DEATH VALLEY
Located in Eastern California in the Northern Mojave Desert. Death Valley in the height of summertime is one of the hottest places on earth. It has the highest reliably recorded temperature ever at 134 °F (56.7 °C). Death Valley is also home to Badwater Basin, the point of lowest elevation in North America at 282 Feet below sea level! If that wasn’t enough, it is also the driest spot in North America, receiving less than 2 inches of rain per year!
Looking back, I can see why Jess, the girl I was traveling with, seemed a little skeptical when I told her “camping at Death Valley would be a blast” with complete disregard to the fact it was the middle of July.
We stayed the night at a hotel in Bishop, California then woke up and headed 50 miles south for the small town of Lone Pine. Stopped at the Lone Pine market to pick up some last-minute provisions and a few gallons of water before heading to the park. This was the last “actual town” we would see until we made it out of Death Valley.
(Interesting Side Note: Lone Pine is the gateway to Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48 states at 14,508 feet. Ironically located a mere 80 miles from Badwater Basin the lowest point in North America)
Mount Whitney: 14,508' Tallest mountain in lower 48
We were headed the other direction..
I started getting pretty excited, even asked Jess to drive so I could take it all in. (I drove most of the previous 4,000 miles). This is where the Badwater 135 took place, dubbed the world’s toughest footrace. I had heard so much about this place from the ultra-running community, couldn’t wait to see the course with my own eyes.
Bring extra water if you plan to visit Death Valley!
The first lookout point was Father Crowley Point, one other car pulled in behind us but other than that we were the only ones there. We decided to walk over to a nearby ridge to check out the view looking down into the valley. It didn’t seem any hotter than Houston was in July, but it was much drier. Although, by the time we made it back from the short walk, I felt very thirsty despite not having sweat at all. I blamed it on the beers from the night before and we continued on to Panamint Springs.
We stopped at the Panamint Springs Resort for lunch, a small café and the only establishment I saw besides the gas station next to it. The chicken strips and fries were quite good. Afterwards, Jess recommended we pull into the gas station for milkshakes, couldn’t argue with that.
By the time we got back on the road it was 12:30, the sun was beating down and the wind felt like a hairdryer blowing on my face. We kept the windows down on the steep sections to prevent the car from over heating (there were warning signs and we didn’t need any more car trouble).
Sand dunes for days!
Made it to the visitor center at Furnace Creek with no issues. Besides the huge thermometer outside I didn’t find this one to be anything special (we had been 9 parks in the previous weeks so I may have been jaded) But I still bought a magnet, something I had made a habit of doing on this trip. None the less, the staff was friendly and recommend we check out Zabriskie’s Point for sunset.
“What are we going to do till then?” Jess asked
“We can go to the camp ground and set up the tent” I replied as we headed back outside, into the oven.
“That only takes ten minutes….” she said as we quickly got into the car.
“Maybe they have a pool or something” I sarcastically replied. Knowing full well there wasn’t going to be a pool at the campground.
Felt even hotter! Where is the pool?
When we arrived at the furnace creek campground, 134 out of 136 spots were open. I couldn’t help but laugh, there were only two other groups in the massive camp ground. (one group was in a RV so they didn’t really even count in my opinion).
We drove as far as we could from the other two groups. Damn near the complete opposite end of the camp ground before picking spot 88. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
It took us less than 10 minutes to set up the tent this time because there was no point to even taking out the blankets, they wouldn’t be necessary tonight. I laid out on top of the picnic table and was thumbing through the guide book and noticed something interesting…
The furnace creek resort, (literally the only other place to stay in Death Valley) had a POOL! After doing some research, we found out they offered a limited number of pool passes to outsiders not staying at their resort. Considering the lack of life at the campground I figured we had pretty solid odds of getting in.
If not, I didn’t think it would be hard to convince Jess that we would sneak in.
Luckily, we just had to pay $8 for both of us to get wristbands. I think it goes without saying but this was the best money spent on the whole entire road trip!
Best $8 dollars I ever spent!
The pool filled up as the afternoon temps rose, but it never got overly crowded considering it was bigger than I would have expected. It was spring fed and was 84° F year-round, sounds warm but it was refreshing.
We headed to Zabriskie’s Point around 5 to get set up for the sunset. Not sure where all the people came from, but there were quite a few of them making their way up the hill. We found a quiet spot off the beaten path and sat down to wait for the sun to receded over the mountains in front.
Neither of us could help but smile as the sun finally set across the horizon!
Sunset at Zabriskie Point
On the way back, we stopped to take in the last remaining light and snap a few pictures. It looked like there was a fire in the sky.
It was still around 100° F, even well after the sun had set. We didn’t have many options of things to do when we got to the camp ground. Generally, we would have started a fire (if permitted) and had a few beers before bed. But considering it felt like I was walking around in a fire, there was no way I was going to starting one tonight.
Fire in the sky over Death Valley
I ended up staying up to try out some astro-photography, Jess called it a night when she realized I had no clue what I was doing. Which was true and I didn’t get any good pictures, but it kept my mind off the fact that it was 98°F at midnight. The stars were incredible as you might imagine, being so far from any light pollution. Eventually I tried to get some rest, with little success. (I regretted not bringing a pillow, something I deemed unnecessary when we were packing, stupid move)
We both woke up at 5:30 so we could make it to Badwater Basin for sunrise (the lowest point in North America). Besides a fox, we had the entire place to ourselves. It looked strangely like a massive lake, but it was just the salt formations that occurred from the wind.
Lowest Point in the States!
Sunrise at Death Valley
Oh shit, where did the bee’s come from!
We walked a good way out onto the salt flat before making our way back to the car, after noticing a few other cars arriving (I had left the windows down and the doors unlocked). We had only been gone for thirty minutes but the inside of the car had been transformed into a fucking bee hive!! There were hundreds of them swarming everywhere! They completely covered a soda can and an apple I had forgot to throw away.
I reluctantly decided, that we would cover up with jackets and pants and haul ass down the desert road with the windows down. In hopes the bees would get the picture and fly out.
It worked, neither of us were stung and we ended up getting a good laugh out of it on the way to Las Vegas. Where we would be staying the night, in a hotel with air conditioning. We couldn’t wait!!
For more information on park conditions visit the Death Valley National Park Website Here
If you have any thoughts or questions be sure to leave a comment! Feel free to check out more post on the Blog!
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