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Deep Into Death Valley

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The Park Service has added a third set of hosts to our campground.  The affect on us is that now, on our third day of our three-day shift, we have what is called a "project day".  So instead of making our regular rounds doing audits and inventory of campsites and compliance notifications we now do a variety of things such as simple maintenance projects, cleaning fire pits, recycling of propane canisters and my favorite, park patrol. Our first project day we opted to do park patrol.  It's the holiday period encompassing Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year and the campground is packed solid with holiday vacationers.  There is very little chance to get access to a campsite to do any maintenance so on patrol we go. So far the exploring of the park with Cyndee and I together has been pretty minimal.  Between work, dust storms, grocery runs, and house chores we have only done things that could be done quickly.  The canyon hiking that I have written abou...
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Death Valley Natural Wonders

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  The above picture is the main attraction of Death Valley, Badwater Basin.  It's the lowest and hottest place in the National Park at 282 feet below sea level with temperatures exceeding 130 degrees in the summer.  Fortunately those temperatures abate significantly in the winter.  We have been having daytime highs of mid-60s to low-70's for a few weeks now.  Morning lows have even dipped below 40 degrees.  We're actually running heat the first couple of hours after rising at 6:00am.  It has been a very welcomed change in weather patterns compared to our first couple of weeks after arrival where night time temps didn't get below 90 degrees. I previously wrote about a hike to Natural Bridge and posted a good number of photos.  For this post I have a few more shots from that hike that don't have anything to do with the bridge.  Rather these are shots of "secondary" attractions or unadvertised visual delights. First up is a canyon wall just past...
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Wildlife, Finally!

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  Since arriving at Death Valley we have been blessed with phenomenal views of vast swaths of geology.  But other than the resident coyote pack and a couple of roadrunners, we have not seen any wildlife.  Can't say that now.  On our project day this week we were going to a distant attraction called The Charcoal Kilns.  By road it was almost a 60 mile drive with lots of elevation gain, from -191 feet below sea level to more than 5,000 feet above sea level.  Like the rest of the national park there are old abandoned mining operations all over the place.  But equipment is not the only thing that was abandoned when the mine played out.  A lot of the physical labor done to get to and from the mines as well as at the mines themselves was done by burros.  When the mines were abandoned they didn't bother to salvage their animals, they just turned them loose and never looked back. Many generations of these burros have done well for themselves in the a...
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Camp Host Life, Below Sea Level

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  Training week is in the rear view mirror and we have several 72 hour shifts under our belts.  And an equal number of 72 hour off periods.  Early on it was uncomfortably hot day and night and we didn't get out unless we had to.  Same goes for our co-hosts but the rangers that have been here all summer think it's sweater weather when the thermometer gets down to 99.  There are a lot of factors that add up to make this spot, Furnace Creek, the hottest place on earth.  But the most prominent is its elevation.  Specifically here at Furnace Creek, 190 feet below sea level.  And that is not even the lowest point.  Just a few miles away at Badwater Basin the elevation is 282 feet below sea level. We've also been here long enough to need to make our once per month grocery run a couple of times.  Being in Furnace Creek that means getting across the state line to Pahrump in Nevada.  Of course it is uphill the whole way.  We're going fro...
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Ghost Towns and Abandoned Mines

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 November 2024 Being the size of Connecticut provides for a lot of space for a lot of things.  There are plenty of abandoned mines and a few ghost towns in all this space.  This post is going to look at a couple of those. To the north and east, nearly at the park's eastern boundary thirty miles from Furnace Creek lies the ghost town of Rhyolite.  Only a little more than 100 years ago this was a thriving and prosperous community.  Rhyolite began showing on the map in early 1905 but was done for by 1910.  The gold mine that sparked Rhyolite to life was owned by Charles Schwab but even this financial genius couldn't keep the mine from playing out in a short time. It's amazing though, how developed the town was within just two years of its inception.  The bank, a cornerstone of the community was built from the git-go.  It was a three-story, poured concrete and brick structure with a basement that housed the post office. Even with its remoteness the ba...
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Camp TV

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  Mid/Late October 2024 You read that right, I'm talking about camp TV.  That's when you have a campsite with a great view and can watch the comings and goings of campers, kids on their bikes and scooters and the constantly changing light on the desert and mountains surrounding us.  Just set out your favorite camp chair, grab a camera and let what is before you in. So far, thankfully, all the drama has been in the sunsets and sunrises.  The campers just doing their thing has been pleasant to watch.  The desert and mountains may be silent to the ears but they are loud to the eyes. Looking west over the Panamint mountains. That tiny white dot to the top and left of the tree is not a star.  It is the planet Venus.  Incredible how visible it is  even with so much light still in the western sky. Sunset casting shadows on the Funeral Mountains as  the moon rises. One morning I was between rounds and was catching a little camp TV when I heard some s...
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