Roadside Chronicles: Life On The Road: Day 30: Death Valley

Monday, Oct 28

Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Park

We awoke to the sound of a vehicle idling near our motorhome. This was not out of the ordinary as there were two water tender tanker trucks in our parking area; we assumed it was a worker.

Fabulous gates

After maybe 20 minutes David got up, went outside, and talked to the man. He clearly was waiting for someone outside his truck. It turned out this pleasant chap was a union guy contracted to operate some heavy machinery for work being done on this road.

Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley

The crater

We pointed him to two miles down the road where the bulk of the heavy machinery was and off he went. Maybe 30 minutes later we got on the road and stopped to see him. He was still waiting for some other workers to show up. We postulated that perhaps 7 am meant 7 am go to the diner (in some town that wasn’t too close) and then mosey along after breakfast.

Dust storm near Stopepipe Wells

Leaving him by the roadside, we let him know that if anybody was down the road we would send them up to him. There was no one down the road but I don’t think he was going to leave in a hurry as this job promised him 3 – 6 months of work during a time when little work was to be had.

Sand Dunes near Stovepipe Wells

Trees???

Bottle House in Rhyolite

Bottle House with other glass/cement art

Old Merchantile building

Old truck

rhyolite more views

It was a down, down, downward drive to Death Valley National Park…going from 4000 feet to sea level or below. The drive took us through Grapevine canyon; I will call it a drive through canyon. It was a pretty neat drive. We stopped at Scotty’s Castle and shot some pictures but it was not to open for another hour and we didn’t wish to pay the $30 to see the inside. Also, we weren’t 100% sure that it would really open in 1 hour and we were the only people there. Scotty’s Castle was a oasis in this canyon with palm trees and a very neat structure.

Rhyolite

Our travels took us to a volcanic crater called Ubehebe Crater…6 miles in all directions of very little growth and what appeared to be gravel…like a parking lot with varying elevations. Somehow we lucked out and the normal 90 degree days that existed this time of year were not present. The cold front that moved in gave us high winds and 70+ degree weather…perfect temperatures with a reasonable 50 degree night.

Why is this 1906 stone building falling apart?

Next stop was Stovepipe Wells village for an ice cream and walking on Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes…except it was so windy that we couldn’t go far. The wind was carrying sand with it and we needed to protect our eyeballs from the sand.

Rhyolite was our next stop...a brief trip up and down another pass and out of Death Valley National Park. A ghost town in Nevada. I have to say that this site was a little bit disappointing. The bottle house was pretty neat and the Goldfield Open Air Museum had some interesting sculptures but I was expecting more buildings and in better condition.

View of Rhyolite

Next, in this action packed day we headed back into Death Valley National Park (yup, up and over the pass again). We had hoped to be able to overnight in Rhyolite but that was not allowed. So we decided to book into one of the campgrounds in Death Valley.

Goldwell Open Air Museum

My first choice would have been Mesquite Spring but that was too far back into the park. We took a look at all the furnace creek area campsites and settled on Texas Spring as that one had the least amount of occupants in it and plenty of open spaces to choose from. There were no trees or anything between sites…think parking lotbut for tonight that was okay.