DOWN IN THE VALLEY, THE VALLEY SO LOW

Lots and lots of pictures today……..couldn’t decide which ones to edit out, so you are getting the full blast, starting with a couple I forgot the other day…..Walker Lake……a beauty on the way here. Jutta prefers the big pictures rather than my grouping experiment yesterday…….going big.

Adjusting to 95 degree heat has been difficult, especially when it hits you in the face like it did today………”but it’s a dry heat”, isn’t that what they all say?…….it is cooking man, and they tell me to buck up big fella, this is nothing……..130’s are not out of the question in this neck of the woods. Stovepipe Wells is one of two occupied areas of Death Valley, with the other being Furnace Creek which is on the agenda for tomorrow. Stovepipe Wells got its name back in the early mining days, from being one of the only spots in the valley that had available water, and they marked the spot with……..you guessed it…….a length of stovepipe………ingenious. They both appear to be individually owned, or maybe/probably owned by the National Park Service……….Stovepipe Wells where we are includes a motel, general store, gift store, pool, Badwater Saloon, Toll Road Restaurant, RV and camping parks, and a gas station……$6.34/gallon.

We decide that it has been a long enough day, and cooking is out of the question, so across the road we go to the Badwater Saloon……….Jutta prefers the look of the restaurant next door, so we decide to go there instead…….menu same…..drinks same…….AC better. This place will not win any awards for its cuisine, but a good burger is a good burger, and that is what seems to dominate the menu……..I am sure to order a double bourbon on the rocks, because almost anything tastes good when washed down with that. I met a Canadian guy at the pool earlier………he is in the dining room also, and wants to be my friend badly…………weird dude. We are outta here…..time for us to hit the hay…….Jutta has big plans for tomorrow…………the AC in Plan B works great so no worries about the heat.

We read a little about the history of the valley, predominately mining related, and although there was some silver and copper, borax was the big attraction…….I thought borax? they didn’t even have Tide back then.

Our day begins early, and after a quick coffee we are on the way to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes………..I have memories of our dune climbing in Namibia……my failure, and Jutta’s success, while climbing the famous Big Daddy in the Namib Desert. I am determined to improve on my performance this time out, especially given that these dunes look to be less than half the size/height of BD. The target is of course the tallest dune in the area and it is a fair walk in, up and over lesser dunes to get to the base and begin the ascent……..tough slogging climbing in the sand…….you step forward two feet, put your weight on that foot and step forward two feet with the other leg, but what happens in between is that you loose about a foot and a half as the sand gives way, for a net gain per step of about six inches. Wah Wah Wah……call me a wahmbulance. The pictures tell the story. We made it, and had a safe descent. Beautiful views from the top!

Next up, we are going low……as low as you can get in North America…….Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level, passing through Furnace Creek to get there. Now when someone asks me “How low can you get Fallon?”, I have an answer. We park and walk out on the flats, but the beautiful salt/crystalline formations we saw on the brochure are nowhere to be found………apparently you need to walk out 2 miles or so before they start to show………it’s pushing 90 degrees already so we decide not to take that walk……..plus we now know that miles are much longer than kilometers. But………heading back towards Furnace Creek we have decided to visit all the points of interest along the way, and the first one just happens to be Devils Golf Course (I don’t know why it is called that, not a square inch of turf here), the northern end of Badwater Basin. Here we find all the salt formations we were looking for……..really interesting…….. score.

Still heading back towards Furnace Creek we take in Natural Bridge (stone bridge across a canyon formed by water and wind erosion), do the Artist Palette Drive (nice coloured rocks, great single lane road, wish I had a go-kart), pass on Golden Canyon, and go to Zabriskie Point for the big view, and happen to run into some skateboarder dudes on the way up the walk. Jutta and I agree that next on the agenda is a cold beer………getting tired of being a tourist. Furnace Creek doesn’t offer much in the way of food service, but there is a fridge with beer in it……..sold. This outpost offers pretty much the same as Stovepipe Wells, but it is bigger and has sort of a really bad theme park vibe about it…….hard to describe…….price of gas here $8.36 a gallon!!!!

We couldn’t forgive ourselves if we didn’t visit the lowest golf course on the planet…….coming in at 214 feet below sea level, Furnace Creek Golf Course. There were only four other players out there, braving the now 92 degree heat…..but its a dry heat. Jutta and I are proud to report that we both scored the “lowest” rounds of our lives……

Stovepipe Wells was about 20 miles up the road, and feeling we had seen all we came to see in Death Valley, we headed back towards Plan B………along the way, Jutta floated the idea of making a run for Mesquite, Nevada, our next destination, tonight rather than tomorrow morning………we have a 1:50 tee time at Conestoga Golf Course in Mesquite, and it would be tight getting there in the morning………..a couple of phone calls…….we confirm early arrival at the RV Park, and before you know it we are hitching up and hitting the road. Makes for a long day, but makes a lot of sense also.