Devil's Furnace - don't drink the water!

This time it's salt! The mules wouldn't drink it hence the name.

Artists Palette

The drive into the hills of "Artist's Palette" revealed new colours around every corner.
Who would have thought that with so little life there would be so much colour.

Borax and Mustard Hills

Down close to Furnace Creek. The borax covers the ground in places - looks like water from a distance. Abandoned borax operations sprinkle the floor of the valley. Beginnings of colourful hills in the background.

But it's a dry heat....

Second day in Death Valley and we figured we'd died and gone to heaven! Our return meant a climb over the Funeral Mountains through a pass about 4000 feet above sea level then a gradual trip down to the bottom of the valley - 280 feet below sea level - and back up 3000 feet at the end of the day, through a pass and now down to the Mohave Desert where we are spending the night.

We started at Furnace Creek, hiked a three-mile trip into the Golden Canyon, drove around in the Artist's Palette, stopped and gazed over the white 'sea' of salt in Badwater and were rewarded with a sprinkling of spring flowers in Jubilee Pass. What a day! The temperature changed with the altitude and was 26 degrees mid-day but lower higher up and perfect for us.

Our internet speed is slower than the desert tortoise and so no pictures for now. We are driving to Palm Springs today and will stay there for three days until our place in Palm Desert is available on the 10th. I'll post pictures tonight - not all the 130 shots I took yesterday but enough to give you an idea of the beauty of Death Valley.

Death Valley - part one

The highest cause of death in Death Valley is single-car accidents. The roads are winding, steep and have circus-calibre dips in them. We drove from one side of the park to the other and will return tomorrow for more. We drove up 9000 feet to see charcoal kilns from 1890's and were surrounded by snow and then down to sea level where we discovered where borax comes from! The scenery was very much like parts of the red centre of Australia - just less intense colours. The temperature varied from 18 degrees to 25 degrees - a mild version of what is, on average, the hottest place on earth.

California living

After a deadly dull day of driving with 5000 trucks as company on State 99 from Sacramento to Bakersfield we gladly took a secondary road and emerged into the beautiful countryside of the Mojave Desert. Rolling green velvet hills turned beige as desert encroached. Windmills lined the contours of the hills we were climbing. The altitude of the mojave is a flat 4000 feet! Many of the trees and shrubs are still grey but the mounds of sage are tinged with green. When the sun started to set, the whole landscape turned shades of pinks and purple.

We entered the town of Ridgecrest and discovered that it is located next door to an Air Naval Weapons Station so the town is hopping with young, short-haired, fast-driving American men. Not quite what we imagined at the entrance to Death Valley National Park but part of this cultural experience! We'll stop in at the Visitors Centre in the morning to figure out how best to approach and experience ominous-sounding places like the Devil's Kitchen, Ash Meadow and Bad Water.

Travel Day

Today was a travel day. It was 9 degrees and raining this morning when we left Fortuna and 19 degrees and sunny when we arrived in a suburb of Sacramento. After a few days driving the coast to avoid snowy passes, we drove inland winding around hills, through redwood forests and past sleepy towns not yet geared up for tourists.

We stopped for lunch at Clear Lake then began to notice the appearance of green on the hillsides, buds on the trees and camellias blooming in gardens. First signs of spring! Driving into Sacramento, we passed miles and miles of blooming trees in impossibly straight rows. My guess is that they are almonds but we'll find out tomorrow. The orchards have stacks of beehives located every few hundred yards. I guess they have to be imported now to be sure.

We're travelling all day tomorrow too. Hope to get in reach of Death Valley. If we're lucky, we'll see some desert flowers!