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Driving Tour, December 2000

One of my old friend from Ohio visited me for the Christmas vacation. We had about 6 days to explore the best of California; we drove 1750 miles and visited Yosemite and Death Valley National Parks, and drove along Highway 1 between Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

Day 1-2
We visited the Yosemite NP in winter. Hiking to Vernal and Nevada Fall.

Day 3-4
Death Valley was filled with colors and complex patterns.

Day 5-6
After a brief visit to Mt. Whitney, we concluded our trip by driving the Pacific Coast.

Day 3 (12/27 Wednesday, Death Valley NP)

Our day starts early. We left the motel at around 7:00 am. This only happens during holidays. The town and the Highway 14 is in a middle of desert. A small park called Red Rock State Park gave us a warming up for what's coming ahead: dry desert, colorful rocks, and interesting shapes.

When to Visit
Every guide book tells you do not visit Death Valley during summer time. When we visited during the Christmas vacation, the temperature was just above zero degree in the morning. During the day time, it was perfect. A cool breeze and warm sunshine. Probably the best time to visit is during spring after the rain. I heard the place explodes to bloom with wild flowers.

What to Bring
Bring suntan lotion even during winter. And a lot of water. A common sense. And of course, a camera and a lot of films will be nice, too.

Where to Stay
There are many camping ground in the park, and 3 hotel/motel/ranches in the park. The Furnace Creek Inn is the place to stay if you have money to burn. For those people like me, who do not make reservations, can stay outside of the park. It seems two towns, Death Valley Junction and Beatty, are the nearest towns from the main features of the Death Valley.

Just before the Death Valley, we visited one of my friend's home at Ridgecrest. It was a small town in the middle of nowhere. The nearby naval weapon centers are the whole reason of existence. My friend and his parents gave us the warmest welcome. Had a great conversation, pancakes and coffee. We were told that we would be in the top page of the local newspaper. They gave us a lot of advice about Death Valley as well. I want to thank him and his family for their hospitality. It is always nice to visit friend's family.

It was around 1 o'clock when we finally arrived at Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We took Emigrant Canyon Road, which is narrow, winding, and part becomes dirt road. The driving was not my taste either, especially when compared to what's coming ahead. But I'm sure there are a lot of amazing sub-canyons and deserts along the road to be explored.

Following are the points of interest we visited during this trip. They are in order of we visited. I hope they would give a good picture of what is Death Valley National Park, and what you can do with 1 and a half days .

Furnace Creek Inn
The very first place we explored was this resort in the Death Valley. It costs $350 for a room! The price drops during the summer time to $150 but I know I won't be here during summer time. I wonder if they make any money if they have to spend so much power to cool down the place.

Golden Canyon
One of my friends who loves to hike in the desert, recommended this place. A short hike about 1.5 miles leads through a canyon in gold color, and to a big Red Cathedral rock. You can hike further to the Red Cathedral or to the Zabriskie Point.

At first, there were many interesting rock formations around the entrance of the canyon. A self-guide book explained how these were formed (do not forget to pay $1 for the book). As we walked deeper into the canyon, they canyon was literally colored with gold (a little more whiter than the photo).

About 1.5 miles, a big Red Cathedral came into our view. We took a small excursions into a smaller canyon. At the top of a hill, the trail, Golden Canyon, and Red Cathedral are all in one sight.

Artists Drive
There were still some time left before the evening. So, we quickly drove into a road called, Artist Drive. It is a 9-mile of winding road that passes through a colorful rocks. The first view point offers a mountain with various colors. Quite nice. But the next point, called Artist Pallette is amuzing.

Town of Beaty
This is where we stayed for a night. This small town is in Nevada, that means there are a few casinos, food are cheap, and accomodations are also cheap. What we like about this town: price of the motel ($40), breakfast with steaks, and close to Titus Canyon Road.

Day 4 (12/28 Thursday, Death Valley NP)

Titus Canyon
This was our favorite in the Death Valley. This 27 miles long drive had all: spectacules, desolation, adventure (?), and fun.

We were getting a little lazier that morning. Maybe we were tired. We took a later breakfast at 7:00am. In Nevada, the breakfast means steaks. We consumed a lot of time, coffee, and calory during the breakfast. The Titus Canyon Road starts about 6 miles west of the Beatty. It is all dirt road and one-way from Beatty to the Death Valley NP. The first 8 miles or so were rather boring. The road road runs on a flat valley called Amargosa filled with bushes. But I could see a mountain range over the horizon had many intersting shaped canyons. When the road made a big turn into the mountain, the fun started.The canyon looked a lot more colorful than yesterday. (Maybe because of the weather...) And there were nobody. Along the drive, we came across only 2 cars. The photos on the right is the just at the entrance to the mountain range.

The Titus Canyon Road climbs up a dark black mountain hill. Then, there goes the 2nd spectacular view into some another canyon. This was the most spectacular view in the Death Valley during this trip. Then a ghosttown called Leadfield appeared on our left. Well, it is rather a few barraks left in a desert hill. There we saw another SUV in a parking lot. It was our first sighting of life forms of the day.

According to my guide book, there are two other interesting things we missed during this drive. First was the Klare Springs where bighorn sheep may come to water. Another was American petroglyphs of humans and animal figures on rock surface. If we knew about them, we would have looked for them harder. Anyway, we kept driving. The last stretch of the road, the canyon deepens as well as narrows. The walls were nearly vertical. Very impressive. Then, we passed a group of people. We knew the end of the canyon was near. Suddenly, we were at a parking lot; just out of the Titus Canyon. There was the familiar view of the Death Valley. That was the end of our adventure.

	Sand Dune After the Titus Canyon, we went to the Sand Dunes. There were families, dogs, and kids all over the dunes. I never though I would enjoy this place this much. We took off our shoes, and climbed to the top of a sand dune. Then, we watched the kids running around and down the dunes. The wind was cool, the sun was warm.
	Devil's Corn Field Right next to the popular Sand Dunes lies the Devil's Corn Field. But there were nobody on this side. A few people were taking photos as well. This could be the least popular feature in the park. These blue-ish sand is quite soft. What amazes me is that such different features (Sand Dunes and Devil's Corn Field) are right next each other.

Natural Bridge
After the relaxing time at the Sand Dune, we had a late lunch at the Furnace Creek Ranch. Pretty good food but slow service. There were too many customers. The next destination was Badwater. But just before the destination, we were attracted to this point of interest. What's so special about natural bridge? I guess it was just right size for humans. The Natural Bridge looked much better from the other side. But too many of the people just turned away once they saw the bridge from far. Oh, when I was taking this photo, I accidentally blocked other photographer's view. I need to be a lot more careful.

Badwater
The lowest point in the 48 states (?) or may be not. It does not matter. What it matter is, it was an interesting point to visit to my surprise. What's fun to visit this one of the lowest points on earth? First of all, there are body of water even in the Death Valley. But it was full of salt. In fact, the white walk path was made of salt. Still, there are lives in the water. A small insects and weeds were surviving in this sharrow pond.

We walked onto the salt road to the center of the Death Valley. We were standing about 280 feet negative, and to the west lies the Telescope peak at 11,049 feet above. Lood up south, there was the vast Death Valley.

Zabriskie Point
If I had only 10 minutes to stay in the Death Vally, I would visit Zabriskie Point. It was our last point of interest, the easiest to get to, and offered very fine view. The view of the Golden Canyon and the Red Cathedral is breath taking. Other than that this is a great spot with only a few hundred feet to walk. There are trails all around the point as well; one of them leads to the Golden Canyon.

The only problem I found was that the cathedral covered the beautiful sunset. Only if I stopped the car and took the photos.

to Lone Pine

The sun had set. It was time for us to leave the Zabriskie Point and the Death Valley. We are both very satisfied with the trip. The next destination: the town of Lone Pine, next to Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states of America. It was only about 100 miles of driving. Another stunning fact that the lowest and highest point in the main part of the US are located so close each other. In between we parked the car to watch stars. I have not seen such bright stars for a long time.