Death Valley. Need I say more.
Our National Parks escapade rolled on towards Death Valley. Why, you may ask? Because it’s there and because it’s on our list are the only good reasons I can give. We voluntarily chose to go to the place with the hottest recorded temperature ever recorded on earth at 134 degrees in June of 1913, according to the official park movie. Our kind of place. Before leaving home, I failed to check the melting point of nylon. It was anyone’s guess if the tent could survive our stay there.
We had a long travel day ahead of us on Sunday. Driving time alone was slightly over seven hours, plus gas stops and lunch, we were facing eight and a half hours on the road. Since it was Sunday, we decided to break up the drive by selecting a Church service in Flagstaff to attend, about an hour and a half from our starting point. That would leave us a little over five and a half hours to travel once the 8:30 service was over at Christ’s Church in Flagstaff. That didn’t sound so bad. It was a very nice worship service and a good way to start our day.
For lunch, we stopped at the bridge walk parking lot of the Hoover Dam, perhaps our most unique lunch stop to date. It ranked slightly above the closed down restaurant parking lot where we ate earlier in the trip in Van Horn, Texas. After we finished lunch, we walked up to the bridge and took a quick look at the Hoover Dam, and then continued to our date with Death Valley.
Much like our drive into Big Bend, we noticed the temperature continuing to increase the closer we got to our campground. When we began our descent into the park, we were at an elevation of about 3,000 feet and the temperature was a comfortable 79 degrees. By the time we reached the visitor center, we were almost 200 feet BELOW sea level and the temperature was a suffocating 107, eclipsing the high of 106 at Big Bend. Beth went into the visitor center to get some maps and information while I parked the car.
We should have known we were in for some heat. The visitor center and campground share the same name – Furnace Creek. Great. We had two choices, Furnace Creek or Stovepipe campgrounds. Furnace Creek sounded more humane so we pulled into the first come-first serve campground and began the quest to find the coolest campsite possible. God is good. In the midst of this desert campground, we found a spot that actually had several trees that provided shade for us to set up our tent in without being in the intense California sun. It was by no means cool, but I’m sure the temperature in the shade was down to 100.
Since we started the day in Holbrook, Arizona, where the overnight low had dipped into the 40s, I had dressed that morning in jeans and a thicker polo shirt. Dumb idea. Setting up the tent in that get up in that heat was really pleasant. I probably lost 5 pounds of water weight by the time the set up was complete. I am happy to report we had no incidents getting the tent up and in a little more than a half of an hour we were sitting in the little remaining shade at our campsite, ready for our two night stay.
Have you ever slept in a tent in Death Valley? If not, good for you. When we shut our light off Sunday night, around 9:30, it was still 99 degrees. That was OUTSIDE the tent. I can only imagine what the real feel was INSIDE the tent. I’m sure it was over 100. Really pleasant sleeping conditions. I must have been tired, because even in that heat, on a plastic air mattress, I fell quickly to sleep. Poor Beth wasn’t so fortunate. She spent much of the night in a restless state of half sleep in the sweltering conditions.
The temperature for Monday was to “cool down” to just 100. To be on the safe side, we decided to get up to catch the sunrise at Zabriskie Point and then proceed to tour as much of the park as we could before it got too hot in the afternoon. Our plan worked brilliantly. We were up at 4:45 and it felt pretty cool, in the low 80s. We spent about an hour and a half watching the sun rise above the towering mountains to cast a golden glow over the Golden Canyon portion of the park. It was stunning. The mountain peaks turned from a dull, dark gray to a vibrant purple and the canyon walls lit up in golden splendor.
Our next stop was the Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet BELOW sea level. This area stretched for miles in both directions and is comprised of salt, making it look like the desert floor was covered in snow. The white salt was crumbly beneath our feet as we made our way into the salt flats before us. The temperature hadn’t risen much and our time in the salt was quite pleasant. Beth took some awesome pictures of this surreal landscape.
Stop three on the Death Valley tour was a 3 mile hike of the Golden Canyon, the area we had looked into as the sun rose earlier that morning. It was a very nice hike through the canyon and it ended in the Red Cathedral, an area of reddish rock mountain that ascended about 1,000 feet above the canyon floor. Beth and I hiked to the pinnacle where we had an amazing view of the surrounding area. While we were sitting there soaking up the scenery, a humming bird appeared out of nowhere and flitted right in front of Beth’s face. We have no idea where it came from, but it added to the moment for sure. We were also amazed at how much of the desert was in bloom. There were flowers of various colors throughout the dry landscape providing a stark contrast to the dull desert in all directions. The blooms offered a soft floral scent to the breeze. That was a pleasant surprise for us.
On our way back to the parking lot, we met a delightful young couple from New York City, Katie and Brian. They were in the area for a wedding and decided to spend some time in Death Valley. We really enjoyed talking with them during the 1.5 mile return trip. We share a love of National Parks and even picked up some travel tips from Brian, who spent time at Rocky Mountain National Park as a backpacking guide.
Next we took about an hour to drive the 9 mile Artist Drive loop that snaked its way up and down a particularly lovely portion of the park. At one point we stopped to hike and photograph an area called Artist Palette, which included rock walls of green, purple, yellow and blue. Not something we expected to see in the desert.
We finished our sightseeing shortly after noon at Mesquite Dunes, a massive sand dune field with peaks rising as high 100 feet. The area reminded us of an Egyptian desert and I half expected to see a pyramid in sphinx in the background. The park brochure warned that the heat of the dunes can cause sandals to melt. I’m glad we were wearing hiking boots.
Our plan for the afternoon was to seek shelter inside the visitors’ center to escape the brutal heat and the attack of the swarms of flies of Biblical proportions. We spent time reading the various exhibits and then viewed the 4:00 park movie. It didn’t take long for us to get used to the air conditioned comfort inside. The last showing is actually at 4:00, and at 4:30, a park service employee came in to lock the theatre where the movie is shown. We pleaded for an extra half hour in the cool confines of the theatre, but we were politely told we had to leave. Bummer. Beth tried to persuade him otherwise by explaining we were in a tent and needed relief, but the young man was not moved. We were evicted and begrudgingly returned to our campsite.
Overall, we had a very successul day in Death Valley. We were really amazed at the unexpected beauty we found there, including the blooming flowers and plants that added wonderul color to the desert, the brilliant white salt flats, the multi-colored rock walls, and the mountains and canyons throughout the park. It ranks right up there as one of our favorites thus far.
Monday night proved to be another interesting night. We went to bed around 9:30 and we no more than settled in when the wind picked up dramatically, shaking the tent walls quite forcefully. Since it was so hot, we had not put the rain fly over our tent, so the unwelcomed wind blew an enormous amount of dust and dirt into our tent, covering Beth and I and our sheets and bed with a layer of desert dust. I jokingly said to Beth, “just when you think it can’t get any worse…” We both laughed at that.
On Tuesday, we shook off the dust, packed up our belongings, and made a beeline out of Death Valley to what we hoped would be cooler conditions in Channel Island National Park near Ventura, California. We survived our time in Death Valley, and while it was certainly hot, we are glad we visited. We will look back fondly on our time there.
It’s been 21 days on the road, and it’s hard to believe we’ve completed almost 25% our trip. Time flies when you’re having fun. Until next time, make the most of the day.