Venturing into Death Valley

7/31

                Breakfast was served at the campground, a small selection of muffins and brownies but still I ate until I was full.  Paul wanted to swim a little more and hopped into the hot tub, he couldn’t even wait until he finished eating as he brought his food into the hot tub.  The morning was already scorching as we were outside Death Valley, and we impatiently waited for Paul to finish swimming so we could leave for Las Vegas.  It took some encouragement and prodding to finally pry him away from the comfort of the steaming water but when he did our departure took place shortly thereafter.  We had about two hours until Death Valley and then about two and a half more until Las Vegas.   We saw an interagency visitor center and we stopped to see if it was the one specific for Death Valley.  It wasn’t, but we got valuable information about the park and how hot it would be as the interagency center provided general information about the parks in the area.  Paul, Finn and I also split ten dollars for a cooling headband for sports, it is a funky piece of work decorated with colored fish and I am very excited to show it off back at home.  The ranger told us where the other visitor centers were and we headed to Furnace creek where the hottest temperature in the world had been recorded at 134 degrees.  We got our Death Valley pass and headed deeper into the park.  We made three stops in Death Valley on our way to Las Vegas.  The temperature had been climbing steadily since we drove into Death Valley and when we got out of our car at an old Borax mine, you could really feel the heat.  The Borax mine, which had run from 1883 to 1888, mined the popular that paid well and was in abundance in Death Valley.  The business for Borax in the valley eventually petered out due to the high cost of driving the borax via a 20 mule train the 600 miles to the nearest train station.  The stone mine was crumbling but still an impressive sight, a mule led wagon train used at the mine was on display as well.  The wagon train included two carts that held borax and a water tank that held 1200 gallons of water for the trip, a heavy load, all pulled by mules.  The oppressive heat caused problems for the fairer skinned members of my family (mom, Finn and Paul).  My mom kept her complaints quiet until we made it back to the car but Finn’s moans and groans made it very clear how he felt about the temperature even wondering at one point why we would ever leave the car.  Even I headed back before my dad and we got into our air conditioned car and got back on the road.  The temperature reached 111 degrees. 

Editor’s Note:

The landscape was not what I expected; it was more mountainous than I had anticipated.  It definitely was hot, but the convenience of air conditioned cars made the trip fairly easy.  I could not imagine making this trip under any other conditions.  The advice that was given to us by the ranger at the visitor center was succinct, “don’t die”.  Fortunately, this was one piece of advice we and the kids were able to follow.  Our trip then continued onto Vegas.  More to come.