Dawdling in the Desert

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This morning we are practically in the middle of nowhere - so there is no Coffee Shack/Java Hut, grocery store or other distraction - all we have to worry about is making sure we have enough water. This means we can get going relatively early - for us! The sky is blue with no clouds and it is warm…

Statistics

Starting Destination: Panamint Springs, California
Ending Destination: Boulder Dam, Nevada
Ending Destination GPS: N: 35° 59.516’ W: 114° 49.859’ Elev: 2182’
Miles Driven: 258.4
Distance Hiked: 3 miles
Distance Driven “Off-Road”: 7.8 miles
Number of Times Passed Through Sea Level:12
Most Ridiculous Sight: A cell tower disguised as a Pine Tree in the middle of the desert… only in Las Vegas!

Getting to the Valley

We started out from Panamint Springs, which is actually in the Death Valley National Park, but not in the “Valley.” We were both actually quite surprised at how far and how high you had to climb just to get into the Park. We climbed up - to nearly 5,000 feet - over the Panamint Range and then down into Stovepipe Wells. At this point we weren’t legal (I.e., we hadn’t paid our dues at received the official park map), but we did have a copy of the Park newspaper… so we had some idea of where we were going and what the options were. In deciding our itinerary, we thought we would try and mix up as much driving with some interesting walks and still get to near Las Vegas for the night - all in one day! This meant we had to pass on “Scotty’s Castle,” a house built in the 1930’s for a wealthy businessman - this would have been interesting as they gave tours of the “mechanical rooms” where they showed you the technology behind the luxuries; a Ghost Town - after our luck last time this was probably a good idea; and some other sights…

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The Sights we did See - Marble, Bridges and Fabulous Colors

One of the walks we thought would be interesting was the Mosaic Canyon Walk, to get to the trailhead for this walk we had to drive 2 miles in from the main road on a “graded gravel track,” which was actually quite bumpy as there had been quite a severe storm and flash floods 2 - 3 weeks before our visit! But the walk was worth it - you walked up through a narrow canyon with some polished marble walls, had it been a building it would have been considered quite posh!! The floor of the canyon was gravel that had been washed down during the storms; it was a different color so it looked almost like it had been placed there for visitors… We both decided that the National Park service has better things to do with their time and money. On the way to our next stop we stopped briefly to look at the sand dunes; briefly because it was very windy and you could hardly see a think through anything all the sand flying around. Both Carl and Maria have decided that they didn’t miss Kansas Wind!!
We also did a running stop to view the Devils Cornfield as the stop was in the middle of the road construction that was underway in the park, unfortunately we got stuck waiting for oncoming traffic and didn’t want to delay any further. After surviving the construction we stopped briefly at the site of the Harmony Borax Works where Borax was processed before being shipped out of the park via a “20 mule” team - 20 mules were needed to pull two wagons of Borax and a big tank of drinking water for the trip. From the interpretive information we found out that the Death Valley area contains approximately 50%!o(MISSING)f the worlds known Borax - something that seems to be used in absolutely everything!! Our next stop was the Visitors’ Center, where we showed our Park Pass and finally became “legal,” complete with a green “pass” to stick on the inside of the windshield. We didn’t tarry long as there were more sights to see…
Next we investigated the Artists Drive, a one-way paved trail where you can drive up to the base of the valley walls and through an area where the rock formations are multi-colored; hence the name. We found out that the color is due to certain trace minerals that are contained within the base rocks - Maria’s favorite; the green is due to the presence Magnesium. Unfortunately, the colors didn’t show up as brightly in the photographs!! Our last stop before the “big one,” was the Natural Bridge; again we braved the gravel track to get to the trailhead, bumping along for only 1.5 miles this time. To get to the bridge we hiked up into the canyon approximately 1 mile; we almost might have missed the bridge as it was the same color as all the other rocks and we were focusing more on where to put our feet as the gravel of the canyon floor was quite difficult to walk through. We both wondered just how far the person we met at the mouth of the canyon wearing “thongs” had walked! While looking at the bridge we did notice quite a lot of cracks and wondered how long they had been there and whether they would impact the longevity of this feature in the park… but, we didn’t speculate long as we had yet to see the most famous site in the park.

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The Lowest of the Low

Maria didn’t really know anything much about the National Park before reading the Park Guides except - that it is the hottest and the lowest place in the United States… well, the absolute lowest place is the Badwater Basin with an elevation of 282 feet or 86 meters below sea level. There is also a natural spring in this area so there are several interpretive signs and, of course, a special sign designating the absolute lowest spot. Interestingly there was also a sign on the valley wall behind you designating sea level - this really put things in perspective!! After Badwater, there was only one more sight to see… we thought we might yet get to see our ghost town, but the Ashford Mill Ruins was just the remains of 4 walls!
P.s. In an update to our “What’s in a Name” segment - Badwater was named by the first person (with naming rights) to discover the spring, his mule wouldn’t drink the water, hence the name!

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Bypassing Las Vegas

By this point we had reached the southern most point in the park… so we turned east, up and over the Black Mountains, past some abandoned Borax or Gold mines and headed towards Las Vegas. Neither of us wanted to actually stop and see the sights, but we were both amazed at the evidence of growth in the City - mile upon mile of new developments or soon to be new developments, each with as much house crammed on as little land as possible… oh, and forget the individuality that doesn’t come with the $300,000 price tag! Our destination for the night was Boulder Dam, which we actually reached before dark - not that it would have mattered, we could almost have navigated by the light of the neon signs alone!

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Carl’s Travel Trivia

Yesterday’s Answer: None
Today’s Question: Where is the lowest point on Earth?

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Comments

[Marv Bush]

Lowest point on earth Trivia question
The lowest point on earth is the Dead Sea at 1312 ft. but is getting deeper and is now 1360 ft. deep. MB

[kristi]

deepest
on land it's the shoreline of the dead sea, on the border of Israel and Jordon. in the ocean it's the Pacific Ocean's Marianas Trench near Guam. it's 35840 ft deep (10924m).

[Eddie Wilson]

lowest point on Earth
Well, it could be in a back alley somewhere in Las Vegas, but my vote is the Kola Borehole, drilled to just over 40,000 feet deep starting at an elevation of about 300 feet. I am an old pipeline man ya know.