STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

DEATH VALLEY DAY

March 24, 2005 on 1:30 pm | In Travelblogue |

On Wednesday the 23rd of March, I took the ‘doggies and went on a ‘day trip’ to Death Valley. I left Vegas at about 10:30 AM after delivering my load and transferring the ‘essentials’ to the Jeep. I took NV-160N out of Vegas and into Pahrump, then NV-372W. At the California border, Hwy 372 becomes CA-178W. I stopped in Shoshone, CA, the closest town to Death Valley via CA-178, and picked up a map.

My first stop was Chicago Valley. It is just inside the Park Boundries. I took these 2 photographs. It was a beautiful day, albeit, a bit breezy (10-12 mph winds).

About 10 miles from Chicago Valley, I began seeing the wildflowers (the whole purpose of the trip). It was crowded, but I finally found a safe place to park off of the highway and took these pictures. There were only 2 types of flowers in bloom; Yellow and White. But what the Heck, it’s Death Valley. If you want to reference the map, the place where I took the photographs of the wildflowers was between Jubilee Pass and Ashford Mill (lower center). As you will notice in subsequent photographs, there were wildflowers all over the floor of Death Valley, but I was told that this was the place where they were most abundant, therefore the best place to take my pictures.
In the interest of time conservation, I’m only going to “double image” the first picture of the set. To view the rest click on the link(s).

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The snow-capped peak in the background of photos 18, 19, and 24 is Telescope Peak (11049 ft). Mt Whitney, which is also supposed to be viewable from the floor of Death Valley, is about 100 miles Northwest of there, across Panamint Valley and Owens Valley. In photo 29, the ‘doggies’ are enjoying the flowers as well.
My next stop was the Ashford Mill Ruins. Not much there really, but I stopped, hence photos were taken.

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I have no idea what the building was for nor what the ‘terraced’ thing did, but one must assume that it pretained to the processing of Gold ore.
The next 2 pictures were taken about mid-way between Ashford Mill and Badwater Basin just beyond Mormon Point (ref: map). The first was taken facing north toward Badwater, the second was taken facing east (toward the Greenwater Range and Nevada).

Notice the sporatic wildflowers even on the Valley floor.
From there, I drove to Badwater Basin. It is a fairly popular area, so they had a Kiosk there to pay the Park Entry Fee. Unfortunately, the infernal contraption would not take $20.00 bills, and all I had was quarters, ones and 20’s. I take that back, I did have one $10.00 bill, but it, like me, was old, green, and wrinkled and not accepted by todays advanced technology. I pestered people to make change until I had accumulated 10 usable $1.00 bills, then went to the Kiosk to pay. It took 9 of them, but no amount of cajoling, pleading or cursing could get it to take the last bill. In frustration, I cancelled the transaction and recieved my $9.00 back in Susan B. Anthony Silver Dollars. THIS IS YOUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AT ITS FINEST. Only THEY would install a machine that does not accept the second most used denomination of currancy ($1.00 being the most used). I knew that my next stop (Furnace Creek) had a Visitor Center where I could pay my Fees so I was not concerned, but JEEEEEEZE, how about a little common sense.
The next group of photographs were taken from 3 different locations: The first 2 photographs (numbers 35and 36) were taken from the side of the highway about 3 miles south of the Badwater Basin View Area. The second group were taken from the Badwater Basin View Area proper. They are not in numerical order, but if viewed in order left to right, will enable you to know what you are viewing. The last 3 photographs (numbers 52, 53 and 54) were again taken from the side of the highway about 2 miles North of the View Area. Badwater Basin is the lowest point in the United States (282 ft Below sea level). From here, Mount Whitney, the highest point in the Continental United States (14,491 ft) can supposedly be viewed as well. I, however, couldn’t see it. It should be northwest of Badwater. The snow-capped peak in the background should be (I think, maybe) Wildrose Peak (9064 ft).

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After Badwater Basin, I drove the 17 miles to Furnace Creek Ranch. There is a Visitors Center, a Resort/Spa (with 2 Restaurants, a Bar, and a General Store), a Golf Course (yes, I said Golf Course), a Park, a Post Office, and a Museum. Other than that, there’s not much to do there. There is also Furnace Creek Inn. It was accessable, despite road construction, but I was running short of time so I opted for “The Ranch” because I could pay my Entry Fee there at the Visitor Center. The namesake, Furnace Creek, does not exist. I’m not sure whether it existed in the past, but went dry, or if they just picked the name out of a hat.
In the photographs below, number 55, 56 and 57 are of the Park (I think it is actually just a part of the Golf Course) where the ‘doggies’ enjoyed a pleasant and productive walk. Numbers 59, 60, 61, 62 and 63 are of the Golf Course. Number 94, 95, 96 and 97 are of the Restaurants, Bar and General Store. Number 100 is a photograph of the afore mentioned Furnace Creek Inn. Numbers 117 and 118 were taken after I returned to “The Ranch” from taking photographs of the sunset. They were taken from in front of the General Store. You can imitate the Rock Group (Counting Crows) if you like. There were dozens of them in the trees. They arrived at sunset, and were quite boistrous, as crows tend to be. I know. I know. Technically they are Ravens. People, against Park Policy, were feeding them. To paraphrase Edgar Allen Poe, “Quoth the Raven, gimme more.”

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I took in the Borax (20 Mule Team) Museum while I was there. It was quite interesting. Due, once again, to time constraints, I did not tour the building, but only the grounds. The photographs are self-explanatory if viewed left to right. The last 10 photographs are unidentified, but are pretty much self -explanatory as well.

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After the Museum, I drove back out toward Badwater about 7 miles to get a better view of the sunset. The cloud formations and the mini dust storm showed promise for a spectacular sunset, but alas, it did not come to fruition. It wasn’t bad, but not what I expected. It just sort of fell flat. Numbers 102 through 105 were taken from the opposite side of the road facing east and southeast. Notice the nearly full moon above the top of the mountain in photo 102. Photos 107, 108, 110 and 111 were as good as it got. BLAH!!
Just before sunset ( showing potential). Notice the mini-dust storm in the background and the wildflowers in the foreground.

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After the sunset, I drove back to Furnace creek for dinner. I ate at the Forty-Niner Cafe (ref: photo 97). I had a pretty good Shepard’s Pie, but the portions seemed small. That may have been due to the fact that I hadn’t eaten anything since dinner last night except for a couple of doughnuts and 3/4 of a bag of Corn Nuts. I also had Apple Pie for desert. After dinner, I departed for Las Vegas. I left at about 8:00PM and arrived back in Vegas at about 10:15 PM. It was, all in all, a pleasant outing. I’ll have to return later to finish seeing the Park. Below are a couple of photo’s of the ‘doggies’ after we got back to Vegas. They instantly Conked- Out. So, I might add, did ‘daddy’.
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