Why, you might be asking yourself, would anyone even consider vacationing in the lowest, hottest and lip-parching driest place in the whole wide country? An area, too, with the downright scary name of Death Valley to boot. Give me your undivided attention for a few moments and I'll do my best to tell you why.
It would seem a tough sell to extol the virtues of a location where summer temperatures average 120 degrees; where the very earth can cut like glass, and where what little water there is could poison you. A place the local newspaper described in 1907 as having "all the advantages of hell without the inconveniences." So, first thing, and to make my job easier, let's squash the notion of any vacationing in Death Valley National Park between May and November. Now we can get on with the many good reasons for a visit during the winter.
To begin, there's the Las Vegas Thousand Trails Preserve, located within easy striking distance (72 miles) of Death Valley. Then, of course, there's the mind-twisting beauty and other worldly fascination of its landscape, not to mention its exotic plant and animal life and its alluring human history, some of which is wonderfully preserved in the form of a legendary castle. There's plenty to do here as well, especially during the annual Death Valley Encampment, November 8-12. It's the biggest event of the year in the Valley and I'll tell you more about it in a moment. But first let's talk a bit about the park itself.
Situated in the Mojave and Colorado Desert's Biosphere Reserve along the California/Nevada border, the Valley was established as a National Monument in 1933 and a National Park in 1994. The region is comprised of 3,000 square miles (more than 3.3 million acres) of widely differing topography constituting the largest national park in the continental United States. The Valley generally receives less than two inches of rainfall per year but when there's appreciably more than that, like in 2005, the explosion of wildflowers creates a real bonanza for visitors. The term "Death Valley" was coined by immigrants who nearly perished while trying to cross the basin as a shortcut to California's goldfields in 1849.
Prospectors combed every corner of the region during the mid-to-late 19th century without finding much in the way of precious metals. But the discovery in 1881 of large deposits of borax, a white, powdery water-soluble mineral obtained from natural borates and used most notably as a cleansing agent led to wholesale mining operations in the Valley that lasted well into the 20th century. Remember those boxes of Twenty Mule Team Borax at grandma's house?
The Valley's greatest claim to fame, however, may be that it is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. At 282 feet below sea level, Badwater marks the bottom. Named for the high salt content (five times that of seawater) of its scattered crust-rimmed ponds, this is an eerie landscape where you only need gaze high up to a sign on an adjacent mountainside that reads "sea level" to appreciate how far below it you are standing.
Best place to begin a visit to Death Valley is yet another ominous-sounding locale, Furnace Creek, the park's largest settlement and home to the National Park Visitor Center where you can view exhibits, pick up maps and pamphlets and consult with rangers on road and weather conditions. That's particularly important if you plan to tackle any rough, back-country roads (where high-clearance, 4WD vehicles are advisable). Fortunately most of the park's major features can be reached via paved or well-maintained gravel roads, easily navigable by ordinary passenger cars.
Furnace Creek also is the hub of visitor facilities and accommodations, including the elegant and intimate AAA four-diamond Furnace Creek Inn and the 224-room Furnace Creek Ranch, a casual family-style motel. There's a general store, gas station and RV campground as well, plus the recently renovated Borax Museum which offers an excellent pictorial history and artifacts, including the massive 16-foot-long wagons pulled by 20-mule teams to transport the borax, to portray this important part of the Valley's past. It should be noted, too, that it was the Pacific Borax Company that built the Furnace Creek Inn in the late1920s to attract tourism to Death Valley.
All of the enterprise at Furnace Creek is ably managed by NPS concessionaire, Xanterra, and both the Inn and Ranch feature surprisingly good restaurants open to the public for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And, believe it or not, there's even an 18-hole Perry Dye-designed golf course, duly recognized as the lowest grass golf course (214 feet below sea level) in the world. Framed by towering mountains and flanked by palms and tamarisk, this is as pretty a course as you'll ever see - made possible by the same natural springs that afford the Inn its oasis-like setting.
You'll need at least a couple of days to sightsee the park's major attractions. Furnace Creek is located pretty much in the middle of the Valley so I suggest visiting points of interest to the north one day and those to the south the following day. If you have more days to spend you can strike out to discover some of Death Valley's less-visited or harder to reach attractions.
Northbound on Highway 190 from Furnace Creek, you'll want to stop at Harmony Borax Works. This was an important early mining site from which those famous Twenty Mule Team Wagons originated on the grueling 165-mile trip to Mohave. There's an exhibit at the site that features a pair of the old monster wagons. Farther along, you can stroll Salt Creek Interpretive Trail, a stretch of boardwalk along a seasonal saltwater creek that reveals some amazing plant life. Desert holly, for example, seems to thrive in the salty conditions, as does pickelweed with its green leaves that resemble stacked up pickles.
At the junction to Stove Pipe Wells you'll find a sprawling 14-square-mile network of wind-sculpted sand dunes, some of which rise nearly 100 feet, and that are home to desert wildlife such as kangaroo rats, kit fox, coyotes and a variety of lizards. You can hike among the dunes (trudge would be a better word) but keep in mind that during the heat of the day, even in winter, temperatures on the sand can reach almost 200 degrees. So don't over-do it and take plenty of water.
Here you'll leave Highway 190, following signs north about 35 miles to Scotty's Castle. As improbable as a castle might seem in this remote corner of Death Valley, it is the park's most popular attraction. Not only that, Scotty's Castle is one the best known and most highly regarded structures in the entire West. From your first glimpse of this imposing Spanish/Moorish-style villa with its red tile roofs, turrets and towers, you'll understand what all the fuss is about -- and you'll marvel that it is located here of all places. Volumes of folklore surround the castle, so I'll try to make a long, colorful story as short as possible. Water E. Scott, alias "Death Valley Scotty," was the leading character in the saga. As a performer in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show from 1890 to 1900, Scott developed a gift for fast-talking and flamboyant promoting. Fired from the show in 1901, Scott worked briefly in a Colorado gold mine, which led him to try some prospecting on his own in Death Valley. He soon found it much easier to hustle grubstakes from wealthy acquaintances made during his tours with Cody than to dig for gold. He led on a number of gullible investors for years with stories of a rich mine in the Valley, eventually lining up Chicago businessman Albert Johnson as his primary sugar daddy.
Johnson became enamored with Scotty, a forever witty and charming rascal, and even after a couple of trips to Death Valley, whereupon he realized there was no goldmine, he remained fast friends with Scotty and proceeded in 1925 to build an elaborate 25-room vacation villa in Grapevine Canyon for he and his wife Bessie. From the beginning, Scotty announced to the world that it was his project, financed, of course, with gold from his secret mine. Johnson publicly played along, describing himself as "Scotty's banker." And so the ruse continued through completion of the villa-cum-castle in 1931 and for years thereafter.
The couple visited Scotty's Castle (Death Valley Ranch was its real name) frequently until their deaths in the 1940s and when there were guests, Scotty was always at hand to play the role of impresario. He was a man at home in his castle - a Horatio Alger legend in his own time. Although the Johnson's willed the property to a foundation, Scotty remained at the castle until his death in 1954. Fortunately for all of us the foundation eventually sold it to the National Park Service in 1970.
The castle complex includes eight buildings that house fabulous furnishings and spectacular tile and ironwork created by European artisans. Ranger interpreters outfitted in period clothing lead hourly tours of the property from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. all year round.
Take time on your return to peer into 600-foot-deep Ubehebe Crater, eight miles northwest of Scotty's Castle. This huge half-mile-wide crater and a cluster of smaller ones to the south and west were created some 3,000 years ago by steam and gas explosions when hot magma rising up from the depths reached ground water. The trail to the bottom is easy but the climb back up will leave you gasping.
As for points of interest south of Furnace Creek, make a real effort to get to Zabriskie Point during or shortly after dawn. The early morning view from the overlook out across multi-colored layers of ancient lakebed, tilted and twisted into weird badlands, is simply breathtaking. A bit farther south, Dante's View provides what many consider to be the classic Death Valley panorama, looking over a broad sweep of salt flats to 11,049-foot Telescope Peak.
Reachable from Highway 178 south of Furnace Creek, Artist's Drive is a one-way road that meanders eight miles through magnificent washes and mud hills so named for its palette of reds and yellows (iron oxides) and greens and violets (volcanic minerals) that literally paint the hillsides. Just a few more miles down the road is Badwater, which I mentioned earlier as being the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere.
If there's still time for it as you read this article, you should plan to attend the Death Valley Encampment, November 8-12. If that's not possible, mark it on your calendar for next year.
Billed as one of America's great festivals, the Encampment marks the historic 1849 crossing of Death Valley by pioneer gold-seekers bound for Sutter's Mill, CA, and forever remembered as the Forty-Niners.
There are dozens of activities, most of them on the weekend, ranging from art and photography seminars to guided hikes and four-wheel-drive excursions. There's a chili cook-off and countless barbecues, gold-panning and quick-draw demonstrations, golf and horseshoe tourneys, a mule-packing demonstration and a tall tale contest. Evening activities include chuck wagon feeds; fiddle, banjo and guitar contests; cowboy poetry readings, and Western music and dancing. Most activities take place in and around Furnace Creek.
The annual Encampment is sponsored by the Death Valley 49ers, a volunteer organization of some 2,000 dedicated desert rats who came together in 1949 to celebrate the centennial of the Forty-Niner crossing. While there's no admission charge to observe events and activities, active participation requires membership in Death Valley 49ers Inc. You can pay the tax-deductible $20 fee (per couple or family) at the event.
For further information: Visit the Death Valley National Park website at www.nps.gov/deva or call (760) 786-2331. For an informative commercial website, see www.deathvalley.com and to learn more about the Death Valley 49ers, go to www.deathvalley49ers.org.
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Dave G. Houser and Jan
Butchofsky-Houser are award-winning
New Mexico-based travel journalists and members of Society of American Travel
Writers (SATW) and North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA). See www.houser.squarespace.com