The National Park Service has fashioned a wonderful 13 mile loop through the canyon named for the iron rich red rocks lining the walls.
This is typical of the formations that occur mile after mile!
And they are huge - this formation is probably 40-50 feet tall!
Lots of rock climbers prepping in the parking lot.
After an hour in Red Rock Canyon, we drove the 120 miles to Death Valley.
We had considered staying in one of the Inns in Death Valley but they were way too expensive for us, so we made the drive out.
We entered the Southern Entry and drove North. Bob had done some research prior to te trip and had a list of the top attractions. First on the list was Dante's View. It was quite a drive to get there but WOW! The view is fabulous!
This hilltop viewpoint is almost 6,000 feet above the valley floor below. You can see for miles from this fabulous overlook.
Back down on the main road, we stopped at Zabriskie Point. This area also provides an overlook to the valley floor but more importantly, it displayed the dramatic undulations present in much of the valley due to the wind and water erosion effects.
Down on the valley floor, we drove to Badwater, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. We walked out on the floor of the valley, right up to the edge of the water.
The salt crystals form in beautiful tiny stalks that join together in a wonderful "spider-web structure.
The wind was quite brisk and we saw a few people chasing hats down the lake.
About half way up the face of this hill is a small sign noting "Sea Level."
You think you've got a tough golf course?! Try this one (it was closed due to wet fairways :-)
The Artist's Palette shows many different colors resulting from the chemicals dominant in each formation. It seems strange that they appear right next to each other.
As we headed up the valley, we noted this "dust" storm - of course the dust is actually salt!
Half way up the valley, we visited the ruins of the Harmony Borax Works.
Here Chinese laborers brought here from San Francisco, labored to scrape the salt off the floor of the valley and refine it for shipment. Hot work in an already hot environment.
For about 6 years, the refined Borax was hauled out by 20 mule teams in huge tandem wagons like this one. The train consisted of two borax wagons and one water wagon (to keep the mules alive!).
It wasn't long before the wagons were beefed up (steel rims & spokes) and the mules were replaced by a steam powered tractor.
Leaving the Harmony Borax works, we turned North for an hour drive to Scotty's Castle, a resort/retreat for a wealthy man and his wife. It was not built by Scotty, was never owned by Scotty, and in fact Scotty never lived there! But it was very nicely appointed inside and was quite modern for the 1930 construction - like electric lights, gas cook stove, electric refrigerator/freezer, evaporative air conditioning, and hot and cold running water!
We left Scotty's at 5 PM and realized we were 3 hours from Las Vegas! So we stopped at a little Mexican restaurant in Beatty, Nevada and were very pleasantly surprised by a wonderful meal and great service. We also ran into some folks we recognized from the Scotty's tour and shared a table.
Back at our hotel (Comfort Inn - clean, very inexpensive, and close to everything) at 9:30 PM in an absolute daze!
Tomorrow: Mt Charleston and the Valley of Fire.
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