May 4 - 2018 Furnace Creek - Death Valley, California

Our next destination was Furnace Creek, Death Valley National Park, California.
Once we got out of Indian Springs, it did not take us long to get there. It was only 100 miles (160 km).

Death Valley is one of the driest and hottest places on earth. It was hot when we got there, but nothing compared to the record hottest temperature of 134 F (56 C). This is the hottest temperature ever measured anywhere in the world! On May 3, it was only 98 F (36 C).

 


It's a standing joke in Minnesota, that 98 degrees in "dry heat" isn't as hot as 98 degrees in the Minnesota humidity.                We thought this caption was funny😊

 
We were able to get a campsite in the park. We set up real quick, and then headed out to see sunset. Unfortunately, we got there a little too late. But we did see a little bit of color in the fading light.

 

We did get this picture before the light faded.
JJ calls it "soft ice".

We were not too late to watch the stars though. Out in the middle of the desert, there were no city lights. All the neighbors either went to bed early, or turned out their camper lights, so they too could watch the stars. The only lights we could see were far off, or from the neighbor’s campfire. The stars were so bright, it seemed like we could touch them. Beautiful – and peaceful.

In the morning, we got an early start, and were in plenty of time to see sunrise😊 Beautiful.

  

Then we packed up the camper, ate breakfast, and headed out of Death Valley – taking a scenic route, so we could see a little more of the place. We drove through miles of barren (ufrugtbart) land and salt flats, surrounded by mountains.



This might look like a frozen lake in Minnesota a month or so ago,
but it is actually a bed of salt in the middle of Death Valley.

The highlight was “Bad Water”. It is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere (vestlige halvkugle), at -282 ft. (-85.5 m) below sea level (under havoverfladen).

“Bad Water” got its name from a gold miner, who was passing through this very dry place, and found water. His mule would not drink it, so he left a sign for others saying “bad water”. The name stuck. Many think, that this means, that the water is poisonous (giftig). That is not the case. However, it is VERY salty. That is why the mule refused to drink it. There is always water in this little pool. The water does not come from rain, but from an underground spring. The water comes from the glaciers that melted here thousands of years ago. 

The pool was in the middle of a large salt bed.

After Bad Water, we drove about 50 miles on a road, where we only saw 4 cars and a motorcycle. Usually we like driving, when there is little traffic, but this was so desolate, that we would have liked to see a few more people. We had no phone connection, and with our recent breakdown still fresh in our memories, we were both a little nervous. We were relieved, when we got to the next town and more traffic!

Written by Mary