While we spend our first month back on the road in Pahrump, Nevada we spent most of the first week or two visiting Death Valley and the surrounding area.
On the way into the park we stopped by Furnace Creek Inn, the nicest hotel in the area.They had a long tunnel from the lower parking lot to the elevator to take you up to the lobby.We visited the Borax Museum too“Old Dinah” was a steam engine that replaced the 20 mule team that pulled the wagons filled with Borax ore.
Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.I circled the “Sea Level” sign to illustrate what -282 feet is!
The vastness of this valley is hard to comprehend. It’s the largest salt flat in the country at 40 miles long by 5 miles wide!
Death Valley normally gets less than 1.9″ of rain a year; this year they got 1.3″ in one day! So the flowers were everywhere!
An interesting mesquite treeSome of the many sand dunes
We did a short 1/2 mile hike up Natural Bridge Canyon to the bridge.The view of the valley and salt flats as we were returning from the Arch Canyon hike.Zabriskie Point where there’s a good view of the valleyArtists Palette, the focal point of Artist Drive, a 9 mile loop.You can plainly see why they call it Artists Palette! Beautiful, pictures really don’t do it justice!
On the way back to Pahrump we decided to check out this 2.7 mile loop. It’s a dirt road called 20 Mule Team Canyon. It goes through borax hills but interestingly enough it wasn’t built until after the 20 mule teams were used, so it was never used except of course as a tourist attraction!
