Southwest Road Trip - Death Valley

I visited Death Valley for the first time in 1979 driving in from the coast on our way to Las Vegas.  We didn't book a hotel and didn't bargain for the remoteness of the desert - ours the only car on the road.  We drove for miles watching our gas gauge, and finally to our relief, reached Stove Pipe Wells just after dark.  Gas tank was empty, gas station was closed, hotel was fully booked - we ended up spending the night in our car parked at the gas station.  It was thankfully an uneventful night with nothing more serious than stiff necks as a result.  It was a memorable trip indeed even though I don't remember much else about the scenery.  This second visit has actually been researched and has an itinerary for the two days we would be spending in the park, including sights and timing - clearly a sign of age! or maybe it was the ease of planning with the internet.  This included what to do before we even got to the park.

It was a little over two hours from Las Vegas to Death Valley but we were warned to get gas before we get to the park as prices were rumoured to be $9 a gallon inside!  We stopped at Pahrump for gas and lunch at a great place (Terriyaki Madness) that let us pick our own protein and veggies combo, and of course the sauce - not the usual hamburger joint or greasy fried foods off the highway.

Our first stop was at Zabriskie Point, an iconic vista which affords a view of the surrounding badlands below and the Panamint mountains beyond.  It's supposed to be spectacular at sunrise and sunset and we were hoping to do sunset here the following day but we were too tired by then so had to forego. - in any case, it's spectacular any time of the day.  See for yourself.

The iconic Manly Beacon on the left

To give you a sense of scale - see that human standing there?

The next item on our itinerary was a golden hour visit to the Artists' Palette.  We did the Artists' Drive during the golden hour as prescribed.  It was such a stunning drive we did it again the following day so you will see an exceptional number of images from those two drives.  There were two main viewpoints on the Artists' Drive, at the beginning and near the middle of the 9 mile long drive.

This is at the beginning of the drive - you can already see the different colours on the rocks

A short climb takes you up to this viewpoint.  A family actually celebrated a birthday here with birthday cake and candles!

The drive...

This is the vista near the middle of the drive

Badwater Basin is a 20 minute drive from the Artists' Drive and we barely made it for sunset.  It is the lowest point in North America at 282 ft. below sea level.

             The sea level sign above the parking lot

The salt flats at Badwater - the hexagonal honeycomb shapes caused by repeated freeze-thaw and evaporation cycles.  It was a beautiful end to a day already packed with stunning sights.