Overnight In Death Valley

Leaving San Diego

After seventeen days in San Diego, it was time to leave. Again, I’m not going to say that the time flew by, but it seems harder and harder as I get older to live in the present and experience it all as fully as I think I should be… because time just keeps passing so quickly. Even though I didn’t have to leave at the crack of dawn, because I’m camping in Death Valley National Park tonight and will have a full day tomorrow to see things there, I decide to get up extra early and pack so my aunt and I can have a little time to hang-out before I leave. Around 10 AM, hugs and farewells are exchanged and I’m on my way.

The Joshua Tree

While putting together my route to Death Valley, one of the motivating factors to go the long way from San Diego and enter the park from the west is the fact that there is a shrine to THE joshua tree that’s featured in the cover art of the U2 album “The Joshua Tree”. The shrine is located on the main road into the park, about 20 miles west of the entrance sign, and given how relevant that album has been to the planning and experience of this trip, I couldn’t see passing it by once I discovered that it existed along the way to my destination.

From the road, the only indication that the shrine exists is an elevated, one-lane parking area on the side of the road, which I drove past on the first pass. Once you park, it’s maybe a half-mile of walking through the desert to get to the shrine and the tree itself. Luckily, in the desert, footprints tend to last for a while on the ground, so I was able to follow those for the most part. While the joshua tree has degraded drastically since the photo shoot for the album cover, if you’re familiar with the images used in the cover art, you’ll know it’s the spot because of the landscape and mountains behind it. Around the tree are tons of mementos and messages in the sand left by fans featuring lyrics and pictures of the band.

Entering Death Valley + Heading to Camp

This was my third time visiting Death Valley and one of my favorite parts of visiting it is simply driving through. After stopping at Father Crowley Vista Point, I took the 3000 feet worth of switch back roads to the first valley floor. From there it’s a lot of straight driving and then back up more mountains, until you make the final descent into Death Valley itself.

Upon arriving at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, the first major stop on my path, given that it was around 5:30 PM, I opted to skip it and return the following morning, so that I could be sure to get a decent spot at the campground. Before heading in to the campground, though, I stopped at the visitors center to get a shot of the big thermometer they have outside and get the actual temperature, which registered 109-degrees. But, as I was sending a text out, I heard a click and noticed it rose to 110-degrees as I stood next to it. Everyone in Death Valley could thank me that night for the round number.

The campground was only about half-way full and I got what I thought was a decent spot on the end of a loop. The bugs were surprisingly annoying in Death Valley, primarily the flies which were fearless and relentless. Again, I set-up my tent without the cover, which was a no-brainer this time around because I knew the temperature wasn’t going to drop much below 80-degrees at night and the rain cover would make it unbearably hot. Given the amount of media I knew I was going to have at the end of two days, I decided to do some work in my tent organizing pictures and videos, which gave me a chance to try out my new tent fan. It worked great and for a change a spontaneous purchase wasn’t a waste of money.

As the sun set, I kept my eyes open for the moon, thinking it would rise quickly, but I must have miscalculated how much it had progressed since the full moon and I didn’t see it before going to bed. Regardless, the skies didn’t seem to get as dark as I thought they would and I couldn’t even make out the Milky Way. Something tells me that my eyes are too messed-up to ever see the stars in great detail again, which is sad. After a little star gazing, I went to bed and actually slept really well, only waking-up once to see the moon had risen, which required me to put something over my eyes because of how bright it was.

A Grand Tour

Death Valley is only about two hours away from Las Vegas, where I’d be staying the next two nights, so I knew that I’d have plenty of time to actually do some big things in the park and still make it to Vegas relatively early. More time was gained when I managed to get my camp broken down and my car loaded by 7 AM.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

My first stop was to go back to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and take a walk through the dunes. When I arrived, there were only two people there, a photographer and an Instagram model or something, who were headed in another direction, so I got some alone time walking through the dunes. The part I really enjoyed seeing were the mixture of snake and mouse tracks throughout the dunes, which had me imagining that struggle underneath the moon the previous night.

Badwater

Next on the list was heading back to Badwater and actually making the hike out to the salt flats. Again, I lucked-out and was the only person at the trailhead when I arrived. The hike is almost a mile straight out into Death Valley itself. It starts-out as a smooth, white path, but as I went along it became darker and rougher. Finally, the ground started forming polygonal shapes rimmed with white salt. At the very end of the hike, those polygonal shapes began erupting all around me, and, upon close inspection, are covered with these eerie salt formations that look like little trees. The view of the valley from that perspective is awe inspiring as well and made me feel especially insignificant on the grand scale of things.

Devils Golf Course

The Devils Golf Course is another area of erupting land at the end of a mile long dirt road between Badwater and Artists Drive Scenic Loop. Given its location and the time I had on my hands, I decided to check it out. The craziest thing about it are the sounds the ground makes as the sun beats down on it. The description of a metallic pinging is accurate and is apparently the result of the salt crystals expanding in the heat. At first, I thought the sound was coming from my car, but then I realized it was coming from all around me.

Artists Drive Scenic Loop

Now, I could be mistaken, but I could’ve sworn the last time I visited Death Valley that this drive required a vehicle with AWD and possibly one with a high clearance. In any case, I decided to take the drive today because the road is now nicely paved. The highlight of the drive is Artist’s Palette and might be a good example of how you can become jaded on a trip like the one I’m taking. What I mean is that if you could pluck me out of my home in Akron and drop me directly in front of Artist’s Palette, my jaw would drop. However, after almost a month of seeing things like this, it didn’t knock my socks off. The drive was mostly fun because of how close you get to the features along the edge of the road, which is possible because it’s one way the entire time.

Zabriskie Point

The story is that in August of 1998, when I visited my aunt Diane in Los Angeles, she suggested we goto Sequoia National Park, but I insisted on going to Death Valley National Park. My memory has the roles reversed, but while talking about it recently, she mentioned my talking about a Pink Floyd movie or something, and that kind of seals it. Yes, there’s a movie called “Zabriskie Point” by Michelangelo Antonioni that Pink Floyd did much of the soundtrack for, so I have to concede it was probably my desire to see that which led us to Death Valley in August. My memory of that trip is great and the source of my love of hot, dry desert air. My aunt mostly remembers the car overheating the entire way. Regardless, it’s why I’ll always stop at Zabriskie Point no matter how many times I visit this park.

Dante’s View + An Unplanned Hike

During that visit with my aunt in 1998, we also drove up to Dante’s View. On my trip in 2019, though, I was driving from San Diego, through the park and right to Las Vegas, so I didn’t have time to visit both Dante’s View and Badwater. Because I hadn’t seen Badwater, yet, I chose that out of the two options.

What I hadn’t planned-on was the hiking that’s available up in the Dante’s View area. After taking some standard panorama shots, in-between swatting away killer swarms of flies, I noticed a trail going off to the west with quite a few people milling around. Figuring it was just a short jaunt, I decided to take a walk, despite the fact that I was wearing my Teva sandals and didn’t have any water on me. You can probably tell where this story is going to go.

I quickly reached the area where the people were milling around, where I noticed that the trail went a little further, so I decided to hike that bit as well. Once I reached the end of that part of the trail, I noticed the trail went a little further, and began to go downhill over terrain that wasn’t ideal for sandals. But, I’m thinking to myself, I’m here and when will I get back, just go a little further! Well, eventually I reached the end of the trail and the views were worth it. The entire valley could be seen in one sweeping view from the south up to the north. The return trip, on the other hand, wasn’t that enjoyable and I was beating myself up the entire way over being so stupid.

Leaving Death Valley

The drive out of Death Valley was kind of sad. The trip really proved to myself that I love the heat and just overall extreme nature of the desert. It’s a quiet, intense place to visit and I plan to return again, spending a couple of nights so I can really explore and hike more. After arriving in Las Vegas, my uncle and I spent the night watching NHL playoff games and catching-up, before I headed to bed in desperate need of rest.