom, but was unsuccessful, so I had to go to the dishwashing area and dunk my head under to try to do my best to wash what felt like 23 layers of dirt off of my scalp.
I climbed into the car once I had my hair under a reasonable amount of control and settled in to read and watch some movies on my tablet while I waited for sleep. It was at this point I started to text my mom to ask her to look up if my car would tip over in 60 MPH winds because I started to rock precariously (I had enough service for text messages, but forget about internet connection). I did my best to get rest that night, the howling wind and the shaking of that vehicle did little to sleet me at ease.
I woke up the next morning to go to the Borax Mining ruins and then to Dante’s View. I got to Dante’s View just after sunrise to see the valley begin to break with the new dawn. The panoramas overlooking Death Valley were incredible. It was on to my next stop after that!
Daring, Dangerous, and Defining 