Death Valley Days

We never did get a data signal in Nevada, thanks for that T-Mobile. After an early morning stop at Costco in Henderson, Pete masterfully negotiated the freeways around Las Vegas that provided us with a brief view of the Las Vegas strip. Casinos were everywhere, even more predominate than in the reservation territory in New Mexico but this is Nevada so what else should we have expected.

We headed north on 95 into a desolate stretch of highway north of Vegas until it was time to turn off for Death Valley at the funky little town of Beatty. We started out at about 3000ft but descended quickly through some steep grades to sea level. Surprisingly the temperatures were in the low 60’s not what I had been led to expect for the lowest point in the US and the wind was still with us. So I decided we would be able to camp at Stovepipe Wells at sea level without perishing in the heat rather than proceeding to the Mesquite Springs campground which is at the north end of the park at 2000ft. However, one quick look at the desolate campground at Stovepipe Wells had us turning around and heading up the 33 miles to Mesquite Springs. Here we found a more inviting campground with views of the surrounding mountains, picnic tables (which had been absent at Stovepipe Wells except for the tenting only sites), a dump station, water and a solar powered campsite payment machine which processed our $12 credit card payment, however, the sites could have been a bit more level.

In the morning we had an early start and drove back the Scotty’s Castle Rd to Hwy 190 and started to descend to below sea level, and then climb to 5000ft, then descend to 2000ft, then climb once again through many switchbacks to the 4500ft level before exiting the park. It was easy to see why this area had earned the name Death Valley. Once out of the park the Eastern Sierra Mountains appeared ahead of us capped with snow. At about 11:00am we stopped at the Interagency Visitor Center at the intersection of Hwys 136 and 395 for directions to the BLM Tuttle Creek Campground then proceeded into the town of Lone Pine for coffee and wifi at McDonalds (the first time this trip we had to succumb to McDs for wifi, and then only to find there was wifi all along Main Street in town) and gas. It was early afternoon when we headed out the Whitney Portal Road pass the Movie Flats Rd (so named for the many western movies and TV shows as well as Star Trek Generations and Iron Man which had been filmed here) in the Alabama Hills. One of the earliest of these was Gunga Din. The 83 site BLM campground has water, a dump station (at an additional fee), spacious dirt campsites with tables, firepits, and lantern hangers for a fee of $5.00. The setting is gorgeous, right in the foothills of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states. It was relatively warm but the wind was still gusting mercilessly making sitting outside uncomfortable, especially once the sun was behind a cloud or started to set behind the beautiful snow capped mountains.