Deep in Death Valley

After a 2 1/2 hour drive from Vegas, we eventually arrived at our RV park in Death Valley. I always envisaged Death Valley to be an expanse of sand with a few mountains in-between. In fact it was not sandy but full of rubble and rocks with lots of mountains in-between. The place was baron and dusty with not much life at all. The hottest recorded temp was 134 degrees F / 56.7 degrees C. The chap who recorded it said he saw swallows dropping dead from the sky.

The RV park was part of a hotel complex, so it was quite nice with a couple of restaurants, a shop, a bar, swimming pool and tennis courts. It was also very busy as it was not only the start of their season but it coincided with the annual 49-ers event. The 49-ers are a group of about 5000 people who pitch up every year to hike, explore and hold parties in Death Valley, and throughout the year they are tasked with spreading the world about D.V. and it’s beauty. There were a couple of gathering in the park while we were there that looked a lot of fun with BBQs on the go, beers flowing and fires burning.

The next day we headed out towards Ubehebe Crater, which was formed when hot magma rose to the surface, turning the groundwater into super hot steam which in turn blew a massive crater in the surface of the ground.

This is 3 pictures merged together as it’s so big!

After a bit of a hike here, we headed up to Scotty’s Castle, the only mansion here. It was built by a chap whose doctor told him that the only way to help his illness was to spend a lot of time in a very warm climate – so he chose D.V! This mansion had to be self sufficient, so it was built near one of the few springs here to provide water and hydro-electricity and it had it’s own massive swimming pool! The odd thing is that it wasn't Scotty who built it. Scotty was a guy who became good friends with the owner after trying to swindle money out of him! Scotty is buried in the grounds.

The final port of call for today was the ghost town where up to 10,000 people lived during the height of the Gold Rush. It was full of bars, a school, restaurants and even a library. Today it’s totally deserted. One of the few things still standing is a house made out of glass bottles.

We headed back near our park to a very popular place to watch the sunset, Zabriski Point. The sun sets behind a mountain, not into the ocean, but it was still very impressive.

We were up early the next day and headed straight to Devil’s Golf Course. Surely there isn’t a golf course in D.V. right? There isn’t. Just a huge area with massive rocks of salt left when the lake that was here 10,000 years ago dried up, with the nickname Devil’s Golf Course.

You could hear what sounded like metal cracking which was the salt expanding as the sun heated them all up – very weird.

The last place we saw was an area called Badwater, a name that stuck when an early explorer found water and lead his horse to drink. The horse refused to drink as it was so salty so he named the place Badwater – which stuck. The reason why there is water here is it’s the lowest point in D.V. and also in the US for that matter, so water from the valley ends up here. We were at 282 feet / 85.5 metres below sea level. It used to be a 30 foot deep lake, but again, dried up by the sun leaving a 1 – 5 foot layer of salt behind. We walked out for a 10 mins before the heat and our thirst drove us back.

Death Valley is a great place, full of things you won’t see anywhere else. It’s also massive and it took 2 days to see all the stuff we saw. There is nothing really to see or do between drives. It’s an expanse of nothingness with just a few plants, but to see it will leave you with a good lasting impression.

The highlights can be seen here!

Stuoobs

xxx