DEATH VALLEY

We have been in Pahrump, Nevada since last Tuesday.  We came to Pahrump to attend a Reunion Rally of RV Dreams attendees.  RV Dreams is a blog turned business done by Howard and Linda Payne.  They started full-timing back in 2005 and Howard keeps a very detailed blog.  He has all kinds of information about full-timing on his blog and they started doing educational rallies several years ago to help those that want to start full-timing.  Anyway, we decided to attend the rally.  There were several couples who had been at the same educational rally we had gone to in 2014.  It was nice to see them again and share travel stories.  We also met some new couples, which was also nice.

We stayed at Wineridge RV park, which fortunate for me, was at a winery!  We participated in a dinner one night put on by the park and they serve wine from the winery.  You got 3 glasses of wine with your dinner.  So, you got a REALLY good tasting of 3 of their wines.  I went one day and actually did a tasting at the winery.  It was a very nice RV park.

When the rally was over, we moved a whopping 3 miles down the road to Preferred RV Park.  We are staying Passport America so we are getting our site for half price.  This is a very nice park too.  

Pahrump is very close to Death Valley National Park.  When Mr. W was planning the trip, Death Valley was immediately on our list.  I don't know about you, but every time we told someone that we were going there, we got the same reaction, which was no reaction.  When we travel, we always try to find someone who has been where we are headed.  There is nothing like first hand experience and word of mouth of things to do and not do, things that are beautiful and not so much, places to definitely not miss and those to be sure and miss.  However, when we said Death Valley, everyone just shook their head and said, "That's nice."  So, we went not knowing what to expect.

Unfortunately, we only had 1 full day to see what we could.  Death Valley is the largest national park outside of Alaska. Now, I know how big Yellowstone is and I know how big Big Bend is and there is no way you can touch seeing everything in those 2 parks in 1 day.  Death Valley is bigger and we have 1 day?  

We decided to enter the park through Shoshone.  What a throwback little town.  How many of you have seen the movie Cars?  Well, that's what it reminded me of.  It had the remodeled motel that looked like a motel in the 60s.  The museum there looked like an old gas station, complete with a rusted car out front.

The park straddles the line between Nevada and California.  It is the hottest, driest, and lowest of all the national parks in the US. The lowest place is Badwater Basin which is 282 feet below sea level.  Mr. W and I both had a slight headache when we got that far below sea level.  

A group of European-Americans got stuck here in 1849 trying to find a short-cut to the California gold mines.  They are who named the valley even though only 1 in their party died.  Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams. The twenty-mule teams were actually 18 mules and 2 horses. The valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism blossomed in the 1920s, when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933 and the park was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994.

We stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture and a coyote came out of the brush and ran up next to my door.  He stood there looking up and I think he was waiting for me to give him something to eat.  I think people must be feeding him.  People, don't feed the animals! He was not scared of me and nothing seemed to scare him.  He stayed right there until we decided to leave.

See how he blends into the surroundings.

The day started out clear, blue skies and slowly turned into cloudy skies with a lot of haze.  It helped it stay a little cooler but wreaked havoc on picture taking. The section called Artist's Drive (a 9 mile one-way loop) was beautiful.  I must say that whoever designed the road through that area had to have an artistic eye.  Every time you turned a corner, there was an artistic shot waiting to be taken.  Very pretty.

Artist's Pallette

Road through Artist's Drive

We went to the Visitor's Center at Furnace Creek.  There is a BEAUTIFUL hotel there called The Inn.  It reminds me of pictures I have seen of Hotel California.  It sits at sea level and on a ledge that looks out over the valley that is below sea level.  When the sun sets, it turns The Inn orange and it looks like it is on fire.  Really, it does the whole area.  Thus, the name Furnace Creek. However, this place is also an oasis in the desert.  There is a golf course, general store, post office, gas station, several campgrounds, another hotel call The Ranch, a diner, and a trading post.

The Diner

In the middle of the road

Golf course

Speaking of golf courses, there is an area called Devil's Golf Course.  It is an immense area of rock salt eroded by wind and rain into jagged spires.  It is so incredibly serrated that "only the devil could play golf on such rough links."

The Devil's Golf Course

To say that there is very diverse scenery in Death Valley is an understatement.  There are also several hikes you can take.  We really didn't have time to do any hikes. Be sure you bring LOTS of water if you plan to hike.  Cell phones and GPS are great tools, but they won't work in the park out on hikes.  There is service around the Visitor's Center but not many other places in the park. So, be prepared. 

I hope someday to spend a little more time in the park.  Hopefully, it will be a little cooler time and we can do some hiking.  Go see it!