Posted on by admin

A Mighty Dust Storm Alters Our Death Valley Plans

On day 2 in Death Valley National Park we did 3 separate hikes and had 2 wonderful meals with good friends Scott and Kathy.  Our first hike was to the remnants of two volcanoes in the park.  The second was to a spot called “The Devil’s Golf course” and the last to an oasis with a desert waterfall called Darwin Falls.

This picture is of a volcanic crater called Ubehebe. Perspective is a tough thing when looking at pictures of things that are so large.
Look how tiny we appear to Scott who is actually half way down to the bottom himself. Laurie and Kathy are at the bottom and Roy almost at the bottom not sure if he should take the leap of faith and walk out into the crater.
Off to the left is a separate crater called “Little Hebe”.  Love those names. Almost like we were walking a moonscape.
Lunch this day was at Chez Dando. Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and a cold beverage before a short nap and another hike or two.

After lunch we visited the Devil’s Golf Course and Darwin Falls:

This is the “Devil’s Golf Course”. Named that as only the devil can tolerate walking on these rocks. They were all salt crystals and were sharp enough to draw blood with a soft touch to the skin. Very cool though!
After driving for about a half hour we came to a dirt road with no markings. It was incredibly bumpy with large rocks but our map said to get to the falls/oasis we needed to drive it. Scott white-knuckled it for the entire 2 miles before it petered out into a walking path.
Off we went with Scott and Kathy in the lead to find the promise land.
This cast iron pipe wound all the way from the falls (there was a cistern there) to the nearby town of Panamint Springs. All we could figure is that the dozen or so residents of the town got their water from here? Some of the pipe had been replaced with pvc.
The walk was barren except for these cacti until we got closer to Darwin Falls.
Here is Darwin Falls. Not sure how it got its name but it really was spectacular. Just imagine this is in the middle of Death Valley!
What a happy looking crew we are!
This is what we woke to on day 3. Boy does it hurt when the wind picks up the sand and hurls it at you.
In dust this thick, the road just disappeared right in front of our eyes.
We visited the visitor’s center at Furnace Creek before heading to Vegas. We love these huge relief models of any area we visit.

 

One Reply to “A Mighty Dust Storm Alters Our Death Valley Plans”

Comments are closed.