Here are some pictures of the trip. Death Valley, despite the extreme heat, is full of life if you look hard enough.
Eager to leave, we set out at 0400. We fueled the rig, set our GPS for Dante's View, put on some cruising tunes, and drove into the darkness. The drive was uneventful, and soon we arrived at Dante's View overlooking Badwater Basin. I've seen pictures, but it did not prepare me for the depth of this scenic stop. It was breathtaking.
At this point we were low on gas and decided to refuel with the spare gas before heading down to Furnace Creek. Speaking of gas, I guess when you are in the middle of nowhere, you can charge a premium.
A hundred dollars later, we turned our backs on Furnace Creek and headed towards The Devil's Golf Course. Google Maps led us to a closed road, so we utilized our paper map to get us to our destination. First lesson, never rely on GPS, and to always carry a paper map.
I wonder if there are any creatures living in this hole.
Being the curious person that I am, I just had to lick the salt. Just as I thought, salty. After exploring the crevices, we headed towards Badwater Basin.
Story goes, a surveyor mapping the area led his mule to this water hole but the creature refused to drink. He wrote on his map, "bad water" and the name stuck. Of note, the water is not poisonous, just extremely salty.
Above you see the walk out to the basin, with signs along the way to warn hikers of the extreme heat. As we walked towards the basin, we noticed little craters along our path. My guess is since the basin is next to the Devil's Golf Course, these holes are created when the Devil overshot and the balls landed here.
It was getting late in the afternoon and we knew it was a long drive to Titus Canyon so we bid farewell to the basin and headed back towards Furnace Creek. On the way back, we noticed a sign for Natural Bridge. Curiosity got the best of us, so we took the turnoff and drove on a gravelly washboard road to the entrance of this short hike.
After a 0.3 mile hike in the scorching heat, we arrived at the bridge. Definitely worth the walk.
We sat in the shade for a bit, drank some water, and made the walk back to the car. It's amazing the forces of water, and how it can carve a canyon over time. The walk back awarded us with some spectacular view of the basin as seen here.
Onto Titus Canyon Road we went. The drive took us out of California, exited the park, and entered Nevada. Titus Canyon is a one way road, the the beginning of the drive starts from Nevada heading back into Death Valley.
I've never driven on washboards before, and now I know why people hate it so much. It rattled and shook the rig as we made our way into the canyon. We pulled over shortly to drop the pressure in our tires to 25 psi, and what a huge difference it made. The combination of IFS and lowered pressure made the rest of the drive bearable. I have never been on washboards with solid axles so I have nothing to compare to, but I can imagine a harsher ride.
The drive was absolutely amazing, with switchbacks and slight dips in the road. The views were spectacular.
We came across the remains of Leadfield, an old abandoned town, and decided to explore.
As we exited the canyon, signs for road closure heading towards Scotty's castle made us consult our paper map once again. I did some reading on the website and was aware of this, and knew that this would not affect our route to Ubehebe Crater. We ignored the sign and pressed forward, arriving the the crater.
With the sun setting and we still had a ways to camp, we decided not to hike down the crater. I walked down the path a little ways to take this picture, and we raced the light to Eureka Dunes.
As we arrived, the setting sun kissed the side of the dunes and made for a gorgeous picture spot.
There were about 4-5 campsites at the base, but we had the whole dunes to ourselves. Lovely! We set up camp and up the dunes we went. At 10,000 years old and 700 feet high, Eureka Dunes are the tallest in California. It was getting cooler as the sun crept behind the mountains behind us, and we took advantage of this opportunity.
Evolution at work. Here you see, barely, a creature adapting to it's environment.
Here is a plant with a strong will to live. It has adapted and overcame the heat.
Nature is beautiful.
With the last light, we ate dinner and enjoyed a night full of stars. It was breathtaking.
We couldn't have asked for a better morning. Made breakfast, cleaned up camp and the surrounding area, and drove home. A memorable trip and we soon yearned to come back.
