Friends in Low Places
- thewanderwomanrv
- Feb 7, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 12, 2022
23-28 January 2022
She’s here! My first road trip buddy, Denise, flew in to spend a few weeks traveling with me.
Yes, this is the same Denise I visited in San Antonio. I’m so excited to share this lifestyle with her!
We left Camp Pendleton, Monday 24 Jan and headed toward our first destination. We stopped overnight at a Harvest Host, Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner in Yermo CA. What a treat! We had dinner there and the pot roast was divine. It was so tender you could cut it with a fork.
The whole diner is done, of course, in a 50’s theme. They even had R-E-A-L cherry coke. Like made from cherry syrup and Coca-Cola. Yummy! It’s right off the interstate and there was a lot of road noise, but it was manageable and we slept pretty good.
Tuesday, we arrived at Death Valley National Park!
We were running low on gas and right before the turnoff for the park we saw a sign for gas 7 miles down the road. It was just across the
Nevada state line so we figured it would be cheaper than buying it in the park. Man, were we glad we did. Gas was $3.82/gallon there (never thought I’d think that was cheap). Once we got in the park it was $6.56/gallon!!! Insane!
We stayed at Sunset Campground which is first come, first serve and there was plenty of room. With the America the Beautiful Access Pass it was only $7/night (regularly $14).
We went to the visitor’s center where we learned it’s a land of extremes.
1. It’s the hottest place on earth at a world record of 134.1F degrees
2. It’s the driest place in the US - less than 2 inches of rainfall a year
3. It’s the lowest place in North America at 282 feet below sea level.
After we learned about the park, we got settled in and set off for the Badwater Salt Flats which is the lowest place in the park. It was so cool! We watched the sunset from there then headed back to the trailer.
Wednesday morning we started our 60+ mile drive to hike to Darwin Falls. It’s on the other side of the park so we had a beautiful drive over…way over. As in we missed the unmarked road to the falls and drove 10 miles past it before we realized it. Ironically, as we were going by I said to Denise “I wonder where that road goes?” I fired Denise as navigator.
At least our mistake enabled us to see Father Crowley Point and Rainbow Canyon. It’s where only the most qualified military pilots are given permission to do low level navigation training flights. It has the nickname “Star Wars Canyon” because of the technical flight maneuvers done here.
So back down the road we go to Darwin Falls. After a teeth rattling ride down a dirt road we got to the trailhead.
It’s a 2 mile out and back hike but we managed to make it a 2.5 mile hike. It’s not very well marked once you get into the canyon and we took a couple of wrong turns. We channeled our inner mountain goat and did some unnecessary rock scrambling too.
Lesson learned, in this instance take the low road! We managed to make it to the falls without breaking any bones and it was gorgeous. Who knew there would be a waterfall in Death Valley.
After checking on the fur kids and making pizzas for lunch we decided to check out the Natural Bridge Canyon.
It was a short ½ mile hike, however, it was all uphill. It was pretty impressive though. The bridge connects the two sides of the canyon, is 35 feet thick and 35 feet from the canyon floor.
Thursday morning we visited Zabriskie Point. It’s the best place to watch the sunrise but we’re not morning people and just couldn’t get up that early. It’s still a beautiful viewpoint though no matter what time of day it is.
Next up was a couple of “truck hikes” a/k/a scenic drives. First was the Twenty Mule Team Canyon drive.
They used to mine borax here in Death Valley. This road was one of the ones they used in the 1880s to transport borax 165 miles to the railroad using 20-mule teams, hence the name.
Old Harmony Borax Works was one of the first borax mining operations in Death Valley. It operated from 1883-1888 and employed 40 men who produced 3 tons of borax daily.
The bulk of the labor force were Chinese who scraped the borax off the salt flats and transported it by wagon to the refinery.
To extract the borax from the ore, water was heated in the boiling tanks. They dumped the ore into the tanks and added carbonated soda. They drew off the borax liquid into the cooling vats where it crystalized on hanging metal rods. Lifting the rods out, they chipped off the now refined crystallized borax. Since borax will not crystallize at temps over 120F, they had to stop production during the summer.
The mule teams pulled loads weighing up to 36 tons, including 200 gallons of drinking water.
The rear wagon wheels were 7 feet tall and the length of the team with mules was more than 100 feet long.
My favorite from this day was Artist’s Palette. This scenic drive takes you through nine miles of hills in a kaleidoscope of colors.
The colors (red, orange, yellow, blue, pink, purple and green) are from volcanic deposits rich in compounds such as iron oxides and chlorite which creates a rainbow effect.
After a long day of sightseeing we broke out the Blackstone and grilled some shrimp and asparagus for dinner. It was delicious!
Serafina decided she likes Denise and crawled up in her lap for some attention. This is a big deal. She's very, very shy and skittish around people she doesn't know.
Once again, we didn't allow enough time at this amazing park. I had no idea how much there was to do and see. We barely scratched the surface and could easily have stayed two weeks. If anyone wants to come here, I suggest staying a week on the Furnace Creek side and a week on Stovepipe Wells side.
Lessons learned this week:
1. Read the freaking map and pay attention!
2. When someone else is filling your gas tank make sure they put the cap back on. Denise's car doesn't have a gas cap and she thought mine didn't either. It's a locking cap and I'd set it up on the tonneau cover. Luckily the keys got jammed the tonneau cover slats and it didn't fall off)
3. Use a bungee on the paper towels or this ➡️ will happen
Comments