Ghostbusters

Something that Death Valley has a lot of is ghost towns. I know, no pun intended... "death"... "ghost"..  but it is true. They dot the landscape in the most bizarre locations. I really don't understand why anybody would ever think of setting up shop in a place with "death" in its name, but there were plenty of prospectors in the early 20th century. How do you know when you are in a ghost town? You see a ghost of course.

Or you see really beat up old car next to a building that looks like it could have a ghost in it.

Road Runners

When you pay a visit to Death Valley, you spend a LOT of time on the road. Now, the roads vary in scenery as well as conditions. You have dirt, stone, mud and paved roads to contend with. Some times, it is hard to find the road in the landscape without the aid of a car for reference.

Points of View

The quintessential view of Death Valley is Zabriske's Point. It is THE place to be at sunrise. Dozens of photographers hang out before daybreak waiting for the magic to start. I didn't do this because i was confident that it would be pretty even a few hours later. I was right.

Another good place for a view is Dante's View. It is the highest spot in the valley.

In some places in the park, the mountains look like they may have been tipped on their side at some point:

Need to see what I mean closer up?

In a lot of the Valley, you will feel tiny. Can you find itty bitty Sarah?

Look at the Jeep:

The Racetrack

On the west side of Death Valley, there is something called, "the racetrack." It is called that because it is a huge flat area surrounded by mountains that look like grandstands. In addition, there are rocks that move around on the racetrack. Nobody has ever seen them move, so nobody knows how or why they move, but the theory is, when it rains, the "racetrack" becomes very slippery and the rocks move with the wind. It is very very cool.

Crater Climbing

This isn't a volcano. Nor is it a meteor crater. It is the result of some kind of explosion about 4,000 years ago. In case you were wondering, it took about 15 minutes to climb down and about 45 to go back up.

Furnace Creek

These photos are taken around the Furnace Creek area of the park. This is pretty much the "center" of the drivable parts of the park.

Death Valley

Ever since Mr. Minsky, my 7th grade science teacher told me about Death Valley, the lowest place on earth, I've wanted to pay a visit. I mean, I knew I was never going to make it to the HIGHEST place on earth, so why not take care of the other extreme?

I can safely say that ANY entrance into the park will blow you away, but I went in from the south. These are the pictures just from my drive in.

Yup, that is a double rainbow. And only about 10 seconds after I took this picture, the skies totally opened up for about 2 minutes. Never thought I'd be so lucky to see it rain in the desert!

Who Knew

That the middle of nowhere is just north of the Mojave Preserve. Since it was dark by the time I exited the Preserve, I had no idea what the area around the hotel looked like. I actually really hate arriving somewhere totally new in the dark for this exact reason. While bringing my bags in, a train rolled passed. Within about 50 yards of my room. That happened 7 more times that night. As it turns out, I was pretty much staying in an old train station.

Needless to say, there wasn't much going on as far as food in Nipton, CA. The hotel staff suggested going to Searchlight, NV, 22 miles away, which was literally, the only game "in town." ("Town" being a relative term, of course.) Apparently the are a couple of casinos in Searchlight, and one, "The Nugget" had great prime rib.

I don't eat cow unless I can help it, but I figured that a casino IN NEVADA that served prime rib had to be a decent bet. I had visions of the casinos I saw in Tahoe... and in Vegas, for that matter. You can imagine my shock when I had my dinner here:

Yeah, this place is HOPPING, isn't it? Believe it or not, it isn't even 8pm yet. What you can't see in the picture is that the restaurant is supposedly "smoke free." The casino, is not. Still can't understand how that works. Also don't understand how prime rib could be $10. The slot machines were so old school, that when I won $8 in a nickle machine, I got my winnings in 160 nickles. It was pretty exciting. I stood there completely stunned as an avalanche of coins fell out of the machine. "What am I going to do with so many nickles?" I announce to nobody in particular. An older gentleman, a regular I would assume, walked by and handed me a plastic bucket. Awesome.

Mojave Preserve

North of Joshua Tree is not much of anything as far as civilization is concerned. But there is the Mojave National Preserve. This place definitely counts as the "scenic route."

Joshua Tree

About an hour from Palm Springs is Joshua Tree National Park. I always thought that the main attraction in this park was the Joshua Trees. Rumor has it, they were an inspiration to Dr. Seuss.

But for me, the main attraction of the park was all the rocks. I am not the only one who is attracted to the rocks. Believe it or not, I think every rock, no matter how big or knarly, is considered climbable. There are even books that you can buy that rate rocks by they climbing difficulty like ski runs. And no, I didn't climb them.

The person in this picture is my friend Sarah who was traveling with me.