Leaving Lone Pine, I was off to visit Death Valley for 2 nights. Lucky for me there is a heat wave affecting the west coast at the moment. I’m glad I decided to leave the trailer behind in Lone Pine and had booked a room at the Inn at Death Valley Only a short drive later I arrived at the Rainbow Canyon, or as its better know to aviation geeks Star wars Canyon.
No flights today, although I had seen a couple F-15s flying over the valley as I was leaving, guess they were not training in the canyon today. Still a pretty view from the overlook.
Continuing on down into Panamint Springs the temperature continued to climb and by the time I arrived at the information kiosk it was already showing 115 in the truck. I jumped out to check the admission procedure and I did not linger!
I pulled into the parking area and took a picture at the sand dunes but didn’t even get out of the truck, now that it was nearing noon there wasn’t a soul in sight.
My next stop was at the ghost town of Rhyolite, this is a neat side trip and has the added advantage of being just a few miles from Beatty Nevada which has the cheapest gas around, a full dollar per gallon less than the recent California prices I had been seeing in the Sierras.
Heading back south into the park I stopped at the Keane-Wonder mine which was something I would skip next time as there wasn’t much to see at the site.
Harmony Borax works was my next fly by stop.
Finally arriving at the visitor center.
Thankfully it was now check in time and the room had great AC
The next morning I was out early to try and beat the heat but still resorted to mostly what I’m calling “auto tourism” 😆
I visited the famed Badwater basin, home to the Badwater ultramarathon. I can’t even imagine running in these temps, already 110 degrees it was hard to breathe just walking on the boardwalk.
Officially the Badwater basin is the lowest spot in Death Valley, now I can contrast that with where I was just a few days earlier when I visited the Bristlecone forest.
The famous Devils golf course needs some grooming I’d say.
I was hoping to try some night time photography but it was cloud and overcast at night even though it was still over 100 degrees.
I’ll definitely return to explore more but I think it will be in the winter! My next stop is Palm Springs but with this heat wave predicted to last much of the next 10 days I don’t think I will get much relief from the heat there…
Hey Its Gregg! 