Death Valley Day 4

You have seen the trip details and photos from Day 3..

We did spend a 4th day at Death Valley as a grand finale of sorts.

Did the two hour drive from Ridgecrest early in the morning but with a lot of stops to take pictures on the way of the desert landscape and the valley views. We had reserved this activity for the last day as we rushed past these features every morning.

Then we went to the Badwater Basin! It was the farthest point for us on the last day at Death Valley and our plan was to cover as many spots as possible on our way back to Stovepipe wells.

The old chinese workers at the borax mines tried to make their horses drink the water that was collected in shallow pools but the horses or mules would not drink. So they called it badwater and the name stuck. 

In reality the water is so saturated with salt that it is not potable! Given that, it creates such scenic beauty as it leaves salt to dry in ring like sediments, after some point the salt crystals push out of the ground like seeds germinating and have crystalline patterns that literally emerge from the ground. The sun makes this all the more spectacular and the reflections of the mountains is some sight to behold.

After walking around Badwater we headed to another place that is so unique it is aptly named "Devils Golf Course".. Caked earth, salt deposits, sharp edges that make you worry that you will cut youself to death if you fall on the ground..

It was interesting to say the least. We went back for lunch at Furnace Creek visitor center again and started driving to something that promised guaranteed fun if the brochures were to be taken seriously...

We came to Natural bridges! It was a long walk and it ended at a point where we could not go further but we got some unforgettable memories on this trail. The sun cast shadows that turned the canyon from orange, to red to yellow to purple and the camera was clicking non stop.

At some point I just stopped clicking, sat on a rock, took a deep breath and absorbed the whole thing. Then packed up and started walking to catch up to San, BB and the kids. 

If and when I retire, soooo going back to this place to spend a day in the shade sitting on one of those rocks and watching the sun go by! 

After a reality check that retirement was far away, we drove to Artist Point or Artist Pallette as people call it. The rocks and the minerals within them have been exposed by water erosion and the mountains are glowing in colors! We saw a shade of this at Zabriske point on Day 3, but this was way more colorful. Almost spent two hours on this drive at various vista points. The moon comes out close to 2PM and we had some fun taking photographs with the moon in the background!

The sad thing is that the best views are closer to the exit on this drive than on the entrance side. We spent way too much time climbing a little hill where everyone had parked their car only to realize that the really colorful spots were further down the drive! Still, made it through just as the sun set and we came out of the park with some great memories..

Day 5 saw us driving back from Ridgecrest.. We stopped on the way at a few scenic spots .. a lake, a river.. Those pictures are processed as are all those stitch shot panoramas. Will post the last photoblog from Death Valley trip tomorrow!

Death Valley Day 3

Somewhere in the last ten days the daily one hour commit to photo editing before going to bed took a backseat on the priority list. Got a break yesterday evening when it was cold and raining out and the kids and me ended playing "name place animals things" at home.

We also started on a 500 piece puzzle which was messed up by the little one after we had almost assembled 50 plus pieces to connect because she got "fursrated".. she almost says it like "firstrated"! We might start that again as long as no pieces were damaged. 

Managed to edit Day 3 photos. Two more days of photos to edit still left!

For previous photos and trip description go here..

Day 3 saw us going straight to the Kilns through the Wildrose entrance of Death Valley national park. These are some magnificent structures built hundreds of years ago to make charcoal from local wood. They must be easily 25+ feet tall as the entrance is close to 6 feet. You end up driving through a dirt road and it is better if you have a Jeep. We were all praying that no big rocks hit our vehicle as it is pretty desolate out there and there are no cell signals.

After the Kilns we headed straight to see the salt creek. There is a nice wood path (that reminded us of the Petroglyph trail in Hawaii)  and you can walk it in 30 minutes or less and you can see the creek run by, small fish, birds if you are lucky and a lot of butterflies.. not to mention the vast expanse of salts.

We continued in the same direction and went to the Borax works next. Borax was the main thing folks mined from the salts. So they figured out it was easier to refine the borax locally and haul it in mule wagons instead of taking raw material across the desert.

Now of course all this is gone because there are deposits outside death valley that are thriving and have more elaborate mines. At some point there were thousands of tents on the vast expanse in front of this wagon exhibit that sits in the middle of nowhere.. mostly Chinese migrant workers!

After this the plan was to go to Golden Canyon. We saw a coyote that we almost ran over as it crossed the road! There was no one else on that road and why it chose to cross just in front of us is beyond me.

We went for a hike through Golden Canyon as far as we could go which was a mile and a quarter. San and the girls decided to stop halfway and return while the two and a half men went on! The sun was almost directly over us and the previous experiences of walking in a shade within the canyon were not applicable. 

There were no clouds either. So the sky was a nice plain blue but the photos came out with "something missing"!

After this it was a drive back to Furnace creek visitor center for lunch. There is an auditorium there that plays a video of what to see at Death Valley at regular intervals. We caught that video and spent some time looking at the nice displays in the Visitor center. After that it was  a race with the sun to go see Dante's View and Zabriske point right before sunset.

We saw some of the most fantastic views ever at these two places. You can see the highest and lowest point in the continental US from this place on a clear day and we had a clear day! What you see below is an expanse of salt called the Badwater Basin. 

The sun was going down sooo fast! We caught some amazing hues on the rocks..

Unforgettable views!

Wanted to stay there for a long time just to admire what mother nature had created over millions of years, but the 20 odd cars that were there started dispersing fast and it got dark very fast and we started down from Zabriske point..

We had one more day at the park to cover some more must see spots.. It only got better on the last day!