Death Valley 2015

This was actually the last on the round about trip, since I'm not posting in any order, I don't feel bad about posting this out of trip order itself.

Have always wanted to get to Death Valley and this was a nice experience.  Again just my daughter and I.  So first thing they tell you is enter Death Valley with a full tank of gas.  If one looks at a map, you will notice that Death Valley is about the size of Delaware.  There is only 2 official roads in Death Valley, one roughly north-south, the other is roughly east-west.  Basically they cut the valley in 4 sections.  But I will say there are 2 gas stations in all of Death Valley and they are at the 2 visitor centers which happen to be basically at the crossroads.  So, yes you need enough gas to get half way there.

Now since this was almost early spring, the temperature was not bad.  The highlands where in the 60's and Furnace Springs (visitor center) was only 93.  A side note, in the summer the temperature can get upwards of 110 but the comment that I found interesting was that the pavement (road) could be 50 to 60 degrees hotter.  All I could think of was the sports cars with their sticky street tires.  (They really would be sticky.)

These first two pictures just show the road in the upper half of Death Valley, looking both directions.   Not much to look at.

The alluvial fan of at the location the above two picture where taken.  When Death Valley gets rain, in can cause some real problems.  The second picture is from Bad Water, the lowest spot in Death Valley.

A couple of salt crystal closeups.

Hike to the arch.  We did not go further than that since we did not have enough water and we where pretty tired.  This was one of the last days.

Daughter up in the rocks.  She was wanting to cross the bridge.

This is the view from the arches parking area.  Do you see the road?  It is right in the middle of the picture.  Oh I say this because of the importance of having good car maintenance but also having a good supply of water and some food.  (We carried in the car a 24 pack of water.)  So even when their are people around, there really is not that many.  The second picture is the painted rocks.  A section that displays many mineral outcroppings.  Oh and yes do you see the road that winds its way through those hills?

Mesquite Dunes, which are the easiest to get to.  We had to stop and play for a while.

Yes the last one is daughter in the distance.

These last two pictures, the first one is the volcanic crater in the northern part of Death Valley, not too far from Scotty's Castle.  The other picture is from Rhyolite, the ghost town that was on our path into Death Valley.  We where not staying in Death Valley itself.