We Didn't Die in Death Valley

We pulled into Furnace Creek Ranch and found our site for the next 3 nights.  The ranch is a village with golf, a pool, horses, mules, restaurants.  It's also home to most of the staff.

The first shock of the day was at the only station in Furnace Creek,

The pool at the ranch is fed by a warm spring.  It was where we spent our evenings.

Old Dinah, an 1894 steam tracter, was used to transport borax.  More about borax later...

Our first stop the day we arrived was at Zabriski Point where we watched the sunset with a group of French tourists.  Some people really know how to enjoy a sunset...

The scenery and landscape is breathtaking.

We drove the 53 miles of nothingness to Scotty's Castle - an amazing home that is now part of the National Park Service.  It really is a castle sitting like an oasis with nothing around it.  We took the tour (sequentially).   The story goes that Scotty was a con man who swindled the millionaire Johnson's from Chicago to build the home with promises of gold mines.  Somehow they all became best friends with Scotty entertaining the celebrity guests (who paid for their rooms) with his tall tales of the mining towns.  Movie stars and presidents have visited the home during the short time it was used during the late 1920's and early 1930's.  Scotty lived in the valley most of his life and is buried on the hill above the castle.

The lvingroom with stone waterfall; and the "upstairs" music room complete with theatre pipe organ.  The pipes are behnd the wall.

The HUGE swimming pool in the front of the house was never completed.  The Johnson's lost a lot of money during the depression and did not return to their summer home in Death Valley..

The Harmony Borax Works was part of the valley for 5 years from 1883-1888.  The ruins remain.  Chinese workers were recruited in San Francisco to scrape the borax  ore off the valley floor and process it into borax at the manufacturing facility above.  It was then pulled out of the valley by 20 mule teams (so that's where it comes from!!!) dragging 36 tons of borax and water for the 30 day round trip to the trains.

A borax cart and water tank sans the mules.  Tall and narrow with 7 foot wheels to manage the narrow trails.

Next stop was on Artists Drive.  The Artist Palette is a rainbow of color.

Golden Canyon was gold and a lovely short hike.  I met up with a cute man standing on a rock.

Badwater Basin - a salt flat that seemed to go on forever.  Susan was standing on salt.  Salt salt everywhere.

Our last stop in Death Valley was at Dante's View.  The panoramic view of the valley cannot be captured in one photo or in the many hues.  It was the perfect ending to our visit.

The park offered much more than we expected.  We both were most taken by the color palette.  Every turn of the head presented another vision.  This was the perfect time to visit.  Not to hot and nights cool.  Park staff told us that the busiest time is the summer when Europeans come to experience the heat.  Americans tend to visit in the winter.

Ed compared the valley to the Negev in Israel, and the salt flats to the area around the Dead Sea.  The elevation is:  Death Valley 247 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea over 1300 feet below sea level.  (the lowest point on earth)