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it's the driest place in the USA the
lowest point in North America and one of
the hottest places on earth but between
mid October and mid May Death Valley is
one of the USA's most life-affirming
road trips death valley straddles the
california/nevada border just afford a
half hour drive from los angeles or a
two and a half hour drive from Las Vegas
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many parts of Death Valley are
designated wilderness areas and are
under the care of the National Park
Service
despite its rugged appearance Death
Valley's ecological geological and
historical gems are fragile tread
lightly so future generations can
experience the wilderness value of this
national treasure if you're approaching
from Nevada the adventure begins just
outside the park in the free will in
town of VD the Gateway to Death Valley
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in the early 1900s be be serviced nearby
mining towns such as rhyolite which
during its short life featured a train
station three newspapers and 53 saloons
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[Laughter]
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after the mining boom the hills around
BD called out to artists and
freethinkers stopped by the Goldwell
open-air museum home to the venus of
nevada the Ghost Rider and other works
inspired by the windswept Mojave Desert
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the mojave has long drawn spiritual
seekers - if you're entering the park
from the California side stretch your
legs at father Crowley overlook
dedicated to the man they called the
desert Padre
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just a ten-mile drive further into the
park take the turnoff to Darwin Falls a
reminder that despite the parks
foreboding name Death Valley supports a
surprising abundance of life
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after Darwin Falls shake off the dust at
Penniman Springs whether you're staying
for the night they're just wetting your
whistle remember to top-up on fuel and
water before venturing into the
backroads because this is no place for
the ill-prepared follow the gravel road
south to the Wild Rose kills which once
produced the charcoal needed to smell
clumps of Death Valley or into server
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stop by the Eureka mine where fortune
seeker Pete auger berry devoted his life
to swinging a pick the Frenchman never
did hit the motherlode but instead
discovered one of Death Valley's
greatest treasures serenity when
visitors began exploring Death Valley in
their newfangled motorcars in the 1930s
the ever affable our Barry guided them
to the place he called the great view
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take the climb to his beloved outlook
and behold the spectacle of the Panamint
mountains cascading into the valley
floor 6000 feet below
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after exploring the back roads of the
Panamint range head deeper into the
parks sun-baked art at stovepipe wells
it was here where a party of lost 49ers
burnt their wagons ate their oxen and
staggered out on foot from the place
they christened Death Valley
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[Applause]
Death Valley's landscapes may be harsh
but they are rarely monotonous each
twist on these desert roads reveals yet
another Vista with its own geological
voice its own story to tell
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just a short drive east of stovepipe
wells are the shifting sands of the
mesquite dunes the easiest to access of
all the parks dune fields
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further east take a walk along the Salt
Creek Trail we're a playful pup fish
splash in the wetland remnants of a lake
which once covered much of the valley
to the south lace up your hiking boots
and discover the slot canyons marbled
narrows and galleries of fragmented rock
in mosaic Canyon
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once you've explored the trails around
stovepipe wells continued south into the
valley floor where as the road descends
the temperature climbs pull into the
aptly named furnace creek the holder of
the world's highest recorded temperature
despite the heat the resorts here make
furnace creek a cool place to kick back
after a long day on the trails
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in the late 1800s this outpost was the
home of the Pacific Coast borax company
whose 20 mule wagon teams hauled borax
from the valley floor and into the
laundries and cosmetics counters of the
USA
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learn more about Death Valley's gritty
past at the furnace Creek visitor center
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run by the National Park Service an hour
here will deepen your appreciation of
the parks incredible history ecosystems
and geology
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furnace creek is close to some of Death
Valley's most popular sites and as
always no two are quite the same
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just a five-mile drive south of Furnace
Creek is Zabriskie point a mud Rock
Badlands that has long inspired
filmmakers musicians and mystics
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a few miles south take the turn off on
to artists drive a scenic road which
takes in an eye-popping oxidized palette
of hillside colors
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nearby at the devil's golf course stand
at the edge of the jagged salt plain
that stopped the wagons of those lost
49ers dead in their tracks
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just ten miles down the road in bad
water imagine the heartbreak of those
lost over Landers who splashed these
waters to their cracked and swollen lips
only to taste water twice as salty as
the sea
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after exploring the parks lowest point
take the road up coffin peak to Dante's
view
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here from a height of five and a half
thousand feet southern death valley
stretches out with all the ferocity of
hell and all the beauty of heaven
nature's very own Divine Comedy
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after coming back to earth head north
and follow 27 miles of serpentine bends
through Titus Canyon to lead field in
1925 false advertising lured hundreds of
hopeful miners to these barren hills
three years later lead field was just
another death valley ghost town one
miner who did strike it lucky was Bert
Shipley cornering his runaway burro in a
remote canyon the exasperated miner
picked up a rock to hurl at that
stubborn beast glinting in the Sun that
rock was never thrown and the lost
borough mine went on to produce gold for
decades
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just over the hill from Bert's mine is
the racetrack whose mysterious sliding
rocks were long thought to be the work
of playful spirits and bored
extraterrestrials alas science says
recently discovered more logical
culprits high winds and winter ice
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from the racetrack head through
teakettle Junction to a section of the
park formed by steam drive to the rim of
ubehebe crater formed in one explosive
instant when rising magma hit cool
groundwater some geologists estimate the
crater was formed only 300 years ago a
reminder that despite appearances Death
Valley is very much alive and forever
changing
welcome traveler to a destination where
the rusting iron and mine shafts of
old-timers tell tales of endurance and
hope where epic landscapes terrify
mystify and delight where the wind
scours the skin in one moment and in the
next
whispers all the world's secrets Death
Valley is the stuff of life
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