Brian & Patty's Awesome Adventure!: Death Valley, NV, Part 1

We decided to drive to Baker and come in on the 127 and 190. This new truck is a BEAST! No problem just leaving it in cruise control pulling the 5th wheel up the hills on Interstate 15! Much better then the old 2004 truck. Even though it was an automatic you had to manage the gears so it didn't heat up going up grades This one doesn't care! Of course the old one was only rated to tow 13,300 lbs while this one is rated at a whopping 26,000 lbs!!!

We reserved our full hookup site #45 at NPS Furnace Creek Campground back in November. Good idea because the campground was completely full. Out of 125 total sites only 18 have hookups and we had one of them for the entire week.

We have a Park Pass so we get half price on camping but not the hookups. Campground is $18 /2 so we pay $9. An additional charge of $12 is assessed for the hookups so we pay $21 a night for a full hookup site in a national park. Not bad!

Full hookup site 045

We were here (at Mesquite Springs) exactly 10 years ago with our friends Scott and Terri. We were already planning to full time in the RV. You can read my VERY first post by following the link on the last posting.

The last time we were here we did a lot of 4x4 off roading. With this WIDE and LONG truck that's not going to happen so much. This is a towing machine that can go offroad, not an offroad machine that can tow.

10 years ago they had a large flash flood at furnace Creek that actually killed a couple people and knocked the roads out for about a year. This stopped us from exploring this area of the park.

In addition we did not do the official tours of Scotty's Castle.

Now back to this trip!

We first went to Artist Drive. This is a paved windy one way drive through colorful mineral laden mountains.

Artist Drive

The drive is about 9 miles long and worth the time as the views can be spectacular.

The Drive

Towards the end of the drive you arrive at Artist Pallette. The colors arrive from the different minerals in the rock.

Artist Pallette

We then went to Natural Bridges Canyon. It is a short one mile round trip hike to a Natural Bridge formation.

Natural Bridges Canyon

We made it!

Natural Bridge

Here is the backside of the bridge. It made a beautiful frame of the blue sky!

Natural Bridge Frame

Here is the trail leading down the canyon back to the parking area. It was a little bit of an uphill to the bridge, but had a great view of the Valley!

View of the Valley

After the walk up the canyon we were heading to Badwater. On the way we stopped at Devils Golf Course. NO, there is not really a golf course. LOL.

Devils Golf Course

The Devil's Golf Course is a large salt pan on the floor of Death Valley,

It was named after a line in the 1934 National Park Service guide book to Death Valley National Monument, which stated that "Only the devil could play golf" on its surface, due to a rough texture from the large halite salt crystal formations.

The salt crystals are so sharp they will cut you! Careful!!!

The Golf Course

Patty lost too many golf balls, and I shot wayyyy OVER par so we decided to leave Devils Golf Course!!

Badwater is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. It also has the highest recorded temperature in the world at 135 degrees July 10, 1913.

Badwater Basin

I made this picture extra large so you could sort of see where sea level is. If you look at the arrow pointing at the red circle is a sea level sign. Below the sign you can see a motor home and 5th wheel. That kind of puts it in perspective how high sea level is.

Sea Level Sign

There isn't much water at Badwater, but what is there isn't good. The accumulated salts of the surrounding basin make it undrinkable, thus giving it the name. The pool does have animal and plant life, including pickleweed, aquatic insects, and the Badwater snail.