A Day in Death Valley

Lee and I decided to spend an entire day tootling around in Death Valley.
Took us an hour to get there from where we are situated
 and I am not sure about any of you
 but I was so surprised to see the amount of colour that we saw
 and the different types of  landscapes.

We decided to start out at Bad Water Basin, which is 85.5 m below sea level!!!It is the driest spot in North America and the hottest. 2 inches of rainfall a year and temps up to 138 degrees F during the day and dropping to 38 degrees at night!

This is a dry lake bed , five miles across, we walked a mile out and on salt... quite slick in places as so many have worn it smooth.It is really other worldly looking stuff

From here we travelled to a spot where we could climb to the Natural Bridge.. and it was all uphill! Thank you Laura for those trekking poles.If one continues through this natural bridge and hikes another mile there would be waterfalls.So much to see and so little time.. so we have our priorities and back down we come...

Next on our agenda is the 30 mile one way narrow winding Artist's Loop. And ya know we are not going to just drive through... no, we stop here and there and actually had gone up to 3000 feet in elevation by now!One place we got out I made it not even halfway up this grade and my legs felt like they weighed fifty pounds each!!! Lee continued up and believe me when I say he was pooped when he got back to the truck.This one shot is from a spot called the Artist's Palette.

We then drove onto Mesquite Sand Dunes on the way to Stovepipe Wells. The dunes are gorgeous silky looking mounds and they are a good 2 mile hike to get to once you park. There was a tour bus just off loading so we both opted for long shots and continued on our way.
Got a couple of tee shirts in Stovepipe Wells Village and an ice cream as it is now really warm and we have been at this for many hours.

Now a good friend of ours told us there is plenty to see in Death Valley, but it the distance between these things that makes it hard to accomplish much.
We decided we wanted to see Scotty's Castle and it was a good hour away.Figured we might get there by 3:30 pm.. which would or MIGHT leave us enough light for some more pics.
Neat drive and saw lots of rounded groupings of barrel cactus, cholla cactus and lots of mesquite.Chocolate pudding kind of rocks  and many many washes filled with wonderfully coloured rocks.
Pulled into Scottie's Castle yard and wow!!! Built in 1921-1924 it is a true testament to what money can get you. The gentleman that had it built was a banker from back east and made a million dollars a year prior to the big crash of '29.This place is absolutely a marvel.. it even has banks of solar panels from when they built it..It is very Spanish design and filled with treasures from all over the world. It has a fascinating history and the Parks services finally acquired it from the family for $825,000.00.
It is remote and in a canyon and so well built that I could live there now.. as if!!

We were losing light fast and had 27 miles of narrow winding road to use to get to the nearest highway and as we were leaving the parking lot.. I saw the loveliest looking and HEALTHY coyote..

So now we wind our way back to our RV Park in the dark, like the inside of your hat dark!!I will say once again what a delight it is that Lee has an uncanny sense of direction and memory as to where he has  been. All without a GPS I might add.We arrived back tired  but excited with all we managed to see and do in the day..
Soon we move on to Arizona but once again I would like to thank you for joining us and sharing our adventure with us.