High profile vehicles like mine are no fun in the wind. My van danced and rocked as I drove through the San Gabriel Mountains, demanding all my attention just to keep from being buffeted into another lane. To say that it was windy is a gross understatement. A steady wind is one thing but strong gusts are yet another. They hit you with a thud, demanding all your attention just to keep a vehicle on a semi-straight line.
I was headed north to spend a day at Death Valley National Park. With temperatures in the summer reaching well over 110 degrees, this January weekend would be the best time for me and my old truck to tour the park. Richard told me the climb over the mountains just to enter the park would give my vehicle a workout both going up and coming down and I didn’t want to have to worry about overheating, too.
Highway 14 north was very nice. Valleys, canyons, and distant mountains dot the landscape, and to my relief, the wind calmed down as I descended into the lowlands. It wasn’t long before the Sierra Mountains came into view and I turned away from them towards Death Valley. It is amazing that the highest point in the lower forty eight – Mt. Whitney in the Sierra Mountains -and the lowest -Badwater Basin in Death Valley – are less than 100 miles (as the crow flies) apart.
I have a hard time coming to grips with the price of gas in California, so I passed by more filling stations than I should have. By the time I reached the road that turns into Death Valley, I hadn’t seen gas for twenty miles. I’m not sure what felt worse, the apprehension of running out of gas in Death Valley, or the reality – as it turned out – of paying $4.45 a gallon for a tank full at a run down mom and pop quickie store.
I spent the night at Stovepipe Wells in a campground built on a chunk of desert wasteland. It was little more than a parking lot divided by cement curbs into a two dimensional grid, sporting only one restroom for five-acres of campers. But it was quiet, cheap, and conveniently located for my next day of exploring.
In the morning, after a good night’s sleep in mild temperature, I was puzzled by the fact that it seemed to take forever to boil water for my coffee. I always thought that water boils easier at sea level than high altitude, but it sure didn’t seem like it.
I spent the day visiting historic and scenic sights scattered along the Valley floor. My first stop was at Scotty’s Castle in the northern area of the park. The story of Scotty’s Castle is in itself a tale right out of Hollywood, involving deception, wild west trickery, and the romance of a mansion built on the edge of a wasteland. The tours were expensive so I walked around the property and read information boards in the visitor’s center. Then it was off to hike one of the slot canyons near Furnace Creek.
In most parts of country, there is usually a transition of plains to foothills and then to mountains, but the mountains seem to rear directly from the valley in Death Valley. It doesn’t rain much here, but when it does, the soft mountain base erodes to form deep, beautiful canyons. I hiked up Golden Canyon to the Red Cathedral, unfortunately joined by about a hundred other people, enjoying an afternoon of 80-degree temperatures in January.
My last stop took me to the lowest point in the USA. At 282 feet below sea level, Badwater Basin holds the record high temperature of 135 degrees. It is an inferno of heat in the summertime. I walked to the edge of the salty lake and took pictures of a sign high on a cliff above the parking lot, marking the symbolic point of sea level.
Death Valley National Park was a fascinating place to visit. I always imagined the park to be a desolate desert of sand and rotting animal bones, but it was surprisingly beautiful in a unique sort of way. I’m glad I got to see another natural wonder in this vast land of ours.
You have been somewhere your Dad and I never went. It seems that we were always near Death Valley in the summer time, and good sense told us that if it was hot in Phoenix, that was a good place to avoid.
Glad that you saw it, because you described it so well that I could almost see it anyway.
I’ve never been there either, but I definitely should go. I’ll choose winter too.
As I understand it, water boils at a lower temperature at higher elevations, so all other things equal it should take longer to boil at sea level.
Ok. Now I’ve been done edgecated by both you and Richard.
How was Universal Studios? Have you been anywhere else?