Voices of my mind: February 2011

Thanksgiving weekend is one of the longest long weekends that we get in the year; 4 days is a long enough time to make a good trip to almost any corner of the country. Unfortunately though during thanksgiving weekend, weather plays the spoil sport. Almost every touristic place gets too cold, leaving very few options to choose within the country.

Death Valley though is one place that is just perfect to visit during thanksgiving. And its proximity to Vegas means that one can get a good mix of the peace at Death Valley with the lively and frenetic night life of the Sin city.

So what exactly is death valley? It is the hottest and driest of the national parks in the United States. Its home to the second-lowest elevation point in the Western Hemisphere. The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology. Its diverse geologic features, desert wildlife, historic sites, scenery, and clear night skies are some of the reasons, why the place is visited annually by more than 770,000 visitors *.

My planning for the trip started about 2 months before thanksgiving with booking of the bare necessities (read flight). The plan was to spend 2 of the 4 days in Death valley, 1 day in Zion national park, and get 2 nights and a day in Vegas. I always end up trying to cover as many places in one go as I can, the optimization ends up in hectic trips a lot of times. But heck I just love it that way :).

So then accordingly, three of us guys flew to Vegas Thursday morning (thanksgiving day). We were in Vegas as early as 8:30 in the morning, but spent time renting car, shopping and waiting for two females in the group to join us, who were flying in from a different city. Post a late heavy breakfast, the five of us finally started our drive towards DV at about 11. The 3 hour drive from Vegas to DV visitor center at Furnace creek took us 4 hours: On the way, about half an hour before Furnace creek was our lodge (Amargosa Opera House) where we stopped, checked in, had lunch and then proceeded towards DV. The hotel was not the greatest, but there is a real dearth of lodging places near DV area. And because I'd got lazy in looking up for bookings near Furnace creek lodge, it just got too late for us and there was no other option to choose.

Anyway, we also got a lunch (with limited options) at Amargosa, and finally reached DV visitor center at about 3. We did not need too much of information at the visitor center, I had already done a detailed study of the places that just cannot be missed when at Death valley. These places were: 1. Sand Dunes at Mesquite, 2. Zabriskie point, 3. Dantes View, 4. Devils golf course, 5. Badwater basin, 6. Gold Canyon, 7. Ubeheb Crater. Ofcourse, just knowing the places to visit is not enough. It is also important to know the best time to visit the place. Based on this study, the plan was to be at the Mesquite Sand Dunes for sunset, and visit places nr. 2 to 7 the next day i.e. Friday.

The Mesquite Sand Dunes are at the northern end of the valley floor and are nearly surrounded by mountains on all sides. Due to their easy access from the road and the overall proximity of Death Valley to Hollywood, these dunes have been used to film sand dune scenes for several movies including films in the Star Wars series*. DV temperatures during thanksgiving are at about 75 F and the feel of hot sand beneath your feet, particularly when coming from sub zero temperatures is just heavenly. Besides, the sand dunes are a gorgeous sight. I have not seen the sand dunes at Florence Oregon, but the sand dunes here were the best I've seen in this country. The dunes should be particularly visited during sunset, or I should say half an hour before sunset. Sun sets in the opposite direction of the dunes, and the light on the sand gives it a magnificent glow. Perfect time for pictures.

As I'd said, we were at Furnace creek visitor center at 3. The Mesquite Sand Dunes are about half an hour north west of the visitor center and sunest on that Thanksgiving Thursday was supposed to be at 4:20. Based on this calculation, it should have been an easy coast for us. But it was not. For 2 reasons: There are a lot of good places to stop by right along the road to the dunes. Too tempting to not stop for taking pictures. Therefore instead of 30 minutes, it took us about 50 minutes to get to the sand dunes. Number two, even though sunset was supposed to be at 4:20, we discovered that the dunes were already under shadows by about 4:15. The crux is, I realized, to reach the dunes atleast half an hour before sunset. That's the best time to see the dunes and get the best pictures. We'd missed the best time to be here, on that Thursday. But decided we'd be back here the next day, well before sunset, at about 3:45 pm. That's another huge disadvantage of trips in winters: Days are so short, you have to be extremely meticulous in your planning .... and the resulting execution gets hurried sometimes. But anyway, not all was lost for us that Thursday evening. We had a ball of a time playing in the sand :) , and capturing some decent silhouettes.

On the way back to our lodge, we stopped at the Furnace creek visitor center. There are a couple of restaurants, a grocery store, and a gas station here. Must say, the restaurants are very impressive. We'd started from Seattle at 4:00 in the morning, it had been a tiring day. Having an early dinner beside the visitor center restaurant was thoroughly soothing and enjoying (ofcourse, given the limited number of restaurants, it takes quite a long time to get seated, to order and finally for your order to get to your table). After the filling dinner, we started back the drive to our lodge and were cosing in bed by about 8:30 pm. The next day (Friday) was going to start really early for us (5:30 am) and it was therefore important to get enough of good sleep.

Zabriskie Point is an absolute must see place in death valley. It is part of Amargosa Range located in east of Death Valley in Death Valley, noted for its erosional landscape. The location is featured prominently on the cover of U2's album The Joshua Tree. This location was also used to represent the surface of Mars in the film Robinson Crusoe on Mars*. The landscape you get to see here, along with the colours, is simply unbelievable. Sun rises in the direction, opposite to Zabriskies point and therefore the best time to visit this place is sunrise, or should I say half an hour post sunrise :). Sunrise was supposed to be at 6:15 am that Friday morning and Zabriskie point (about 2 miles east of the Furnace creek visitor center) was about a 30 minute drive from our lodge. After the experience of the last evening, we folks had got a good lesson that the sun does not wait for us to set or to rise. We were up at 4:30, checked out and left the lodge at sharp 5:30 to reach Zabriskie at 6. We quickly parked and got into position with our cameras to capture THE moment. We then experienced something that we'd not expected: Cold. And wind. It was supposed to be a beautiful day at DV with a max temperature of 80 F. However, in early November early-mornings, the temperature is close to 35 F and with the wind chill, our hands were badly frozen. Do not forget to take a good pair of hand gloves when going for a sunrise here. Anyway, we fought with the cold and the resulting running nose, to see the effect of sunrise. And boy it was plain stunning. The sight of the first rays on the mountain range and the resulting colors is something that I'll never be able to describe. My hands were too cold to take a good picture, and the effect of cold was so severe that we left the place in a hurry at about 6:30, just 15 minutes after sun rise.

In hind sight, we should have waited there for some more time. Till about 7 am. If you see my pictures, the lower half of the pic is still under shadows. It would have been stunning had the complete landscape been enlighted, which is why I would suggest to wait for atleast half an hour post sunrise. And its a sin to forget your hand gloves and good warm clothing!

From Zabraskie we rushed to the visitor center restaurant for breakfast and after yet another satisfying experience there, we were all set to explore Death valley that whole day. Place number 3 to visit was Dantes view: Yet another stunning location for its view. From Dante's View one can see the central part of Death Valley from a vantage point 5,500 feet (1,700 m) above sea level. From here Badwater Basin can be seen, which contains the lowest dry point in North America. Telescope Peak can also be seen from here which is 11,331 feet (3455 m) above sea level*. The drive from visitor center to Dante's view was about half an hour. There are a few short trails that stem from the parking lot to points which offer good photo opportunities. We headed along one such trail, took a few pictures, and were ready to leave in about half an hour. It was already about 9:30 then, as I said we had to hurry through sometimes because of the sheer number of places to visit and the limited number of hours on hand.

From Dante's we started driving towards the low lying areas of Death valley, namely Badwater Basin and Devils golf course. They're a good one hour drive from Dantes view: You have to drive almost back towards visitor center and then head 15 miles south. As you start heading south, there goes a small (about 8-mile) driving loop which is a scenic drive from where the artists paletter can be seen. We went on to explore this (in hindsight, we might as well have skipped this) and then headed to the devil's golf course which is on the way to Badwater basin.basin. The Devil's Golf Course is a large salt pan on the floor of Death Valley. It was named after a line in the 1934 National Park Service guide book to Death Valley National Monument, which stated that " Only the devil could play golf " on its surface, due to a rough texture from the large Halite salt crystal formations*. Let alone playing golf, the surface here is such that it is extremely difficult to walk over the surface. After taking a few pictures of the surface, we headed to Badwater Basin.

Badwater Basin is the least elevation point in North America, it sits 282 feet below sea

level. Unlike at the Devils Golf Course, significant rainstorms flood Badwater, covering the salt pan with a thin sheet of standing water. Each newly-formed lake doesn't last long though, because the 1.9 inch (48 mm) average rainfall is overwhelmed by a 150-inch (3800 mm) annual evaporation rate. While flooded, some of the salt is dissolved, then is redeposited as clean, sparkling crystals when the water evaporates. Also can be seen in the Badwaters basin surface are hexagonal saucers that are approximately 2 - 2.5 metres in diameter. These are part of larger-scale features that are also hexagonally-shaped and can be seen from Dante's View nearly 6000 feet (1800 m) above. The saucers are formed after the salty pan begins to dry and the salt crystals expand*.

The almost hour and a half drive from Dantes view to Badwater basin and spending almost 90 minutes, together at Devils golf course and Badwaters, meant that it was already 12:30 pm by the time we started to drive back from Badwaters. We had to re-assess our plans at this point. We were very sure that we wanted to be at the Sand Dunes at 3:45. The drive from Badwaters (south east end of the park) to Ubehebe crater (which is at the Nortwest end of the part) takes about 90 minutes I knew. And the drive from Ubehebe to Mesquite dunes takes another 45 minutes. Additionally, on a hot (and therefore a bit of tiring) day we also had our stomachs to fill. We therefore realized that, realistically, we would have to skip one of Gold Canyon and Ubehebe Crater if we wanted to see the sand dunes before sunset. And Gold Canyon it was that we decided to skip. The reason to skip Golden Canyon was that we were to go to Zion National Park the next day and everybody thought that the landscapes and colors we would get along the 1-mile Golden Canyon hike would be very similar to what we would get in ZNP.

So then, we started the 90 minute drive from Badwater Basin to Ubehebe crater. On the way, stopped at the visitor center for the third time to pick up a quick lunch .... and off we were to Ubehebe Crater, where we reached at about 2:30. Ubehebe Crater is a large volcanic crater of the Ubehebe Craters volcanic field in the northern half of Death Valley. The crater was formed when magma migrated close to the surface and the heat of the magma flashed groundwater into steam, throwing large quantities of pulverized old rock and new magma across the stony alluvial fan draped across the valley floor. The magma rose through a fault that lies along the western base of Tin Mountain. Movement on this fault was responsible for uplift of the entire Cottonwood Mountains range*. Honestly, we only got a glimpse of the crater and we were at its rim for only about 15 minutes. We were forced to immediately start our drive back to Mesquite.

By the way, the drive to the "Racetrack" starts from near Ubehebe crater. The Racetrack, is a scenic dry lake feature with "sailing stones" that leave linear "racetrack" imprints. The sailing stones are a geological phenomenon found in the Racetrack. The stones slowly move across the surface of the playa, leaving a track as they go, without human or animal intervention. They have never been seen or filmed in motion*. To me, the Racetrack and the rolling stones is the most prominent feature of Death valley. Unfortunately though, access to this area is not very convenient. Its about a 30 mile drive from Ubehebe crater along an unpaved, stony road therefore requiring only heavy duty vehicles with strong traction tyres.

So then, at about 2:45, we started the drive to the sand dunes, and this time there was no mistake. We got there at 3:15 , well before sunset and the one hour there till sunset was fabulous. Was completely worth coming back here the second time, after the miss the previous day.

As the sun set, it ended an exciting day for us in Death Valley. It was a day we well and truly utilized very well. I was a little disappointed that we could not do the Golden Canyon hike. In retrospect, we should have somehow saved an extra hour on Thursday. That would have enabled us to not come back to the dunes on Friday. Also, I realized later that Ubehebe crater is best viewed when the sun is overhead .... not on the horizon. Thus, from Dantes view, we should have headed to Ubehebe first, then done the lower elevation spots just before and during sunset (assuming we would have completed Mesuite Sand dunes the previous day itself). Overall, it was a memorable trip at DV ..... maybe if I get another chance to visit here sometime, I'll correct the small mistakes that were made in this trip.

From Death Valley, we drove straight for more than 4 hours to our lodge near Zion National Park (ZNP). For us, the next day was going to be another one to look forward to at ZNP. I would not however describe the details of ZNP here ...... those would better be described as part of a full Utah trip some day :) ..... plus honestly, it gets a little too tiring to spend 2 days in DV, then spend the 3rd day in Zion, then drive back to Vegas the 3rd night and spend that night in the casino's.

For a less tiring and a little less adventurous 4-day trip, the next 2 days post DV can be spent in Vegas. Day time on Saturday and Sunday can be spent relaxing in Vegas hotels, nocturnal activities in the Sin City need no mention ;). If you want to stay in Vegas 2 full days, yet utilize the day time, places close to Vegas such as Hoover dam can also be visited.

Some of our ZNP and Hoover dam trip pics:

ZNP Entrance