Death Valley National Park–A Site To See

We recently enjoyed a few days in one of the most scenic and surprising places we’ve been lucky enough to visit.   Death Valley National Park is vibrant, colorful and diverse…even if it is the hottest place in the world.  We only covered a portion of the 3,000,000 acres, but we sure did get our eyes full of spectacular scenes. 
We chose to spend our time in the southern area of Death Valley, taking in that section of the canyons, views of the valley and mountains and interesting history and geology. We camped in Furnace Creek Campground where there are water and sewer hookups available at a reasonable price of $18, only $9 for us Golden Age pass holders.   From there we were conveniently located for the sites we chose. (Oh, BTW, if you see a promo for this national park, look for us at the information kiosk at the visitors center.  They filmed us as we used the self-help presentations for the park.)
To start off our Death Valley exploring, how about seven miles into Echo Canyon?!  Ole Yeller carried us easily over the mushy gravel trail as we were enjoying being out in the open again.  There are wind and rain-carved, colorful walls all the way through the canyon, displaying the results of millions of years of earth movement and exposure of the layers of minerals.  Sunshine and 60s made it a pleasant morning, ending with our lunch back at the entrance to the canyon with the valley stretched out in front of us. 
Our next path was through Twenty Mule Team Canyon with its caramel-looking mountains.  Some people describe them as mudhills. (Below)  We were curious about the makeup of these chalky-looking hills. They have a high clay concentration. When you grab a piece it crumbles in your fingers.  We could imagine the mule teams pulling the wagons of borax during the mining period in the late 1800s.  In the Death Valley Museum in the park we saw examples of the large wagons and other equipment used in mining and processing this product in these hills.
The next destination we chose was the Artist Drive located about 20 miles down another highway within the park.
Wow! The name of this four-mile road tells the story.  It winds through a continuous array of shades, almost as though an artist was gathering various paints for a piece of work.  At one point a road sign points to the Artist Palette where you can stop to view the mounds of greens, tans and rusty-reds of this volcanic formation.   As it turned out our timing was just right.  We came through between 3 and 4 pm, ending our drive just as the sun dropped behind  mountains to the west.  The natural lighting was bringing out the best in those shades of nature. Then, as we stood watching the lights went out and all the colors were subdued.
On another day in the park we decided to take the 52-mile-round-trip up to Dante’s View.  This was stupendous!    The view is breathtaking. (That’s the first photo as I began this post.) At the top you are 5500 feet above it all, with a view of the mountains sloping up from the valley.   But there is definitely a scary and chilly feature of this location.  We were battling very strong winds with a 15-20 degree drop in temps as we tried to stand at the viewpoint. Here I am trying to hang on to my hat and keep my footing at my wonderful hubby tells me to stand next to the “keep back” sign. But it was exhilarating and fun up there.  
From over-the-top to the underside – our exploration went to the Devil’s Golf Course, where the evaporated lake formed crusty mounds of salt down in the bottom of the valley.   These crustaceans are so eerie and unique. We just had to touch those rough, frozen,  mounds to sample the salt.  Lastly, we traveled about five more miles down the road to Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level. There we took a walk out on the expansive salt floor. Here the erosion from the surrounding mountains has formed a 9,000 ft. basin of sand, silt, gravel and salt.  This is yet another unique experience, standing on a solid, smooth, foundation of what appears to be packed salt.  Occasionally a pond will survive after a rain and provide a home for small creatures that can somehow live in the saltwater. Today there was a small pond bubbling at the edge of the salt flat.
We were very impressed with Death Valley National Park, even though we took in only a portion of what’s there to enjoy. This is, for sure, a place we would revisit.  Below is a shot of the mountains as we stood at the Devil’s Golf Course.  In the foreground you can see just a small part of the dry lake bed of the valley that forms sharp, crusty, salty towers as the wind and rain do their thing over thousands of years. 

Thanks for spending some time with us in Death Valley.  Stay safe!

Contrasting Stops: Flashy and Formidable

The past five days have been quite a contrast in our locations.  You might call the one flashy and the other formidable.     One spot we have visited before and the second we experienced for the first time.  .
When I last wrote here on the blog we had stopped for the night in Laughlin, NV.  Continuing our route north the next morning, we went west on Nevada state highway 163 toward Interstate 15 north.

Travel in NV and UT

  It was soon apparent that the strong winds whipping across the valley would be no great fun for driving that day.  So, why not make this one of our rare 100-mile-total-travel days?  Since we had parked very comfortably at the Las Vegas Elks lodge about 14 months ago, Ferd guided us easily off exit 41 of I-15 onto Charleston Blvd. Before we knew it we had a spot in the roomy parking lot.  This Elks Lodge is within the community, next to Fire Station No. 5 and near a middle school.  It’s a nice spot for a few days, away from the bright lights of the casinos. 
Speaking of the casinos,  we wanted to repeat a favorite restaurant from last year’s trip - an exceptional (in our opinion) buffet for $14 at the Main Street Station downtown.  Really, buffets aren’t usually our choice. But we were very impressed with the restaurant and the quality of food here. It’s too much food, of course, but if you combine lunch and dinner you can rationalize the many samples of dishes that are too hard to resist. On this occasion, the t-bone steak and bread pudding were a couple of the standouts on the menu. Additionally, our Las Vegas stay of three nights included an entertaining afternoon betting on horse races at the Hilton, as well as a rainy day of catching up on reading and Internet. 
After the brief Vegas layover, we were on our way north again. (Remember, our Destination Alaska 2010  trip approaches quickly.)  Moving in that direction, we chose a few spots in Utah that were calling us.  We’ve enjoyed many beautiful sites in southern and eastern Utah.  But, we had yet to do Zion National Park, which was now just off our route going north. So we headed approximately 120 miles northeast via Interstate 15 and Utah 9.  The drive up I-15 north from Las Vegas to St. George, Utah,  was a pleasant surprise for interstate travel. The road stretches through valleys and plateaus and mountain views, with a minimum of large trucks.
A few miles north of St. George we exited onto Utah 9, east toward Zion. This drive is yet another scenic one, introducing the layered sandstone cliffs and intermittent plateaus, passing through a few small towns.  Just outside Zion is the town of Springdale, the usual tourist mecca of shops, hotels, etc.  As we passed quickly through town, we were reminded that we were speculating on, and hoping to get,  a spot in one of the two park campgrounds for, oh maybe, two or three nights.  Nada. Our mistake on this trip is that we arrived at a national park campground late on a Friday afternoon.  We should really have known better.  The “no vacancy” signs were posted at the park entrance. But, fortunately for us, there was a cancellation in the reservation campground for that night. And it had just occurred in time for us to arrive.  Our guardian angel was working overtime.   A helpful ranger at the entrance gave us the news and some advice on parking for the next day so that we could have time to see more of the park. She also explained that we might move into the first-come-first-served campground in the morning.  The crowds shouldn’t have been a surprise to us. But, for some reason, we both had the illusion that the visitor population might be a little lower in the month of April. Not as far as we experienced this last weekend. We learned that there are two million visitors in this park annually.  That means that it’s pretty busy April through October, non-stop. The park seems to be managing it well, though. 
Settled quickly in our overnight spot, we had ample time to go to the visitors center to get the lay of the land. More friendly staff gave information on the shuttle system, hikes and ranger programs. To save on traffic through a good portion of the canyon, there is a shuttle system that runs during the peak season. We took our introductory ride the first afternoon, up the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive to the final stop at the Temple of Sinawava, taking advantage of the late day sun on the gigantic cliffs.   As I mentioned earlier, formidable seems to describe this place. The sandstone cliffs are looming all around you and the Virgin River forces it’s way through them.    Flash floods have been known to take lives roaring through the canyon.  The next day we rode the shuttle again. But we got off and on this time for stops at the museum, the Zion Lodge, to walk by the river, etc.  
One of the features of this park that stands out is the diversity of landscapes, ranging from cacti to pine trees to cottonwood to aspen.  The elevations of the park range from 3600 to 8700 feet so there are vastly different environments represented in this 226 square miles.  The Human History Museum tells the interesting story of the explorers and inhabitants that played a part in Zion’s history.  For instance, the Southern Paiute tribe believe to this day that their people were here since creation. They first named this canyon “mukuntuweap,” meaning “straight-up-land.”   The sheer cut cliffs began formation 5-10 million years ago when the earth lifted developing the Virgin River that continues to carve the canyon today. Most of the cliffs were named by the Mormon explorers who began arriving in the 1860s.
To wrap up our visit, we drove the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, through the tunnel to the east entrance to the park. This road has full public access. Although, if you drive an rv through the tunnel, there is a $15.00 fee for the rangers to coordinate your trip from one side to the other.  It’s a fantastic zig-zag road up the canyon through four miles of beautiful views. And then you reach the mile-long tunnel through the mountain, complete with its own windows on the red cliffs.   
Zion was another example of how we are blessed to have our national parks.  Although we prefer a less-crowded situation, we were happy that we made this stop.  Click on the album below, if you’d like to see a few of the scenes from the park. 

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Visiting in Vegas

What's new?? -- Visiting with family and friends, people watching to the max, eating at the world's best buffet and doing a little gambling too. We've had a great four days in Las Vegas. Our visit with Jenny and Tim (Jerry's handsome and beautiful children!) and their friends was a lot of fun. There was excitement at the slot machines, the craps tables, black jack and playing the horses. And we won't talk about those less successful ventures.



Oh, and I cannot fail to mention the wonderful day at the Caesar's Spa, compliments of Tim. My muscles and my toes are still thanking him. That place defines luxury. There are flavors of saunas and steam rooms and arctic rooms that I've never heard of. The Swedish massage was unbelievable. And then we topped it off with a pedicure, complete with champagne cocktails. Ooohlala!

For our rver friends, there are two Elks Lodges in the vicinity that we would recommend. The lodge in Henderson on E. Lake Mead Blvd and the lodge in Las Vegas on West Charleston Drive were both friendly and safe.

We were comfortable at the Charleston Drive location, about 15 minutes from “The Strip,” during the time that we met people at various spots around town. But a funny thing happened last Saturday morning. We awoke around 8:00 a.m to that low rumble of Harleys. How nice, we thought, some bikers are out on this sunny morning. Then we hear more and more motorcycles in the parking lot with us. Well, we think..... maybe a few folks are meeting here. But then the sounds increase all around us. We soon are surrounded by about 900 motorcycles. Our quiet parking spot has become the staging area for the Annual Bordelo Run, a fund raiser for athletes who have lost limbs. The group visits three bordelos on their way over to Pahrump, Nevada. They chose the Las Vegas Elks Lodge as their starting point and we happened to be parked smack dab in the center of it.

So we just sat back with a cup of coffee for the next two or three hours and enjoyed watching the parade of every type of rider and bike.

What could add to this scene? How about a pickup truck full of Girl Scout cookies and the scouts combing the lot for customers with a sweet tooth. Well this troop must have topped the sales for that day. Quite a few saddle bags were carrying Thin Mints when they pulled out for their run.


We said goodbye to everyone on Sunday morning. They flew back to jobs and cold temps. And it's our job to soak up the sun out here while we plot our next course.