Pahrump, Nevada, is very close to the California border. That also puts it very close to Death Valley National Park. So, one day we set out to see this unusual national park.
Death Valley: The HOTTEST, DRIEST, and LOWEST! On June 10, 1913, Death Valley recorded a temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit which makes it the hottest place on earth. Death Valley is a land of extremes, where the powerful heat is a force of nature, and the air further dries everything it contacts. It is the driest national park in America. Badwater Basin, in the southern half of the park, is -282 feet below sea level making it the lowest elevation in North America!
There are four entry points on the eastern side of the park. We entered from Death Valley Junction on highway 190. This put us closest to the southern part of the park. Points of interest that we visited in the southern part of the park were: Dante’s View, Furnace Creek Area and Visitors Center, Badwater Basin, Artists Palette, Zabriskie Point, and Twenty Mule Team Canyon. Pictures below. ⬇️
On the drive to Death Valley, we saw this mountain with “DV” written on it with rocks. It was close to Death Valley Junction. zoom in to see it better. The entrance. Information about the basin and park at the top of Dante’s View.Views from the top of Zabriskie Point. If you look closely (zoom in) at the very tip top of the hill, you will see two hikers (they are in the top one-third and center of the photo. I have NO IDEA how they got to that area, but I bet the view was fantastic! The climb up to Zabriskie Point was ALL I could do! The views from there were pretty awesome, also! Furnace Creek Visitor Center was very interesting. The following pictures are of some of the displays inside where I learned a lot of facts about Death Valley. This is what greeted visitors when they walked inside the center. Be sure to zoom in and read some of the information. Badwater Pool. If you zoom in to a point just a little higher than dead center of this photo, you will see a green sign (like a street sign) with two words with white letters. It will be blurry. Here is what the sign in the previous picture says. Now, look at the previous picture again. Can you believe half way up that mountain is actually sea level?!!Artist Drive was the last place we explored in Death Valley before we headed back to the RV. It is an area where there are many colors in the hills. There were places of some kind of greenish rock. Zoom in on the photos to see the green areas. My photos just do NOT do justice to how beautiful this area was!
One day Jack and I decided to visit the town of Beatty, Nevada. Beatty is a small town of about 1,150 people and is about an hour drive from Pahrump. It’s a quaint little town and had some very old, interesting buildings.
However, the most interesting thing about Beatty was when we saw was this …
A group of wild donkeys were in the middle of the town! Apparently someone inside the car was feeding them.
A short distance outside of Beatty is a ghost town. This ghost town used to be the town of Rhyolite. Rhyolite was founded in 1904 as a mining town in the Bullfrog Hills. Its history is quite fascinating. Be sure to zoom in and read some of the signs.
Ooooooo! Rattle snakes!This is an old caboose car from the time Rhyolite was a thriving town. One of the old box houses in which prospectors lived.
Just down the road from the ghost town, Rhyolite, is Goldwell Open Air Museum. This museum is an outdoor sculpture park located on 7.8 acres of private land. A group of prominent Belgian artists, led by the late Albert Szukalski, created outdoor sculptures that are colossal not only in their scale but in their placement within the vast upper Mojave desert. It’s great variety of permanent artworks are on display for everyone to enjoy.
This is a fascinating piece of art work. It doesn’t look like much from this angle, but as you walk closer and to the right and left sides, it takes on a COMPLETELY different look, as you will see in the following photos. This work is titled “The Last Supper.”
On the way back home, we decided to pull in at a little truck stop area. It was an unusual kind of truck stop as you will see in the following photos.
Of course, I HAD to go into the gift shop! The store in this photo was jam-packed with Area 51 and Alien merchandise. Before I went inside I also HAD to have my picture taken with some new friends I made!
Another great day in our RV adventures!
So, for now ….. “On the Road Again!”
Betty
P.S. OH!! I haven’t shown you pics of our Shih Tzus lately. Here are Ricky and Lucy; they LOVE to cuddle up with each other.
Ricky has the blue collar, and Lucy has the pink. Lucy is laying on top of Ricky! I’m not sure, but Ricky kind of looks unhappy.
THIS is what we see at the end of our bed right before we turn the lights off to go to sleep! Isn’t she cute?!
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Next up: Death Valley National Park!
