Day 9: Death Valley

Well we didn’t freeze but it was cold.  Thankfully we had put the furnace on overnight and that kept us toasty enough.  The campground didn’t have showers (or toilets) and as Steve is too tall for the RV shower, he had to go without again.  I have been enjoying my express showers in the camper – they have been either excessively hot or lukewarm – but I really can’t complain.

We headed off just after 9am – we had 350km to cover and who knows what the roads were going to be like.  Once again Rohan managed a nap, which helped the time pass quickly for him.  Julian was ok as long as he had the Honey Maid Star Wars crackers to eat/play with.

To begin with the scenery was barren grassland with rolling hills but this quickly changed into tall mountains on either side of the road with very little vegetation.  We were up around 7000ft, in the clouds, and only after we had made the descent did we realise how high up we were.  There was a lot of low cloud which disguised the sheer grandeur of the mountains - photos can’t capture the vastness of this landscape.

We had lunch at the McDonalds at Lone Pine which is just before the Death Valley turn off.  Julian didn’t want McDonalds.  Seriously.  We very rarely have McDonalds but he knows what it is and he wasn’t even curious!  He did want nuggets though.  Steve’s and my burger choices tasted ok too.  I am struggling to eat the brown bread that we have bought (it is too sweet) which is making lunch difficult for me.  We are buying different brands/ styles every shop but no success yet.  I should just get over it!

The road into Death Valley was pretty gnarly!  We climbed up a mountain range then made the steep descent into a short plain before heading up another mountain range.  It was all red Jasper coloured rock and it looked impressive.    After the second range, we came to another open plain.  This was where the settlement of Stovepipe Wells was.  We could have stayed in an RV park here (one of only 3 businesses in the town) but it was just a carpark in the desert and that wasn’t good in the heat.  It was about 27C but the humidity was high too – I thought it was going to be a dry heat.  

Next to Stovepipe wells is Mesquite Sand Dunes.  Once again Julian didn’t want to get out of the Camper but he and Rohan had a blast running up and down the dunes in the heat.  Once again there were spectacular views along the valley.

We then drove onto Furnace Creek – another 3 horse town.  It was only around 3:30pm so we went to the visitors centre to see what we should do.  Thank goodness we did that as there had been some recent rain and a lot of the attractions were closed.  Also our camper being 30ft limited our options too.  In the end we could only go to Badwater and Zabriskie Point.  We had planned on spending 2 nights here but we canned that idea on that news.  We decided to get a campsite and then head to Badwater for a look.

The RV park that I wanted to stay in was full, so we went to the only other one in town that was open.  This was run by the National Parks Service and the only available sites had no power, water and sewage.  Thankfully we were sorted in that department and we were allowed to operate our generator until 7pm.

After we reserved our site, we went to the general store for an overpriced ice cream.  We then headed to Badwater – the lowest point in the US (282ft below sea level).  This place was pretty cool – really just a big salt flat and they let you walk out onto it.  It was around 5pm now and it wasn’t too hot which allowed the boys to have a long run around, squealing with delight. 

We got back to the camp and had a wonderful frozen vegetable filled homemade macaroni and cheese.  There were second helpings.  The bedtime routine was simplified as  the boys didn’t have a shower and it was all quiet before 7:30pm.  Steve and I sat outside with a couple of beers, sneaking glimpses of the strange starry sky whenever the clouds allowed.