Death Valley Day

It was cool and windy when we descended from the mountains and our temporary home in Pahrump, Nevada. In fact, it was downright chilly but soon warmed as we drove to Scotty’s Castle in the northern portion of Death Valley National Park.

We enjoyed a most informative tour of the house that has drawn tourists for many years. I just can’t imagine staying in the house in the hot summertime. The average temperature in July is 115 and 113 in August. The high snow capped mountains in California receive the rainfall before it reaches Death Valley. Then the high mountains surrounding the valley keep the hot air trapped inside.

A prospector called “Death Valley Scotty” claimed that he built this castle with his gold earnings from a fictitious mine. It actually was built by a wealthy friend of his in the 1920s as a vacation home. And what a vacation it must have been. Music played for the guests from this music tower.

We returned about forty miles south and walked on the boardwalk that follows alongside Salt Creek through the pickleweed. Yes, there is water in the valley!

And the little pupfish were swimming like crazy! This is the only place this species of pupfish can be found! They are very small.

This lizard thought he was hidden. Pretty good camouflage I think.

I am intrigued by the 20 mule team wagons that used to haul borax out of Death Valley. We stopped at the old Harmony Borax Works built in 1882.

Here a settlement existed that included mostly Chinese laborers from San Francisco. They scraped the minerals, more commonly known as borax sal,t from the surface of the land and refined it before loading it into these wagons.

The borax was hauled out of Death Valley through the desert to the railroad 165 miles away by teams of twenty mules until 1889. The large wagon at the rear is the water wagon.

Yes, there are even flowers in the park although they are quite small.

At Zabriskie Point a short climb to the top of the hill provided a spectacular view of the badlands surrounding us.

 On Artists Drive we took a nine mile drive winding among the canyons that provided an array of colors as one might find on an artist’s palette. Here I hiked my last hill for the day. We had fun visiting with these folks from Taiwan, Ecuador, California, and Switzerland. This is where I wish I had a filter for the camera! We could not capture the brilliant color in the hot sun.

Our last stop was the low point of the day. Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. The vast salt flats glow in the distance as if it were a lake.

As the sun started to set in the west we headed east after driving about 200 miles in the national park. It made for a long but rewarding day. There is much more to see and experience in the area but we accomplished our fair share!