Three Generations in Death Valley, Day 7

Excursions Death Valley 0 Comments

Three Generations in Death Valley, Day 7

**Day 7 – 30Mar18**
Zabriskie Point / Devil’s Golf Course / Badwater Basin / Artist Drive / Salt Creek
Trip Time: 9:06 (1034-1940)
Miles: 233
Average Speed: 25mph

This was going to be our “tourist” day. All of the points of interests we were going to stopping at were right off the main roads and were sure to be packed with people. We started the day off with a quick trip to Zabriskie Point, followed that up with a view of the Devil’s Golf Course from the West Side road, then it was on to Badwater basin. I’d really like to spend some time photographing Zabriskie and the DGC in better lighting and without so many people. They are both interesting places. Other than saying you have been at -282 feet below sea level, one could skip Badwater and not miss too terribly much.

*Zabriskie Point, I can see why this is a popular attraction.*

*There are hiking trails above and around Zabriskie Point that could make for some good excursion hikes.*

*Out on the salt flows of Devil’s Golf Course.*

*My son thought the salt looked like a miniature brown forest from above.*

*Mountains of salt backed by mountains of rock. Under all the dirt, the salt was pure white and pristine.*

*They say salt used to be more valuable than gold. Had that held true through time, this area would have still had its “gold” rush.*

*Just to the left of the small green lens flare, you can just barely make out the white sign on the rocks marking where sea level is.*

*The mountains go right down to the edge of the salt flats.*

Artist’s Drive is worth the drive, but also be much better around sunset. During the middle of the day it was just okay. There is a 25′ limit for RVs and trailers. I was just a couple of feet over that, but did fine. One of the adverse side effects of the steering gearbox going out earlier in the trip was that it completely though off my fuel consumption plan. This forced me to have to fill up both the Jeep and two of the Jerry cans before heading deeper into the park for the last day of our trip.

*Lots of different colors in the rocks here.*

*My least favorite photo of the trip. lol*

One of the things my son really wanted to do on this trip was to see the pup fish that only live in Death Valley. There are 10 distinct type of pup fish here, and three of them are on the endangered species list. We made a stop at the Salt Creek nature walk to see if we could find the Salt Creek Pup Fish. As it turns out, that’s not hard to do. They live in the creek right next to where you park. If you stroll the boardwalk a ways, you will see a lot of them. The info signage says that they only live about a year and that the creek is seasonal, so I have no idea how they survive from year to year.

We finished out the day with the long trek to the Death Valley Backcountry Campsite, having to drive right past the last three places we would visit so we would have time to setup camp before dark. While we were setting up camp, another Jeep with a RTT rolled into the isolated campground south of the Race Track. To my amazement, it turned out to be @Sicarii and his wife… some Jeep’n friends from back in Colorado. We had a nice chat while eating dinner and then turned in for the night.