March 2018

This park was a surprise to both of us. We expected a desolate desert, and saw some of that, but also such beauty in the painted mountains, salt flats and sand dunes. From our campground in Lone Pine, CA we had to drive over 100 miles just to get to the park entrance! We spent about 7 hours altogether getting there and back and driving in the park and for us it was well worth it. If you don’t like driving so much, entering the park from the east side (Nevada) will allow you to see the park’s highlights and not spend so much time in the car.

We entered through the Panamint Springs Visitor Center and got a park map. Our first stop was the Father Crowley Vista Point and we walked out to look at Rainbow Canyon for our first glimpse of the colors of Death Valley.

After that we made a quick stop at the sand dunes which just appeared out of nowhere, so beautiful.

Next we stopped at the Harmony Borax Works.  Borates, or salt minerals, were deposited in the ancient lake beds that eroded into the yellow Furnace Creek badlands. Water dissolved the borates and carried them to the Death Valley floor, where they recrystalized as borax, used in making glass and ceramics. Borax was mined from Death Valley for five years in the late 1800’s until other, less expensive sources were found. The Harmony plant was famous for the 20-mule team used to haul the borax overland to Mojave in double wagons.

Past Furnace Creek Village we drove as far south as Badwater Basin, and recorded -290′ on the GPS!  This is the lowest elevation in North America at an official -282′ below sea level and you can walk out on the salt flats. Significant rainstorms periodically cover this salt plane with standing water, thus the name Badwater, since even a mule won’t drink the water.

On the way back from Badwater we took a very bumpy 2-mile side trip drive and short hike to see Natural Bridge, a beautiful rock formation.

Our last stop was the very nicely paved Artists Drive, a one-way drive to see the Artists Palette with beautifully colored rocks.

Then we headed home with much more to see in the park… next time. There is Scotty’s Castle, a large home built in the early 1900’s, which was flooded in 2015 and has been closed to tours since then. I also wanted to see the ghost town of Rhyolite, just outside of the park in Nevada.

We had a great day in the park and saved some adventures for next time…maybe next summer?