Death Valley: Day 1
My sister claims she planted the Death Valley seed in my head. I say the idea stuck after I saw an ad on Facebook. Either way, we did it. We hit the road and had an incredible time, literally, in the Mojave Desert.
Death Valley is no joke. Aside from the 4.5 hour drive from my house, it’s in a desert with no reception. Imagining the worst — flat tire, no cell phone coverage or help in sight — I prepared as if we’d have to sleep in the car over night. I packed light blankets and only non-perishable foods: bread, peanut butter, bars, nuts, jerky, water. I also packed two extra flashlights aside from the one I already carry in the Jeep. I took the car for a tire rotation and alignment but my mechanic said everything looked good. I checked the fluids and then YouTubed videos to learn how and when to use the 4x4 gears. Rubi, my Jeep, has never been off concrete because its driver is a cheapskate chicken. But after looking up all the Things to See in the park, I knew I had to put my reservations aside if I wanted to fully experience Death Valley to its maximum potential.
Our first stop was Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. As I had stood in line to pay the entrance fee, I overhead a park ranger telling another visitor that the dunes would not change overnight since there were no winds in the forecast. It made me think about the role that weather played out there. A few winds changed the shape and size of the sand dunes throughout the year. It wasn’t like Big Bear that remained in the same spot. And it was fascinating how this type of landscape was randomly, it seemed, sitting in a small territory in the middle of the park. Why was it that sand collected there and not across the highway? What kept it there? What brought the sand in the first place? That was just the beginning of the endless list of questions we created over the weekend. I guess now that I’m home I can Google the answers, if there are any. I presume most will be speculations.
Our next stop was the Badwater Basin. We understood that water had once filled the basin and all that remained now were the salt crystals. We could see the white of the salt stretched for miles as I drove from the dunes to the basin between ginormous mountain rock and the Panamint Range. Those mountains could have swallowed us whole. We were specs on wheels compared to their immense size. How? That was the question we kept asking ourselves. How did they form?
As we walked the stretch of packed salt crystals, we couldn’t help but image the water that once filled the space we were walking on and how easily we would have drowned. It was incredible to see how much land changed over time due to climate, earthquakes, and volcanoes. All I kept thinking was, We are walking on history.
Our last stop before the sun went down was a drive to Artist’s Palette. These were more of the rocky mountains we’d been seen to the east but their varying minerals gave them a rainbow-like look.
We headed to our hotel in Beatty, Nevada after finishing Artist’s Drive. Cars longer than 25 feet were not allowed on the one-way path because there were very narrow turns. We arrived close to 9pm and were told the two restaurants in town closed at 10pm unless we wanted Subway or Denny’s. Only one of the local restaurants was open but service was non-existent so we bounced to Denny’s. Turned out Denny’s was inside the casino and I ate nachos and an Oreo shake with the cigarette stench up my nose. We’d have to have a better plan the following night. On the bright side, the bed and pillow at Death Valley Inn were the comfiest I have ever slept in, anywhere. I knocked out like a baby for seven hours straight. Perhaps I was tired from driving and walking on sand but I truly believe the bed was magical.
