My first stop today was Death Valley National Park. It's about 2 1/2 hours from Henderson, Nevada. After I got off the interstate (I-515), the GPS took me through the desert. Again, there were lush green plants. The road took me through the Palute Las Vegas Indian Reservation. There was a sign pointing to the tribal police building. The funny thing is that what it pointed to were scrub trees, sand, mountains, and a few other plants. There was no evidence that a building was ever present.
It was quite a long drive and the speed limit on these non-interstate roads was 70. In Nevada, there were lots of small joshua trees. Finally, I saw a small sign welcoming me to California. California is the first and only unvisited state on this trip. It is the 47th state I've seen, leaving only Louisiana, Alaska, and Hawaii unvisited. Shortly after I entered the state, I reminded myself that this is my 47th state. A couple of minutes later, I noticed I passed by mile marker 47 on the road I was traveling. That was an odd coincidence.
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While I did not have trouble talking on the cell phone in the Nevada desert, connections did not hold more than three minutes after I entered California. After a short time, I entered Death Valley (though not yet the actual national park) and there was absolutely no cell phone service.
Death Valley is beautiful with mountain ranges fairly close to the road. The temperature was in the mid 80s and flowers were in bloom. When I got to the fee area, it was a self-pay station. This annoyed me at first because I wondered how I'd use my national parks pass. The entrance fee was $20 and I'd hate to have to pay since I already bought the annual pass for $80. The instructions said nothing about annual passes. There was no cell phone signal so I could not call the park office. I tried to use a pay phone, but it would not accept quarters. Finally, I decided that since I came this far I'd pay and find a human being to argue with. The system did at least take credit cards (translating to hotel points). Thankfully, within the electronic system, there was an option to slide in the annual pass instead of a credit card. So, I was able to avoid double payment.
The first section I visited was Dante's View. It takes you up to the top of a mountain where you can see for miles in the park. The salt flats look amazing from that far up, as do the cliffs. I did get a cell phone signal, but it would typically cut out after thirty seconds if I tried to make a call.
After leaving that area and getting back on the main road, I stopped for more photos. One area had what looked like small rocks on the ground. As I got closer, I saw that these were actual plants clustered together and colored in such a way that they looked like rocks.
Driving further, I encountered the badlands. These were beautiful, though they still don't come close to the beauty and diverse scenery of Makoshika State Park in Montana that I visited in Summer, 2008.
I started to get very nervous about gas. I had half a tank (there were no stations around the east entrance of the park). But I had no idea how far I'd have to drive within the park and how far it would be once I left the park before I found a gas station. While I would never want to run out of gas in general, lack of cell phone service would only make the situation worse.
I arrived at Furnace Creek. This is a combination campground and tourist trap. One section has a hotel and then if you drive further, you see the restaurants, souvenir shops, golf area, etc. Just around the corner was a gas station.....selling gas at $4.09. This was really gouging as CA has gas around $3.13/gallon. But, I had to buy at least one gallon to be safe.
I visited the Badwater area, which is the salt flats. These were very interesting and created some very unique mud formations. With the salt on the edges, the mud formations are hard as a rock. There were areas with a little bit of water completely covered with salt, as if it was ice.
Many miles later, I came across Stovepipe Wells, which has apparently been a tiny town/village in the park since 1926. At this point it's just a tourist trap with a general store, restaurant, motel, and gas station. Gas went for $3.56/gallon. I didn't like that either, but I came close to filling up to be safe.
The temperature went up to 96. As I headed towards the west entrance, I saw some interesting sand dunes. People could go up to them, but with a three hour drive ahead of me to get to the next hotel, I simply lacked the energy. Beyond that, when I visited sand dunes in Idaho in 2008, sand got into the camera.
As I was driving further, I saw a warning sign that encouraged drivers not to turn on the air conditioner in order to avoid overheating. This suggestion was for the next twenty miles. I'm sure it was referring to summer, but I think it's probably not a good idea to be in this park at all during the summer.
The drive took me through some really steep mountain roads with spectacular scenery. Unfortunately, there was no place to stop off and take pictures. There was also such low light that the photos would not have been any good.
After leaving the park, it seemed like an interminable drive in the middle of nowhere during the dark. I had at least two hours to get to my hotel in Mojave, CA after leaving the western exit from the park. Often there were no other vehicles. Once in a while there was a gas station, but not that often. I'm glad I fueled up in the park, even at $3.56/gallon.
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When I got into Mojave, I found a gas station with a price of $3.05/gallon. Every other station was at least $3.13/gallon. If it's too good to be true... When I pulled up to a pump, they did not have the credit card readers. I went inside and was told to swipe my card. When the attendant found it was a credit card and not a debit card, she explained that they only take cash or debit. I have never heard of a gas station that does not take credit cards. Anyway, I told her I would have to go elsewhere (I want the points for this and every other purchase I make on this trip) and she continued to argue with me about why I wasn't using my debit card. I had to explain I don't have one.
When I finally arrived at the hotel, I was exhausted. This was an Econo Lodge. It both saved some money, and more importantly, was one of the closest and least expensive (at 3 hours and 20 minutes from Furnace Creek) Choice Hotel affiliates from the park. More importantly, it was closer than others to my next stop which was Simi Valley, CA. While this hotel had good ratings, it definitely looked old and had stains all over the rug. There were almost no electric plugs available in the room. I had to be very creative with my laptop to be able to plug it in. On a full charge, the battery typically lasts about twenty minutes before dying.
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