Week 11: Making It Out of Death Valley Alive

Goodbye, City of Angels

Our final day in the Los Angeles area was mostly spent on the beach. We went to another state beach that we had free access to with our campground pass. We set up on the beach and spent a lot of time doing very little as the sun’s rays warmed our skin and the waves crashed against the shore. It was a beautiful, warm day. We decided we would spend as much of the day enjoying the beach as we could, while being sure to get to our next destination before sunset so that we wouldn’t be driving in the dark.

Our Best Free Campground Yet

We arrived at a free campground between LA and Death Valley National Park (where we would be visiting later in the week) just as the sun set and found a nice spot that had its own covered picnic table and firepit, with a beautiful backdrop of large rocks protruding from the desert ground. We didn’t get to enjoy the place much as we were in a hurry to set up camp while we still had light.

The following day we worked, but we spent most of our time working outside since it was gorgeous, sunny weather. Kendra had the idea to bring out our, so far, unused hammocks and set them up between the posts of our picnic table roof structure. It took a bit of engineering work to get things to work properly, but we eventually got there. We both enjoyed the fresh air on the hammocks as we got our work done for the day.

Tuesday was really more of the same. Working outside with the beautiful scenery surrounding us, wondering how we got to stay at this gem of a campground at no cost to us. I did a bit of rock climbing in the evening since the rocks were just perfect for it with their rough texture.

Again, Wednesday involved much of the same. We actually set a personal record on Wednesday for the most days in a row that we didn’t drive somewhere. We are about constantly needing to move, whether that is to move onto the next destination, to pick up groceries, fill our water tank, or otherwise. But we had come prepared this time around and felt no need to move around for a record 3 days.

We continued the theme of “chilling out” with a game of Dutch Blitz before watching our respective favorite entertainment, Columbus Crew soccer and The Amazing Race.

We found Sawtooth to be a much needed respite from the “go-go-go” mentality we had for the last little while. We were beginning to feel a bit of burnout from all the travel and whatnot. I tend to get FOMO (that’s “fear of missing out” for the boomers and Gen Xers out there) pretty bad when visiting a place. I want to make sure we see everything that there is to see before we move on. Of course, seeing everything is not possible. My pursuits are usually to our own detriment, since it tends to tire us out and make the experience less enjoyable. I am trying to learn to slow down and enjoy what is in front of me instead of always worrying about how to cram everything into a short period of time. Sawtooth provided a short time where we were pretty well forced to slow down and just relax.

We chose to stay at Sawtooth because we knew that Death Valley would have some more extreme weather. We were doing our best to cut down on our time there and avoid the intense heat. It happened to work out great since the weather in Death Valley cooled down later in the week when we planned to head that way. That is exactly what we did on Thursday evening after finishing up our work earlier than usual, again to ensure that we got to our next campground before dark.

Arriving at the Valley of the Shadow of Death

We stopped for groceries on the way to another free campground that was just outside of the national park. The campground is called “The Pads” because it is a pretty basic area with concrete slabs spread out along the desert ground. We found the one that spoke to us and set up camp for the night. The campground turned out to be another one of our favorites. Not so much because of its beauty, but because of its location and accessibility. We were just outside of the park’s boundary and had access to free facilities inside of the park relatively close by.

Seeing the Valley

Friday evening we did our first bit of exploring in the park, starting with a drive to Dante’s Point. It was a fairly steep climb to the peak of a mountain that overlooked the valley. We did a short hike along the ridge of the mountain as well. It was neat to see the area that we would be exploring over the next couple of days from this viewpoint. From here you could see the lowest point in North America, the Badwater Basin (282 feet below sea level) and one of the highest peaks in the country, Telescope Peak (at over 11,000 feet of elevation).

Then we headed down to the valley where we did a scenic drive called Artist’s Drive and stopped at an area called Artist’s Palette. Both places are aptly named since the rock formations are incredibly colorful. We climbed around a bit on the formations, then found one to sit on as we watched the sunset.

One crazy thing about our first day at the park was that it was raining… According to a sign in the visitor’s center: “Death Valley is the driest place in the United States. It gets that distinction by having the lowest average annual rainfall of any place in the country – less than two inches per year. Some years, there is no rain here at all.” It didn’t rain a lot, but just the fact that it was raining and temperatures were mild was very strange. I believe my weather app said that it was 16 degrees cooler than average on the first day there.

The Devil, His Golf Course, and Some Bad Water

Saturday was a day jam-packed with hot and dry exploration. The day was actually pretty mild by Death Valley’s standards. The highs were in the low 90s. But when the sun is at full throttle and you are doing some hiking, it feels pretty intense!

We started the day with a viewpoint that is really popular in the park, called Zabriskie point. The view is absolutely gorgeous here. It overlooks some colorful, gnarly looking formations.

Next we made the long drive to the other end of the park, where we saw Ubehebe Crater. It is basically a giant hole in the ground. My understanding is that the crater was created by a huge explosion, sometime around the time of Jesus, where magma rose closer to the surface, heating up the ground water and therefore creating steam. The steam built up pressure until it exploded, leaving behind a giant hole in the ground. Pretty wild to think about that kind of explosion. I would love to see something like that… from a safe distance, of course.

On our way to the main area in the park we stopped at an old borax mine, and walked the short trail that had information about the mining operations that went on in the park. It made me weary just thinking about doing that kind of manual labor in the heat of the valley. Most of the workers unfortunately were not paid or treated very well. I believe it was something like $2/day for the Chinese workers that made up most of the workforce.

The next stop was the Devil’s Golf Course. Ironically named, since it would make the world’s worst golf course. It was an area in the basin that was made up of rock and salt that formed extremely jagged terrain. It looked and felt like snow as you walked on it, which was a strange feeling since we were both sweating from the trek that it took to get there.

Finally, we visited the must-see area in Death Valley, the Badwater Basin. The basin is the lowest point in North America. We walked out on the salt flats until we reached the sitting water in the basin. I believe it is called “badwater” simply because it is salty and not good for drinking. The water provided some relief from the scorching heat in this part of the park.

Conclusion

Death Valley turned out to be one of our favorite parks yet – in the top 3 for me. We weren’t thrilled about visiting the park initially due to the heat and our perception that it was mostly just dry desert landscape. But we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty and the color that was present throughout the park. 10/10 would recommend.

Thanks for following along. Next up, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.