Death Valley , Artist Drive

Thursday 3/29/2012

We left Zabriskie Point in Death Valley and continued down the road.

Joe and I wonder what the white round object was just beyond rock wall next to the road.

A pretty view along the road.

Just down the road from Zabriskie Point is Furnace Creek Inn.

Looks like a very nice place to stay if you don't have a home on wheels.

Just past Furnace Creek Inn was this sign letting us know we had reach sea level. Half a mile down the road from the sign, the road comes to a T. If you have a home on wheel, you can stay at the Furnace Creek Ranch for the night. It is off to the north of the T in the road. This park is open all year round, and is centrally located in Death Valley. After four days of  driving from Pahrump to Death Valley and back I wish we had stayed in the park, during our Death Valley exploration.

At the T in the road we turned south.

We headed for Artist Dr. We stopped at Golden Canyon, which had a trail. 

Because we had so much else to see, we continued down the road. 

Our next stop.

Artist Drive

It's much prettier with the naked eye!

Because it was so cloudy, my pictures don't show the true colors.

A stopping point.

A short trail to a viewing spot.

There is very little plant life in the valley, but I saw this plant a lot. This is a Desert Holly. Most plants can't survives the low moisture, intense sunlight, drying  wind, and salt from the nearby salt flats in Death Valley. The Desert Holly's silver-colored leaves reflect the sunlight and the turns on the edges of the leaves reduce exposure. It goes dormant in the summer, and grows and flowers in the winter.

View down into the valley. You can see the northern edges of the salt flats from here.

Joe is a horrible picture taker. Most of the time when he takes a picture, he cuts off my legs at mid calf. He was trying to get all of me in this picture, but he failed to show the huge rock I had just climbed up on.

Just a shot to show you we did get a little exercise climbing the hill from our car!

We continued Artist Dr.

More salt flat views.

The drive is a one way road, with two very deep drops.

We parked the car here and also walked up closer.

At this stop, I climbed to the top of a small ridge. A dry stream bed below.

Looking down  to the dry stream bed.

And looking further down still!

Joe had gone to the restroom, while I had climbed up to the top of this ridge. I yelled down to him that if  you are afraid of heights, this one is not one to climb.

God's painting for us all. He loves art as well!

 I get my self in trouble sometimes, because going up for me is easy. It's coming down that makes me think twice about what I just climbed up. It was much scarier coming down the ridge.

Back in the car and down the road we go.

Lots of tight turns,

windy,

downward,

and another very tight turn,

but beautiful,

and worth the drive.

I did say curvy didn't I . I don't think you'd want to drive a motor home or anything to long on this drive.

I don't want to bore you with so many pictures,

but I do like to take you on the drive with us.

If you never make it to Death Valley,

at least you have can say you have seen it somewhat in pictures turn by turn.

I really did leave out a ton of turns.

I like to put in a lot of pictures, because if I never get back to my adventures, I can come back some day through my blogs.

I delete all my pictures after I post them to the blog.

We finished Artist Dr., and head south toward Badwater.

Next stop for us and next blog for you is Badwater.