Death Valley

Since we were staying at Indian Hills Camp for another month, Terry wanted to go on a "holiday" during the week before we started with Indian Hills Camp Chapter Two.   His choice of destination was Death Valley, 337 miles away.

 At first it was cold there, although the sun shone.  Wearing our layers, we peered over a cliff at Dante's View which overlooked the whole valley , but could hardly wait to get back into the car.

Another highlight was Badwater, 282 feet below sea level.

No, this isn't snow, but salt crystals which have leached down from the mountains .  An old time prospector was dismayed that his mule wouldn't drink the water from the spring, only to discover the water in the pond was salty.
Points of interest in the valley were miles apart, so we actually spent most of our two days in the car.  At the north end was Scotty's Castle, a mansion built by a man as a getaway.  We didn't take the tour, but walked around, map in hand, and looked at all the outside features.

Scotty's Castle

We did walk through a canyon for an hour, and looked at a salt creek where the endangered pup fish were starting to hatch.  It was almost sunset when we manged to spot a few, thanks to a fellow tourist on the boardwalk with us.

At the Stovepipe Well, we felt the softest, silkiest sand ever. I sat there and let it run through my fingers.  It made me think of Abraham in the Bible.  God told him his descendents would outnumber the grains of sand on the seashore.  That's a lot of sand, I thought, but these grains were even tinier, making them even more numerous.
Another off-the-road attraction was a row of charcoal kilns, and the ruins of a former borax mining operation.

Twenty Mule Team Wagon Train

Terry reminded me that a picture like this was on my borax box at home.  

On the way home, we climbed some sand dunes. What fun!

Death Valley is the driest place in North America.  I didn't really believe I needed to drink more water than usual, since it wasn't that warm.  The morning after we got home, I woke up with such a pain in my temple.  Drinking two huge glasses of water soon fixed that.

Terry would love to return to Death Valley and go "four-bying" on some of the rough roads.  You need another vehicle with you to do that, for safety reasons.  Any takers?