After driving away from the SF Bay Area we knew we wanted to explore Death Valley National Park before it got too hot to enjoy. The white Tacoma, Air Conditioning and our ARB refrigerator help but still, we’d rather enjoy ourselves in 80-90 degree warm weather instead of 100+ degree hot.
Just like our trip to the Stanislaus National Forest we did far too much to put it all in one post so this page will be our clearinghouse for each of our separate adventures in the Park.
When we were at the RTR in January we were told about the Geologists’ Cabin in the Striped Butte area as well as the Saline Valley Warm Springs and so we made it a point to go see them first. Sadly, since the Geologists’ Cabin sounded more awesome we went there first and so drove into the South end of the park and then had to drive back to the North end to go to the Warm Springs. Adventure is not always efficient.
When we first drove into the Park we stopped by the Father Crowley Vista Point to take in an overview of the area. We didn’t just stop at the paved parking area, we actually drove out to the point itself.
Our first day in the Park was extremely long and frustrating with several wrong turn adventures, some slightly white-knuckled crawling over rocks in the Tacoma and eventually ending up at the wrong cabin for two nights. It was worth it.
While we were at the Geologists Cabin we explored the general Striped Butte area and found several more old cabins and camps that we checked out. There was Stella’s/Mengel Cabin, Russell’s Camp, and Emmett’s Lone Tree Mill Camp as well as the Warm Spring Camp down in Warm Spring Canyon.
We caught a bird and fixed its foot.
We had a front-row seat into the interesting lives and loves of the burros who called the Valley Home.
Willow did her part to help eradicate the Hantavirus.
We 4-wheeled back up behind the Geologists’ Cabin and found several interesting yet scary mines and a Heart-Shaped Pool. There were also some interesting mine remains off of Warm Spring Road we took a look at, from outside of course.
We took a day trip to Furnace Creek and stopped by some of the standard sights in the park like Badwater Basin, the ruins of the Eagle Borax Works and Shorty’s Grave.
On our way out of Death Valley we spent a couple of days at an old log cabin near the top of Hunter Mountain.