The Great Mikegration

Cover Photo: Dante’s View in Death Valley.

Adventure Map Days 5-7

Day 5: 06/03/23 (Saturday)

• As I stated previously this is the continuation of our day 5 adventures. I wanted to keep all of Death Valley together hence the two Day 5’s. Just so you know I haven’t been drinking!
• Also, I did not color code this map day by day like I normally do because it would be way to confusing for such a small area. If you want to know my exact route just follow what I did in the blog. There are probably better ways than what I did explore though so use your own judgement!
• Drove on into Baker and took CA-127 north up to Shoshone; beautiful drive. I’ll have to make sure and go this way again next time. Desert, mountain, rocks, and beauty! Very picturesque drive but no pictures for you.
• We stopped in Shoshone to fill up full of gas again and walked across the street to the Visitor Center Museum Gift Shop. Really glad we stopped here. It was almost 3pm and getting late but worth the time. It’s not a big place but worth your time. Nice Mammoth fossil inside and lots of local information as well. The fossil they found in the area changed the timeline for mammoths.

• From Shoshone we went north about a mile or two and then took Jubilee Pass Road (CA-178) or Badwater Road to into Death Valley. This takes you right by several scenic sites. There is a shorter way but I definitely recommend this way as far superior even though it takes a little longer.
• Of course there was the obligatory Welcome to Death Valley National Park Sign we had to take a picture at.

• Driving on into the park our first stop was the Ashford Mills Ruins. These are the ruins of where the gold was processed from the Golden Treasure Mine. Speaking of mines; Nevada is riddled with old gold mines and tunnels so if you find one STAY OUT. They are unsafe and may cave in on you with no one knowing where you are or coming to rescue you.

• I think that now is as good a time as any for a quick history lesson. Death Valley used all be a lake (many actually). Take a minute to read this and look at the picture now and then try to imagine it all those years ago and think of this as you drive through the park.

• Badwater Basin was next and I think the name says it all. It’s salt flats everywhere and home of North America’s smelliest drop toilet. Other’s may know it as the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.

• Here’s the good stuff! See if you can spot the really, really small sign in the background about halfway up the mountain. I’m pointing at it with my hands. That sign is at sea level and I’m standing 282 feet below that!

• Leaving Badwater Basin we stopped at the Devil’s Golf Course just up the road. Devil’s Golf Course is made of crystallized salts that make some very jagged formations. The salt comes from the ancient salt lakes (remember this was all lakes) and the structure was created by the winds and rain. On a warm day you can hear the salt pinnacles expand and contract. They make a metallic cracking sound or as I like to call it a Rice Krispy snap-crackle-pop! The salt is replenished by recurring floods that occasionally submerge the lowest parts of the valley floor so it’s an ever changing place. Be careful if you walk out there as they are very sharp, jagged, and cutty…lol Seriously, people have gotten lots of cuts and even broken bones from being careless here. It’s called the Devil’s Golf Course because he’s the only one who could play on it.

• Moving on to our last stop of the day we drove the Artist’s Drive Loop. This is a mandatory stop/drive in Death Valley. You literally have to go do it or you’ll only cheat yourself. It’s best viewed in the afternoon although it’s worth the drive whenever. It’s great to hike in the morning at Artist Palate and just wander through the dunes. The pictures don’t really do it justice at all.
• So what caused all the color you may ask? More than five million years ago, repeated volcanic eruptions blanketed the landscape, depositing ash and minerals. The volcanic minerals were chemically altered by heat and water, with variable amounts of oxygen and other introduced elements. Chemical analysis have identified a paint pot of elements: iron, aluminum, magnesium, and titanium, but no copper. Some of the colored minerals here include red hematite and green chlorite. The time of day, clouds, and the rare rainfall shift the intensity of the colors which makes each visit slightly different.
• Sorry for the extreme amount of pictures here. It’s in order of driving through with the one stop where you do a quick hike up a hill (not the Artist Palette hike). Couple of the pictures are looking behind you and I think are equally impressive. Oh yeah, had to show of Phanta in the pictures… She’s a beast!

• and finally we checked into the hotel where we will be spending the next couple of nights. The Inn at Death Valley ; Casita 1 king.  $806.84 for 2 nights here. Front desk ladies need to retire. Helpful hint everyone. When the guest says something like “hello or we are celebrating a birthday so want to extend our stay” maybe say hi or congratulation back instead of cutting them off so they can’t even speak. Having said that they did get the job done so plan on staff interaction being a business transaction. So unfortunate!! Room is very nice. Learned how to drive a golf cart since we are staying in one of the casita’s! Here are some pics of the hotel and the room.

• Right across the road was an old building and right beside the Inn was a plaque marking the Death Valley 49ers Gateway.

Day 6: 06/04/23 (Sunday)

• Very good nights sleep in a super comfy bed. Late start to the day this morning. We didn’t leave until 6:30am. lol
• First stop was Natural Bridge Canyon Trail for a short but mighty good hike. The bridge is about a one-third of a mile in and is about 35 feet thick and 35 feet tall. It was formed by water. I’ll put the info pic below as well as the others.

• Walking back out we saw some people climbing up the water erosion and trying to get on top on the bridge. I don’t know if that’s allowed or not. I don’t think so but not for sure. I do know that I don’t think it’s a good idea to do though as it seems like this would just hasten the erosion and destruction of this wonderful landmark.

• Here is the view you are treated to when you are hiking the final bit to get out of the canyon. It’s almost as beautiful to me as the bridge itself.

• Leaving Natural Bridge Canyon we wanted to see what Artists Palette looked like in the morning. We did a quick drive-through and a short hike amongst the colors. Spoiler….BEAUTIFUL!! I wish the pictures could convey the colors better. Virtually all these pictures are from our short hike through Artists Palette on Artist Drive Loop. I’ve already went into why the colors are what they are so if you need a refresher look above from our afternoon visit the previous day.

• Just up the road from Artists Palette was Golden Canyon Trail for a very short hike just a few hundred yards into the canyon. This is one of those trails I want to come back and hike. It used to be a road but now there is only some scattered remains of the asphalt.

• Leaving Golden Canyon Trail we drove up to Zabriskie Point for a quick walk up the trail to check out the view. Zabriskie Point is supposed to be the go-to spot for viewing sunrise and sunset and although we didn’t make it there for that this morning it was still pretty amazing. Something else that makes Zabriskie Point so appealing is that it hooks up with some other hikes you can do so it looks like a really fun thing to do when the weather is willing.

• We then headed over to the Furnace Creek Park Visitor Center to grab a couple of souvenirs and get our National Park book stamped. That’s a mandatory for us at all National Parks!

• We drove over to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and although we didn’t do the 1 ½ mile hike to highest dunes we did manage to play in the sand a little bit and have some fun. I mean it’s a sand dune surrounded by lots of sand dunes….how can you not have fun? I also even learned why sand dunes get formed here. Pretty neat! Read below on the pic and edumacate yourself!

• Drove on down to Stovepipe Wells to grab a sandwich for lunch and fill up full of gas. HEADS UP! Gas is $2 a gallon less expensive here than it is in Furnace Creek. The choice is yours! Oh, the food is less expensive too.
• After eating our food like a pack of ravenous animals (that would be me) we drove out to Ubehebe Crater or Coyotes Basket. It’s about an hour drive but it’s very pretty. They have a nice campground out that way that looks good to stay in when the temperatures are a little cooler. Ubehebe Crater is a big hole in the ground but oh so much more! It was created when rising magma (that’s hot, molten rock) turned groundwater to steam. The steam pressure built up until the superheated combination of steam and rock exploded making this crater. There are several craters like this in the area although Ubehebe is the largest of them. It’s a half-mile across and about 500 feet deep. You can hike down the bottom and back if you want to do so or walk around the rim (about a mile and a half). I went about half a mile to get some good photos and stopped as it was 108 outside. When you walk the half mile along the rim you’ll also be able to see Little Hebe Crater which isn’t nearly as impressive as Ubehebe but still pretty neat when you think of how it was formed.

• Don’t forget to look at Little Hebe Crater if you hike up the rim a bit. It’s not nearly as impressive but still worth the walk.

• From Ubehebe you can drive out to Racetrack Playa which is the site with the moving rocks. It’s about a half day to drive there and back and you need to have high clearance/4 wheel drive to do the drive. The rocks are sharp so it’s possible to get a flat tire if you don’t have the right type of tires on your vehicle (or possible even if you do!). We didn’t do this as it was past noon when we were there and it was hot. No need to take the chance. Next time!
• We drove back and I went ahead and gassed back up at Stovepipe Wells to top the tank off then headed back to the hotel. Along the way we stopped at the Harmony Borax Works.
• The Harmony Borax Works was one of the Valley’s first borax operation. It operated from 1883-1888. Interestingly enough Borax ranks as Death Valley’s most profitable mineral NOT the gold that was found here as part of the gold rush. Remember the Borax Detergent commercial with the 20 mule team picture on the box? This is real. They used 20 mule teams here to pull the borax although it was usually 18 mules they hooked up at a time. It’s pretty interesting. I go into the why borax was so popular down towards the end of this post.

• Here’s some pictures of the site itself. Put yourself back in town and imaging working here to mine, refine, then bag and load up to haul this in Death Valley conditions! We did the short walk at 108 degrees and were so happy to get back into the air conditioned vehicle.

• Finally we drove back to the hotel where we walked through the old mining tunnel to get to the lobby to extend our stay. Pretty cool as they even have an old mining cart in one of the rooms off the tunnel as a nod to the history.

• Back to the hotel from there, booked the room for an extra day and decided to hit the pool for the rest of the afternoon. Awesome pool by the way! Even I enjoyed it and Lisa didn’t ever want to get out. It’s a spring fed pool that stays at 85 degrees year round.

• Finally making it out of the pool we got changed and went up to have a bite to eat at the hotel lobby area. We ended up getting so prosecco to drink, crab tacos, and bulgogi tacos for dinner. YUM!!! Loved the bulgogi and Lisa loved the crab tacos so it was a winner for both of us! The best part was the desert though. A date pecan cake

• Time to call it a night!

Day 7: 06/05/23 (Monday)

• Great nights sleep as always here. The beds are so comfortable! Didn’t get up until 8am so no hikes for us today. Just pretending we are back in Winslow and taking it easy. We want to enjoy the amenities of the Inn today so planning on lots of pool time, etc. with just a few other things thrown in for fun.
• We drove on up to Dante’s View Overlook which is the best overview of park of the park. The temperature was probably 15 degrees cooler also so that’s a big plus! The overlook was amazing and it is a wonderful overview. I even hiked on the trail a short distance while I was up there. This would be one of the trails you’d want to come back and hike when it was a little cooler as you are on the rim of the overlook looking down for quite a while.

• This is looking to the left or South from the viewpoint. Don’t give up almost at the great views!!!

• Finally, here’s the other view that I love. In fact I loved it so much I couldn’t decide to use just one or two so I used them all. You’ll have to tell me your favorite. Each perspective is just enough different for me to love it uniquely.

• No clue what this plant is but I love it!

• Couldn’t resist; just because I love this place so much I made a video while I was pretending to be Yertle the Turtle on the rock outcropping. Look at my kingdom!

• We headed on back to the Inn from there but decided to drive through 20 mule Team Canyon since it was on the way back. Amazing drive! I know I’ve said this a lot lately however it’s a must do drive when you come to Death Valley. It’s got a lot of beautiful scenery and besides it’s a fun roller coaster drive! We didn’t get out and hike around although there were a couple spots where you could if you wanted to. It ended up taking us 20 or 30 minutes to do. Trivia fact of the day; a scene in Star Wars was filmed here. More trivia, there were a few other scenes from Star Wars filmed in the park one of them was in Artist Drive. I’ll let you discover the rest on your own.

• By now we decided we were hungry so we stopped at the Last Kind Words Saloon in Furnace Creek to grab a bite to eat and look around. We ended up getting and splitting the Spinach salad with chicken ($31) and onion rings on the side ($4.50). So, yes the salad was expensive but the portion was huge. I think he may have just given us each one as each of ours filled up the entire plate. Thanks to you good sir! I hope you enjoyed the tip I left you too! The salad was good and the onion rings were really good also so I’d easily redo both of them. The ambiance of the place is really neat also and I think you’ll agree when you see the pictures.

• After lunch we just walked around some and enjoyed the vibe of the place. It was pretty dead so we were thrilled. The lady at The Ranch Hotel there was very friendly when we went in and talked to her. The prices were less expensive than where we were staying but not quite as scenic. The pool in both location is spring fed however there is more cover in the one at the Inn vs the one at The Ranch. PS. Nice ice cream shop located in the square there also. Maybe that will be my dinner.
• They also had a Borax Mining Museum that had a huge outdoor component. Borax was very important to Death Valley and was called the “White Gold of the Desert” as it was the valley’s most profitable mineral. Borates, salt minerals, were deposited in the ancient lake beds that uplifted and eroded into the yellow Furnace Creek badlands. Water dissolved the borates and carried them to the Death Valley floor, where they recrystallized as borax. It was used by blacksmiths, potters, dairy farmers, housewives, meat packers and even morticians so no wonder it was called the White Gold. The indoor part was closed as they were remodeling but the outside was pretty outstanding! Fun fact the 20 Mule Team was normally only 18 mules! Hopefully this gives you a little more background on the borax mining sites you’ll see at Death Valley.

• For all you over achievers out there here is a couple more fun facts for you. When the borax mining ran out they basically helped create the beginning of Death Valley National Park.

• Back to the room and time to get ready to hit the pool!
• Well… Thought we would anyway but that’s a no. We had the power go out at the Inn and then a freak windstorm and get this a rainstorm roll in. A rainstorm in Death Valley! I think it was worth missing the pool for that experience.
• So, we did what all good citizens do in these dire circumstances. We opened a bottle of wine and had a good time at our last night in Death Valley. Spoiler alert, the power came back on it just a little bit so it was a good ending to our little adventure here. On to bed and another great nights sleep!
• Things we didn’t do while in Death Valley that would be nice that we didn’t because of the temperature or just ran out of time was:
  • Mosaic Canyon- It’s a 4-mile round trip hike that’s beautiful.
  • Drive to Wildrose Charcoal Kilns
  • Hike Golden Canyon Trail
  • Star gazing at Dantes View at night.
  • Zabriskie Point at sunset
  • Hike along Dantes View
  • Hike around Ubehebe Crater
  • Drive to The Racetrack (BE PREPARED)