Death Valley is anything but dead!

We will be spending two weeks in Death Valley at Stove Pipe Wells. We are using one of 12 full hookup RV sites. The great part is, thanks to my “America The Beautiful” park pass, we are paying only $20 per day! We picked this place because it is listed as one of the top three night sky viewing spots in the country! However, we didn’t check the moon phase so most of the time we are here we will be dealing with the rising and falling of a full moon:) No we didn’t get to see the great night sky but it was still fantastic. The three photos below were taken with my S-20 phone.

There is so much to see and do in Death Valley but unfortunately getting to a lot of them is impossible. I early August of 2022 almost one inch of rain caused monumental road closings. In fact for a short while the entire park was closed. It is early November, and the list of road closings is extremely long. The park posts updates almost daily about the status of the major roads and before we will leave the park three more roads will open. Unfortunately, the road to Scotty’s Castle and the area known as Racetrack is not on the list, but the main westerly route out of the park is open and we did get to see some interesting sites. I will bet that we were not the only ones that didn’t know that there is a waterfall in Death Vally. Darwin Falls is a spring fed tributary that cascades year-round. Since this is a consistent source of water the small town of Panamint Springs, CA gets its entire water supply piped to storage tanks from the waterfalls. I have to admit that it was a little weird seeing a PVC pipe just running through the valley.

Another place we visited on the western side of the park was called Father Crawley Overlook. This was a unique area with a lot of interesting things to see. Of course the geology of the area was impressive as well as what it was used for. Since that early eras of aviation this area has been used to teach pilots how to negotiate the nooks and crannies of the terrain. Although the signs said that pilots training took place at just about any time we were not lucky enough to see any.

We arrived in Stove Pipe Wells RV Park and instantly start enjoying the desolation. In rather close proximity to the camp site is a camp store with gas station allows us a good view of the people travelling in the park. On one morning I heard some motorcycles and I realized they were all over 60 years old! The riders were participating in an antique bike rally, unfortunately it was the last day they would be there.

Death Valley is so diverse in terrain, ranging from valley floor over 260 below sea level to mountains several thousands of feet above and we got to see both. In a higher part of the valley, we went to see the Charcoal Kilns about 6000 feet up and in about two inches of snow. The kilns were built to supply fuel to the smelters that were used to refine the silver that was being mined in the area. Although the supply of trees was abundant the kilns only operated for two years. Due to the arid climate and the difficulty of getting to them the kilns are in remarkable condidtion considering their age.

On another trip we ended up in a place called Badwater Basin! This is the lowest point of land in the valley at 282 feet below sea level and one of the best places to walk out onto the arid terrain. As we were driving to the basin we passed another attraction called the Devil’s Golf Course and was an example of the diverse terrain.

We have been home since the end of March and still my blog is in Californina. I have finally conceded defeat to Death Valley and now realize writing about it is futile! In order to move on I will simply state that if you ever have a chance to visit Death Valley by all means do. I am going to post a lot of photos and try to caption them and share them with those of you who are following. Hopefully I will be able to move on with my posts.

Hopefully this will give you a slight glimpse of all we did while visiting Death Valley. This may not have been the best place we went to but it is by far the most diverse and unusual. From here we are heading to Las Vegas stay tuned there is more to come.