World United States California Death Valley National Park

Janet & Steve's Western Wanderings 2009

Death Valley, California Apr 30, 2009

Death Valley is the lowest area in the US. Most of it is below sea level, and all of it is hot. Water is scarce, and the center of the valley looks like a lake, but is really salt and mineral deposits from centuries of evaporated water. Located in Eastern California, Death Valley National Park is huge, the largest national park in the lower 48 states, at 3.3 million acres. It is said to be twice the size of Delaware! We stayed in Pahrump, Nevada, 26 miles east of Death Valley Junction, so it took us quite a while to see as much as we did.

The first place we went was Furnace Creek. It was amazing to be so far below sea level after driving through mountains! A few days later, we drove to Rhyolite Ghost Town, which is amazingly well preserved. That week, we drove to Dante's Vista, to Artist's Palette, to Badwater Basin, south to Shoshone, California, then back east to Pahrump. On Monday, we took the motorcycle to Scotty's Castle, which has a long history involving Scotty, who was a cowboy, a liar and a thief, and Mr. Johnson, who actually owned and built the Death Valley Ranch on a piece of prime land that turned out to have lots of fresh water. Unfortunately, while the house was being finished, they found out that it wasn't on Mr Johnson's property at all. Death Valley Ranch (Scotty's Castle) was really built on government land, and Mr Johnson agreed to arrange tours of his home to lure tourists to the new national park. Instead of losing his home, Mr Johnson got to keep what he had built - but the house and swimming pool were never completed.

We only got to visit the eastern parts of the park, so we will have to come back. The pictures do not do it justice, and there are more stories than even I can tell. We really enjoyed our 4 trips to Death Valley National Park, and we will return to see the rest of it!