Death Valley in July, 2011!!

We spent the previous night in Barstow, California, which is in the desert.  The sunset was beautiful and as the temperatures cooled off (to the 90s) we recalled fond memories of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.  Friday morning we had a late getaway and headed even deeper into the desert.  We took I-15 north towards Las Vegas but exited at Baker, California, onto highway 127 heading towards Death Valley.  Before noon the temperatures climbed to 104 degrees and shortly after noon it reached 106 degrees.  We saw sand dunes and stark mountains with no vegetation to mention.  Around noon we stopped in Shoshone where the one gasoline station sold regular for $4.55 a gallon.  We didn’t need gasoline thank goodness.  We took highway 178 into Nevada and at Pahrump we found the house of my cousin, Erwin, his wife Sophie, daughter Dee, and grandson, Christopher.

We met their dog, Bob, who wasn’t too keen to share his house with us, and their five cats, three kittens, and one guinea pig.  After an evening of good food and conversation we retired to bed in their guest cottage, a 40 foot recreational vehicle (RV).

Saturday morning we ate breakfast and were on our way about 9:00 am on what appeared to be a clear, sunny and hot day.  We headed west across the border into California again and soon were at the edge of Death Valley National Park.  First order of business was a drive up to Dante’s View with an excellent overlook of the salt/borax desert floor.  Next a stop at Zabriskie Point for colorful, odd land formations.  Then we drove to Badwater Basin and Badwater Pool, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.  We hiked out onto the salt flats in very hot temperatures.  Returning on the same road we took the Artist’s Palette cutoff to see a mixture of color in rocks and sand. 

By now it was past noon and time for lunch.  We drove to Furnace Creek Ranch and had lunch (and beer) at the Forty-niner Café.  Gasoline at Furnace Creek Ranch cost $5.40 a gallon. Again we were fine on gasoline.  After lunch our car thermometer registered 118 degrees for quite some time.  We stopped to visit the ruins of an old borax processing plant with a 20 mule team wagon.  Finally we exited the park and re-entered Nevada, stopping to visit the ghost town of Rhyolite, once a thriving gold mining town.  At Bailey we turned off for the drive home to Pahrump where the temperature was a cool 104.