Roadtrip Updates : Mar 20 -- Death Valley National Park

I have to admit this park was definitely NOT what I expected, but I don't mean that in a bad sense at all!

My preconceived idea of Death Valley National Park was a big, flat, sandy desert. What we didn't expect were the mountains that frame the valley! And the colors, too!

What we did get right was the heat - we arrived about noon and the temp at the Furnace Creek visitor center was 97!!

Back in the late 1800s, they "mined" and processed borax here in Death Valley. Maybe some of you oldsters remember the weekly western (black & white viewing as I recall) with (not-yet-Governor-or-President) Ronald Reagan as the host for a while? And the "20 mule team" that they featured in the commercials for the sponsor (US Borax, I seem to remember). I had to look it up -- it was called (drum roll, please): "Death Valley Days". On the drive into the park from the east entrance heading to the visitor center we came across a road heading to "20 Mule Team Canyon". We didn't take the drive out and didn't get back to that area later. Sounds like it would have been an interesting, short drive. Anyway, that was my impression of what we'd see in Death Valley.

Due to the heat and time-constraints (we had just the one afternoon), we didn't do any hiking although there were plenty of trails. The only hike was the 1/2 mile out & back onto the salt flats at Badwater Basin - the lowest spot in North America at 282 ft below sea level. Mostly we drove from one viewpoint to the next.

After we got there and looked around a little bit we wished we could have spent another day at Death Valley - it's a huge park; at 3.4 million acres, I think it might be the largest national park in the US, excluding Alaska - but we couldn't find any place to stay within a reasonable drive. And with the heat we weren't interested in tent camping. Oh, and did we mention the wind? It was a REALLY windy day! I don't have any hard numbers on the wind but at times when it hit you either straight on or in the back it would all but push you off balance. It sure made it hard to steady your camera! So windy in fact that when we pulled into the parking lot at Badwater Basin we noticed that the wind had gotten under the lip of the cartop carrier on the one side and forced it open! Luckily, it was not damaged and luckier still I had bought a ratchet tie-down strap when we bought the cargo box and so we were able to secure it from any more extreme wind gusts.

Recommendation to future visitors - make plans to stay at one of the Furnace Creek places so you can really get to enjoy all this park has to offer. Oh, and make sure it's not during a full moon so you get the full starlight experience!