Death Valley National Park - California

Death Valley National Park - California – Sept 15

I expected that Death Valley would be nothing but a flat desert with no vegetation, like the Sahara. I did not expect to see mountains. Of course, how can you have a valley without mountains ??  Guess I never thought about it.

Death Valley is very hot and dry, just not what I expected. It was a wise decision to get up before dawn to drive in while it was still relatively cool, in the high 60s, but it got hot really, really fast before we left.

We stopped at the temporary Furnace Wells Park Service Visitor Center. The permanent Center is being rebuilt.  I asked Momma to turn around and give me a big smile, but she had not had her coffee yet, and was not in a real good mood.

I hope you cannot clearly see the gesture she is displaying with her right hand. No need for you to suffer the indignation too.

We saw a Red Fox that was probably out looking for some coffee too, or maybe a nice fat mouse for  breakfast.

At Furnace Wells there is also a Ranch Resort, with hotel, dining facilities, golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, a 1 million watt solar facility to power the place, and a Borax Museum with lots of Borax mining equipment exhibits to browse through, etc. I’m sure you’ve heard of 20 Mule Team Borax. Well this is near the area where Borax was mined and where the mules were kept. They actually had 20 mules pulling each wooden wagon, until steam tractors and metal wagons took their place.

There is even a Post Office there.

Finally got her some coffee, and the smile came back.

As we were ready to leave the Visitor center area, at about 9AM, the temperature was already at 90 degrees. We’re not hanging around to find out how hot it is going to get today.

I’m really glad we had filled up both the Motorcoach and the Honda before coming into Death Valley.. Diesel fuel for the coach and premium for the Honda were prohibitively expensive. The highest we saw on the whole trip.

Just up the road a short distance we came across this sign. After being as high as 14,110 feet on Pikes Peak, getting to 100 feet below sea level was a real change.

Further up the road is another really nice resort tucked into a foothill.

After a few miles more the scenery changed dramatically.

Too hot... We're outta here.