Death Valley

Tuesday, Death Valley
After a virtually sleepless night punctuated by a full moon that felt like a spot light staring at us we arose at the crack of dawn groggy and bleary-eyed. The wind, as per normal in Death Valley, blew all night long. Not only could we hear it, but we could see the effects of it. Since the night was so bright, we could see the sides of the tent collapsing on us, and when a strong gust came up the only thing holding the tent up was the outlines of our noses formed with the nylon of the tent. I’m not saying we didn’t any sleep, I’m just saying that what with the kangaroo rats running around checking out what we had left for dinner, we weren’t the only living beings awake.
Oh, yeh, I can’t forget about the kids inside their RVs screaming out at 2:00 AM something to the effect of, “Mama, I really don’t need to go to the bathroom. I don’t want those kangaroo rats to jump on me! I like to sleep in my wet pajamas. Honest!”

We got up for the third time for good at 7:30, packed up the car and drove over to the General Store to get a General Store cup of coffee (right color, evidently some caffeine since I didn’t drive off the road). We drove through a place near the Furnace Creek Campground that was pretty neat as it was a car tour through an area that had a lot of the local geology (borax mine, tailings, effects of flash flooding) represented in a small area. The evening before we had driven about 15 miles south of Furnace Creek, which is about 180’ below sea level to a place that is even lower, ‘Devil’s Golf Course.’ Actually, he wasn’t there and I’m kind of glad, but it did appear to be a pretty challenging and difficult golf course to shoot par on. We never did see any greens. I went to look for golf balls, but couldn’t find any. I think we may have missed tee time.

Next, we drove to a place called ‘Natural Bridge.’ After about a 20 minute walk up a dry stream bed to a place where the stream bed has eroded the canyon walls and undercut a channel leaving a natural bridge.
Right after that was the Artist’s Drive which is just a short drive along the west-facing side of Death Valley that showcases, in a very dramatic way, the different minerals that make up the mountains. The sides of the mountains are multi-colored hues of greens to yellows to blacks in a very small area that appear to bleed varied colors of rocks.
Wednesday
Today we went to Mosaic Canyon. I went there last year and at the end of the canyon, on a small outcropping, I left a rock signed with my name and the date. I went there last year on April 11, 2010 since it was my last weekend to be in Loma Linda. Today, I left another rock with our names on it and the date April 18, 2011. Perhaps one day in the not too distant future we can take the grandkids there and we can ‘happen’ to discover the stones.
Now it’s 3:00 in the afternoon and we drove to the north end of the park at a campground called Mesquite Springs. I’m not sure why they called it this as we haven’t seen any springs. It’s not too hot, but pleasant, windy, but not too windy. Cloudy, but not too cloudy. We’re sitting here doing what we had planned to do; sit here and do nothing. We feel very successful.

A great read. Clink on the link

A great read.