Death Valley National Park is just inside California about 150 west of Las Vegas and is the largest National Park in the lower 48 states. It also boasts the lowest elevation in North America and makes claim to be the hottest place on Earth. Our plan was to get there in late March to see it when it was comfortable. Having said that, we still needed to hydrate frequently and lather sunscreen liberally to see and hike the park. We stayed in Beatty, a small old mining town only 8 miles from the edge of the park, yet we still had to drive an hour to see anything due to the parks massive size. Our expectations for the park were modest before we arrived, but it ended up being fantastic. The sheer number of stunning vistas, coupled with unique natural phenomena, excellent hiking, and great weather made it truly a visit to remember.
The terrain varies tremendously. The valley floor is flat in places and seems completely surrounded by mountains, both near and far. There are contradictions: The floor of the valley itself was over a 100°F at times, yet there was snow on the mountain tops; it rarely rains and nothing lives in some areas, yet there are streams fed by underground springs that result in patches of green throughout the park.
Each day we saw a number of extraordinary and unexpected things such as sand dunes those in North Africa, hexagonal plates of salt that look like ice, dirt boulders the size of a case of beer covered with salt crystals for acres and acres, fish in a stream where the water temperature regularly is over 90°, a waterfall in an area that gets less than 2 inches of rain a year, and a volcanic crater a half mile across and 600 feet deep. Getting around to see all the attractions is interesting as there are more than 300 miles of paved roads and an equal number of dirt roads to get there. However, some of the most interesting things, such as the “Racetrack” or old mining camps, are only reachable by “4×4 roads”. There are hundreds of miles of roads that you need both 4-wheel drive and high clearance to pass. Further, some are treacherous at worst, and/or beat the heck out of your vehicle at best. Sadly, our Honda CR-V was not up to the task and we missed out on some good stuff. If we return, I would rent an off-road vehicle and go explore off the beaten path.
Over the course of our stay, we took a number of excellent, albeit relatively short, hikes each of which presented something special. One of our best hikes was in Golden Canyon. The first half of the hike was incredibly beautiful with every “southwest” color in the canyon walls. It was led by a park ranger who provided a lot of info on the park history and geology and showed us where many of the original Star Wars (episode IV) Tatooine scenes were filmed. The “unescorted” part of the hike continued up to Red Cathedral with a stunning view of the Valley and Telescope Peak. I mustered up the stupidity to climb the last (death-defying) 100 vertical feet to get to the viewpoint. Not being a “heights guy”, I crawled up the final 50 feet on my hands and knees, and on the descent slid down on my butt with a group of people watching me. Given I didn’t put a rip in the seat of my pants, I guess the only casualty of the climb was my dignity.
Beatty, the town we stayed in was quite small, but had a few amenities such as a dollar store, gas station, a Motel 6, a major candy store, a casino, and saloon. It also has burros. Actually, it has a lot of burros. This is a problem that plagues many areas in the Southwest. Apparently their ancestors were beasts of burden during the mining heydays of the 1870s-1920’s. When the mines started to die and the people left, the burros were abandoned. In the spirit of “nature always finds a way”, they learned to survive, and even thrive, in the desert. In the succeeding century or so, they’ve bred to the point of being a nuisance in parks and towns. In Death Valley alone they estimate there are more than 10,000. In towns, they wander through neighborhoods seeking food and make quite a mess. In the parks they deforest the vegetation, dig up property, and leave “droppings” everywhere. Anyway, burros are in and around Beatty. We met a few. We also stopped into the town saloon for some local color and like other places, we got it. It seems no matter where we go, regardless of our home town, people love to talk about themselves and their town and express their opinions. It’s great fun, entertaining, and educational.…. so long as you don’t get into politics, religion, or climate change everything is OK.
Just outside of Beatty is a ghost town named Rhyolite. It was started at the turn of the 20th century when gold was discovered there. In 1907 it was a full town that even had a train station, jail, and stock exchange. As happened with so many other western ghost towns, the mines proved unprofitable and closed down. The population moved out to the point that the town was abandoned. A few years ago the Bureau of Land Management stepped in and stabilized what was left of Rhyolite. Other than the train station and a house made out of wine and liquor bottles, all the building are just ruins. I find abandoned places very interesting, and we’ve managed to see a number of them over the course of our travels this winter. For every resurrected mining town, like Tombstone, there’s a couple dozen that are simply decomposing into the ground.
On our last day, we went to the Ash Meadows Nature Preserve which is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This was recommended by the people at the Death Valley NP Visitors Center. Ash Meadows was formed after a big “industry vs. environmental” battle in the early 80’s. It was a big casino and housing development vs. endangered plants and animals – the poster child of which was the Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish which only lived in local springs. Ultimately the environmentalists won out, probably because the builders had no source for two thirds of the water it needed for the development to survive. Anyway, this park is essentially an oasis in the middle of the Amargosa Desert that is fed by springs. We toured the area and saw green plants, trees, and wildlife in the middle of the desert. It was pretty remote and didn’t have a lot of visitors, but was pretty cool.
