2016 - April 20th-21st - Death Valley National Park

We had some days with nothing much going on and thought we needed something a little different to occupy our time. I had heard that it was National Parks Week. That sounded like a good reason to do something different! Looking at the California National Parks, Death Valley National Park was one that stood out as never been explored by us. Being in California for 38 years it is remarkable that there is still plenty to see here in our home state. We decided on an overnight trip to Death Valley National Park, about 300 miles away. We departed Wednesday morning, the 20th of April. On the way there, we had decided to take a 15 minute excursion off the main route to see The Bottle Tree Ranch on old Route 66 in Victorville. We love the Old Route 66 nostalgic buildings and funky places that still exist on this old route. We exited the highway for the side road on D Street which is Route 66. The pavement actually has Route 66 painted on it in several spots!
We traveled down the route passing some fantastic old-time places that we would stop by on our way out. About 10 minutes driving we came to the Bottle Tree Ranch. Bottle Tree Ranch is literally a forest of bottle trees (large metal pipes with bottles hanging from them), located along the Mother Road, Route 66, right in the heart of the California desert. It is fun place to explore and there is a lot of photographic opportunities.
               
               
               

               
               
               
               

We headed back down Route 66 and stopped for a photo opportunity at The Iron Hog Restaurant and Saloon promoting the Highway to Heaven Route 66 Biker Memorial:
Approaching Barstow, it was lunch time. We went to Chili's where we had dinner last year with Ray & Sandra on our trip going from Napa to the Grand Canyon. Since being there, the Tesla Corporation has installed charging stations for their car owners out back of the restaurant. There are eight charging stations and to our amazement, there were five Teslas charging up when we went in! Quite a sight to see.
                         
Back on the road again we headed to the Death Valley National Park. The scenery was lovely on the drive. It's hard to believe that we were still in California from our urban neighborhoods with homes, shopping and buildings to this miles and miles of emptiness with desert brushes and occasional spots of color on some desert wild flowers. There were long periods of time that we were the only car to be seen. Such dramatic difference in such a relatively short distance between the two worlds. We came to the entrance of the park ...

Inside of Death Valley National Park we stopped at Furnace Creek Ranch, one of the Park's lodging and RV areas. Furnace Creek Ranch has many rental rooms, RV spaces for rent, a general store, the saloon, a steak restaurant, swimming pool and a beautiful golf course. As this is just about the only green patch in the desert, the birds use it as a resting place on their flights. We looked around this little community and took some pictures. The lowest point in North America is 282 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin. We didn't make it over there but here in Furnace Creek we were at 178 feet below sea level.

On Tuesday I had read my long time friend Sandie Nelson's Facebook post that she was in Death Valley at Furnace Creek. We were both VA employees, she up north and me in southern California. She did many spot-on legal reviews for me while I was a Contracting Officer and helped in in some technical questions when I was Quality Assurance Officer in contracting. I text her and told her we were going for an over-nighter to Death Valley and maybe we'd catch her. I gave her a call and she and Gary came up from their cabin to the general store to see us. We went next door to the saloon for a drink and great conversation. We had such a wonderful time that I completely forgot to take a picture!

We had reservations in Beatty Nevada just eight miles out of the park. We drove heading that way and taking in some of the Valley. In Beatty, we checked into our reserved Death Valley Inn room. It was very quiet and a nice hotel. The restaurants are sparse in this town of 1000 and the only recommendation was Denny's at the Stagecoach Casino. We had dinner and did notice another restaurant in a saloon on our five minute drive back to the Inn. Across the street from the Inn is Mel's Diner which we had spotted on our way in. It's only open for breakfast and lunch. Looking much like the Route 66 old-time joints, we knew we wanted breakfast here. Mel's Diner has a cozy atmosphere, great food portions and the service was wonderful. A must if you like great food and nostalgic atmosphere ... and if you're going to Death Valley National Park or lost ... the only two reasons I can think of to be in Beatty!
After breakfast we headed back into the park. The views really are spectacular.
We stopped by to see the Furnace Creek Lodge ... the National Parks are known for their fabulous Lodges. We were not disappointed! This is not as old and "mountainy" as those in Yellowstone, Sequoia, Yosemite, and others, but fits the desert surroundings. It's like an oasis with Palm trees and grass in the middle of all of this sand and rock!

We knew we wanted to stop at two locations before heading home ... Zabriskie Point was the first. From this viewpoint you can see the wildly eroded and vibrantly colored badlands of Death Valley. Taking us back to our childhood, for those that remember 20-Mule Team Borax, this was part of the Borax mining fields! I found this picture on-line of the 20 Mule Team soap can that my Mom always had at the basement sink. How many of you remember one too?

Our second stop was to be at Dante's View. From here, you can see the basin and the mountain ranges that stretch from Eastern California to Central Utah. Dante's View is more that 5000 feet above the valley floor and it is reported that you can see across most of 110 mile-long Death Valley. Below are the white salt flats and Badwater Basin, the 282 foot below sea level lowest point in North America.

Every 10 years there is a "super bloom" in the desert with the desert wildflowers and cactus. That was this year starting in mid-March. From our own Cacti, we know the blooms don't last but a few days. We didn't see any Cacti so saw no blooms. As Death Valley National Park is the largest in the contiguous United States at nearly 3.4 million acres, there is much to explore and see. We have marked our calendar for March 2026 as a reminder to go back and see the blooming desert. We didn't see any wheelchair or scooter paths, so hopefully in our mid-70's of life we'll be able to explore!!

But at Dante's View we did catch some color in some desert wildflowers ...
We stopped outside of Barstow for lunch at one of our favorites that we have posted before, Peggy Sue's Diner. We had a blast from the past again here at Peggy Sue's. We had a great time on our over-nighter that satisfied our "get-away" need until the big June family trip! Enjoy all of the pictures at this photo link click!