March 5th - Another World (Death Valley)

Angry sky south of Vegas

Boondocking spot south of Las Vegas

Lake Mead (Colorado River) near boondocking site

Skirting East of Las Vegas

Everything in California is expensive!

Heading toward Death Valley

I call this Neopolitan Ice cream (Death Valley)

Pistaschio Ice Cream

Looks like a mirage but is one of the salt flats in Death Valley

First night campsite (Texas Springs)

Cottonwood Tree near Mesquite Springs campsite

Nearing Bad Water Basin

Bad Water Basin - Sodium Chloride, Gypsum, Calcite and Borax

Spring flowers at lower elevation in Death Valley

The winding ribbon of road through the park

Hmmmmm.  Where did we put the camper?

I just realized a few hours ago that I might have a problem addiction --- to my phone and the internet.  As we were winding our way out of Death Valley - literally - I was beginning to go into withdrawal.  I had had no phone or internet signal for three days and as we came into view of a village outside of Death Valley I heard my phone beep!  It had gone into hibernation or power saver mode all by itself (isn't technology great)? and out of the back of the camper I heard a mournful "beep".  It was my phone coming back to life as it had picked up a signal from Heaven knows where.  I grabbed it up and hungrily checked my messages.  I had two!!  I immediately called the one person back who had left a message asking if I might be on another planet or universe.  Yes, and yes.!  Death Valley is truly another world.  The geology of the park is so diverse and it is a far cry from what we in the Midwest are familiar with.  Mountains and hills the color of Neapolitan Ice cream - yes, Neapolitan - Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate and further into the park comes Oreo Cream and Mocha and even further is Mint Chocolate Chip.  I am not kidding!!  Some of the formations resemble huge bowls of ice cream,  Then to interrupt the theme of desserts---- Mustard hills are (excuse the pun)  sandwiched in.  Food and humor aside, it is awe inspiring and coupled with 86 degree weather during the day with 29 % humidity it is easy to take.  We did do a couple of bike rides and it is easy to forget to drink water.  It doesn't subjectively feel hot, and we didn't really sweat, but riding up a two mile hill and not perspiring is a clue to how truly dry it is in Death Valley.

We spent two nights and three days camping in their dry camping areas.  No water or electric is available in any of their sites.  There is a bathroom with running cold water and an outside sink for campers who are tenting and there were several tents in all the sites we visited.  We traveled  as many  of the paved roads that were accessible to a camper the size of ours.  There are many  off road areas for 4 x 4 vehicles too, however, we found that several of those  were still closed because of snow and ice  in the higher elevations.

Elevation:  We were at the lowest 319 feet below sea level and at the highest about 3500 feet in the mountains.  The lowest area is titled  Bad Water Basin.  It was named this because the mule drivers for the Borax mining Company discovered their mules would not drink the water in the "lake".  Hence - Bad Water.  The salt basin covers many acres and is several miles long.  The dominant salt is Sodium Chloride with 3 other salts like Gypsum, Calcite and Borax

Tonight we are soaking up the comforts of technology - namely - communication via the internet.   It does make one ponder what we have allowed ourselves to become addicted to in this age of communication technology.

We are headed down to route 66 where it intersects Amboy, California and then we will head east once again to continue our travels back into Arizona and New Mexico until it is time for the Iron County Cancer fund drive and Richard's bike ride at the end of March which will depart out of Albuquerque.