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| west entrance to Death Valley |
March 20/2015 95 in Death Valley in the Winter...... Hot and sunny. Seriously you need to carry lots of water with you when visiting Death Valley on a Motorcycle (and some nutritional snacks). Drink every time you stop. The heat is intense and you can get dehydrated. Also wear proper jackets in layers. We started out from Pahrump to the park in our leathers, then went to jean jackets and ended in light long sleeve shirts to keep the sun from burning our arms. Plus plenty of face sunscreen.
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| Mountain dandelions carpeted the drive up to Dantes View (they are actually a flower!) |
We came back using our National Park Pass to drive two scenic drives that our bus tour could not take, no vehicles over 25 feet.
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| on top of Dantes View - walk out to the peaks, longer than it looks, and you get a bit winded climbing |
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| looking 5000 feet down (about 1 mile) at the salt flats in Badwater Basin |
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| looking across the valley at Panamint Mountain Range at 11,049 feet |
Dantes View climbs to a lofty perch of over 5,000 feet and the temperature is 20 degrees cooler than the valley floor. At the top you can walk out onto the peaks and see the valley below. Incredible view of the salt flats and alluvial fans below and across to the snow topped Panamint Mountains. The drive is about 13 miles up to the top, the last 1/4 mile is hairpin and about 15% incline. Hang on!
Driving back down is as pretty as going up, the rock formations always look different. From here we went to the intersection for Badwater Basin and headed south to the one lane, one way Artists Drive, it is about 9 miles long and you have to enter from the south end. Both of these scenic roads are all paved, no dirt sections, good for Bill :)
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| entering Artists Drive |
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| winding along |
The colours come alive like a painters palette on Artists Drive. It is a narrow winding drive through badlands that have been tinted by the interaction of various minerals, sediments and volcanic debris. We have never seen so many colours in a short drive. Various shades of brown, yellow, red, orange, green, with pastel pinks and lavendars. I know it seems like a long drive to get back and see 9 miles but it is so worth it. Death Valley has seeped into our unconscious. Can't seem to stop thinking about it and the pioneer wagon trains of 1849. Incredible.
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| look at the myriad of colours |
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| nice spot to see the painters palette |
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| end of the drive |
All the ride back to Pahrump we had the visions of these arid yet hauntingly beautiful scenes in our head. Every National Park in the USA continues to amaze us. Thank goodness these incredible lands were preserved for the public to see.
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