Badwater Basin

Thursday was our last day in Death Valley National Park.  We had breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Badwater Basin, the lowest place in North America.

The trail here led out towards the salt flats.

The low elevation and strange footing made for a very surreal hike.

It was just under a mile to get out to the salt flats, the final destination for water in the Death Valley drainage.

As the water evaporates, the minerals dissolved by the rainwater are left behind forming salt crystals that take unusual forms.

It kind of looked like snow, but was dry and hard.  The salt cake has cracked into all sorts of shapes.

We walked around the salt flats getting pictures for a while and then headed back.  I stopped to get a photo of Badwater Pool, a spring fed pool of fossil water.

From the parking area, Telescope Peak was reflecting in the pool.

What a cool place.

From here, we drove back a short ways and turned on the gravel road for Natural Bridge.  A short trail led into the red-rock canyon.

In just over a quarter-mile, we came to the Natural Bridge.

It's about 35 feet above the canyon floor and 35 feet thick.

Just past the bridge was a tall, steep dry waterfall.

The trail then turned to the right and ended at a small dryfall.  Most people turned around here, but it was pretty easy to climb.

There was another little dryfall with greenish rocks that was also easy to climb.

The trail really ended at a 15 or so foot dryfall that would be very difficult to climb without gear.

We turned around at this point and started making our way back.

A short hike, only about 3/4 of a mile, but a really cool canyon.

Back on the main road, we continued past Artist's Drive and turned on the short Desolation Canyon Road to the trailhead.  The trail led into the colorful canyon.

As soon as the trail narrowed, we started to see some of the colorful rocks walls, similar to Artist's Palette.

Parts of the trail were very narrow.

In about a mile, there was a dry waterfall to climb up, but it wasn't difficult at all.

I was surprised there weren't nearly as many people on this trail as others we had been on.  It was really beautiful and not too hard.

There was a second small dry waterfall to climb up but it was easier than the first.

The canyon opened up a bit more and there signs of rockslides.

The rainbow-colored rocks were really amazing.

The green was not from copper, but from chlorite and nontronite.

There were a few side canyons to explore but most didn't go very far.

Eventually, the trail got steeper and led up to a fantastic view over the canyon.

We could see Artist's Drive in the other direction.

We took a break up here and had a snack enjoying the view.

We explored a couple more side canyons on the hike back.

Even the fallen boulders were colorful.

There was one side canyon about half way back that went pretty far in to an impassable rock wall.

We finished up the hike not long before sunset.

Back to the main road, the desert was beautiful in the fading light.

It would be our last sunset in Death Valley and we wanted to make it count, so headed to Harmony Borax Works.

Borax was one of the only materials that had been profitably extracted from Death Valley.  Harmony Borax Works was one such operation that that operated during the late 19th century.

As the sun went down, the sun lit up in the most beautiful colors.

Death Valley really has the best sunrises and sunsets.

We stayed here enjoying the colors until darkness.

Then we headed back to the hotel.

We had dinner at the hotel again and I took a very short dip in the pool.  The water is spring-fed so its warm year-round, but the air temperature had dropped since the sunset.  I only stayed in for a few minutes then tried to warm up at the fire.  Then we started packing up to check out in the morning.

Mount Perry

Wednesday morning, we woke up early to have breakfast in the room and then headed to Dante's View in Death Valley National Park before sunrise.  It was still dark when we arrived and very cold, but I climbed up to a nice spot to watch another beautiful Death Valley sunrise.

Across the valley, the view of Telescope Peak was beautiful.

After the sun came up, we took off to follow Mount Perry Trail north.

The trail climbed up over Dante's View Peak and then followed the ridgeline towards Mount Perry.

The trail descended for a while down to about 5,000 feet then started climbing back up.

The entire hike was along an exposed ridgeline that had no shade, but provided excellent views the entire way.

It got very rocky towards the end but was fairly obvious of where to go.

There were a number of false summits before reaching the actual peak.

There was a logbook in an ammo box at the summit that we signed.  I didn't see anyone else from NC in the log.

The hike back was just as scenic as the way out.

But it was a lot of down about half way and then up all the way back.

We returned to Dante's View a little before lunch and took off.

Driving back towards the Oasis, we took a drive through Twenty Mule Team Canyon.

A narrow gravel spur road led through the canyon for a few miles.

Although the road was barely the width of a car, there were several spots will a pull-off wide enough to park and get out to explore.

No official trails, but easy to follow paths up the hills for views of the gorgeous badlands all around.

This drive is much less popular than Artist's Drive; we only saw one other vehicle pass through while we were in here.

But it was just as stunningly beautiful and I found a number of places to climb up for a view of the badlands.

Each short stop offered unique views and sights.

The canyon wasn't even on our plan of things to do but I'm glad we saw it and took a detour driving by.

After finishing the drive, we headed back to the Ranch for lunch at the Ice Cream Parlor.  The cook staff were on lunch so walked around the Borax Museum while waiting.

The museum itself was closed but we could walk around the outdoor area and check out the old mining equipment.

After 10 minutes or so, we headed back and got lunch.  It was ok but probably the most expensive hamburger and hot dog ever.  Then we headed back out and took a drive down Hole in the Rock Road, since we had a 4WD.

We saw some cool wildlife in here, lots of desert plants.

And I finally got a picture of a pinyon jay.

In a couple miles, we passed through the beautiful Hole in the Wall, where a couple were camping.

We drove a little further but the road kind of fizzled out and turned around.  There was a nice cotton top cactus.

We then parked near the Hole in the Wall to get some pictures up close.

The Hole in the Wall was a gap in the mountain, but there were also many holes in the rock face.  The folks camping were from Portland and I told them they had about the best campsite ever.

We stopped one more time a little further to climb around and get some nice views.

Then we drove back to the paved road.  It was getting near sunset so we stopped at Zabriskie Point.

The views here were incredible in the fading light.

As the sunset over Telescope Peak, the sky began to light up in beautiful colors.

The clouds looked like pink cotton candy.

The whole area was just really beautiful and we climbed around on the rocks.

As the sun completely set, the sky turned pink and orange and bathed the badlands in an otherworldly light.

Once it got dark, we headed back to the hotel.  After dark, we headed over to Harmony Borax to stargaze for a while and enjoy the night sky.