Death Valley National Park
Previous : Day 1 - Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park
Day 2 of road trip.
The weather had greatly improved since yesterday (and will stay nice throughout the trip). From Ridgecrest, Furnace Creek visitor center was about 2 hours drive. We started around 7am from the hotel via CA-178. After few miles past Ridgecrest, the whole surroundings seemed other planetary. There was absolutely no traffic and whole area was left for us to enjoy :)
Came across a town in the middle of nowhere (Seales Valley) which had a huge mineral factory. After crossing the town, we came across a turn and were totally blown away by the valley that lay below us. So got out of the car and took some pictures. Here is one of those:
Somewhere along the road, I felt that I read a sign of road being closed. This put some doubt in my mind but I ignored it and continued. But as we were about to enter the park (about 10-12 miles before hitting CA-190...BAM, ROAD CLOSED! Talk about roadtrips being unpredictable.
There was unpaved road and took car in that direction. Tried alternate route on GPS and it said 6 hours :(. Saw another vehicle coming back on the unpaved road. Talked to them and they said they are going back to Ridgecrest and then take highway 395 (losing 4/5 hours). The chance to see Death Valley was sleeping away as I had planned for only one day at this park.
Tip : check nps.gov for road closures in national parks (Google map while being extremely helpful may not help with these almost non-visited roads.
Suddenly I decided to cross the road closed sign (by going to the side) and continue on the same road....confident but anxious. The road had lot of small stones on the road. Drove few miles slowly and then BAM...road is completely broken for hunderd meters or so. There was another person looking at the road with his RV on the side. I decided to take my car off the road into the sand area and continued further and moved back to paved road quickly...whew!
Well lost only 10 mins and here is the entrance to the park at 8:20AM :) Trip to Death Valley saved.
Although Death Valley is one of the driest place in US but it reguarly sees snow fall on its mountains (I think mainly on the Western Mountains). We stopped the car when driving through the mountain to take some pictures. It was surreal as bright sunlight was getting reflected in white snow covering the mountains.
Our next stop in the park was Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. I had heard Death Valley being a totally deserted area but was surprised to see nice hotel, store inside the park at Stovepipe Wells Village. Well went on Sand Dunes and it was such a delightful visit. We spent almost an hour walking through Dunes, laying down, taking pictures and admiring absolute stunning views right in front of us. I came across folks on the dunes trying to recreate a scene from the movie 'Star Wars', which was quite interesting.
Next we drove to Harmony Borax Works point and took the very easy trail. Here is a picture of Mustard canyon area from Borax works:
Shortly we reached Furnace Creek visitor center. The tempreture on the gauge was showing 64 (and not 125+ which seems to be common in summer time :). At the visitor center, we saw the park movie which was very well made and definitely worth the time.
Our next stop (drove for 17+ miles from visitor center) was Badwater, which is lowest point in US (about 282 feet below Sea level). The ground at this point was really flat and we went for a short walk. Checked out all the salt that had covered the area completely
Our last stop of the day was at Dantes View, definitely one of the highlights of the park. We went for a short trail and totally loved it.
It was close to 4:30pm as we exited the park. Our hotel was in Hurricane (Utah ) which was good 3 hours drive from park entrance. We stopped in Las Vegas for quick dinner before reaching the hotel around 8pm.
A small maneuver in the morning definitely help us see this beautiful park.
Next : Day 3 (part 1) - Grand Canyon National Park - North Rim
Day 2 of road trip.
The weather had greatly improved since yesterday (and will stay nice throughout the trip). From Ridgecrest, Furnace Creek visitor center was about 2 hours drive. We started around 7am from the hotel via CA-178. After few miles past Ridgecrest, the whole surroundings seemed other planetary. There was absolutely no traffic and whole area was left for us to enjoy :)
Came across a town in the middle of nowhere (Seales Valley) which had a huge mineral factory. After crossing the town, we came across a turn and were totally blown away by the valley that lay below us. So got out of the car and took some pictures. Here is one of those:
Somewhere along the road, I felt that I read a sign of road being closed. This put some doubt in my mind but I ignored it and continued. But as we were about to enter the park (about 10-12 miles before hitting CA-190...BAM, ROAD CLOSED! Talk about roadtrips being unpredictable.
There was unpaved road and took car in that direction. Tried alternate route on GPS and it said 6 hours :(. Saw another vehicle coming back on the unpaved road. Talked to them and they said they are going back to Ridgecrest and then take highway 395 (losing 4/5 hours). The chance to see Death Valley was sleeping away as I had planned for only one day at this park.
Tip : check nps.gov for road closures in national parks (Google map while being extremely helpful may not help with these almost non-visited roads.
Suddenly I decided to cross the road closed sign (by going to the side) and continue on the same road....confident but anxious. The road had lot of small stones on the road. Drove few miles slowly and then BAM...road is completely broken for hunderd meters or so. There was another person looking at the road with his RV on the side. I decided to take my car off the road into the sand area and continued further and moved back to paved road quickly...whew!
Well lost only 10 mins and here is the entrance to the park at 8:20AM :) Trip to Death Valley saved.
Although Death Valley is one of the driest place in US but it reguarly sees snow fall on its mountains (I think mainly on the Western Mountains). We stopped the car when driving through the mountain to take some pictures. It was surreal as bright sunlight was getting reflected in white snow covering the mountains.
Our next stop in the park was Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. I had heard Death Valley being a totally deserted area but was surprised to see nice hotel, store inside the park at Stovepipe Wells Village. Well went on Sand Dunes and it was such a delightful visit. We spent almost an hour walking through Dunes, laying down, taking pictures and admiring absolute stunning views right in front of us. I came across folks on the dunes trying to recreate a scene from the movie 'Star Wars', which was quite interesting.
Next we drove to Harmony Borax Works point and took the very easy trail. Here is a picture of Mustard canyon area from Borax works:
Shortly we reached Furnace Creek visitor center. The tempreture on the gauge was showing 64 (and not 125+ which seems to be common in summer time :). At the visitor center, we saw the park movie which was very well made and definitely worth the time.
Our next stop (drove for 17+ miles from visitor center) was Badwater, which is lowest point in US (about 282 feet below Sea level). The ground at this point was really flat and we went for a short walk. Checked out all the salt that had covered the area completely
After spending some time at Badwater, we went to Devil's Golf course which is on unpaved road. This was a nice area to see and takes about 30 mins. From there, we started on Artist Drive and it was a real gem of a ride. The highlight of this drive is Artist Point which has rocks in different colors (my camera some did not get all the colors).
Our next stop was Golden Canyon on the same road. We decided to do the trail which was about 2 miles round trip. It was quite sunny and we enjoyed the shadow provided by Canyon walls :). This trail can be easily done with kids.
Next stop - Zabriskie point, a very beautiful place and it requires a very short climb (~100 yards) and you get to see amazing views with minimal effort. Here is is one of the shot:
Our last stop of the day was at Dantes View, definitely one of the highlights of the park. We went for a short trail and totally loved it.
It was close to 4:30pm as we exited the park. Our hotel was in Hurricane (Utah ) which was good 3 hours drive from park entrance. We stopped in Las Vegas for quick dinner before reaching the hotel around 8pm.
A small maneuver in the morning definitely help us see this beautiful park.
Next : Day 3 (part 1) - Grand Canyon National Park - North Rim
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