Our crazy summer through Death Valley

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park - Photo: Stillgravity.
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park - License our images here.

Crazy to go in June to Death Valley. Bloody noses and melted cookies - the first thing painful, the second, delicious. Coming in summer was a trip to an oven. What a contrast with the nearby Sierra Nevada. 

Rainbow canyon and Father Crowley Vista Point gave us a lunar perspective. Rocks and dryness. The place was named after The Desert Padre, a catholic priest working in Inyo County that often stopped here for the views of the Mojave Desert and the Panamint Valley. 

This is the place of the famous Rainbow Canyon or "Star Wars Canyon" - it looks like Tatooine. This canyon is loved by USAF pilots for their low altitude training. On the beauty side: amazing horizontal bands on the cliffs from different geologic ages. Volcanic art.    

We reached "altitude" zero at Stovepipe Wells after crossing the Towne Pass at 5,000 feet elevation. Here there is a gas station with a store, a campground of the national park, and a hotel across the road. Not much. Blame the heat. Anyway, it's said that in Stovepipe Wells was installed the first telephone of Death Valley.

But Stovepipe Wells is not the lowest place in North America. The title goes to Badwater Basin at 282 feet under sea level - negative elevation. And yes, don't try the water down there. 

Why Stovepipe Wells? Someone marked the well of the oasis with a stovepipe. This was the only waterhole on the floor of the valley but wasn't located at the spot of today's waystation. It was to the east across the Mesquite Dunes - in this spot and this page has info and old photos -, and to the Mesquita Dunes we went. 

These dunes are not the highest in Death Valley, but for sure the most accessible. The Eureka Dunes are bigger, and the sand dunes of Colorado even bigger - those are the tallest in North America.  

Furnace Creek is the "biggest town" in Death Valley. With that name is not strange that the population runs in the hundreds. In 2013, Furnace Creek was the hottest place on Earth at 134℉. Do you want to move there? Ask about free housing. 

This old ranch is a weird green spot on the dull dryness of the desert. The national park visitor center is here. There are plenty of places to camp around.

Close by is the famous Zabriskie Point. Borax was mined here and one of the managers of the business was Christian Brevoort Zabriskie. The spot got his last name.     

These dramatic badlands were created by sediments of a lake that evaporated five million years ago. The darkest layers are lava. We walked under umbrellas. Too much heat this summer and many geological memories of ancient heat. British actor David Legeno - Fenrir Greyback from Harry Potter - died hiking in the area. His body was found by Manly Beacon, the highest outcrop of these strange rocks. Come in winter. It will make a difference. 

Some pictures of our trip to Hell. 

Rainbow Canyon and the dry soil of this area of Death Valley - Photos: Stillgravity.
The dryness of Rainbow Canyon at the western entrance of Death Valley National Park.

Sign of elevation sea level at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park - Photo: Stillgravity.
Stovepipe Wells at the bottom of Death Valley. Elevation sea level.           

Parking in the trailheads of Mesquite Flat Dunes and Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park - Photos: Stillgravity.
Our truck camper in the parking lots of Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and Zabriskie Point.

The beauty of the badlands at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park - Photo: Stillgravity.
The arid and dangerous beauty of the badlands at Zabriskie Point. What a dramatic landscape.

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