Friday, April 20, 2012

Death Valley NP

As we were in Pahrump, we decided to make the drive to Death Valley because the distance was only 30 miles . . .  to the outer boundary of the park but certainly not the interior.  As it was suppose to be 102* in Death Valley, we decided to get an early 8 a.m. start.  We were a couple of miles down the road when John said he forgot to turn the air conditioners on so we turned around to get them turned on as they were going to be needed later in the day.  We are then a few miles out of Pahrump when John's phone ring so we pulled over to have a nice conversation with a friend.  Ha, ha so much for our early start.

As we are headed towards Furnace Creek, we saw some pretty colors in the mountains.




This sign is almost 20 miles in to the park.


Views of Death Valley from Dante's Viewpoint



We then headed to Furnace Creek where we had lunch were serenaded by a road runner sitting up in a tree.  It took us a while to spot where he was sitting.  I tried getting a picture of him but he was so close to the trunk that you can't really see him.  We watched a movie on Death Valley and then went outside to take some pictures.  




At noon it was 96* and the heat was oppressive.  Not sure if we just aren't acclimated to hot weather or if being below sea level had an effect but we weren't to thrilled to continue any sight seeing.  Also, to drive to Stove Pipe Wells and Scotty's Castle would add at least another 100 miles round trip to get back to Furnace Creek.  We decided that we really weren't too interested to drive those miles and then have to pay these diesel prices to fill up our tank.


If you go to Death Valley, I would suggest you plan on doing it in the fall or winter and be prepared to drive to see the sights.

This is my personal opinion but here we are in Death Valley and see the sign above for a golf course?  Seems like an obscene waste of the precious resource of water in the desert.  But that is just me.

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