Death Valley National Park, CA

We have a gourmet breakfast at Furnace Creek Inn where rooms start at $360 a night.  We spend the morning at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center where we watch a group of Outward Bound students prepare for a backpacking trip.  We visit the Furnace Creek Ranch where we go through their Borax Museum.  We learn that Death Valley got it's name from a group of gold miners that tried to take a short cut to California in 1849.  Little did they know they were walking across a fortune in Borax.

We head west over Towne Pass (4,956 feet) and take a hike up to Darwin Falls, the only visible water in the park.  We use that parking lot for a campsite.

An oasis in the desert

Furnace Creek Inn

Large wheels are made of wood

Eagle Borax Works 

Remains of building at Eagle Borax Works

Sand Dunes

Darwin Falls

Death Valley National Park, CA

We have a soak once again and then head north to Shoshone where we visit their museum.  We enter Death Valley through Salsberry Pass (3,315 feet) and drop down to the Ashford Mill ruins.  We head north along Badwater Road and stop to view the water level marks on the side of the mountain that was the freshwater Manly Lake 12,000 years ago.  We stop in Badwater and walk out to the middle of the basin.  This is the lowest elevation in North America (-282 feet) and I have wanted to come here ever since I became a land surveyor.  This was probably the very first item on my bucket list.  I dig a hole and stand in it.  Now I'm the lowest person in North America.  We continue north and take a campsite at Texas Spring.

Ashford Mill ruins

Manley Lake which existed 12,000 years ago

This coyote was looking for a handout

Sea Level

-282 feet below sea level

Mitch is now the lowest person in North America

Tecopa Hot Springs, CA

We re-enter California and skirt the Mojave Desert on our way to Death Valley.  We follow the Old Spanish Trail to Tecopa Hot Springs where we take a campsite.  After a short hike out onto the salt flats Peggy takes a lengthy soak in the hot pool.

Joshua Tree

Driving to Death Valley 

Hiking at Tecopa Hot Springs

View at Tecopa Hot Springs

Nevada

Today is very windy so we stay in camp and work on the blog.  We head north into Nevada and take a primitive campsite at Lake Mohave National Recreation Area.  We are the only ones in camp.

Lake Havasu City, AZ

We stop among the Hulalapai Mountains and Peggy and the dogs climb a peak.  She names it "Good Grief" in honor of Jan Woerheidi, her other mother.

We cruise through Lake Havasu City and stop to see the London Bridge.  We cross the Colorado River and take an RV site in Needles, California.

"Good Grief"

See the face in the rock?

The Heraldic Dragon marking the City of London Land in Lake Havasu City

The London Bridge

American Coot

Quartzite, AZ

Peggy takes one last soak before we head to Quartzite, Arizona which is the best spot in America if you're in the market for an RV.  They are having their annual sales festival this week and the place is like a zoo.  We get out of town with only buying gas.

Tonopah, AZ

It's 20 degrees this morning.  There goes another record.  Plumbers in the area are working overtime since a lot of the water pipes are just laid on the top of the ground.

Today is a travel day.  We head west through Tucson and then take another southernmost route through towns like Why and Ajo.  We enter the Sonoran Desert and start to see the iconic Saguaro cactus.  We bypass the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument because their campsites don't have electricity.  We tend to get picky when it's cold.

We take an RV site in Tonopah at the El Dorado Hot Springs.  Peggy is in heaven as she heads for a soaking.

El Dorado Hot Springs behind the fence

It was very nice;-)